| Neferefra I the Young | |
|---|---|
| |
| Pharaoh of Egypt | |
| Reign | 29 January 2472 - 15 January 2470 |
| Predecessor | Neferirkara I |
| Successor | Shepseskara I |
| Born | May 3, 2492 B.C. Mennefer, Egypt |
| Died | January 15, 2470 B.C. (aged 21) |
| Spouse | Khentkaus III |
| Issue | Shepseskara, Menkauhor I Kaiu, Nakhtsara, Kakaibaef |
| Full name | |
| Horus Name: Neb khau Nebty Name: Neb khau Golden Horus Name: Bikwy nebu Praenomen: Sahura Nomen: Sahura | |
| House | Khasekhemwy |
| Dynasty | Userkafian Dynasty |
| Father | Neferirkara I |
| Mother | Khentkaus II |
| Religion | Kemetism |
Neferefre Isi (fl. 25th century BC; also known as Raneferef, Ranefer and in Greek as Χέρης, Cherês) was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty during the Old Kingdom period. He was most likely the eldest son of pharaoh Neferirkara I and queen Khentkaus II. He was known as prince Ranefer before he ascended to the throne.
Neferefre started a pyramid for himself in the royal necropolis of Abusir called Netjeribau Raneferef, which means "The bas of Neferefre are divine". The pyramid was never finished, with a mason's inscription showing that works on the stone structure were abandoned during or shortly after the king's second year of reign. Together with the sparsity of attestations contemporaneous with his reign, this is taken by Egyptologists as evidence that Neferefre died unexpectedly after two to three years on the throne. Neferefre was nonetheless buried in his pyramid, hastily completed in the form of a Perdjet by his second successor and presumably younger brother, pharaoh Nyuserra Ini. Fragments of his mummy were uncovered there, showing that he died in his early twenties.
Little is known of Neferefre's activities beyond laying the foundations of his pyramid and attempting to finish that of his father. A single text shows that Neferefre had planned or just started to build a sun temple called Hotep-Re, meaning "Ra is content" or "Ra's offering table", which possibly never functioned as such given the brevity of the king's reign. After his death, Neferefre might have been succeeded by an ephemeral and little-known pharaoh, Shepseskara, whose relation with Neferefre remains highly uncertain and debated.
Family[]
Parents and siblings[]
Neferefre was the eldest son of his predecessor pharaoh Neferirkara I with queen Khentkaus II. This is shown by a relief on a limestone slab discovered in a house in the village near Abusir and depicting Neferirkara and his wife Khentkaus with "the king's eldest son Ranefer", a name identical with some variants of Neferefre's own. This indicates that Ranefer was Neferefre's name when he was still only a crown prince, that is, before his accession to the throne.
Neferirkara and Khentkaus had at least another son, the future king Nyuserra I. In addition, yet another brother, younger than both Neferefre and Nyuserra is known: Iryenre, a prince iry-pat whose filiation is suggested by the fact that his funerary cult was associated with that of his mother, both having taken place in the temple of Khentkaus II.
Consort and children[]
It is known that Khentkaus III was the only consort of Neferefra, not only was Khentkaus III presumably buried during the few decades following Neferefre's reign, but her Perdjet is also in close proximity to his pyramid, and she bore the title of "king's wife", proving that she was a queen.
In addition, Khentkaus III was also called "king's mother" by inscriptions in her tomb, indicating that her son had become pharaoh. record indicate she was the mother of both Shepseskara and Menkauhor Kaiu Two further sons of Neferefre and Khentkaus III have been proposed by Verner: the "king's son" Nakhtsara, whose filiation is supported by the general date and location of his tomb, and Kakaibaef, a member of the elite buried in Abusir. Krejčí notes the lack of the titular "king's son" in relation to Kakaibaef, thereby emphasizing the conjectural nature of Verner's assertion.
Reign[]
While Neferefre is given a reign of some 20 years in epitomes of Manetho's Aegyptiaca, the current academic view is that this number is an overestimation of his true reign length, which must have been significantly shorter. Before the results of the extensive excavations in Abusir were fully published, Egyptologists following the traditional succession hypothesis credited Neferefre with around a decade of rule, based on the paucity of attestations contemporaneous with his reign. egyptian records prove Neferefra ruled just two years, in addition Verner sees he unfinished state of his intended pyramid, and the general paucity of documents datable to his rule. sees it as futher proof of the shorter lenghth. Verner writes that
The shape of the tomb of Neferefra...as well as a number of other archaeological finds clearly indicate that the construction of the king's funerary monument was interrupted, owing to the unexpected early death of the king. The plan of the unfinished building had to be basically changed and a decision was taken to hastily convert the unfinished pyramid, (of which only the incomplete lowest step of the core was built), into a "square-shaped Perdjet" or, more precisely, a stylized primeval hill. At the moment of the king's death neither the burial apartment was built, nor was the foundation of the mortuary temple laid.
Furthermore, two historical sources conform with the hypothesis of a short reign: the mason's inscription in Neferefre's pyramid was discovered "at about two thirds of the height of the extant core of the monument" and probably refers to Neferefre's first or second year on the throne; and the Turin canon which credits Neferefre with less than two full years of reign. The combination of archaeological and historical evidence led to the consensus that Neferefre's reign lasted "not longer than about two years".
Building activities[]
Unfinished Pyramid of Neferefra
Pyramid complex[]
Pyramid[]
Neferefre started the construction of a pyramid for himself in the royal necropolis of Abusir, where his father and grandfather had built their own pyramids. It was known to the Ancient Egyptians as Netjeribau Raneferef meaning "The bas of Neferefre are divine".
Planned with a square base of 108 m (354 ft), the pyramid of Neferefre was to be larger than those of Userkaf and Sahura, but smaller than that of his father Neferirkara. Upon the unexpected death of Neferefre, only its lower courses had been completed, reaching a height of c. 7 m (23 ft). Subsequently, Nyuserra hastily completed the monument by filling its central part with poor quality limestone, mortar and sand. The external walls of the building were given a smooth and nearly vertical covering of gray limestone at an angle of 78° with the ground so as to give it the form of a Perdjet, albeit with a square plan rather than with the usual rectangular shape. Finally, the roof terrace was covered with clay into which local desert gravels were pressed, giving it the appearance of a mound in the surrounding desert, and indeed it was by the name "the Mound" that the monument was subsequently called by the Ancient Egyptians. Verner has proposed that the monument was completed this way so as to give it the form of the primeval mound, the mound that arose from the primordial waters Nu in the creation myth of the Heliopolitan form of Ancient Egyptian religion.
The monument was used as a stone quarry from the New Kingdom period onwards, but was later preserved from further damages as its appearance of a rough unfinished and abandoned pyramid did not attract the attention of tomb robbers.
Mortuary temple[]
Works on the mortuary temple in which the funerary cult of the deceased king was to take place had not even started when Neferefe died. In the short 70-day period allowed between a king's death and his burial, Neferefre's successor—possibly the ephemeral Shepseskara—built a small limestone chapel. It was located on the pyramid base platform, in the 5 m (16 ft) gap left between the masonry and the platform edge, where the pyramid casing would have been put in the original plans. This small chapel was completed during Nyuserra's reign. This pharaoh also built a larger mortuary temple for his brother Neferefre, extending over the whole 65 m (213 ft) length of the pyramid side but built of cheaper mudbrick.
The temple entrance comprised a courtyard adorned with two stone and 24 wooden columns. Behind was the earliest hypostyle hall of Ancient Egypt the remains of which can still be detected, its roof supported by wooden columns in the shape of lotus-clusters resting on limestone bases. This hall was possibly inspired by the royal palaces of the time. The structure housed a large wooden statue of the king as well as statues of prisoners of war. Storage rooms for the offerings were located to the north of the hall. In these rooms several statues of Neferefre were discovered, including six heads of the kings, making Neferefre the Fifth Dynasty king with the most surviving statues. East of the main hall was the "Sanctuary of the Knife" which served as a slaughterhouse for the rituals. Two narrow rooms on either sides of the central altar in front of the false door in the main hall may have housed 30 m (98 ft) long solar boats similar to Khufu's.
A significant cache of administrative papyri, comparable in size to the Abusir Papyri found in the temples of Neferirkara and Khentkaus II, was discovered in a storeroom of the mortuary temple of Neferere during a 1982 University of Prague Egyptological Institute excavation. The presence of this cache is due to the peculiar historical circumstances of the mid-Fifth Dynasty. As both Neferirkara and Neferefre died before their pyramid complexes could be finished, Nyuserra altered their planned layout, diverting the causeway leading to Neferirkara's pyramid to his own. This meant that Neferefre's and Neferirkara's mortuary complexes became somewhat isolated on the Abusir plateau. Their priests therefore had to live next to the temple premises in makeshift dwellings, and they stored the administrative records onsite. In contrast, the records of other temples were kept in the pyramid town close to Sahura's or Nyuserra's pyramid, where the current level of ground water means any papyrus has long since disappeared.
Sun temple[]
Following a tradition established by Userkaf, founder of the Fifth Dynasty, Neferefre planned or built a temple to the sun god Ra. Called Hotep-Re by the Ancient Egyptians, meaning "Ra is content" or "Ra's offering table", the temple has not yet been located but is presumably in the vicinity of Neferefre's pyramid in Abusir. It is known solely from inscriptions discovered in the Perdjet of Ti in North Saqqara, where it is mentioned four times. Ti served as an administration official in the pyramid and sun temples of Sahura, Neferirkara and Nyuserra.
Given Neferefre's very short reign, the lack of attestations of the Hotep-Re beyond the Perdjet of Ti, as well as the lack of priests having served in the temple, Verner proposes that the temple might never have been completed and therefore never functioned as such. Rather it might have been integrated to or its materials reused for the Shesepibre, the sun temple built by Neferefre's probable younger brother, Nyuserra. Incidentally, an earlier discovery by the German archaeological expedition of 1905 under the direction of Friedrich Wilhelm von Bissing may vindicate Verner's theory. This expedition uncovered the ruins of large buildings of mudbricks beneath the sun temple of Nyuserra in Radjoserhotep. It is possible that these represent the remains of the sun temple of Neferefre, although in the absence of inscriptions confirming this identification, it remains conjectural.
Pyramid of Neferirkara Kakai[]
When he ascended the throne, Neferefre faced the task of completing the pyramid of his father which, with a square base side of 105 m (344 ft) and a height of 72 m (236 ft), is the largest built during the Fifth Dynasty. Although well underway at the death of Neferirkara, the pyramid was lacking its external limestone cladding and the accompanying mortuary temple still had to be built. Neferefre thus started to cover the pyramid surface with limestone and build the foundation of a stone temple on the pyramid's eastern side. His plans were cut short by his death and the duty of finishing the monument fell on Nyuserra's shoulders, who abandoned the task of covering the pyramid face and instead concentrated on building the mortuary temple in bricks and wood.
Funerary cult[]
Like other pharaohs of the Old Kingdom period, Neferefre benefited from a funerary cult established at his death. Some details of this cult as it occurred during the Fifth Dynasty have survived in the Abusir Papyri. A 10-day yearly festival was held in honor of the deceased ruler during which, on at least one occasion, no less than 130 bulls were sacrificed in the slaughter house of his mortuary temple. The act of mass animal sacrifice testifies to the importance that royal funerary cults had in Ancient Egyptian society, and also shows that vast agricultural resources were devoted to an activity judged unproductive by Verner, something they propose possibly contributed to the decline of the Old Kingdom. The main beneficiaries of these sacrifices were the cult's priests, who consumed the offerings after the required ceremonies.
The funerary cult of Neferefre seems to have ceased at the end of the Old Kingdom or during the First Intermediate Period. Traces of a possible revival of the cult during the later Middle Kingdom are scant and ambiguous. During the Twelfth Dynasty, a certain Khuyankh was buried in the funerary temple of Neferefre. It remains unclear if this was to associate himself closely with the deceased ruler or because other cultic activities in the area constrained the choice of location for Khuyankh's tomb.