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Sehetepibreankh, overseer of the storehouse

The two arms, may they give, the inundation, may it cleanse, Thoth, may he give offerings for the ka of the one whom the king truly knows, the overseer of the two royal bathrooms, one pure of mouth, the one who truly gives the godly offerings to the gods, and the invocation offerings to the noble spirits, (overseer of) the sandalThe reading here is not clear. I am not sure what this means, but the phrase seems to denote one of the titles of Sehetepibreankh of Horus lord of the palace, the overseer of the storehouse Sehetepibreankh, true of voice When referring to the name of a deceased person, the addition of ‘true of voice’ was customary. The phrase is sometimes translated as ‘vindicated’, or ‘justified’, and refers to the trial before the gods the deceased undergoes in order to be ‘accepted’ into the afterlife., lord of reverence, whom Sat-Hathor, true of voice, made.Whom X made or whom X bore was a common way in the Egyptian language to denote someone’s parentage. In this case Sehetepibreankh’s mother, Sat-Hathor.

The second part of the text mainly contains a long list of Sehetepibreankh’s titles and functions during his life. We know very little about some of these titles, like ‘overseer of the two royal bathrooms’, but others are attested more often. As ‘overseer of the storehouse’ (his most important title, as it was mentioned last, preceding his name), Sehetepibreankh was probably responsible for the storage and distribution of food, possibly for the royal palace. See: Quirke, S., Titles and bureaux of Egypt, 1850-1700 BCE (London, 2004). Judging by his function as ‘the one who truly gives the offerings’, this may have extended to food offerings for the gods and the deceased. He was obviously a high-ranking official, and possibly close to the king himself.