Scarabs in the Second Intermediate Period

Section 4 Peremhesut

One of the late series belongs to a treasurer called Peremhesut (formerly read Peremwahet). This is an Egyptian phrase not otherwise attested as an Egyptian name, but echoed in the corpus of autobiographical hieroglyphic inscription. Several examples of Egyptian phrases given as personal names to Western Asiatic men and women in the late Middle Kingdom indicate that Peremhesut might be another such Egyptianised identity for someone from the Semitic-speaking world.

UC 11508 from the MacGregor Collection, back-type 10	UC 11509 back-type 10

For the connection of pr 'to go out' and hswt 'praise' in Middle Egyptian autobiography, see the following detail from UC 14333 the stela of the governor Mentuhotep (early Dynasty 12, reign of Senusret I)

'(I am one) who entered before his Lord (= the king), when the great men were behind him,

the keepers of the gateways bowing down until I reached the place where His Person (= the king) was,

(I am one) who would emerge from there, my heart elated,

praise of me in the face of everyone everywhere'

The phrase pr-m-hswt occurs in a later period, on the Cairo statue CG 579 of Senenmut in Dynasty 18, under Hatshepsut; although this is a later source, it comes from a reign when Middle Kingdom precedents were being revived in hieroglyphic inscription.