Schepseskare

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Schepseskare
Horus name
G5
S42 N28 G43
Srxtail2.svg
Sechem-chau
Sḫm-ḫˁ.w
Mighty in appearances
Throne name
M23
X1 		L2
X1
Hiero Ca1.svg
N5 A50 S29 S29 D28
Hiero Ca2.svg
Schepses-ka-Re
Špss-k3-Rˁ
With noble Ka , a Re
(heavily destroyed)
Proper name
Hiero Ca1.svg
R8 G43 F12 S29
r
Hiero Ca2.svg
Netjeruser (Netjer user)
Nṯr (.j) wsr
Divine in power
(reading uncertain)
List of Kings of Saqqara (# 28)
Hiero Ca1.svg
N5 A50 S29 S29 D28
Hiero Ca2.svg
Schepses-ka-Re
Špss-k3-Rˁ
With noble Ka, a Re
Greek
after Manetho
Sisires

Schepseskare ( Schepses-ka-Re , also Schepeskare [ Schepes-ka-Re ]) was the fourth or fifth king ( Pharaoh ) of the ancient Egyptian 5th dynasty in the Old Kingdom . He ruled approximately within the period from 2465 to 2460 BC. Almost nothing is known about his probably very short reign of only one or two years and his exact classification into the royal family of the 5th dynasty. Contemporary it is only documented by a few seals and seal impressions, which suggest construction activities in the mortuary temple of the pyramid of its possible predecessor Raneferef . It is possible that a pyramid construction in the north of Abusir can be assigned to Schepseskare .

Receipts and name variants

The evidence for Schepseskare is very thin compared to other rulers of the Old Kingdom. His name is only partially listed in the later Egyptian king lists. The only unequivocal mention comes from the list of kings of Saqqara from the 19th dynasty . The royal papyrus at the same time as Turin also seems to have originally named Schepseskare (column 3, line 20), but the corresponding entry has not been preserved. In the 3rd century BC Chr. Living priest Manetho mentioned Schepseskare in his work Aegyptiaca under the name Sisires . On the other hand, Schepseskare ignores other important king lists. His name is missing from the lists of kings from Abydos of Seti I and Ramses II.

At present, Schepseskare is only known for two seals and ten or eleven unrolls. Six of the latter come from the mortuary temple of the Raneferef pyramid . A scarab also ascribed to Schepseskare is likely to date to the late period (see also below).

The unwinding of the seal also raises questions about the correct spelling of this king's name. The only completely preserved spelling of the Schepseskare variant comes from the non-contemporary King List of Saqqara. The ruler's throne name is mentioned three times on the seal impressions. Two times he does not appear there as a Schepseskare , but as a Schepeskare . The third mention is badly damaged and is read partly as Schepseskare , partly as Schepeskare .

Origin and family

The family background of Schepseskares is completely unclear. Neither his parents nor his wife can be determined with certainty. Children are not known either. Assumptions that he could be a son of Sahure are pure speculation and have not yet been confirmed by text reports. The main reason for this assumption is ultimately the choice of the location of the pyramid attributed to him between the pyramid of the Sahure and the solar sanctuary of his father Userkaf , which is interpreted as a demonstration of the close family ties of Sheepsesque with one of these rulers or with both.

According to Vivienne Callender's suggestion , Nimaathapi II could be seen as the wife of Sheepseskare. However, there is no written evidence for this. The proposal is based solely on the location and architecture of the Nimaathapi tomb ( Mastaba G 4712 on the west cemetery of the Giza necropolis ). The mastaba can be dated to the middle of the 5th dynasty and since Schepseskare's own pyramid apparently remained unfinished, it is at least conceivable that his wife was buried in Giza and not in Abusir, the royal necropolis of the 5th dynasty.

Domination

Term of office

Both the royal papyrus Turin and Manetho indicate a reign of seven years for Schepseskare. Contemporary dates are not known. For this reason, the information from the Turin Papyrus and Manethos were mostly adopted in older works. In recent times, however, there have been increasing doubts about their accuracy. Mainly due to the condition of the pyramid complex attributed to Schepseskare, which was probably abandoned a few weeks or at most months after the start of construction, it is now assumed that Schepseskare's reign only lasted a few months or, at best, a year.

Circumstances of the seizure of power

According to the list of kings of Saqqara, Schepseskare was the successor of Neferirkare and predecessor of Raneferef . However, since seal impressions with his name were discovered in the mortuary temple of Raneferef, the possibility is now being considered that he was Raneferef's immediate successor. Why, however, Schepseskare, whose family classification is completely unknown, ascended the throne and not Raneferef's brother Niuserre , is still unclear.

Miroslav Verner offered three possible hypothetical scenarios for this, which were based on the now outdated assumption that Neferirkare and his predecessor Sahure were brothers and that after Neferirkare's death there were throne disputes between the two branches of the family. In the meantime it has been proven by new inscriptions that Neferirkare was a son and not a brother of Sahure. Although this does not rule out disputes for the throne, it does require modifications to the proposed scenarios that have not yet been made.

According to Verner's first scenario, Schepseskare could be identical to Netjerirenre or another son of Sahure, who actually had a right to the throne after the death of his father, but was passed over by Neferirkare. After the death of Neferirkare and that of his son Raneferef, he was finally able to enforce his claim for a short time.

According to the second scenario, Netjerirenre, Sahure's crown prince, could have died before his father and Sahure's other sons were still too young to take over the rule after his death. When his son Raneferef died young after Neferirkare, the unexpected opportunity arose for a son of Sahure to ascend the throne.

The third scenario, which can also be an extension of the first or the second scenario, sees in Schepseskare also a son of Sahures who, after Raneferef's death, asserted his claims to the throne at the expense of Raneferef's younger brother Niuserre. Niuserre could, however, have quickly gained the upper hand, possibly with the support of influential court members such as his mother Chentkaus II and his later son-in-law Ptahschepses .

Construction activity

Reconstruction of the Raneferef complex after the transformation of the pyramid into a mastaba and the completion of the cult buildings. Seal impressions of the Schepseskare come from a room south of the pillared hall (F) and from the knife sanctuary (G)
The necropolis of Abusir with the unfinished pyramid complex on the northern edge

According to Peter Kaplony , two buildings of Schepseskare are possibly known through seal impressions: On the one hand a solar sanctuary called "Herzensfriede des Re" ( Ḥtp-jb-Rˁ ) and on the other hand a pyramid called "Awakening of Schepseskare" ( Rsj-Špss-k3-Rˁ ) . The Sun Sanctuary has not yet been discovered and there are serious doubts as to whether it even existed. The reason for this is that on the corresponding seal, next to the name of the solar sanctuary, there is only a badly damaged Horus name, which can be ascribed to both Schepseskare and Djedkare . It is also common for seals to have names of kings and sun shrines that are not directly related to each other. The pyramid of Schepseskare can possibly be identified with a plant in the north of Abusir. In addition, the seal impressions of Schepseskare found in the mortuary temple of the Raneref pyramid indicate that he was involved in the completion of this structure.

The mortuary temple of the Raneferef pyramid in Abusir

Raneferef died before his pyramid complex was completed. The extensive temple complexes on the east side of the tomb were built by his successors in two construction phases. The second and most extensive construction phase can be assigned to Niuserre . In the first construction phase, only a small temple made of limestone was initially built, which consisted only of an anteroom, the central sacrificial hall and two narrow side chambers. This first construction phase can possibly be assigned to Sheepseskare, as seal impressions with his name were found in the temple complex (although not in the temple section concerned).

The unfinished pyramid of Abusir

In Abusir there is a pyramid building between the sun sanctuary of Userkaf and the pyramid of Sahure. Shepseskare is considered to be its builder, since Abusir served as a royal necropolis only during the 5th dynasty and a tomb could already be assigned to all other rulers of this period. The complex was discovered in the early 1980s by Czechoslovak archaeologists under the direction of Miroslav Verner and seems to have been abandoned a few weeks or months after construction began. During this period, an area of ​​around 100 × 100 m was leveled and a T-shaped working pit for the underground graves was begun. When completed, the building would have been about the size of the nearby Neferirkare pyramid .

Sheepseskare in the memory of ancient Egypt

Sheepseskare does not seem to have played a major role in the memory of ancient Egypt. Apart from naming in some king lists, only two documents are known, which may be connected with Schepseskare, but this is not certain in both cases.

A fragment of a relief is known from the New Kingdom, which comes from the grave of priest Mehu from Saqqara and dates to the 19th or 20th dynasty . Three deities are depicted on it, facing a number of deceased kings. These are Djoser and Djos erti from the 3rd dynasty and Userkaf from the 5th dynasty. Only a badly damaged signature remains of a fourth king, which was read partly as Schepseskare and partly as Djedkare . The relief is an expression of the personal piety of the tomb owner, who made the ancient kings pray to the gods for him.

The second piece is a scarab of unknown origin with the name Schepeskare . It is probably an archaic object of the 26th Dynasty . Similar pieces are also known with names of other rulers of the Old Kingdom. However, there is also the possibility that it is the document of a contemporary ruler, namely Gemnefchonsbak , a local king of the 25th dynasty from Tanis , whose throne name was also Schepeskare.

literature

General

About the name

To the pyramid

Questions of detail

  • Jürgen von Beckerath: Chronology of the pharaonic Egypt. von Zabern, Mainz 1997, ISBN 3-8053-2310-7 , pp. 26, 39, 153-155, 188.
  • Miroslav Verner: Archaeological Remarks on the 4th and 5th Dynasty Chronology. In: Archive Orientální vol. 69, Prague 2001, pp. 363-418 ( PDF; 31 MB ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Year numbers according to Schneider: Lexicon of the Pharaohs .
  2. ^ Schneider: Lexicon of the Pharaohs . P. 249
  3. ↑ Kaplony: cylinder seal of the Old Kingdom II . Pp. 289-294; Verner: Who was Shepseskara . Pp. 582-585
  4. ↑ Verner: Who was Shepseskara . Pp. 583-585
  5. ↑ a b Verner: Who was Shepseskara . P. 582
  6. ↑ a b Beckerath: Handbook of Egyptian royal names. Pp. 56-57
  7. ↑ a b Kaplony: Cylinder Seal of the Old Kingdom II . Pp. 289-294; Verner: Who was Shepseskara . P. 583
  8. ↑ Verner: Who was Shepseskara . P. 594
  9. ↑ a b Verner: The pyramids . P. 346
  10. ↑ Peter Jánosi : G 4712 - A dating problem. In: Göttinger Miscellen . Contributions to the Egyptian discussion. Vol. 133, 1993, ISSN  0344-385X , pp. 53-66 ( online ; PDF; 3.4 MB)
  11. ↑ For example Jürgen von Beckerath : Chronology . P. 155
  12. ^ Verner: Archaeological Remarks . P. 399
  13. ↑ Baker: Encyclopedia of the Egyptian Pharaohs I. S. 428; Verner: Archaeological Remarks. P. 400
  14. ↑ Tarek El Awady: The royal family of Sahure. New evidence. In: M. Barta; F. Coppens, J. Krjci (eds.): Abusir and Saqqara in the Year 2005. Prague 2006, ISBN 80-7308-116-4 , pp. 191-218
  15. ↑ Verner: Who was Shepseskara. Pp. 595-596
  16. ↑ Kaplony: cylinder seal of the Old Kingdom II . P. 242, 293, plates 72.8, 82.5; Schneider: Lexicon of the Pharaohs . P. 249
  17. ↑ Verner: Who was Shepseskara . Pp. 588-589
  18. ↑ Verner: The pyramids . Pp. 341-342
  19. ↑ Verner: The pyramids . Pp. 345-346; Verner: Who was Shepseskara . Pp. 593-584
  20. ↑ Dietrich Wildung : The role of Egyptian kings in the consciousness of their posterity. Part I. Posthumous sources on the kings of the first four dynasties . Munich Egyptological Studies, Vol. 17, Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin, 1969, pp. 74–76
predecessor Office successor
Raneferef Pharaoh of Egypt
5th Dynasty 		Niuserre
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on January 21, 2012 .
personal data
SURNAME Schepseskare
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schepses-ka-Re (throne name); Sechem-chau (Horus name); Sisiris (name by Manetho)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION ancient egyptian king
DATE OF BIRTH before 2463 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 2456 BC Chr.