Do you have any favourite ancient egyptian historical figures from the old kingdom?
The first one that jumps to mind is Hesy-Re, high official of the 3rd Dynasty under Djoser and Sekhemkhet. One of his titles very likely translates to “chief of dentists” (wr ibH sniw - “chief of physicians of teeth”, literally - although there is some argument as to the translation, since there is no known precedent of occupational dentistry up until this point, and almost none after it, either).
He is one of my favourite historical figures not just because of that (my first year research paper was on OK dentistry), but also because he has a set of relief panels in his tomb that were carved from cedar wood. This was relatively unprecedented - at least, we have very few extant examples of wooden funerary statuary. Wood in ancient Egypt wasn’t easy to get, and even if you did manage to get it, it was sooner gnarly acacia than it was smooth cedar fit for tomb relief panels.
The panels are absolutely stunning, showing Hesy-Re at different stages of life:
