Neferirkare
| Neferirkare | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 The cartouche of Neferirkare on the Abydos King List. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pharaoh | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reign | 1 year and 6 months, c. 2160 BC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Predecessor | Neferkauhor | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Successor | uncertain; possibly Meryibre Khety | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Burial | unknown | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dynasty | First Intermediate Period | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Neferirkare II was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the 7th/8th Dynasty during the early First Intermediate Period (2181–2055 BC). According to the egyptologists Kim Ryholt, Jürgen von Beckerath and Darell Baker he was the 17th and final king of the combined 7th/8th Dynasty.[1][2][3]
Attestations
Neferirake II's name is clearly attested on the 56th entry of the Abydos King List, a king list which was redacted some 900 years after the First Intermediate Period during the reign of Seti I.[2] The latest reconstruction of the Turin canon, another king list compiled in the Ramesside era, indicates that Neferirkare II is also attested there on column 5, line 13.[1][2]
Identity
Farouk Gomaà, William C. Hayes and Baker identify Neferirkare II with the horus name Demedjibtawy (Dmḏ-ib-t3wy, "He who unifies the heart of the two lands") appearing on a single decree concerning the temple of Min at Coptos.[4][5] This view is not shared by Jürgen von Beckerath who instead proposes that Demedjibtawy is to be identified with Neferkauhor, the predecessor of Neferirkare II.[6]
Another proposed identification concerns the prenomen Wadjkare (W3ḏ-k3-Rˁ, "Flourishing is the Ka of Ra"). While Gomaà, Hayes and Baker see Wadjkare as distinct from Demedjibtawy which they believe is Neferirkare II, von Beckerath associates both Wadjkare and Demedjibtawy to Neferkare II.[3] At the opposite, Gomaà and Hayes equate Wadjkare with an obscure ruler named Hor-Khabaw.[4] Altenatively, Hans Goedicke proposed that Wadjkare is the predecessor of Demedjibtawy and places both rulers chronologically into the 9th Dynasty.[7] Thomas Schneider leaves the problem open and relates Wadjkare to either Neferkare II or Neferirkare II without further reference to Demedjibtawy.[8]
Reign
The Turin canon credits Neferirkare II with a year and half of reign.[1][6] Both the Turin canon and the Abydos king list record Neferirkare II as the last ruler of the combined 7th/8th.[6] Neferirkare, was possibly overthrown by the first king of the succeeding Herkleopolitan 9th Dynasty, Meryibre Khety. Alternatively the Egyptian state may have completely collapsed with the onset of low Nile floods, mass famine and chaos which engulfed Egypt at the start of the First Intermediate Period.
References
- ^ a b c Kim Ryholt: "The Late Old Kingdom in the Turin King-list and the Identity of Nitocris", Zeitschrift für ägyptische, 127, 2000, p. 99
- ^ a b c Darrell D. Baker: The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume I - Predynastic to the Twentieth Dynasty 3300–1069 BC, Stacey International, ISBN 978-1-905299-37-9, 2008, p. 260
- ^ a b Jürgen von Beckerath: Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen, Münchner ägyptologische Studien, Heft 49, Mainz : P. von Zabern, 1999, ISBN 3-8053-2591-6, available online see p. 68
- ^ a b Farouk Gomaà: Ägypten während der Ersten Zwischenzeit, Beihefte zum Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients. Reihe B: Geisteswissenschaften., vol. 27. Reichert, Wiesbaden 1980, ISBN 3-88226-041-6, p. 59.
- ^ William C. Hayes: Royal Decrees from the Temple of Min at Coptus, JEA, vol. 32, 1946.
- ^ a b c Jürgen von Beckerath: The Date of the End of the Old Kingdom of Egypt, JNES 21 (1962), p. 143
- ^ Hans Goedicke: Königliche Dokumente aus dem Alten Reich (= Ägyptologische Abhandlungen, Bd. 14). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1967, p. 215.
- ^ Thomas Schneider: Lexikon der Pharaonen, Albatros, Düsseldorf 2002, ISBN 3-491-96053-3.