Editing Horemheb (section)

===Tutankhamun Iry-pat===
When Tutankhamun died while a teenager, Horemheb had already been officially designated as the ''rpat'' or ''[[iry-pat]]'' (basically the hereditary or crown prince) and ''idnw'' (deputy of the king in the entire land) by the child pharaoh; these titles are found inscribed in Horemheb's then private Memphite tomb at Saqqara, which dates to the reign of Tutankhamun since the child king's
{{blockquote|...&nbsp;cartouches, although later usurped by Horemheb as king, have been found on a block which adjoins the famous gold of honour scene, a large portion of which is in Leiden. The royal couple depicted in this scene and in the adjacent scene&nbsp;76, which shows Horemheb acting as an intermediary between the king and a group of subject foreign rulers, are therefore to be identified as Tut'ankhamun and 'Ankhesenamun. This makes it very unlikely from the start that any titles of honours claimed by Horemheb in the inscriptions in the tomb are fictitious.<ref name=vanDijk1993>{{cite thesis |title=The New Kingdom Necropolis of Memphis |series=Historical and Iconographical Studies |first=Jacobus |last=van&nbsp;Dijk |publisher=University of Groningen |type=dissertation |place=Groningen, NL |year=1993 |chapter=Chapter&nbsp;One: Horemheb, Prince Regent of Tutankh'amun |chapter-url=http://www.jacobusvandijk.nl/docs/Horemheb_chapter.pdf |access-date=2012-04-07 |archive-date=2011-03-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110313125527/http://www.jacobusvandijk.nl/docs/Horemheb_chapter.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|pages=17–18 / PDF pp.&nbsp;9–10}} }}

The title ''iry-pat'' (Hereditary Prince) was used very frequently in Horemheb's Saqqara tomb but not combined with any other words. When used alone, the Egyptologist [[Alan H. Gardiner|Alan Gardiner]] has shown that the ''iry-pat'' title contains features of ancient descent and lawful inheritance which is identical to the designation for a "Crown Prince."<ref>{{cite journal |first=Alan |last=Gardiner |author-link=Alan H. Gardiner |title=The coronation of King Haremhab |journal=Journal of Egyptian Archaeology |volume=39 |year=1953 |pages=13–31}}</ref> This means that Horemheb was the openly recognised heir to Tutankhamun's throne, and not Ay, Tutankhamun's immediate successor. The Dutch Egyptologist [[Jacobus Van Dijk]] observes:

{{blockquote|There is no indication that Horemheb always intended to succeed Tut'ankhamun; obviously not even he could possibly have predicted that the king would die without issue. It must always have been understood that his appointment as crown prince would end as soon as the king produced an heir, and that he would succeed Tut'ankhamun only in the eventuality of an early and / or childless death of the sovereign. There can be no doubt that nobody outranked the Hereditary Prince of Upper and Lower Egypt and Deputy of the King in the Entire Land except the king himself, and that Horemheb was entitled to the throne once the king had unexpectedly died without issue. This means that it is Ay's, not Horemheb's, accession that calls for an explanation. Why was Ay able to ascend the throne upon the death of Tut'ankhamun, despite the fact that Horemheb had at that time already been the official heir to the throne for almost ten years?<ref name=vanDijk1993/>{{rp|pages=48–49 / PDF pp.&nbsp;40–41}} }}

Nozomu Kawai, however, rejects Van Dijk's interpretation that Tutankhamun had nominated Horemheb as his successor and reasons that:
: "If Horemheb was appointed as the "Crown Prince" at the beginning of Tutankhamun’s reign, this means that the end of the royal bloodline was already arranged. If this arrangement was made, people like [[Ay (pharaoh)|Ay]], who were closely connected to the royal family, would not have accepted it. Although Horemheb had already boasted of his strength in his pre-royal career, the statements must have been exaggerated, especially in his [ie. Horemheb's] coronation inscription, which was undoubtedly intended to propagate his legitimacy as the king. Notably, he called himself the ‘Eldest son of Horus’, a title that regularly refers to the Crown Prince. For van Dijk this means that he was already the designated successor of Tutankhamun. Janssen, however, states that the "Eldest Son" was honorific and did not indicate the surviving heir to the throne. I would suggest that this expression seems to have been a propaganda title meaning the "Eldest son of Horus of Hutnesu," Horemheb’s birthplace."<ref>Nozomu Kawai, [https://www.academia.edu/395389/Ay_versus_Horemheb_The_Political_Situation_in_the_Late_Eighteenth_Dynasty_Revisited Ay vs Horemheb: The Political Situation in the Late 18th Dynasty Revisited], JEH 3 (2010), p.270</ref>

[[File:Saq Horemheb 01.jpg|thumb|The forecourt of Horemheb's Memphite [[Tomb of Horemheb (Memphis)|tomb]] at Saqqara.]]
While no objects belonging to Horemheb were found in Tutankhamun's tomb, and items among the tomb goods donated by other high-ranking officials, such as [[Maya (Egyptian)|Maya]] and General [[Nakhtmin]], were identified by Egyptologists. Nozomu Kawai maintains that Horemheb was an active participant at Tutankhamun's burial.
Kawai writes:
: "Many scholars have suggested that Horemheb did not leave any evidence in Tutankhamun’s tomb, while prominent persons such as Ay, Maya and Nakhtmin left either funerary items or iconographic images. However, the wall scene of the tomb shows Tutankhmun’s coffin dragged by a group of officials in a mourning procession that contains a man who seems to be Horemheb (Fig. 3). The lone figure standing behind the two viziers must be Horemheb, which also makes him situated closest to the mummy of Tutankhamun. This means that Horemheb acted as the leader of the funerary procession."<ref>Nozomu Kawai, [https://www.academia.edu/395389/Ay_versus_Horemheb_The_Political_Situation_in_the_Late_Eighteenth_Dynasty_Revisited Ay vs Horemheb: The Political Situation in the Late 18th Dynasty Revisited], JEH 3 (2010), p.271</ref>

Kawai maintains rather that both Ay and Horemheb held important high administrative roles during Tutankhamun's reign with Ay participating in royal cultic activities whereas Horemheb acted as a royal military leader and legislator.<ref>Nozomu Kawai, [https://www.academia.edu/395389/Ay_versus_Horemheb_The_Political_Situation_in_the_Late_Eighteenth_Dynasty_Revisited Ay vs Horemheb: The Political Situation in the Late 18th Dynasty Revisited], JEH 3 (2010), pp.270-71</ref> But after Ay became the pharaoh, his relationship with Horemheb changed. The aged Vizier [[Ay (pharaoh)|Ay]] initially succeeded Tutankhamun, possibly because he made an arrangement with Horemheb.  However, during his brief four-year reign, Ay proceeded to nominate [[Nakhtmin]] as his successor—whom Ay named as "King's Son" ([[wikt:zꜣ-nswt|zꜣ-nswt]])<ref>Wolfgang Helck, Urkunden der 18. Dynastie: Texte der Hefte 20-21 (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1984), pp. 1908–1910</ref>—rather than Horemheb.  The title of "King’s Son" (zꜣ-nswt) was clearly meant to designate the king's successor and Ay, therefore, sidelined Horemheb's claim to the throne with this action. [[Ankhesenamun]], Tutankhamun's queen chose not to marry Horemheb, a commoner, and this also solidified Ay's kingship.<ref name=vanDijk1993/>{{rp|pages=50–51, 56–60 / PDF pp.&nbsp;42–43, 48–52}}