NEWS: Confusion over ‘new’ king Men Salbo ‘product of some modern language confusion’

Aayko Eyma, of the Egyptologist’s Electronic Forum, writes:

“There were some questions about all the press reports which say that the princess Sheret-Nebti was “the daughter of king Men Salbo” — a king who now even made it into Wikipedia (lemma Shert Nebti). Of course, there is no such ‘new’ king, nor is it a garbled name of a known king (e.g. Menkauhor) — it is the product of some modern language confusion. That’s what I meant to signal on November 2 with my footnote to the press reports:

‘The pillars “have hieroglyphic inscriptions giving the princess’s name and her titles, which include “the daughter of the king Men Salbo and his lover venerated before God the all-powerful,” [sic: in the Czech reports this auto-translates as “daughter of the King of his own blood, his friend, respectful to the power of God,” in the Spanish reports as “the king’s daughter, his beloved, the blessed before the great God” AKE].’ ” – via The EEF.

A higher resolution of the pillars with the hieroglyphic inscriptions (Source: The Australian).

A higher resolution version of the photograph of the pillars is now available (see above), so those of us fortunate enough to be able to read hieroglyphs can see that there is no cartouche.

The inscription actually reads:

nswt zAt nt Xt.f mrt.f jmAxwt xr nTr aA Srt-nbtj (honorific transposition)

“The king’s daughter of his body, his beloved, honoured by the great god, Sheret-Nebty” – ‘of his body’ was lost in translation and became ‘Men Salbo’.

You see more photographs relating to the tomb here.