Néferirkarê Kakaï

Néferirkarê is the sovereign third of (Ancient Empire). It succeeded Sahourê and preceded Chepseskarê. It reigns of -2446 with -2438.

The considerable importance in the economy of the funerary productions with destination is revealed by the administrative files funerary temple of king Neferirkarê Kakaï to Abousir. If the royal administration preserves a right to watch at it, this vast circuit of the economy burdens more and more the means with the State.

Genealogy

Titulature

Reign

Manéthon names it Népherchérès and twenty years of reign to him grants what confirms the Papyrus of Turin which also gives him a score of year of reign. However in the Archives of Abousir the highest date raised is the eleventh year and the Pierre of Palermo preserves only part of annals of its reign until the year ten. According to these sources and the little of contemporary vestiges of its reign found in the necropoles of Saqqarah and Abousir, the Egyptologists is thus more inclined to follow the indications given by annals of the Ancient Empire which although incomplete are contemporary of Néferirkarê and agree in general for a duration of reign not exceeding the twelve years. The fact that the funerary complex of the king is not completed goes in addition in the direction of a curtailed reign.

The Pierre of Palermo indicates that the ceremonies relating to the crowning of the king took place the seventh day of the second month of the first year of the reign. These annals also specify that it honoured the divinities with Héliopolis allocating new grounds for the maintenance of the sanctuaries of the large Ennéade as well as Âmes of Héliopolis and gods of Kherâha , locality located a little at the south of the antique quoted of the sun, in the current city of the Cairo. These indications thus confirm that the worships of Héliopolis take still more importance under its reign.

In addition this same source also quotes the solar temple of Néferirkarê named Set-îb-Re , i.e. the place of the Re heart, temple that the king makes build at the same time as his pyramid and than it probably inaugurates in the new year of his reign. On this occasion of the ceremonies are organized of which the Course around the Wall , a rite already observed during crowning where still festivals jubilaires renewing the crowning of the sovereign. Interesting detail, the two boats of the god Re which were to form integral part of the solar temple of Néferirkarê are also quoted, for the morning, the other for the evening. For the moment no vestige of this dynastic sanctuary was found. However of many civils servant are attached to this so singular pertaining to worship foundation to and it seems to function until at the end of the dynasty as the mentions attest it which one finds in the Mastaba of many dignitaries of the time buried with Saqqarah:

Akhethetep, which seems to start its career under the reign of Néferirkarê as a priest of Re and Maât in the solar temple of the king;
Ourkhouou, scribe of the royal palace, judge, priest of the worship of Mykérinos, also priest of Re and Maât to the solar temple of Néferirkarê;
Kaemnefert, priest of the worships of Khéops and Khéphren, priest of the pyramid of Niouserrê, which indicates the reign to us under which he exerted his functions of priest of Re and of Maât to the solar temples of Ouserkaf and Néferirkarê.

Néferirkarê does not neglect the other gods of the kingdom and of new grounds are allocated with the temple of Ptah which is in the South of its Wall to Memphis, of the electrum statues are worked for the god Ihy and the goddess Hathor Dame of the Sycamore, or for the goddess Ouadjit. All indicates that the king falls under the line line of his immediate predecessors Sahourê and Ouserkaf of which it ensures the funerary worships. It intervenes in the decoration of the funerary temple of Sahourê and certain priests of the worship of these kings are known under his reign.

The personality of Néférirkarê is delivered to us by the testimonys of first order found in the Mastaba of three of the most important dignitaries of the kingdom:

Raouer, Master of the Secrecies of the King (kind of private secretary), priest Sem and director of the Palate, whose mastaba was found with Gizeh. The noble priest made there register a biography on a stele which reports an incident which has occurred whereas it accompanied the king in one by his displacements. He accidentally touched the sovereign, crime of injures majesty which should have been severely punished. The king having it in high regard intervenes personally so that it is not continued and issues that Raouer is nobler in front of the king than any man , distinguished honor which makes it to some extent untouchable. The stele on which this decree is consigned is preserved today at the Musée of Cairo;
Ptahchepsès, Large priest of Ptah, whose astonishing career goes back to the reign of Chepseskaf also occupied the priesthood of Re - Harmakhis with the solar temple of the king. Its mastaba was found with Saqqarah and delivered a large stele false-carries carrying the list of the sovereigns under whom it was useful with each time the mention of a particular event. During the reign of Néferirkarê, he reports that the sovereign issued that he would not be allowed more than the large priest in the presence of the king touches the ground while prosternant himself, but that he can kiss the feet to him, another badge honor, the fact of touching the king are equivalent touching a divinity;
Ouash-Ptah, vizier of the king, buried him with Abousir. Ouash-Ptah began its career under the reign of Sahourê and is promoted vizier under the reign of Néferirkarê what makes of him the first character of the state and the particular adviser of the king. However one day that it accompanied the king and his family at the time of a visit by building site it dies brutally under the eyes of its sovereign. It is Néferirkarê itself which orders the construction of sound Mastaba and provides the funerary furniture of the old courtier

Another vizier is attested for his reign, Pehenoukaï, whose Mastaba delivered a whole series of titles and functions which show their multiplication under the reign of Néferirkarê. One will quote in addition to the prestigious function of vizier, those of Chef of the Double Attic , Chef of the Double Treasury , Directeur of the places of the offerings , functions which place it at the head of the administration of the Treasury. Other functions attach it directly to the king like those of Chef of all work of the king , that is to say the architect of the monuments of the reign of which in particular the royal pyramid, chief of the writings of the king and the secrecies of the words of the king which make of Pehenoukaï the private secretary of the sovereign. Certain dignitaries start their career under his reign as the magistrate Ti whose tomb with Saqqarah delivered marks of carrier to the reverse of the blocks constituting the solid mass of sound Mastaba with the cartouche of the king, attesting that the ordering of the tomb had taken place under this reign well. In addition to these famous cases and concerning with the higher realms of the royal court, one found the name of Néferirkarê accompanied or not by its second name Kakaï in many mastabas of the period and the king will enjoy a certain popularity throughout.

He marries a noble named lady Khentkaous which because of its homonymy with the first of the name, buried it with Gizeh, threw a little more the disorder in the thorn-bush problem that raises the existence of the two characters frequently identified as being only one and even nobody by the authors and historians of the Egypt. In fact the discoveries of the complex of the wife of Néferirkarê with Abousir made it possible to dismiss this assumption definitively and to restore with this Khentkaous second of the name its eminent place within. It will have two wire of its union with the king: Neferrê which will succeed his/her father under the name of Néferefrê and Niouserrê which will go up in its turn on the throne of Horus following the premature death of its elder.

Like its predecessor Sahourê, Néferirkarê chooses the site of Abousir to build its complex funerary.

Burial

The Pyramide of Néferirkarê is placed at the twenty and unième position in the list that Karl Richard Lepsius establishes during forwarding that it carries out in Egypt in 1842 on behalf of the king of Prussia Frederic-Guillaume {{IV}}.

As for the whole of the site of Abousir it is necessary to await the excavations of Ludwig Borchardt at the beginning of the 20th century for better knowing the monument and identifying its owner as being the third sovereign of

These first studies reveal that the pyramid and its funerary temple, with the very today ruined aspect, remained unfinished. The architectural program however promised to be ambitious as well by dimensions of the funerary temple as those of the pyramid, which if it had been completed would have reached proportions close to that of Mykérinos located more at north with Gizeh. The steps which form the heart of the monument hardly had received first sat coating which would have conferred on the pyramid its aspect with smooth faces, coating which as for Mykérinos was designed for first sat out of red granite of Assouan. The funerary temple started to rise since the bottom of the sanctuary, but the demise of the king stopped the building site and they are the successors of Néferirkarê who will complete it in less noble materials as wood for the columns or bricks believed for the walls.

The monument is especially famous for the discovery at the end of the 19th century of several batches of papyri preserving the files temple, remained in activity until the end of the Ancient Empire

References

Random links: