Zamonth or Samont (''son of Monthu'') was an

ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

ian

vizier A vizier (; ; ) is a high-ranking political advisor or Minister (government), minister in the Near East. The Abbasids, Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was at first merely a help ...

who is thought to have been in office during the reign of

Amenemhat III :''See Amenemhat, for other individuals with this name.'' Amenemhat III (Ancient Egyptian: ''Ỉmn-m-hꜣt'' meaning 'Amun is at the forefront'), also known as Amenemhet III, was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the sixth king of the Twelfth Dyn ...

, at the end of the

Twelfth Dynasty The Twelfth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (Dynasty XII) is a series of rulers reigning from 1991–1802 BC (190 years), at what is often considered to be the apex of the Middle Kingdom (Dynasties XI–XIV). The dynasty periodically expanded its terr ...

Biography

Zamonth is known from a stela, showing him sitting in front of an offering table. The stela is now on display in the

Egyptian Museum The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, commonly known as the Egyptian Museum (, Egyptian Arabic: ) (also called the Cairo Museum), located in Cairo, Egypt, houses the largest collection of Ancient Egypt, Egyptian antiquities in the world. It hou ...

of Cairo. Here he bears the titles ''member of the elite'', ''mayor''. ''overseer of the city'' and ''vizier''. The mother of Zamonth is a woman called Zatip. A ''mouth of Nekhen'' Zamonth with the same mother is known from several rock inscriptions in

Lower Nubia Lower Nubia (also called Wawat) is the northernmost part of Nubia, roughly contiguous with the modern Lake Nasser, which submerged the historical region in the 1960s with the construction of the Aswan High Dam. Many ancient Lower Nubian monuments, ...

. They date to the years 6 and 9 of king

and report a small military campaign against Nubia. It seems likely that both sources refer to the same person, the Nubian inscriptions belong to the time before he was promoted to the position of a vizier. Wolfram Grajetzki: ''Court Officials of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom'', London 2009 p. 36, pl. 3 An offering chapel of Senwosret (Vienna AS 198), a reporter of the vizier, may belong to a servant of Zamonth. Detlef Franke, in: Jan Assmann, Sibylle Meyer (editors): ''Egypt, temple of the whole world'', Brill, 2003, {{ISBN, 90-04-13240-6 pp. 104-105 A person with the same name and title is mentioned on the Stela in Cairo (CG 20102).

Family

Zamonth was married to a lady named Henutpu. Children include: *Senebtifi. The stela of Zamonth shows his son standing opposite him. The inscriptions identify him as the ''royal sealer'' and ''priest of

Amun Amun was a major ancient Egyptian deity who appears as a member of the Hermopolitan Ogdoad. Amun was attested from the Old Kingdom together with his wife Amunet. His oracle in Siwa Oasis, located in Western Egypt near the Libyan Desert, r ...

'' Senebtifi. * Ankhu, a vizier, may have been a son of Zamonth. The wife of Zamonth is called Henutpu, while the mother of Ankhu bore the name Henut, possibly a diminutif. In addition, it is known that Ankhu was the son of a vizier.

References

Viziers of the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt Ancient Egyptian overseers of the city