Rahotep and Nofret

This statue of Rahotep and Nofret was found in a mastaba (early Egyptian tomb, rectangular in shape) near the pyramid of Meidum, Egypt (south of Cairo), and is dated to Egypt’s early 4th Dynasty (ca. 2680-2544 BC). Cemeteries consisting of large brick-built mastabas (about a dozen) are located to the north and east of the pyramid. The pyramid was probably begun by Huni, the last ruler of the 3rd Dynasty, but it believed to have been completed by Snofru (Sneferu).

Rahotep and Nofret. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Egypt. Photo ©Leon Mauldin.

The Sept/Oct 1989 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review (15:5) has this information:

Eerily lifelike, the superbly preserved, painted limestone statues of Rahotep and Nofret (see photograph) illustrate a pitfall in the use of artworks to assess racial characteristics. Rahotep’s reddish brown skin and Nofret’s yellowish white color, rather than being realistic portrayals, reflect artistic conventions of the Old Kingdom period (c. 2755–2230 B.C.E.). At that time, these were the usual colors used respectively for representations of men and women. Despite their skin colors, Rahotep and Nofret’s features are typically Egyptian.

Found in a private tomb near the pyramid of Pharaoh Sneferu (c. 2680–2640 B.C.E.), the sculptures depict a couple of the king’s courtiers. Prince Rahotep, probably a son of Sneferu, wears a wig and sports a thin moustache; his name and titles—High Priest of Re at Heliopolis, Director of Expeditions and Chief of Construction—appear in the painted hieroglyphs. Rahotep’s wife, Nofret, also wears a wig, and the hieroglyphs on her statue call her “one known to the king.”

I have several posts on Egypt. Go to search box on upper right and enter “Egypt.”

Click image for larger view.

One Response to Rahotep and Nofret

  1. Keith B. Isbell says:

    Thanks !

    Like

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: