Anen

Anen or Aanen was an ancient Egyptian nobleman and official of the Eighteenth Dynasty. A priest and administrator, his period of royal service occurred largely during the reign of his brother-in-law, Amenhotep III.

Anen
Museo Egizio, Turin, Statue of Anen, second priest of Amon, Inv.-No. Cat 1377^[1]
Successor	Simut
Dynasty	18th Dynasty
Pharaoh	Amenhotep III
Father	Yuya
Mother	Thuya
Burial	TT120

Biography

^[2] ˁȝnn^[3]
Anen in hieroglyphs
Era: New Kingdom (1550–1069 BC)

He was the son of Yuya and Thuya and the brother of Queen Tiye, the wife of Pharaoh Amenhotep III. Under the rule of his brother-in-law, Anen became the Chancellor of Lower Egypt, fan-bearer, Second of the Four Prophets of Amun, sem-priest of Heliopolis, Greatest of Seers, High Priest in the temple of Re-Atum.^[4][5]

A surviving statue of Anen is now in the Museo Egizio, Turin (Inv.-No. 5484 / Cat. 1377) and a wooden shabti maybe of the same Anen is now in the Museum Meermanno (Inv.-No. 82/196), The Hague.^[6]

Inscriptions on Anen's own monuments do not mention that he was Amenhotep III's brother-in-law.^[7] However, this relationship is established by a short but clear reference to him in his mother Thuya's coffin, which stated that her son Anen was the second prophet of Amun.^[8]

It is likely that he died before Year 30 of Amenhotep III, since he is not mentioned in texts relating to the pharaoh's Sed festival;^[9] in the last decade of Amenhotep's reign another man, Simut, took over Anen's place as Second Prophet of Amun. Simut had been Fourth Prophet of Amun previously.

Anen was buried in his tomb (TT120) in the Necropolis of Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, on the west bank of the Nile opposite Thebes. His son^[10] and possibly four daughters are depicted in his tomb, but their names have not survived.^[11]

References

1. Museo Egizio, Turin, Statue of Anen, second priest of Amon Retrieved March 31, 2024.
2. Porter, Bertha and Moss, Rosalind L. B. with Burney, Ethel W.: Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings. I. The Theban Necropolis. Part 1. Private Tombs. Second Edition, revised and augmented. Griffith Institute/ Ashmolean Museum, Oxford 1970, p. 234 PDF from The Digital Topographical Bibliography, 21,9 MB Retrieved March 31, 2024.
3. Helck, Wolfgang: Urkunden der 18. Dynastie: Inschriften von Zeitgenossen Amenophis’ III. Urkunden des ägyptischen Altertums IV/21, Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1958, p. 1894 PDF from Internet Archive, 11,4 MB. Retrieved March 31, 2024.
4. Pinch Brock, Lyla: Jewels in the Gebel: A Preliminary Report on the Tomb of Anen. Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 36, American Research Center in Egypt (ACRE), Kairo 1999, pp. 71–72 PDF from JSTOR, 3,4 MB. Retrieved March 31, 2024.
5. Dodson, Aidan and Hilton, Dylan: The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson, London 2004, ISBN 0-500-05128-3, pp. 144–145, 154.
6. Boddens Hosang, F. J. E.: The shabti of Anen in The Hague. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology (JEA), Vol. 70, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks 1990, pp. 178–179 PDF from JSTOR, 1,1 MB. Retrieved March 31, 2024.
7. O'Connor, David and Cline, Eric H. (Editors): Amenhotep III: Perspectives on His reign, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor 1998, ISBN 0-472-10742-9, p. 6.
8. O'Connor, David and Cline, Eric H.: Amenhotep III: Perspectives on His reign, Ann Arbor 1998, pp. 5–6.
9. Cyril Aldred: Akhenaten, King of Egypt. Thames & Hudson, London 1991, ISBN 0-500-27621-8, p.220.
10. Pinch Brock, Lyla: Jewels in the Gebel: A Preliminary Report on the Tomb of Anen. Kairo 1999, pp. 71–72.
11. Dodson, Aidan and Hilton, Dylan: The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. London 2004, pp. 144–145, 157.