Amenhotep (High Priest of Amun)

Amenhotep High Priest of Amun
Amenhotep, high priest of Amun
Predecessor	Ramessesnakht
Successor	Piankh or Herihor
Dynasty	20th Dynasty
Pharaoh	Ramesses IX, Ramesses X, Ramesses XI
Father	Ramessesnakht
Mother	Adjedet-Aat
Burial	TT 58 (P&M, I-1, 1994, p. 119)

Amenhotep was the High Priest of Amun towards the end of the Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt, serving under Ramesses IX, Ramesses X and Ramesses XI. He was the son of Ramessesnakht, the previous high priest of Amun. It is not beyond dispute who succeeded him in office. For a long time it was assumed that he was followed by the High Priest Herihor. However, Karl Jansen-Winkeln has suggested that Amenhotep was instead succeeded by the High Priest Piankh. We know the names of several of his brothers and a sister:

-his (eldest?) brother, the prophet of Amun Meribast II

-his brother, the Chief Steward Usimarenakth II

-his sister Aatmeret I

-his brother, the Second Prophet of Amun Nesamun I (see below)

Unfortunately, there is no hard evidence concerning the identity of his wife (wives?). Recently it has been proposed that he may have been married to Hrere, but at the moment this remains highly speculative.

From several references in the Tomb Robbery Papyri (Pap. Mayer A; Pap. B.M. 10383; Pap. B.M. 10052) it can be deduced that, sometime prior to the start of the era known as Whm Mswt, the Viceroy of Kush Pinehesy attacked Thebes and removed the High Priest Amenhotep from office.

During the first decades of the 20th century there was much confusion about both the date of what became called "the Suppression" and about the exact role played by Pinehesy. Whereas an early Egyptologist as Wilhelm Spiegelberg assumed that it was Amenhotep himself who rebelled, Sethe showed that Amenhotep was the victim rather than the oppressor. More often than not "the Suppression" was placed in the reign of Ramesses IX or in the early years of Ramesses XI. It is now commonly accepted that the suppression took place only shortly before the Whm Mswt, the era which started in year 19 of Ramesses XI. It has been suggested that this "Renaissance" may have been proclaimed to mark the end of a troublesome period of which the removal from office of Amenhotep was a part.