Nofret

Nofret was a woman who lived in ancient Egypt during the 4th dynasty of Egypt.

Nofret (Nfr-t)
Nofret's statue, Cairo Museum
Resting place	mastaba at Meidum
Other names	Nefret, Neferet
Title	Princess consort of Egypt
Spouse(s)	Prince Rahotep
Children	♂ Djedi ♂ Itu ♂ Neferkau ♀ Mereret ♀ Nedjemib ♀ Sethtet

Nefert means "beautiful". Nofret is alternatively known as Nefert or Neferet.

Biography

Nofret's parents are not known. Nofret married Prince Rahotep, a son of Pharaoh Sneferu. She had three daughters and three sons with Rahotep.[1]

Nofret was buried with her husband in mastaba 16 at Meidum.[2] In 1871 by Daninos, beautiful statues of Rahotep and Nofret were found.[3] Nofret is depicted with a black wig and very fair face. Her titles in hieroglyphs on the back of her chair name her as "King's Acquaintance".[4] The statues are now in the Cairo Museum.[5] The mastaba of the couple had two burial chambers and two cult chapels. The Southern cult chapel belonged to Rahotep, the northern one to Nofret. Here she is depicted with Rahotep in front of an offering table. The inscription over the scene provides a second title for her: miteret (translation not known up today).[6]

Children

Children of Nofret and Rahotep were. They all had the same title:

• "King's Acquaintance" Djedi
• "King's Acquaintance" Itu
• "King's Acquaintance" Neferkau
• "King's Acquaintance" Mereret
• "King's Acquaintance" Nedjemib
• "King's Acquaintance" Sethtet[1]

The two statues, Nofret and Rahotep

Prince Rahotep's statue has six columns of text, naming his titles and duties, with columns three and six, each ending with his name, Ra-Hotep. Nofret has identical texts, one column both right and left. Her name appears at the bottom, with the determinative for 'women'. Her complete name is "Nsw-r(kh)-t, Nfr-t". The last, nfr-t means "beautiful woman" (the t being the bread bun for feminine); nsw-r(kh)-t, means "King's Acquaintance". Curiously, her likeness is depicted with blue eyes, rare among Egyptian artwork as it almost always portrays Egyptians as having dark eyes; it's possible she may have been a Berber as her appearance bears heavy resemblance as to how Ancient Egyptians portrayed Libyans in murals.

• 
  (Statue 1 + 2)
  the pair: Ra-hotep and Nofret
• 
  Ra-hotep
  [7]

Philately and numismatics

Nofret is depicted on Egyptian stamps of 1958 [8], 1989 [9] and 2000 (the cost is 20 Egyptian piastres; No. 1669)[10] and on the Fujairah stamp of 1966 (pair statue) [11]. The banknote of 20 Egyptian pounds has watermark that depicts the head of a sculptural image of Nofret[12].

References

1. Dodson and Hilton, The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, 2004
2. Dodson and Hilton, The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, 2004
3. Jacques Kinnaer. "Rahotep and Nofret". Ancient-egypt.org. Archived from the original on 2012-04-14. Retrieved 2012-05-01.
4. "Rahotep and Nofret". Egyptorigins.org. Retrieved 2012-05-01.
5. "Seneferu". Euler.slu.edu. Retrieved 2012-05-01.
6. W. M. Flinders Petrie: Medum, London 1892, plates IX, X and XV (online: )
7. The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, Ian Shaw, c 2000, p. 129.
8. "EGYPT - CIRCA 1958: stamp printed by Egypt, shows Sculpture of." 123RF. Retrieved 2019-12-29.
9. "EGYPT - CIRCA 1989: stamp printed by Egypt, shows Statue of princess." 123RF. Retrieved 2019-12-29.
10. "Stamp: Nofret, wife of Rahotep (Egypt) (Definitives) Mi:EG 2016I,Sn:EG 1752,Yt:EG 1669". Colnect. Retrieved 2019-12-29.
11. "Stamp: Statues of Prince Rahotep and Princess Nofret (Fujairah) (Intl. Stamp Exhibition, Cairo: 100 Years of Egyptian Stamps) Mi:FU 53A,Yt:FU 42". Colnect. Retrieved 2019-02-10.
12. "Egypt 20 Pounds, 2016, P-65n, Princess Nofret, Muhammed Ali Mosque, PMG 67". Colnect. Retrieved 2019-12-29.