of conical form the oval face with impressed text in raised relief that reads,"The venerable one before Osiris, the fourth prophet of Amun Motu-em-hat, true of voice, and his beloved wife, the royal acquaintance, lady of the house Nes-khonsu, true of voice."
Montuemhet, who was born into one of the great Theban families, held the offices of Fourth Priest of Amun, Governor of the South, and Mayor of Thebes. During a career that spanned the last part of the Kushite Twenty-fifth Dynasty and the Assyrian sack of Thebes, an eight-year interregnum during which southern Egypt was politically autonomous, and finally the re-establishment of royal control by the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, Montuemhet was the most powerful official in Upper Egypt and sometimes its de facto ruler.
Montuemhet was one of the most important builders of the Theban temples in the late period, both on behalf of the Kushite King Taharqa and on his own account. Of his many surviving monuments, none is more impressive than his tomb ( TT34), one of the largest and most lavishly decorated private monuments ever made in ancient Egypt.
The tomb is situated in what was, in Montuemhet's time, the most prestigious part of the Theban necropolis, the limestone terrace east of Deir el Bahri that is now known as the Asasif. This barren plain is still dominated by the monumental mudbrick pylon which formed the eastern side of the tomb's superstructure. Behind the pylon are the extensive remains of a substructure boasting two large sunken courts and more than fifty subterranean rooms. In almost all of these rock-cut courts and chambers, the walls were covered with figures and texts carved in sunk or raised relief.
cf: Macadam and Davies, "Corpus of Inscribed Funerary Cones," #419.
Theban Tomb: #34, 26th Dynasty, Reign of Psametik I. Location: Asasif
References: : Porter & Moss 1970 pp. 56-61 Stewart 1986 p. 51 serial no. 79 Teeter & Wilfong 2003 p 179 seal 291 Vivo 2002 p.23
Condition: Tail missing otherwise intact, with finger marks to the sides.
Dimensions: Length: 23.5 cm Diameter: 8.5cm
Provenance: Private Swiss Collection acquired 1968-1978.
