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Limestone reserve head of Nefer

Object(s) photograph: Site: Giza; view: G 2110

White limestone reserve head of Nefer; prominent cheek-bones and large nose; nostrils cut in rather deeply; middle part of upper lip carved in plaster, as also probably bridge and tip of nose, which now looks as if pared with knife.

Details

  • ID
    MFAB_06.1886
  • Department
    Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
  • Classification
    Sculpture
  • Findspot
    Pit G 2110 A
  • Material
    Limestone
  • Dimensions
    Height: 27.14 cm Neck at base: 11.5 cm x 10.5 cm
  • Credit Line
    Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition
  • Object Ownership Information
    MFA
  • Period
    Old Kingdom, early Dynasty 4
  • Date of Register Entry
    about 2575–2465 B.C.
  • Owner
    Nefer (G 2110)
  • Notes
    This object was excavated by the Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition, but was not recorded in any object register book. 1905-1906: Excavated by the Harvard University–Museum of Fine Arts Expedition; 1906: assigned to the MFA in the division of finds by the government of Egypt. (Accession Date: November 8, 1906)
  • Remarks
    Object not registered (no registration records for 1903-1904-1905-1906).

Tombs and Monuments 1

  • G 2110

    • Site Name Western Cemetery

Published Documents 12

Full Bibliography

  • Assmann, Jan. "Preservation and Presentation of Self in Ancient Egyptian Portraiture." In Peter Der Manuelian, ed., Studies in Honor of William Kelly Simpson 1. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1996, p. 60, fig. 7.

    Atlas de l'art: l'égypte Pharaonique. Encyclopaedia Universalis. 32 vols. Paris: Encyclopaedia universalis France, 1992 [to be completed].

    Bates, Oric. "Sculptures from the Excavations at Giza, 1905-1906." Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 5, No. 26 (1907), p. 20.

    Bernard V. Bothmer. "On Realism in Egyptian Funerary Sculpture of the Old Kingdom." In Madeleine E. Cody, ed. Egyptian Art. Selected Writings of Bernard V. Bothmer. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004, pp. 384, 387, fig. 25.21.

    Capart, Jean. Documents Pour Servir À L'étude De L'art Égyptien, Publiés 2. Paris: Les Éditions du Pégase, 1931, p. 97, note on p. 23.

    Capart, Jean. L'art Égyptien 2: La Statuaire. Bruxelles [etc.]: Vromant & Co., 1922, p. 17, pl. 228.

    Capart, Jean. Pour Faire Aimer L'art Égyptien. Bruxelles: Fondation égyptologique Reine Élisabeth, 1949, fig. 14.

    Davis, Whitney. "Canonical Representation in Egyptian Art." Res, Harvard and Nanterre 4 (1982), pp. 20-46, fig. 19.

    Dunham, Dows. "Portraiture in Ancient Egypt." Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 41, No. 246 (December 1943), pp. 69-70, fig. 3.

    Dunham, Dows. The Egyptian Department and its Excavations. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1958, pp. 44, 46, fig. 27a.

    Egyptian Art. Cambridge Introduction to the History of Art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, [to be completed].

    Freed, Rita E., Lawrence M. Berman, and Denise M. Doxey. Arts of Ancient Egypt. MFA Highlights. Boston: MFA Publications, 2003, p. 77.

    Manuelian, Peter Der. "Hemiunu, Pehenptah, and German/American Collaboration at the Giza Necropolis (Giza Archives Project Gleanings: II)." In Antje Spiekermann, ed. Zur Zierde gereicht. . . Festschrift Bettina Schmitz zum 60. Geburtstag am 24. Juli 2008, HIldesheimer Ägyptologische Beiträge 50. Hildesheim: Verlag Gebrüder Gerstenberg, 2008, p. 29.

    Manuelian, Peter Der. "A 'New' Slab Stela for Nefer from G 2100? (Giza Archives Project Gleanings: I)." In Stephen E. Thompson and Peter Der Manuelian, eds. Egypt and Beyond: Essays Presented to Leonard H. Lesko upon his Retirement from the Wilbour Chair of Egyptology at Brown University June 2005. Providence: Department of Egyptology and Ancient Western Asian Studies, 2008, p. 236.

    Manuelian, Peter Der. "A Re-examination of Reisner's Nucleus Cemetery Concept at Giza. Preliminary Remarks on Cemetery G 2100." In Miroslav Bárta, ed. The Old Kingdom Art and Archaeology. Proceedings of the Conference held in Prague, May 31-June 4, 2004. Prague: Czech Institute of Egyptology, 2006, pp. 225, 227-228.

    Millet, N.B. "The Reserve Heads of the Old Kingdom." In William Kelly Simpson and Whitney M. Davis, eds. Studies in Ancient Egypt, the Aegean, and the Sudan: Essays in Honor of Dows Dunham on the Occasion of his 90th Birthday, June 1, 1980. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1981, p. 130.

    Reisner, George A. A History of the Giza Necropolis 1. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1942, p. 425, pl. 34.

    Sanborn, Ashton. "New Installation of Egyptian Sculpture." Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 23, No. 140 (December 1925), p. 73.

    Smith, William Stevenson. Ancient Egypt as Represented in the Museum of Fine Arts. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1942, p. 32, 34, fig. 12.

    Smith, William Stevenson. Ancient Egypt as Represented in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1960 (6th ed.), pp. 35-37, fig. 14.

    Smith, William Stevenson. A History of Egyptian Sculpture and Painting in the Old Kingdom. London: Oxford University Press, 1946, p. 27, pl. 48.

    Smith, William Stevenson. "Old Kingdom Sculpture." American Journal of Archaeology 45 (1941), pp. 514-28.

    Spanel, Donald. Through Ancient Eyes: Egyptian Portraiture: An Exhibition Organized for the Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama, April 21-July 31, 1988. Birmingham: The Museum, 1988, p. 36, fig. 41.

    Tefnin, Roland. Art et Magie au Temps des Pyramides: L'énigme des Têtes Dites "De Remplacement". Monumenta Aegyptiaca 5. Bruxelles: Fondation égyptologique reine Elisabeth, 1991, pp. 99-100.

    Unsigned. "Notes." Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 5, No. 24 (1907), p. 8.

People 1

Ancient People

  • Nefer (G 2110)

    • Type Owner
    • Remarks Owner of G 2110. Appears in chapel relief (south, west, and east walls; not all instances with inscription preserved), identifed as [(sAb) nxt-xrw HqA Hwt jmj-r sSw Xrt-a nswt Hrj-sStA nswt m swt nb sS pr-aA] strong-of-voice (of the judiciary), chief of the estate, overseer of scribes of the portfolios of the king, secretary of the king in all places, scribe of the Great House; in situ in G 2110. Displaced fragments of relief (three unregistered fragments + 36-12-2 = MFA 31.780), upper part of standing figures of Nefer and Wenankhes; originally from G 2110, south wall of chapel (lower part of figures still in situ). Displaced blocks of relief from south door jamb (Louvre B 51) and north door jamb (MFA 07.1002) inscribed for Nefer, identifed as [jmj-r Xkrw nswt nb xrp aprw nfrw jmj-r stj DfAw jmj-r pr-aHAw wr mDw Sma rx nswt jmj-r prwj-HD] overseer of all royal ornaments, director of crews of recruits, overseer of the two places of provisions, overseer of the house of weapons, great one of the tens of Upper Egypt, royal acquaintance, overseer of the two treasuries; originally from G 2110, chapel entrance. Displaced false door tablet with crossbar = lower lintel (Museo Barracco 1) inscribed for Nefer, identified as [jmj-r sSw aprw jmj-r pr-HD] overseer of scribes of the crews, overseer of the treasury; originally from G 2110, west wall of chapel. Limestone drum lintel (UPM_E13531) inscribed for Nefer, identified as [jmj-r sSw aprw xrp aprw nfrw sS a nswt jmj-r pr-HD] overseer of scribes of the crews, director of crews of recruits, royal document scribe, overseer of the treasury; found reused in G 3015, originally from G 2110, chapel entrance. Limestone reserve head (MFA 06.1886) attributed to Nefer; found in G 2110 A.