User was an

ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

ian nomarch (governor) of the Eight Dynasty. User is mainly known from a false door found at Khozam (ancient Iushenshen) in 1884. The monument is about one meter high and is made of graywacke. It is today in the

Egyptian Museum The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, commonly known as the Egyptian Museum (, Egyptian Arabic: ) (also called the Cairo Museum), located in Cairo, Egypt, houses the largest collection of Ancient Egypt, Egyptian antiquities in the world. It hou ...

in Cairo.Catalogue Generale 1442 Here, User bears a long string of important titles, such as ''Father of the god, beloved of the god'', '' Overseer of Upper Egypt'', ''overseer of the desert lands'' and ''overlord of the Coptite nome''. The latter title is the main title for nomarchs in the late Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period. Furthermore he was ''overseer of priests'' and ''overseer of the Eastern and Western Deserts''. The most unusual title for a nomarch is ''king's eldest son of his body''. The date of User was for a long time under discussion. However, he also appears in the tomb of Shemay at Coptos. There is depicted the transport of a stone from

Elephantine Elephantine ( ; ; ; ''Elephantíne''; , ) is an island on the Nile, forming part of the city of Aswan in Upper Egypt. The archaeological site, archaeological digs on the island became a World Heritage Site in 1979, along with other examples of ...

. Under the scene is another one that is destroyed, only the caption is preserved naming User with several title, including ''eldest king's son''. Shemay was in office at the end of the Eight Dynasty. Evidently User lived in the same period. The title ''king's eldest son of his body'' caused some discussion in Egyptology, as it is not certain whether he was a real son of a king or whether the title was purely honorific.

References

Bibliography

*{{cite book, last = Mostafa, first = Maha Farid, title=The Mastaba of SmAj at Naga' Kom el-Koffar, Qift, volume I, location=Cairo, year=2014, isbn=978-977-6420-04-5 People of the Eighth Dynasty of Egypt Nomarchs Ancient Egyptian priests Overseers of Upper Egypt