ABSTRACT
When excavated at the beginning of the twentieth century, the largest tumulus in the city of Kerma in Nubia (dated to the period of 1700-1550 BCe) was discovered to contain a life-size seated statue of an Egyptian woman named Sennuwy, together with part of the statue of her husband Djefaihapy (Figure 2.2.1). This led the excavator, George Reisner, to believe that Djefaihapy was the Egyptian governor at Kerma and to interpret the site as a trading post run by Egyptians. Evidence found later and elsewhere proved him wrong. Kerma was the capital of a powerful and independent state that arose in competition with Egypt, and it turned out that Djefaihapy was the provincial governor of Asyut (in Middle Egypt) during the reign of the twelfth dynasty pharaoh Sesostris I (around 1971-1926 BCe). Both statues were thus re-used in the Kerma tomb when they were already antique, and had been brought to Nubia from a far-away tomb or temple in the Nile valley (Bard 2008: 199-205).
