Nefer (court dwarf)

Nefer in hieroglyphics
Nefer Nfr The Beautiful

Nefer is the ancient Egyptian name of a member of the royal court who lived during the reign of the king ( Pharaoh ) Semerchet ( 1st Dynasty ).

supporting documents

Nefers name appears on a badly damaged grave stele together with the determinative of a short stature . He is therefore regarded as a dance dwarf or court dwarf . However, it has no title. The stele itself is made of limestone and is composed of two parts. It is 45 cm high and 24 cm wide. It is now in the British Museum under inventory number 35018.

To person

Nothing is known about Nefer's life, but it is generally assumed that he was kept at court as a dancing dwarf, customary for this period . In the early days, people of short stature were considered a status symbol , but they were also able to advance professionally and officially. This would explain why Nefer was granted a secondary grave right next to the king's tomb. Interestingly, the number of short males predominates, women are less occupied.

dig

After his death, Nefer was buried in a side grave in the necropolis of King Semerchet ( Tomb U ) in Abydos . Until the beginning of the 2nd dynasty , it was an ancient Egyptian tradition that some members of the royal family had to follow the ruler to their death.

See also

• Short people in ancient Egypt
• Seneb

literature

• Jean Capart: Les débuts de l'art en Egypt. Vromant & Co., Brussels 1904, p. 247, fig. 176.
• William R. Dawson: Pygmies and dwarfs in ancient Egypt. In: Journal of Egyptian Archeology. No. 24, 1938, ISSN  0075-4234 , pp. 185-189.
• John Francis Nunn: Ancient Egyptian Medicine. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman OK 2002, ISBN 0-8061-3504-2 , p. 78.
• WM Flinders Petrie : The Royal tombs of the earliest dynasties. 1901. Part II (= Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund. Volume 21, ISSN  0307-5109 ). Offices of The Egypt Exploration Fund et al., London 1901, p. 27 & plate 34, object 36 a. 37 ( online ).
• AJ Spencer: Early dynastic objects (= Catalog of Egyptian antiquities in the British Museum. Volume 5). British Museum, London 1980, ISBN 0-7141-0927-4 , p. 16.

Web links

• Nefers grave stele in the British Museum