Chepseskaf

Chepseskaf was a Pharaon of, between -2472 with -2467.

Genealogy

Titulature

Reign

If this grandson of Khéphren is much less known than him, it is on the one hand because of the relative brevity of its reign and, on the other hand, because one does not know to him many archaeological vestiges as important as, for example, the pyramid of Mykérinos, his/her own father. The reign of Chepseskaf remains moreover surrounded by several disconcerting questions which still make debate among the Egyptologists and historians for lack of discoveries coming to confirm or cancel the various assumptions about it. The filiation of the king, the duration of his reign, the choice of the site of its tomb as well as the final shape of the monument, the royal wives, the descent and the succession of the king, all these points remain in the uncertainty of the history of an end of dynasty where seem to compete with the various royal lines for the throne of Horus.

The mentions of its reign remain today through the rare tombs of contemporary dignitaries who concentrate primarily with Gizeh and to a lesser extent with Saqqarah. They are good indicators for one curtailed duration of reign the more so as the majority of these family members royal or dignitaries of the court do nothing but quote the king without more details what complicates the comprehension of its reign.

Sekhemkarê, wire of Khéphren, priest of the royal funerary worships whose Mastaba discovered with Gizeh (G8154) delivered the whole of the reigns under which it lived since that of his/her father until that of Sahourê while thus passing by that of Chepseskaf.
Bounéfer, princess of royal blood and priestess of the worship of Chepseskaf buried with Gizeh (G8408). It would have been the girl of Chepseskaf and would have practiced itself the funerary rites at the time of the burial of this last.
Nisoutpounetjer, another funerary priest, whose mastaba also with Gizeh (G8740) gives also a list of sovereigns under which it served this time since Djédefrê until Sahourê.
Ptahchepsès, Large priest of Ptah, which makes register on the false stele carries of sound Mastaba a biography which also enumerates the reigns of the sovereigns under which he lived with a particular mention for each reign since Mykérinos until Niouserrê. One learns there thus that it was born under the reign from Mykérinos and than it is educated at the court with the royal children, of which Chepseskaf. The two men were to be intimate because not only Chepseskaf names it with the high position of the clergy of Memphis but it also gives him his daughter in marriage.
Kaounisout, inspector of the royal palace, which has also its mastaba with Gizeh (G8960) in which Chepseskaf is quoted.

The only document assured the reign is a fragmentary stele found in the temple of the pyramid of Mykérinos on which is registered a royal decree of Chepseskaf attesting of the intervention of the king in favor of the temple and the funerary worship of his/her father.

The Pierre of Palermo shows Chepseskaf clearly as succeeding his/her father but preserves of its reign only the indications relative to its first year of reign which begins eleventh during the day from the fourth month of the year with the ceremonies of crowning. This same year is that of the choice of the site on which the tomb of the king will rise who is baptized: the pyramid of Chepseskaf is purified and whose site is with Saqqarah southern. According to analysis of this document and additional fragments discovered since, the space ranging between this first year of reign of Chepseskaf and those of its successor do not exceed seven year of reign. All would thus depend on this successor whose certain sources make Djedefptah or directly Ouserkaf. The complementary sources do not give more information and if Manéthon, which names Chepseskaf Séberchérès , grants seven years of reign to him, the Papyrus of Turin gives him four of them.

Lastly, if contemporary annals and sources qualify the tomb of Chepseskaf as being a pyramid ( sea as an ancient Egyptian) and that it was well made arrange a funerary complex , the monument does not have the shape of a pyramid. The rather large perimeter of the unit and the mention of the Pierre of Palermo let suppose that initially a pyramid had been projected but that because of the premature death of the sovereign, Khentkaous {{Ire}}, its queen, completed it in the form of gigantic a mastaba.

This queen under mother of two kings de Haute and Low-Egypt , character surrounded of the same disorder related to the end of, was made build a tomb near that of Mykérinos. Of its union with Chepseskaf it would have had two wire Djédefptah and Ouserkaf and at least a girl Khâmaât.

Burial

The royal tomb initially was to measure 105 meters out of 78. It is built in blocks of covered fine limestone sandstones of tourah as well as red granite of Assouan for low bases. Its apect final was to be connected with that of a gigantic sarcophagus to the image deu tomb of Osiris. The funerary apartments them, are designed on a level comparable with those of the pyramid of Mykérinos, with descending shaft, access passage sealed by granite harrows, funerary granite anteroom and room covered by a vault out of rafters, containing the royal sarcophagus.

The whole was supplemented by a funerary temple, a rising roadway and a temple of reception located at the edge between the cultivated grounds and the desert.

Vestiges of statues to the effigy of Chepseskaf were found in this funerary complex including two heads exposed to the museum of Cairo, and are of a quality equivalent to the famous triads of Mykérinos his/her father.

The Mastaba Faraoun , as call it the inhabitants of the surroundings, fact appears of exception among the royal tombs of the Ancient Empire. If this monument represented a real will of rupture on behalf of Chepseskaf, it could not be been unaware of of its contemporaries and was to be quite visible since the capital Memphis. The fact that Djedkarê Isési or the Pharaons of chose to build their own funerary complexes in the vicinity is not the fruit of the chance or the fact of a lack of place to build them.

All around the dignitaries of the end of the Ancient Empire will be made arrange their mastabas and a worship of Chepseskaf is attested with the Moyen Empire showing that the sovereign had not been forgotten in spite of the period of anarchy which followed the collapse of the Ancient Empire.

With the New Empire, Khâemouaset itself, prince Large priest of Ptah and wire of Ramsès {{II}}, ordered in the name of his/her famous father, to restore the sanctuary, showing at the place of Chepseskaf a piety equal to that which it had had with regard to other sovereigns who are for us more famous.

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