Neferkare I.

Name of Neferkare I.
Name cartouche of Neferkare I, list of kings of Saqqara
Proper name	Neferkare (Nefer ka Re) Nfr k3 Rˁ (With) perfect Ka , a Re Aaka (Aa ka) ˁ3 k3 / Neferka (Nefer ka)
Royal Papyrus Turin (No. II./25)	Aaka (Aa ka) ˁ3 k3
List of Kings of Saqqara (No.8)	Neferkare (Nefer-ka-Re) Nfr k3 Rˁ
Greek Manetho variants:	Africanus : Nephercheres Eusebius : missing Eusebius, AV : missing

Neferkare I. (according to another source Aaka , Aa-ka or Neferka , Nefer-ka ) was an ancient Egyptian king ( pharaoh ) of the 2nd dynasty ( early dynastic period ), who was probably around 2749 BC. Ruled. Neferkare I. is one of the most obscure rulers for today's research . The exact time of his reign and the duration of his reign are unknown.

supporting documents

To classify this ruler chronologically correctly is very difficult for Egyptologists and archaeologists due to the small number of finds. This ruler is only recorded as "Neferkare" in the royal list of Saqqara in the grave of the reading priest Tjuneroy ( 19th dynasty ). "Aaka", however, is only called in the Turin Royal Papyrus. Furthermore, his name Horus is completely unknown. Contemporary monuments or artifacts could not yet be assigned to him. In the Saqqara list and in the Turin papyrus, Neferkare I is described as the successor to King Sened and as the predecessor of King Neferkasokar .

The Egyptologist Kim Ryholt is convinced that Neferkare is identical with Seneferka , a ruler who is actually equated by the majority of Egyptologists with King Qaa (end of the 1st Dynasty ) or is regarded as his immediate successor. Ryholt's explanation is based on the fact that Ramessid scribes often added the name of early dynastic rulers to the sun disk of Re , although they should have known that the sun was not worshiped as an independent deity at such an early age. As evidence, he cites the name cartouches such as Neferkare II from the Abydos list and Nebkare from the Saqqara list as examples.

Neferkare I is presumably identical with a ruler whom the ancient historian Manetho calls Nephercheres and about whom he writes that Nephercheres ruled for "25 years" and that under his reign "honey flowed down the Nile for eleven days". Egyptologists suspect that this idiom was supposed to indicate that under Neferkare there was wealth and abundance.

Reign

Since no archaeological finds can be reliably assigned to Neferkare's time so far, nothing concrete is known about political , cultic or economic events. However, it is generally assumed that Neferkare I ruled only in Lower Egypt , as his name appears in the Saqqara list, but is absent in the list of kings at Abydos and the Saqqara list reflects Memphite , i.e. Lower Egyptian, traditions.

Neferkare I was also a possible counter-regent to the rulers Peribsen and Sechemib . The background to this view is a presumed division of the empire at the time of King Ninetjer's death . After several years of drought , Ninetjer is said to have split Egypt into two independent halves and divided it among its heirs in order to counteract the drought-related economic and internal political conflicts. In Neferkare's time, Egypt consisted of two halves of the country, of which the southern part was dominated by kings like Peribsen, while in the north, next to Neferkare I, kings like Sened and Neferkasokar ruled. The division of the empire was ended under King Chasechemui .

literature

• Jürgen von Beckerath : Handbook of the Egyptian king names. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 1984, pp. 48–49, 174, ISBN 3-422-00832-2
• Jürgen von Beckerath: Chronology of the pharaonic Egypt. von Zabern, Mainz 1997, ISBN 3-8053-2310-7 , pp. 26, 39, 167, 171, 173-174, 177-178, 187.
• Walter Bryan Emery : Egypt. Early history and culture 3200-2800 BC Chr. Fourier, Wiesbaden 1964, ISBN 3-921695-39-2 .
• Alan Gardiner : History of Ancient Egypt. Weltbild, Augsburg 1994, ISBN 3-89350-723-X , p. 463.
• Jochem Kahl : Inscriptional Evidence for the Relative Chronology of Dyn. 0-2. In: Erik Hornung, Rolf Krauss, David A. Warburton (eds.): Ancient Egyptian Chronology (= Handbook of Oriental studies. Section One. The Near and Middle East. Volume 83). Brill, Leiden / Boston 2006, ISBN 978-90-04-11385-5 , pp. 94-115 ( online ).
• Kim Ryholt: King Seneferka in the King-Lists and his Position in the Early Dynastic Period. In: Journal of Egyptian History. Volume 1, 2008, pp. 159-174.
• Thomas Schneider : Lexicon of the Pharaohs. Albatros, Düsseldorf 2002, ISBN 3-491-96053-3 , p. 174.

Remarks

1. ↑ The proper name, as it is introduced from the 4th dynasty with Sa Ra , does not yet exist at this time, which is why the transfer to proper name (Pharaoh) is basically problematic. The formulation "proper name" is based on Jürgen von Beckerath : Handbuch der Ägyptischen Könignames.
2. ↑ according to Beckerath, however, a modern or ancient misreading of "Nefer", i.e. a shortened spelling of "Neferkare"
3. ↑ The presentation of the entry in the Turin papyrus, which differs from the usual syntax for hieroboxes, is based on the fact that open cartridges were used in the hieratic . The alternating time-missing-time presence of certain name elements is due to material damage in the papyrus.
4. ↑ with the name ideogram for a king who represents the Horus falcon
5. ↑ term of government 25 years.
6. ↑ Research is divided here, AH Gardiner reads "Aaka", while Jürgen von Beckerath, for example, proclaims "Neferka" as a reading

Individual evidence

1. ^ To: Eduard Meyer : Aegyptische Chronologie (= philosophical and historical treatises of the Royal Academy of Sciences. 1904, 1, ZDB -ID 955708-8 ). Publishing house of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Berlin 1904, plate I, cartouche no.8.
2. ^ Alan H. Gardiner : The Royal Canon of Turin. Griffith Institute, Oxford 1997, ISBN 0-900416-48-3 , p. 15, note 25a.
3. ^ Jürgen von Beckerath: Handbook of the Egyptian king names . P. 49.
4. ^ Alan H. Gardiner: The royal canon of Turin . Oxford 1997, plate I.
5. ^ Jürgen von Beckerath: Handbook of the Egyptian king names. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 1984, p. 49.
6. ^ ^{A b c} I. ES Edwards : The early dynastic period in Egypt (= Cambridge ancient history. ) Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1964, p. 35.
7. ↑ ^{a b} Winfried Barta: The chronology of the 1st to 5th dynasty according to the information on the reconstructed Annalenstein. In: Journal for Egyptian Language and Antiquity. (ZAS) Vol. 108, Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1981, ISSN  0044-216X , pp. 12-14.
8. ↑ Kim Ryholt: King Seneferka in the King-lists and His Position in the Early Dynastic Period. In: Journal of Egyptian History. (JEgH) No. 1, Brill, Leiden 2008, ISSN  1874-1657 , pp. 159-173.
9. ^ Walter Bryan Emery: Egypt. Early history and culture 3200-2800 BC Chr. P. 275.
10. ^ Walter Bryan Emery: Egypt. Early history and culture 3200-2800 BC Chr. P. 19.
11. ↑ Barbara Bell: Oldest Records of the Nile Floods. In: Geographical Journal. No. 136, 1970, pp. 569-573; cf. Hans Goedicke : King Hwḏf3? . In: Journal of Egyptian Archeology. (JEA) No. 42, Egypt Exploration Society, London 1956, p. 50.
12. ^ Hermann A. Schlögl : The old Egypt. History and culture from the early days to Cleopatra . Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-54988-8 , pp. 77-78.

predecessor	Office	successor
Peribs ? Sened ?	King of Egypt 2nd Dynasty	Neferkasokar