Nenkhefetkai

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Statue of Nenkhefetkai Statue of Nenkheftka.jpg
Statue of Nenkhefetkai
Statue of Nenkhefetkai and his wife Nefer-shemes Egyptian - Statue Group of Nen-kheft-ka and His Wife, Nefer-shemes - Walters 22425.jpg
Statue of Nenkhefetkai and his wife Nefer-shemes

Nenkhefetkai was an ancient Egyptian provincial official who lived in the 6th Dynasty (around 2200 BC) and is known from several statues found in the remains of his mastaba at Dishasha.

Nenkhefetkai was an important provincial official, who bears several titles providing evidence that he was a local governor (in older literature often called Nomarch) of the 20th Upper Egyptian nome. His titles include overseer of commissions, the one who knows the king, administrator of the southern goat city, sole friend, scribe of royal documents in the presence and leader of the lad of southern Naret. [1]

Nenkhefetkai is known from a series of statues and from his inscribed coffin. He was once buried in a mastaba at Dishasha. The building was excavated by Flinders Petrie but was found heavily destroyed, to an extent that it was no longer possible to gain a plan or any measurements of this structure. Within the remains was found a serdab with the fragments of at least 12 statues. [2] Some of them were well preserved, other were only found in fragments. Due to the different spellings of the name, Petrie assumed that the statues belonged to two different people, father and son, both called Nenkhefetkai. However, it is more likely that the name was just spelled differently on different monuments and that there was only one Nenkhefetkai buried here. [3]

Literature

References

  1. Naguib Kanawati & Ann McFarlane 1993, p. 72
  2. Petrie 1898, pl. 12
  3. Naguib Kanawati & Ann McFarlane 1993, p. 73