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)

Findspot: Western Cemetery, Pit G 2110 A

Dimensions/Weight: Height: 27.14 cm Neck at base: 11.5 cm x 10.5 cm

Classification: Sculpture

Description: White limestone reserve head of Nefer; strong masculine face, 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.

Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition

Selected Published References:
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.

Remarks: Object not registered (no registration records for 1903-1904-1905-1906).