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Kaaper, pp. 874-5 or Ka’aper,, pp. 86-7 also commonly known as Sheikh el-Beled, was an ancient Egyptian 
Kaaper, pp. 874-5 or Ka’aper,, pp. 86-7 also commonly known as Sheikh el-Beled, was an ancient Egyptian scribe
A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of automatic printing.
The profession of the scribe, previously widespread across cultures, lost most of its promi ...
and priest who lived between the late 4th Dynasty
The Fourth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty IV) is characterized as a "golden age" of the Old Kingdom of Egypt. Dynasty IV lasted from to 2494 BC. It was a time of peace and prosperity as well as one during which trade with other ...
and the early 5th Dynasty
The Fifth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty V) is often combined with Dynasties III, IV and VI under the group title the Old Kingdom. The Fifth Dynasty pharaohs reigned for approximately 150 years, from the early 25th century BC until ...
(around 2500 BCE). Despite his rank not being among the highest, he is well-known due to his famously fine wooden statue.
Career and life
Little is known of Kaaper's life. His titles were ''lector priest
A lector priest was a priest in ancient Egypt who recited spells and hymns during temple rituals and official ceremonies. Such priests also sold their services to laymen, reciting texts during private apotropaic rituals or at funerals.Ritner, Robe ...
'' and ''army scribe of the King'', the latter possibly linked to some military campaigns in the Southern Levant
The Southern Levant is a Region, geographical region encompassing the southern half of the Levant. It corresponds approximately to modern-day Israel, State of Palestine, Palestine, and Jordan; some definitions also include southern Lebanon, southe ...
.
Discovery
Hismastaba
A mastaba (, or ), also mastabah, mastabat or pr- djt (meaning "house of stability", " house of eternity" or "eternal house" in Ancient Egyptian), is a type of ancient Egyptian tomb in the form of a flat-roofed, rectangular structure with inwar ...
, a flat-roofed tomb (named "Saqqara C8") was discovered by Auguste Mariette
François Auguste Ferdinand Mariette (11 February 182118 January 1881) was a French scholar, archaeologist and Egyptologist, and the founder of the Egyptian Department of Antiquities, the forerunner of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
Early ...
in the Saqqara
Saqqara ( ar, سقارة, ), also spelled Sakkara or Saccara in English , is an Egyptian village in Giza Governorate, that contains ancient burial grounds of Egyptian royalty, serving as the necropolis for the ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis. ...
necropolis, just north of the Step Pyramid
A step pyramid or stepped pyramid is an architectural structure that uses flat platforms, or steps, receding from the ground up, to achieve a completed shape similar to a geometric pyramid. Step pyramids are structures which characterized several ...
of Djoser
Djoser (also read as Djeser and Zoser) was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the 3rd Dynasty during the Old Kingdom, and was the founder of that epoch. He is also known by his Hellenized names Tosorthros (from Manetho) and Sesorthos (from Euseb ...
. During the excavation, the Egyptian diggers unearthed the statue and, apparently impressed by its exceptional realism, they called it ''Sheikh
Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates a chief of a ...
el-Beled'' (Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
for "Headman of the village") likely because of a certain similarity between the statue and their local elder
An elder is someone with a degree of seniority or authority.
Elder or elders may refer to:
Positions Administrative
* Elder (administrative title), a position of authority
Cultural
* North American Indigenous elder, a person who has and tr ...
.
Description
The statue – located in the CairoEgyptian Museum
The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum or the Cairo Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display a ...
, CG 34 – is tall and carved from sycamore
Sycamore is a name which has been applied to several types of trees, but with somewhat similar leaf forms. The name derives from the ancient Greek ' (''sūkomoros'') meaning "fig-mulberry".
Species of trees known as sycamore:
* ''Acer pseudoplata ...
wood, and depicts the corpulent Kaaper while walking with a staff. The statue's round, peaceful face is almost lifelike thanks to the eyes, which were made using rock crystal
Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...
and small copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
plates; it is often cited as an example of the remarkable level of craftmanship and realism achieved during the late 4th Dynasty. From the same mastaba also came a wooden statue of a woman, commonly considered to be Kaaper's wife (CG 33).
See also
*List of ancient Egyptian scribes
This is a list of Egyptian scribes, almost exclusively from the ancient Egyptian periods.
The hieroglyph used to signify the scribe, ''to write'', and ''"writings"'', etc., is Gardiner sign Y3, Y3 from the category of: 'writings, games, & mus ...
*Art of ancient Egypt
Ancient Egyptian art refers to art produced in ancient Egypt between the 6th millennium BC and the 4th century AD, spanning from Prehistoric Egypt until the Christianization of Roman Egypt. It includes paintings, sculptu ...
References
Further reading
* People of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt People of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt Ancient Egyptian priests Ancient Egyptian scribes {{AncientEgypt-bio-stub