Maiherperi was an ancient Egyptian noble of

Nubia Nubia () (Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), or ...

n origin buried in tomb

KV36 Tomb KV36, located in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, was used for the burial of the noble Maiherpri from the Eighteenth Dynasty. Rediscovered by Victor Loret in his second season in the Valley of the Kings, on 30 March 1899, the tomb was foun ...

in the

Valley of the Kings The Valley of the Kings ( ar, وادي الملوك ; Late Coptic: ), also known as the Valley of the Gates of the Kings ( ar, وادي أبوا الملوك ), is a valley in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th to 11th ...

. He probably lived during the rule of

Thutmose IV Thutmose IV (sometimes read as Thutmosis or Tuthmosis IV, Thothmes in older history works in Latinized Greek; egy, ḏḥwti.msi(.w) "Thoth is born") was the 8th Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt, who ruled in approximately the 14th century ...

, and received the honour of a burial in the royal necropolis. His name can be translated as ''Lion of the Battlefield''. Amongst his titles were ''Child of the Nursery'' and ''

Fan-bearer on the Right Side of the King The Fan-bearer on the Right Side of the King – sometimes also translated as ''Fanbearer on the King's Right Hand'' – was an ancient Egyptian courtier. The title implies a very close personal or official relationship with the pharaoh ...

''. There is speculation that the first title signified that he grew up in the royal nursery as a prince of a

vassal A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain ...

territory, or perhaps was the son of a lesser wife or concubine of the pharaoh. He was among the first during the New Kingdom to hold the second title, and was literally true in that he was by the pharaoh's side, likely as an advisor or bodyguard. This same title was also used to denote the

Viceroy A viceroy () is an official who reigns over a polity in the name of and as the representative of the monarch of the territory. The term derives from the Latin prefix ''vice-'', meaning "in the place of" and the French word ''roy'', meaning " ...

s of

Kush Kush or Cush may refer to: Bible * Cush (Bible), two people and one or more places in the Hebrew Bible Places * Kush (mountain), a mountain near Kalat, Pakistan Balochistan * Kush (satrapy), a satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire * Hindu Kush, a ...

later in the New Kingdom.

Tomb of Maiherpri

Maiherperi's copy of the Book of the Dead, which, in the eyes of O'Connor and Cline is " rtainly the most famous and arguably the most beautiful" Book of the Dead depicts him with literally "blackish" skin, leading scholars to believe he was an Egyptian of

n descent. His mummy was unwrapped by

Georges Daressy Georges Émile Jules Daressy (19 March 1864 – 28 February 1938) was a French Egyptologist. He worked from 1887 in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Amongst his responsibilities was the museum's move from Bulaq to Giza in 1891, and then to the prese ...

in March 1901, revealing a mummy whose dark skin matched that depicted on his copy of the Book of the Dead, and thought that this was likely Maiherperi's natural colour, unchanged by the mummification process. He also had tightly curled, woolly hair, which turned out to be a wig that had been glued to his scalp.Forbes, Dennis C. Tombs, Treasures, Mummies: Seven Great Discoveries of Egyptian Archaeology. p.105 KMT Communications, Inc. 1998.

Bibliography

* Michael Rice, ''Who's Who in Ancient Egypt By Michael Rice'', Routledge 2001, , p. 104 *David B. O'Connor, Eric H. Cline, ''Amenhotep III: Perspectives on His Reign'', University of Michigan Press 1998, {{ISBN, 0-472-08833-5

Footnotes and references

External links

The Tomb of Maihirpre
- Pictures of the artifacts from Maiherpri's tomb
Hatshepsut: from Queen to Pharaoh
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Maiherpri (see index) Officials of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt Ancient Egyptian mummies Fan-bearer on the Right Side of the King