The Vizier Ramose
This confident young man is Ramose. Among other things, he served as
Vizier under Nebmaatre Amenhotep (III) and Akhenaten (both 18th
Dynasty pharaohs). On the stela he is wearing the trappings of his
office: a cloak, a staff and a heart-shaped pectoral.
The inscription beside him reads
revered before Ra,
mayor,
vizier,
Ramose,
the justified. (Place your mouse over the glyphs for
their transliterations.)
There are several interesting aspects of this
inscription. First is the number of abbreviations used:
for
ra "Ra",
for
TAty "vizier",
for
mAa-xrw
"justified" (literally true of voice).
Secondly, the same sign, a simple
, has been used to represent what are usually two distinct glyphs:
ra
and
x.
The composer of the text is relying on context to supply the
reader with the correct interpretation.
Finally, the sequence
contains a visual (non-humorous) pun. This phrase,
imy-r niwt
"mayor" (or, literally, overseer of the town),
is composed of the word
niwt
"town", written normally, and the standard title for "overseer",
imy-r.
This word is a compound meaning "one who is in
(imy)
the opening (r)".
Presumably, the overseer stood in the door or the gateway to keep an eye
on those inside or restrict access to those outside.
The fullest writing of imy-r
is 
, but
it was virtually always shortened to
(simply m-r).
The "pun" relies on two elements. Although
r does mean
"opening", its more usual meaning in Ancient Egyptian was "mouth"
(A usage we also employ in English, as in the mouth of the cave),
so imy-r
could also be understood to mean "who is in the mouth". Now, the usual value of
the glyph
is
ns, and it
is a picture of a tongue (I know, it doesn't look like a tongue to me,
either). In addition to this usual meaning, it could be used as
an abbreviation for
, since
a tongue, after all, is something which is in the mouth!
