Bakenrenef or Bakenranef 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
Vizier
A vizier (; ; ) is a high-ranking political advisor or Minister (government), minister in the Near East. The Abbasids, Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was at first merely a help ...
of the North (
Lower Egypt
Lower Egypt ( ') is the northernmost region of Egypt, which consists of the fertile Nile Delta between Upper Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, from El Aiyat, south of modern-day Cairo, and Dahshur. Historically, the Nile River split into sev ...
) during the reign of
Psamtik I
Wahibre Psamtik I (Ancient Egyptian: ) was the first pharaoh of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt, the Saite period, ruling from the city of Sais in the Nile delta between 664 and 610 BC. He was installed by Ashurbanipal of the Neo-Assyrian E ...
(664 – 610 BC) of the
26th Dynasty
The Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XXVI, alternatively 26th Dynasty or Dynasty 26) was the last native dynasty of ancient Egypt before the Persian conquest in 525 BC (although other brief periods of rule by Egyptians followed). T ...
. Like
Khaemwaset
Prince Khaemweset (also translated as Khamwese, Khaemwese or Khaemwaset or Setne Khamwas) (c. 1281 BCE - 1225 BCE) was the fourth son of Ramesses II and the second son by his queen Isetnofret. His contributions to Egyptian society were remembered ...
several centuries before, he bore the title of ''Iunmutef'', ''“Cleaner of the Great House”''. His father was a mayor called Padineit, while his mother was a certain Tageb.
[Diana Alexandra Pressl, ''Beamte und Soldaten: Die Verwaltung in der 26. Dynastie in Ägypten (664 - 525 v. Chr.)'', Verlag Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1998, pp.168-70 and references therein.]
Bakenrenef is mainly known for his large rock tomb in
Saqqara
Saqqara ( : saqqāra ), also spelled Sakkara or Saccara in English , is an Egyptian village in the markaz (county) of Badrashin in the Giza Governorate, that contains ancient burial grounds of Egyptian royalty, serving as the necropolis for ...
and its reliefs depicting scenes from the ''
Book of the Dead
The ''Book of the Dead'' is the name given to an Ancient Egyptian funerary texts, ancient Egyptian funerary text generally written on papyrus and used from the beginning of the New Kingdom of Egypt, New Kingdom (around 1550 BC) to around 50 BC ...
'' and from the ''
Amduat
The ''Amduat'' (, () is an important Ancient Egyptian funerary texts, ancient Egyptian funerary text of the New Kingdom of Egypt. Similar to previous funerary texts, such as the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Old Kingdom's Pyramid Texts, or the First In ...
''. The tomb was later reused for other burials during the
30th Dynasty
The Thirtieth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XXX, alternatively 30th Dynasty or Dynasty 30) is usually classified as the fifth Dynasty of the Late Period of ancient Egypt. It was founded after the overthrow of Nepherites II in 380 BC by Nectane ...
. The decoration of the tomb was still largely intact when the
Lepsius expedition discovered and copied it, in the middle of the 19th century. Since then, the grave has been vandalized: most reliefs were torn away from the walls and sold to various museums and private collectors. For about twenty years an Italian expedition worked there
[ and Bakenrenef's ]limestone
Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
sarcophagus is now in the National Archaeological Museum of Florence.
References
External links
3D Reconstruction of the tomb
Ancient Egyptian viziers
People of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt
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