Neferhotep was an Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...

ian official with the title scribe of the great enclosure. He lived during the 13th Dynasty

Thirteenth dynasty of Egypt

The thirteenth dynasty of ancient Egypt is often combined with Dynasties XI, XII and XIV under the group title Middle Kingdom. Other writers separate it from these dynasties and join it to Dynasties XIV through XVII as part of the Second Intermediate Period...

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

Auguste Mariette

François Auguste Ferdinand Mariette was a French scholar, archaeologist and Egyptologist, the designer of the rebuilt Egyptian Museum under Maximilian of Austria orders when the later had gained control of the artifacts collected to that point.-Early career:Born at Boulogne-sur-Mer, Mariette...

 in Dra Abu el-Naga and contained an important range of objects, most notably of which was the Papyrus Boulaq 18

Papyrus Boulaq 18

The Papyrus Boulaq 18 is an Ancient Egyptian document found in 1860 AD in the tomb of the scribe of the great enclosure Neferhotep. It is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo....

 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 coffin

Rishi coffins are Ancient Egyptian coffins decorated all over with a feather design. They are typical of the Egyptian Second Intermediate Period .In the Egyptian Old and Middle Kingdom coffins were rectangular...

 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

Faience

Faience or faïence is the conventional name in English for fine tin-glazed pottery on a delicate pale buff earthenware body, originally associated with Faenza in northern Italy. The invention of a white pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an oxide of tin to the slip...

 hippopotamus, wooden pieces of the Hounds and Jackals 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

Seventeenth dynasty of Egypt

The Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combined under the group title, Second Intermediate Period. The Seventeenth Dynasty dates approximately from 1580 to 1550 BC.-Rulers:...

 (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, 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