Shemay

Shemay
Shemay
Vizier
	Reunited Coptos decrees “p” and “q”, addressed to Shemay's two sons. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Acc. No. 14.7.12)
Successor	Idy
Dynasty	8th Dynasty
Pharaoh	Neferkaure, Neferkauhor
Wife	Nebyet
Children	Idy; unnamed son
Burial	Mastaba at Kom el-Koffar

Shemay
Šm3y
in hieroglyphs

Era: 1st Intermediate Period
(2181–2055 BC)

Shemay (also Shemai) was an ancient Egyptian official and later vizier toward the end of the 8th Dynasty (22nd century BCE) during the First Intermediate Period, mainly known for being the beneficiary of most of the Coptos Decrees.^[1] His career has been interpreted as a glaring sign of the extreme weakness of the central power, forced to bestow great privileges to maintain the loyalty of powerful local governors.^[2]^[3] Shemay is buried in a mudbrick mastaba just south of Coptos.^[4]

^ Cite error: The named reference hayes46 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Alan Gardiner, Egypt of the Pharaohs: an introduction Archived 2024-05-01 at the Wayback Machine, Oxford University Press, 1964, p. 108; quote: "But perhaps the most persuasive evidence of their short-lived domination is offered by some inscriptions discovered by Raymond Weill at Coptos in 1910–11. Under the ruins of a structure of Roman date were found carefully towed away a number of decrees carved in hieroglyphic on slabs of limestone, some dating from the reign of Pepy II, and most of them designed to protect the temple of Min and its priesthood from interference and the corvee. But among them as many as eight were apparently dispatched on the same day in the first year of a King Neferkare, the last king but one in the series of the Abydos list. The addressee was in each case the vizier Shemai and each royal command was concerned either with him or some member of his family. One of the decrees confirmed him in his vizierate in all the twenty-two nomes of Upper Egypt, while another recorded the appointment of his son Idi to the post of Governor of Upper Egypt in the seven southernmost nomes. A third decree grants precedence over all other women to Shemai's wife Nebye, who is described as a 'King's eldest daughter', and perhaps even more remarkable is a fourth making elaborate arrangements for the funerary cult of both husband and wife in all the temples of the land. There is no hint of unrest or political disturbance in any of these texts, though we may possibly read into them a desperate anxiety on the king's part to conciliate one specially powerful Upper Egyptian magnate."
^ Cite error: The named reference Wilkinson was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference gilbert was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[hayes46-1] Cite error: The named reference hayes46 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Gardiner-2] Alan Gardiner, Egypt of the Pharaohs: an introduction Archived 2024-05-01 at the Wayback Machine, Oxford University Press, 1964, p. 108; quote: "But perhaps the most persuasive evidence of their short-lived domination is offered by some inscriptions discovered by Raymond Weill at Coptos in 1910–11. Under the ruins of a structure of Roman date were found carefully towed away a number of decrees carved in hieroglyphic on slabs of limestone, some dating from the reign of Pepy II, and most of them designed to protect the temple of Min and its priesthood from interference and the corvee. But among them as many as eight were apparently dispatched on the same day in the first year of a King Neferkare, the last king but one in the series of the Abydos list. The addressee was in each case the vizier Shemai and each royal command was concerned either with him or some member of his family. One of the decrees confirmed him in his vizierate in all the twenty-two nomes of Upper Egypt, while another recorded the appointment of his son Idi to the post of Governor of Upper Egypt in the seven southernmost nomes. A third decree grants precedence over all other women to Shemai's wife Nebye, who is described as a 'King's eldest daughter', and perhaps even more remarkable is a fourth making elaborate arrangements for the funerary cult of both husband and wife in all the temples of the land. There is no hint of unrest or political disturbance in any of these texts, though we may possibly read into them a desperate anxiety on the king's part to conciliate one specially powerful Upper Egyptian magnate."

[Wilkinson-3] Cite error: The named reference Wilkinson was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[gilbert-4] Cite error: The named reference gilbert was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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