Neferhotep was an ancient Egyptian official with the title ''scribe of the great enclosure''. He lived during the

13th Dynasty In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The interval can be also described as a compound sixth, spanning an octave p ...

, around 1750 BC. His tomb was found in 1860 by

Auguste Mariette François Auguste Ferdinand Mariette (11 February 182118 January 1881) was a French scholar, archaeologist and Egyptologist, and the founder of the Egyptian Department of Antiquities, the forerunner of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. Early ...

in Dra Abu el-Naga and contained an important range of objects, most notably of which was the

Papyrus Boulaq 18 The Papyrus Boulaq 18 is an ancient Egyptian administrative document. It contains an account of the Theban palace dating to the 13th Dynasty (around 1750 BC). The papyrus lists the palace officials and the rations they received day by day. Importa ...

, which is an account of life in the Theban palace. The papyrus had already been published, but the finds in Neferhotep's tomb have only recently been fully published. The tomb contained the

rishi coffin Rishi coffins are funerary coffins adorned with a feather design, which were used in Ancient Egypt. They are typical of the Egyptian Second Intermediate Period, circa 1650 to 1550 BC. The name comes from ريشة (''risha''), Arabic for "feather" ...

of Neferhotep, which was most likely badly decayed when Mariette found it. So it is only known from Mariette's description. Other finds in the tomb are a walking stick, a head rest, a faïence hippopotamus, wooden pieces of the

Hounds and Jackals Hounds and Jackals or Dogs and Jackals is the modern name given to an ancient Egyptian tables game that is known from several examples of gaming boards and gaming pieces found in excavations. The modern game was discovered by Howard Carter, who ...

game, a mace, writing implements, a wooden tray for a mirror, two calcite vessels, a magical wand and a double scarab. There are few well-preserved tomb groups of this period, giving this find a special importance. Furthermore, this is the earliest tomb group with a rishi coffin that can be dated. Normally rishi coffins are associated with the 17th Dynasty (about 100 years later), but Neferhotep most likely died in the 13th Dynasty, showing that this coffin type was used earlier than normally thought.

Literature

Gianluca Miniaci Gianluca Miniaci is an Italian Egyptologist, currently Associate Professor at the University of Pisa. He studied from 1999 to 2004 Classical Archaeology and wrote his dissertation in Egyptology on "The royal necropolis of the 17th dynasty at Dra ...

, Stephen Quirke: ''Reconceiving the Tomb in the Late Middle Kingdom, The Burial of the Account of the Main Enclosure Neferhotep at Dra Abu al-Naga'', In: ''Bulletin de l'Institut Francais d'Archaeologie Orientale'', 109 (2009), 339-383 *Gianluca Miniaci, Stephen Quirke: ''Mariette at Dra Abu el-Naga and the tomb of Neferhotep: a mid-13th dynasty coffin (?)'', In: ''Egitto e Vicino Oriente'', 31 (2008), 1-25 {{DEFAULTSORT:Neferhotep (Scribe of the Great Enclosure) Officials of the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt Ancient Egyptian scribes

See also

Literature