Online Activities: Ancient Egypt
Who is Who?
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Harkuf: Sixth Dynasty. Nomarch and explorer. Harkuf was governor of Elephantine, at Aswan. His tomb at Qubbet el Hawa contains records of four expeditions into Sudan. These trade missions brought luxury items, such as ivory, ebony and cheetah skins from farther south in Africa into the royal court. On one occasion, he brought back a dancer, a pygmy.
Young King Pepy II wrote Harkhuf a letter expressing his delight at the prospect of seeing this man dance. Pepy urged Harkuf to take great care of this man from the Land of the Horizon Dwellers, instructing him to post good men near the stranger to keep him from falling off the boat on the way to the Residence. Harkuf was so delighted with the letter that he had it engraved on the cliffs outside of his tomb, where it can still be seen today.
Heka-ib: Sixth Dynasty. Nomarch. Heka-ib is the nick-name of Pepynakht, who ruled Elephantine and most of Upper Egypt towards the end of the reign of Pepy II. He had been so powerful and wealthy that he was worshiped as a god at Elephantine for hundreds of years after his death.
Hemiunu: Fourth Dynasty, reign of Khufu. Vizier. Hemiunu, possibly the son of Nefermaat and grandson of Sneferu, was one of the most important and powerful people of the Age of the Pyramids. He was buried in a huge mastaba near Khufu's pyramid. The title, Overseer of all the Construction Works of the King, identifies him as the man responsible for the building of the Great Pyramid. One of the most remarkable statues from the Age of the Pyramids shows him as a large, heavy-set man, with an intelligent, rather stern face. (item 44 or 45 in the Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids)
Henutsen: Fourth Dynasty. About 2589-2566 BCE. Third wife of Khnum-Khufu and mother of Khafre. She was buried in a subsidiary pyramid beside her husband's.
Hesy-re: Third Dynasty. Vizier of Djoser Netjerikhet. Hesy-re was, among other things, the Chief Dentist. His large tomb at Sakkara was decorated with exquisite wooden panels which show a man of determination and authority. The skill of the artists who carved these panels has never been surpassed.
Hetep-heres I: Fourth Dynasty. Great Royal Wife of Sneferu, mother of Khufu, probably daughter of King Huni. Her beautiful carrying chair, furniture, and inlaid silver jewellery were found in a small shaft grave near the Great Pyramid. Her canopic chest and sarcophagus were in the tomb, but her body was present. (items 32 and 33 in the Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids)
Hetepheres II: Fourth Dynasty. Queen. Daughter of Khnum-Khufu and Meritites. Wife of King's Eldest Son Kawab, her half-brother. After Kawab's death, she married Djedefre, another son of Khnum-khufu. She lived on after the death of her second husband, and was buried in a large mastaba at Giza with Kawab. Her daughter, Meresankh III, married King Menkaure. Through her daughter by Djedefre, Neferhetepheres, she may have been the grandmother of Userkaf, founder of the Fifth Dynasty. Some people see her interesting life as evidence for a struggle for power between branches of the royal family.
Hetepheres: Fifth Dynasty. Mother of Ra-wer. Archaeological detective work by John Cooney has identified a headless statue as one from a damaged mastaba at Giza that once contained a group statue of Ra-wer, his parents, and two children. The remaining torso, arm, and legs illustrates the Old Kingdom ideal of female bodily beauty. (item 131 in the Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids)
Hetep-her-nebti: Third Dynasty. Queen of Djoser Netjerikhet. One of her titles is She who sees Horus and Seth. She is shown, on very small scale, standing by the king's ankles in a fragment from Heliopolis. (item 7-b in the Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids)
Hetepni: Sixth Dynasty, about 2200 BCE. This tax collector reported in his mortuary inscription that he was responsible for "the counting of everything that crawled or flew in the water and in the marshland."
Hordjedef: Fourth Dynasty, about 2550 BCE. King's Son of Khnum-Khufu. For thousands of years after his death, he was honoured as a wise man. He is also known as Djedefhor.
Huni: Third Dynasty. Last king of this dynasty. Little is known about this king, who may have been the same person as Qahedjet.
Huti and Ketisen: Fourth Dynasty. Huti held positions high in the bureaucracy of the Fourth Dynasty. He and Ketisen, his wife, were each able to afford fine statues, and a relief in which they share a funerary meal. They were buried at Sakkara, north of the Step Pyramid. (items 85 and 86 in the Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids)
Iai-ib and Khuaut: Fourth Dynasty, about 2530 – 2480 BCE. This Old Kingdom couple is remembered for a lovely pair statue in which they stand close together, Khuaut embracing her husband. They often appear in books and films as an image of married love. (item 83 in the Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids)
Imhotep: Third Dynasty. Architect of the Step Pyramid. Imhotep was King Djoser Netjerikhet's Superintendent of all Works. His father may have been Kanofer, also an architect.
Imhotep was a genius; among other things, he built the first pyramid. The Step Pyramid complex, which he designed and directed, was the first large stone building in the world, and required over a million tons of limestone to be quarried, transported, and dressed. A study of the Step Pyramid complex will show that Imhotep and Djoser changed their minds many times in the construction, always enlarging the site. In later times, he was renowned as a writer and physician. More than two thousand years after this death, children were named after him, and his grave was a place of pilgrimage. Imhotep's tomb has not yet been found.
Impy: Sixth Dynasty. Official, son of the royal architect Nekhebu. Impy's unplundered tomb at Giza contained a cedar-wood coffin, and many fine copper vessels.
Inet-Kaes: Third Dynasty. Daughter of Djoser Netjerikhet. She is shown, at small scale, standing at her father's ankles on a fragment from Heliopolis. (item 7b in the Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids)
Inkaf: Fourth Dynasty. Sculptor. Inkaf worked in the tomb of Queen Meresankh III. He is portrayed in the tomb, working on a statue of the queen.
Inti: Sixth Dynasty. Soldier. His tomb at Deshasha contains reliefs of an attack on a town in Palestine, and provides important information about warfare in the Age of the Pyramids.
Inti-shedu: Fourth Dynasty. Inti-shedu was Overseer of the Boat of the Goddess Neith. His tomb, in the Workmen's cemetery at Giza, was discovered in 1990. Five statues had occupied his serdab, four of which survive. Each shows a strong, muscular man, with large eyes that give his face a determined, slightly worried expression. The statues show him at various ages, from youth to confident middle age. The fifth statue had been made of wood, and disintegrated. The size and location of Inti-shedu's tomb show that he was not a member of the upper classes, but an artisan.
Nevertheless, his tomb echoes the structures of more expensive tombs, and he was able to produce or obtain fine images to assure his continued existence in the Afterlife. This suggests that people who were not members of the elite shared their beliefs in the afterlife, and similarly expected to survive death.
Irukaptah: Sixth Dynasty, about 2250 BCE. Irukaptah was Assistant Superintendent of the Embalming Works of the Cemetery. He was buried at Giza with his wife, Nefer-hetepes.
Itet: Third and Fourth Dynasty, about 2610-2580 BCE. Wife of a King's Son, the vizier Nefermaat. She and her husband supported innovation in the arts. Their mastaba tomb at Meidum, near one of Sneferu's pyramids, was filled with fine paintings and deep-cut reliefs which once contained colourful inlays. Her name is also spelled Atet. (item 25c in the Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids)
Iti: Sixth Dynasty. Official of King Pepy I. When Iti's tomb was found intact at Gebelein, it contained a fine cedar-wood coffin and other luxury goods. The fact that this courtier was not buried near his king is an example of the decentralization of power during the Sixth Dynasty.
Itisen: Sixth Dynasty. Itisen was Overseer of Mortuary Priests. This would have been a very busy and lucrative profession. He had two statues made in which he was represented twice. A number of such ‘pseudogroup' statues exists. Do they show the person with his ka or do they show him at different stages of life? Or is the doubling a sort of insurance policy in case one or the other is broken? (item 187 in the Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids)
Itush: Fifth Dynasty. This is the nickname of the secretary of king Djedkare-Isesi, Semen-ku-ptah. As befits a man whose name contains that of the god of craftsmen, Itush was also Palace Metallurgist and Treasurer. An extraordinary relief from his tomb shows one of his statues. The statue is that of a middle aged man with a highly individual face and skull. The sculptor managed to convey intelligence and curiosity as well as kindliness in the stone image. A statue like the one portrayed is called seshep-er-ankh in Ancient Egyptian, which means, ‘statue from life.' (item 145 in the Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids)
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