IFAO

Three Old Kingdom biographies are investigated in this paper. A new translation is offered for two of the property deeds of Metjen, the famous official of the Early IVth Dyn. Dating criteria show that the short biography of Hetep-her-ni-ptah also belongs to the same period, if not slightly earlier. It includes the very first known example of the famous sentence «this had never been done», connected to a royal benefaction granted to the official. Finally, some parts of the recently published biography of Hezi (Saqqara, Teti Cemetery, VIth Dyn.) are reinvestigated.

Since April 10th 1894, when Jacques de Morgan discovered his tomb at Dahshur, Auibrê Hor and his place in the Egyptian chronology have incited debates between egyptologists, particularly Gaston Maspero and Jacques de Morgan. This difficult question has never been the subject of a specific study – one whose concern is the presence of a seal of clay bearing the name of pharaoh Nymaêtrê found on the canopic box.

Thus, the author attempts to reduce the incertitude concerning the dating. Examining by turns the differents objets belonging to the funerary furniture of this sovereign and the texts engraved on their surfaces, in relation to scarabs in European collections engraved with the names of king Hor, he demonstrates that these can be dated from the XIIIth Dynasty or later with difficulty, and the author proposes the hypothesis of a later dating than that previously conjectured by G. Maspero and other scholars. Basing himself on iconographical, lexicographical, and architectural details belonging respectively to the furniture and the structure of the tomb itself, the author argues that this dating should be reconsidered in order that king Auibrê‘ be placed between Senusret III and Amenemhet III.