Kanefer

Excavation The vast necropolis of Dahshur is one of the large pyramid cemeteries of the Old and Middle Kingdom (2600–1700 BCE). The appearance of the natural landscape at Dahshur was intensely altered by human impact, especially through mining. The quarries of materials for pyramids buildings appear today as scarps and depressions. The channel beds in the wadis leading to the Bent Pyramid were also altered by use as transport paths for building material and by fluvial erosion. In the area between the pyramids of Sneferu, and northwest of the pyramid complex of Amenemhat II and Senwosret III (12th Dynasty), De Morgan had been conducting archaeological research on tombs of the 4th dynasty during year 1894-1895. The first report on the archaeological research carried out by de Morgan was sent to the "Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres"on March 8th 1895. Among other things, he also mentioned the opening of the main figures from the Sneferu time, whose tombs were found there. He also opened a mastaba, which he identified Kanefer as the owner, and addressed the title of Kanefer as "Son of the royal wing, who is the chief of his father, the son of Sneferu". De Morgan completed all the archaeological survey in 1895 and published a comprehensive work in year 1903.

Mastaba The Kanefer mastaba is a large brick mastaba (36x25 m) with three wells. Along the eastern wall were two steles and offering tables from two entrance vaulted rooms lined with clay bricks. All that was left was badly damaged at the beginning of this century.Regarding their decoration, only the lower part of the false door and the outer jamb have been preserved, which are now stored separately in the Louvre and in the British Museum (BM). This amount of evidence has led all scholars to take Kanefer without hesitation as an authentic son of Sneferu. Moreover, the false door of Kanefer was built by his son Kaiwareb, dating the reign of Khafra or possibly Djedefre, too.

In the spring of 2002, an excavation team from the Free University of Berlin worked in the cemetery east of the Red Pyramid and north of the Amenemhat II pyramid complex in Dahshur. Unfortunately, Morgan's documentation is sketchy, and the publication of Kanefer's tomb has been very superficial, so that in the current situation it is even difficult to locate Kanefer's tomb in the field. On the desert surface, only mastabas on the northwest edge of the cemetery can still be distinguished. However, the areas closer to the pyramid complex Amenemhat II are covered with extensive piles of rubble. the second less damaged was offered to the British Museum in year 1901.

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