Nebit was an ancient Egyptian official during the reign of king

Senusret III Khakaure Senusret III (also written as Senwosret III or the hellenised form, Sesostris III) was a pharaoh of Egypt. He ruled from 1878 BC to 1839 BC during a time of great power and prosperity, and was the fifth king of the Twelfth Dynasty of the ...

. He held the position of

vizier A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was a ...

. Thus, he was the most important official at the royal court. Nebit is only known from his large

mastaba 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 ...

, which was excavated next to the pyramid of the king at

Dahshur DahshurAlso transliterated ''Dahshour'' (in English often called ''Dashur'' ar, دهشور ' , ''Dahchur'') is a royal necropolis located in the desert on the west bank of the Nile approximately south of Cairo. It is known chiefly for several p ...

. The mastaba was built of mud bricks and then covered with stones. Already in ancient times the high quality stone was looted and used for other building projects or just for burning lime. However, one wall of the mastaba facade had already collapsed and had been covered by sand before looters dismantled the rest of the building. The preserved facade bears the name and title of Nebit, but also the name of the king. Within the remains of the mastaba were found by

Jacques de Morgan Jean-Jacques de Morgan (3 June 1857, Huisseau-sur-Cosson, Loir-et-Cher – 14 June 1924) was a French people, French mining engineer, geologist, and archaeologist. He was the director of antiquities in Khedivate of Egypt, Egypt during the 19th ...

the bust of a statue made of

granodiorite Granodiorite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock similar to granite, but containing more plagioclase feldspar than orthoclase feldspar. The term banatite is sometimes used informally for various rocks ranging from gra ...

. The fragment is not inscribed but most likely depicts Nebit.Adela Oppenheim: ''Upper part of a Male Statue, possible the Vizier Nebit'', in: A. Oppenheim, d. Arnold, D. Arnold, Kei Yamamoto (editors): ''Ancient Egypt Transformed, The Middle Kingdom'',

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, New York 2015 , 127-128, no. 62 The underground burial chamber of Nebit had already been robbed when it was discovered. However, next to the burial chamber of Nebit, there was a chamber for a woman called Satwerut, perhaps the wife of Nebit. Her chamber was found intact and still contained the coffins of the lady, her

Canopic jar Canopus (, ; grc-gre, Κάνωπος, ), also known as Canobus ( grc-gre, Κάνωβος, ), was an ancient Egyptian coastal town, located in the Nile Delta. Its site is in the eastern outskirts of modern-day Alexandria, around from the cente ...

s and jewellery.

References

Literature

*Dieter Arnold: ''Egyptian Archaeology'' 9 (1996), pp. 23–25 *Dieter Arnold: ''Antike Welt'' 6 (2002), pp. 623–624 *Wolfram Grajetzki: ''Court Officials of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom'', Bristol Classical Press, London 2009 pp. 33-34 {{ISBN, 978-0-7156-3745-6

External links

The Private Tombs North of the Senwosret III Pyramid Complex, Dahshur
Senusret III Viziers of the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt