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Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt > Neferefre Neferefre
Neferefre (also called Raneferef) was a Pharaoh of Egypt during the Fifth Dynasty. His name means "Beautiful is Re" in Egyptian. A significant cache of administrative papyri-comparable in size to those found in the temple of King Neferirkare was discovered at Abusir by a 1982 University of Prague Egyptological Institute excavation from a storeroom of his mortuary temple. While Neferefre is given a reign of some twenty years in Manetho's Epitome, this number is a substantial overestimation of his true reign length; the current academic view is that he enjoyed a very short rule based on the completely unfinished state of his intended pyramid. A visual examination of the partly damaged data for Neferefre's reign in the Turin King List shows only a single vertical stroke for this king (each vertical stroke signifies one year). This would give him a reign of about 1 or 2 years which agrees well with the archaeological evidence. The Czech Egyptologist, Miroslav Verner, who has been excavating at Abusir since 1976, states in a 2001 journal article that: "The shape of the tomb of Pharaoh Neferefre 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 mastaba" 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." Verner concludes that based on the position of a mason's inscribed Year 1 date from Pharaoh Neferefre's reign which was found "on a large corner block situated at the end of the tunnel for the pyramid's descending corridor...at about two thirds of the height of the extant core of the monument", Neferefre reign lasted "not longer than about two years." Neferefre was the son of King Neferirkare Kakai by queen Khentkaus II, and the elder brother of Pharaoh Nyuserre Ini. The only known date from his reign is the aforementioned mason's inscription from his First Year in the foundation of his pyramid tomb. Little else is known about Neferefre. While the name of Neferefre's undiscovered sun temple is known to be Hetep-Re, no such structure has yet been discovered owing perhaps to the short length of his reign. Likewise, it is not known whom he succeeded and by whom he was in turn succeeded as pharaoh. Generally, his precedessor is held to be Shepseskare, an even less-known king, and Neferefre's successor is often believed to be his younger brother Pharaoh Nyuserre. But Shepseskare apparently ruled for a few weeks only - he is not mentioned in Khau-Ptah's list of the kings he served under and seals bearing his horus name were found in the oldest part of Neferere's mortuary temple which as noted above, was not started until after Neferere was already dead. Consequently, Shepseskare might have ruled either before or after Neferefre, perhaps signifying a ancient Egypt dynastic conflict between the lineages of Neferirkare Kakai (to which Neferefre and Niuserre belonged) and Sahure (of whom Shepseskare might have been a son). |
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