Diary for my daughter 26.05.2022 - Nefer/Neferka/Pepi II Neferkare/Netjerkare Siptah/Merenre Nemtyemsaf I/Merenre Nemtyemsaf II/Nitocris/Pepi I Meryre/Teti/Userkare

Hello My little penguin 🐧! Tata here!

Hope you're well and listen to your mummy!

Tata is fine today ! Another day of work , not a nice weather today , cloudy and maybe raining (later) , traffic is still good this morning,  not so busy,  I've managed to squeeze myself between a little bit faster than usual. I've recorded your Sunday special yesterday but whit the last events regarding Poland I will add some extras today and tomorrow I will edit it and upload it . Hope to be just a fake threat... but is always better to prevent than to woke up whit Russia there .... Now is time for your stories....

Nefer 

The Egyptian hieroglyph for "perfect, complete" (with the extended meanings of "good, pleasant, well, beautiful") in Gardiner's sign list is numbered F35; its phonetic value is nfr, with a reconstructed pronunciation of IPA: [nafir] and a conventional Egyptological vocalization of nefer.

Hieroglyphs and symbolism

The triliteral Egyptian hieroglyph F35 ('nfr') has sometimes been explained as a representation of a lute; however, Egyptologists today no longer consider this hypothesis likely. Rather than a lute, the hieroglyph is actually a representation of the heart and trachea. It originally may have been the esophagus and heart. The striations of the windpipe only appear in the hieroglyph following the Old Kingdom of Egypt. The lower part of the sign has always clearly been the heart, for the markings clearly follow the form of a sheep's heart.

Use

The term nfr has been incorporated into many names in Ancient Egypt. Examples include Nefertiti, Nefertari, and Neferhotep.

Some scholars suggest that it was used in ancient Egyptian construction where 'nfrw' was used to denote 'level zero' of a building and in accounting where 'nfr' would refer to a zero balance.

Pharaoh

Nefer was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh who ruled for two years, one month, and a day, from 2197–2193 BCE, according to the Turin Canon, though he reigned during the reign of Pepi II Neferkare.

Neferka 

Neferka was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty, who briefly reigned around 2200 BC.

A king with the name Neferka, written in the papyrus as Neferka-khered appears in the Turin King List between king Netjerkare Siptah and a king Nefer. Neferka and Nefer are most likely writing errors in the papyrus. Several scholars regard Neferka as mistake for "Neferkare" and identify him with Neferkare Pepiseneb. Other identify him with Menkare.

Pepi II Neferkare 

Pepi II Neferkare (2284 BC – after 2247 BC, probably either c. 2216 or c. 2184 BC) was a pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty in Egypt's Old Kingdom who reigned from c. 2278 BC. His second name, Neferkare (Nefer-ka-Re), means "Beautiful is the Ka of Re". He succeeded to the throne at age six, after the death of Merenre I.

He was traditionally thought to be the son of Pepi I and Queen Ankhesenpepi II, but the South Saqqara Stone annals record that Merenre had a minimum reign of 11 years. Several 6th Dynasty royal seals and stone blocks – the latter of which were found within the funerary temple of Queen Ankhesenpepi II, the known mother of Pepi II – were discovered in the 1999–2000 excavation season at Saqqara, which demonstrate that she also married Merenre after Pepi I's death and became this king's chief wife. Inscriptions on these stone blocks give Ankhesenpepi II the royal titles of: "King's Wife of the Pyramid of Pepy I, King's Wife of the Pyramid of Merenre, King's Mother of the Pyramid of Pepy II". Therefore, today, many Egyptologists believe that Pepi II was likely Merenre's own son. Pepi II would, therefore, be Pepi I's grandson while Merenre was, most likely, Pepi II's father since he is known to have married Pepi II's known mother, Queen Ankhesenpepi II.

Pepi II's reign marked a sharp decline of the Old Kingdom. As the power of the nomarchs grew, the power of the pharaoh declined. With no dominant central power, local nobles began raiding each other's territories and the Old Kingdom came to an end within a couple of years after the close of Pepi II's reign.

Early years of Pepi II's reign

His mother Ankhesenpepi II (Ankhesenmeryre II) most likely ruled as regent in the early years of his reign. She may have been helped in turn by her brother Djau, who was a vizier under the previous pharaoh. An alabaster statuette in the Brooklyn Museum depicts a young Pepi II, in full kingly regalia, sitting on the lap of his mother. Despite his long reign, this piece is one of only three known sculptural representations in existence of this particular king. Some scholars have taken the relative paucity of royal statuary to suggest that the royal court was losing the ability to retain skilled artisans.

A glimpse of the personality of the pharaoh while he was still a child can be found in a letter he wrote to Harkhuf, a governor of Aswan and the head of one of the expeditions he sent into Nubia. Sent to trade and collect ivory, ebony, and other precious items, he captured a pygmy. News of this reached the royal court, and an excited young king sent word back to Harkhuf that he would be greatly rewarded if the pygmy were brought back alive, where he would have likely served as an entertainer for the court. This letter was preserved as a lengthy inscription on Harkhuf's tomb, and has been called the first travelogue.

Family

Over his long life Pepi II had several wives, including:

Neith – She was the mother of Pepi's successor Merenre Nemtyemsaf II. She may be a daughter of Ankhesenpepi I and hence also Pepi II's cousin and half-sister.

Iput II – A half-sister of Pepi II.

Ankhesenpepi III She was the daughter of Merenre Nemtyemsaf I and hence a granddaughter of Pepi I.

Ankhesenpepi IV – The mother of King Neferkare according to texts in her tomb. It is not known which Neferkare as there are several kings with that name during the First Intermediate Period. His name may be Neferkare Nebi.

Udjebten She was also a daughter of Pepi I.

Meritites IV - Originally thought to be a wife of Pepi I, she's now known to have been one of Pepi II's consorts, and a daughter of Pepi I.

Of these queens, Neith, Iput, and Udjebten each had their own minor pyramids and mortuary temples as part of the king's own pyramid complex in Saqqara. Queen Ankhesenpepi III and Meritites IV were buried in pyramids near the pyramid of Pepi I Meryre, and Ankhesenpepi IV was buried in a chapel in the complex of Queen Udjebten.

Two more sons of Pepi II are known: Nebkauhor-Idu and Ptashepses (D).

Foreign policy

Pepi II seems to have carried on foreign policy in ways similar to that of his predecessors. Copper and turquoise were mined at Wadi Maghareh in the Sinai, and alabaster was quarried from Hatnub. He is mentioned in inscriptions found in the Phoenician city of Byblos.

In the south the trade relations consist of caravans trading with the Nubians. Harkhuf was a governor of Upper Egypt who led several expeditions under Merenre and Pepi II. His last expedition was a trip to a place called Iam. Harkhuf brought back with him what his correspondence with the young pharaoh referred to as a dwarf, apparently pygmy. Egypt received goods such as incense, ebony, animal skins, and ivory from Nubia. The Western desert was known to have extensive caravan routes. Some of these routes allowed for trade with the Kharga Oasis, the Selima Oasis, and the Dakhla Oasis.

King Neferkare and General Sasenet

Only a small number of pharaohs were immortalized in ancient fiction, Pepi II may be among them. In the tale of "King Neferkare and General Sasenet", three fragments of a papyrus dating from the late New Kingdom (although the story may have been composed earlier), report clandestine nocturnal meetings with a military commander – a General Sasenet or Sisene. Some have suggested this reflects a homosexual relationship although it is disputed that the text relates to Pepi II at all. Some, like R. S. Bianchi, think that it is a work of archaizing literature and dates to the 25th Dynasty referring to Shabaka Neferkare, a Kushite pharaoh.

Decline of the Old Kingdom

The decline of the Old Kingdom arguably began before the time of Pepi II, with nomarchs (regional representatives of the king) becoming more and more powerful and exerting greater influence. Pepi I, for example, married two sisters who were the daughters of a nomarch and later made their brother a vizier. Their influence was extensive, both sisters bearing sons who were chosen as part of the royal succession: Merenre Nemtyemsaf I and Pepi II.

Increasing wealth and power appears to have been handed over to high officials during Pepi II's reign. Large and expensive tombs appear at many of the major nomes of Egypt, built for the reigning nomarchs, the priestly class and other administrators. Nomarchs were traditionally free from taxation and their positions became hereditary. Their increasing wealth and independence led to a corresponding shift in power away from the central royal court to the regional nomarchs.

Later in his reign it is known that Pepi divided the role of vizier so that there were two viziers: one for Upper Egypt and one for Lower, a further decentralization of power away from the royal capital of Memphis. Further, the seat of vizier of Lower Egypt was moved several times. The southern vizier was based at Thebes.

Reign length

Pepi II is often mentioned as the longest reigning monarch in history, due to a 3rd-century BC account of Ancient Egypt by Manetho, which accords the king a reign of 94 years; this has, however, been disputed by some Egyptologists due to the absence of attested dates known for Pepi II after his 31st count (Year 62 if biennial) such as Hans Goedicke (1926-2015) and Michel Baud note. Ancient sources upon which Manetho's estimate is based are long lost, and could have resulted from a misreading on Manetho's behalf (see von Beckerath). The Turin canon attributes 90+ [X] years of reign to Pepi II, but this document dates to the time of Ramesses II, 1,000 years after Pepi II's death, and its accuracy for the reign length of the Old Kingdom king, Pepi II, is uncertain.

At the present time, the latest written source contemporary with Pepi II dates from the "Year after the 31st Count, 1st Month of Shemu, day 20" from Hatnub graffito No.7 (Spalinger, 1994), which implies, assuming a biennial cattle count system, that this king had a reign of at least 62 complete or partial years. Therefore, some Egyptologists suggest instead that Pepi II reigned no more than 64 years. This is based on the complete absence of higher attested dates for Pepi beyond his Year after the 31st Count (Year 62 on a biannual cattle count). A previous suggestion by Hans Goedicke that the Year of the 33rd Count appears for Pepi II in a royal decree for the mortuary cult of Queen Udjebten was withdrawn by Goedicke himself in 1988 in favour of a reading of "the Year of the 24th Count" instead. Goedicke writes that Pepi II is attested by numerous year dates until the Year of his 31st count which strongly implies that this king died shortly after a reign of about 64 years. Other scholars note that the lack of contemporary sources dated after his 62nd year on the throne does not preclude a much longer reign, in particular since the end of Pepi II's reign was marked by a sharp decline in the fortunes of the Old Kingdom pharaohs who succeeded him.

The Egyptologist David Henige states while there have been examples of kinglists where rulers were ascribed reigns as long as that assigned to Pepi II, "often exceeding 100 years, but these are invariably rejected as mythical", the problems inherent in dating Pepi II's reign are many since:

...a hyperextended duration [for Pepi II's reign] is not really necessary to bring Old Kingdom chronology into some equilibrium with other chronologies. For Mesopotamia from at least this early until virtually the Persian conquest, numerous localized synchronisms play vital roles in absolute dating, but seldom affect the duration of individual dynasties. Not only is Old Kingdom Egypt well outside any "synchronism zone" but, as it happens, since Pepy [II] was the last substantive ruler of Egypt before a period of political and chronological chaos...there are no awkward ramifying effects by reducing his reign by twenty or thirty years, a period that can simply be added on to the First Intermediate Period.

Henige himself is somewhat skeptical of the 94 year figure assigned to Pepi II and follows Naguib Kanawati's 2003 suggestion that this king's reign was most probably much shorter than 94 years.

This situation could have produced a succession crisis and led to a stagnation of the administration, centered on an absolute yet aging ruler who was not replaced because of his perceived divine status. A later, yet better documented, example of this type of problem is the case of the long reigning Nineteenth Dynasty pharaoh Ramesses II and his successors.

It has been proposed that the 4.2 kiloyear event be linked to the collapse of the Old Kingdom in Egypt, though current resolution of evidence is not sufficient to make an assertion.

The Ipuwer Papyrus

In the past it had been suggested that Ipuwer the sage served as a treasury official during the last years of Pepi II Neferkare's reign. The Ipuwer Papyrus was thought by some to describe the collapse of the Old Kingdom and the beginning of the Dark Age, known to historians as the First Intermediate Period. It had been claimed that archaeological evidence from Syrian button seals supported this interpretation. The admonitions may not be a discussion with a king at all however. Otto was the first to suggest that the discussion was not between Ipuwer and his king, but that this was a discussion between Ipuwer and a deity. Fecht showed through philological interpretation and revision of the relevant passages that this is indeed a discussion with a deity. Modern research suggests that the papyrus dates to the much later 13th Dynasty, with part of the papyrus now thought to date to the time of Pharaoh Khety, and the admonitions of Ipuwer actually being addressed to the god Atum, not a mortal king. The admonitions are thought to harken back to the First Intermediate Period and record a decline in international relations and a general impoverishment in Egypt.

Pyramid complex

The complex consists of Pepi's pyramid with its adjacent mortuary temple. The pyramid contained a core made of limestone and clay mortar. The pyramid was encased in white limestone. An interesting feature is that after the north chapel and the wall was completed, the builders tore down these structures and enlarged the base of the pyramid. A band of brickwork reaching to the height of the perimeter wall was then added to the pyramid. The purpose of this band is not known. It has been suggested that the builders wanted the structure to resemble the hieroglyph for pyramid, or that possibly the builders wanted to fortify the base of the structure due to an earthquake.

The burial chamber had a gabled ceiling covered by painted stars. Two of the walls consisted of large granite slabs. The sarcophagus was made of black granite and inscribed with the king's name and titles. A canopic chest was sunk in the floor.

To the northwest of the pyramid of Pepi II, the pyramids of his consorts Neith and Iput were built. The pyramid of Udjebten is located to the south of Pepi's pyramid. The Queen's pyramids each had their own chapel, temple and a satellite pyramid. Neith's pyramid was the largest and may have been the first to be built. The pyramids of the Queens contained Pyramid Texts.

The mortuary temple adjacent to the pyramid was decorated with scenes showing the king spearing a hippopotamus and thus triumphing over chaos. Other scenes include the sed festival, a festival of the god Min and scenes showing Pepi executing a Libyan chieftain, who is accompanied by his wife and son. The scene with the Libyan chief is a copy from Sahure's temple. A courtyard was surrounded by 18 pillars which were decorated with scenes of the king in the presence of gods.

Despite the longevity of Pepi II, his pyramid was no larger than those of his predecessors at 150 cubits (78.5 metres (258 ft)) per side at the base and 100 cubits (52.5 metres (172 ft)) high and followed what had become the 'standard format'. The pyramid was made from small, local stones and infill, covered with a veneer of limestone. The limestone was removed and the core has slumped. The causeway was approximately 400 metres (1,300 ft) long and the valley temple was on the shores of a lake, long since gone.

The site is located at 29°50′25″N 31°12′49″E.

Excavation

The complex was first investigated by John Shae Perring, but it was Gaston Maspero who first entered the pyramid in 1881. Gustave Jéquier was the first to investigate the complex in detail between 1926 and 1936. Jéquier was the first excavator to start actually finding any remains from the tomb reliefs, and he was the first to publish a thorough excavation report on the complex.

Portraiture

A statue which is now in the Brooklyn Museum depicts Queen Ankhenesmerire II with her son Pepi II on her lap. Pepi II wears the royal nemes headdress and a kilt. He is shown at a much smaller scale than his mother. This difference in size is atypical because the king is usually shown larger than others. The difference in size may refer to the time period when his mother served as a regent. Alternatively the statue may depict Ankhenesmerire II as the divine mother.

Another statue of Pepi II is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (JE 50616). The king is shown as a naked child. The depiction of the king at such a young age may refer to the age he came to the throne.

Successors

There are few official contemporary records or inscriptions of Pepi's immediate successors. According to Manetho and the Turin King List, he was succeeded by his son Merenre Nemtyemsaf II, who reigned for just over a year. It is then believed that he was in turn succeeded by the obscure pharaoh Neitiqerty Siptah, though according to popular tradition (as recorded by Manetho two millennia later) he was succeeded by Queen Nitocris, who would be the first female ruler of Egypt. There is considerable doubt that she ever existed, given the absence of contemporary physical evidence in such things as the various Kings Lists attesting to her rule.

This was the end of the Old Kingdom of Egypt, a prelude to the roughly 200-year span of Egyptian history known as the First Intermediate Period.

Netjerkare Siptah 

Netjerkare Siptah (also Neitiqerty Siptah and possibly the origin of the legendary figure Nitocris) was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, the seventh and last ruler of the Sixth Dynasty. Alternatively some scholars classify him as the first king of the Seventh or Eighth Dynasty. As the last king of the 6th Dynasty, Netjerkare Siptah is considered by some Egyptologists to be the last king of the Old Kingdom period.

Netjerkare Siptah enjoyed a short reign in the early 22nd century BC, at a time when the power of the pharaoh was crumbling and that of the local nomarchs was on the rise. Although he was male, Netjerkare Siptah is most likely the same person as the female ruler Nitocris mentioned by Herodotus and Manetho.

Attestation

The prenomen Netjerkare is inscribed on the 40th entry of the Abydos King List, a king list redacted during the reign of Seti I. Netjerkare immediately follows Merenre Nemtyemsaf II on the list. The prenomen Netjerkare is also attested on a single copper tool of unknown provenance and now in the British Museum. The nomen Neitiqerty Siptah is inscribed on the Turin canon, on the 5th column, 7th row (4th column, 7th row in Gardiner's reconstruction of the canon).

Identification with Nitocris

In his Histories, the Greek historian Herodotus records a legend according to which an Egyptian queen Nitocris took revenge on the murder of her brother and husband by a rioting mob. She diverted the Nile to drown all of the murderers during a banquet where she had gathered them. This story is also reported by the Egyptian priest Manetho, who wrote an history of Egypt called Aegyptiaca in the 3rd century BC. Manetho writes of Nitocris that she was "... braver than all the men of her time, the most beautiful of all women, fair-skinned with red cheeks". Manetho goes further and credits her with the construction of the Pyramid of Menkaure "By her, it is said, the third pyramid was reared, with the aspect of a mountain". Although the murdered king is not named by Herodotus, Nitocris follows immediately Merenre Nemtyemsaf II in Manetho's Aegyptiaca and so he is often identified as this king. Since the king following Merenre Nemtyemsaf II in the Abydos king list is "Netjerkare", the German egyptologist Ludwig Stern proposed in 1883 that Netjerkare and Nitocris are the same person.

The Danish Egyptologist Kim Ryholt confirmed Stern's hypothesis in a recent study of the matter. Ryholt argues that the name "Nitocris" is a result of conflation and distortion from the name "Netjerkare". Confirming this analysis, the Turin canon, another king list redacted during the early Ramesside period lists a Neitiqerti Siptah at an uncertain position. Ryholt's microscopic analyses of the fibers of the papyrus suggest that the fragment where this name appears belongs to the end of the 6th Dynasty, immediately after Merenre Nemtyemsaf II. Since on the Abydos king list, Netjerkare is placed in the equivalent spot that Neitiqerti Siptah holds on the Turin canon, the two are to be identified. Additionally, the nomen "Siptah" is masculine indicating that Nitocris was in fact a male pharaoh. The name "Nitocris" probably originates from the prenomen "Neitiqerti", which itself either comes from a corruption of "Netjerkare", or else "Neitiqerti Siptah" was the nomen of the king and "Netjerkare" his prenomen.

Merenre Nemtyemsaf I 

Merenre Nemtyemsaf I (reigned 2287–2278 BC) was the fourth king of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt. His nomen, theophorically referring to Nemty, was formerly read as Antyemsaf, a reading now known to be incorrect.

Biography

Merenre was a son of Pepi I and Ankhesenpepi I, and grandson of the female vizier Nebet and her spouse Khui.

While Merenre Nemtyemsaf was once believed to have served as a brief co-regent to his father Pepi I Meryre before ruling in his own right, the publication of the South Saqqara Stone annal document in 1995 by Vassil Dobrev and Michel Baud shows that Merenre directly succeeded his father in power with no interregnum or coregency. The badly damaged document preserves the record of Pepi I's final year—his 25th Count and proceeds immediately to the first year count of Merenre Merenre shared his father's fascination with Nubia and continued to explore deep into the region. He also began a process of royal consolidation, appointing Weni as the first governor of all of Upper Egypt and expanding the power of several other governors. While he was once assumed to have died at an early age, recent archaeological discoveries discount this theory. Two contemporary objects suggests that Merenre's reign lasted slightly more than a decade. The South Saqqara Stone Annals preserves his Year after the 2nd Count whereas Merenre's Year after the 5th Count (Year 10 if the count was biennial) is attested in a quarry inscription from Hatnub Inscription No.6, according to Anthony Spalinger.

The same South Saqqara Stone – which was created during Pepi II's reign – credits Merenre with a minimum reign of 11 to 13 years, however (based on a strictly biennial count), which would increase Merenre's reign length from the more traditional figure of 5 to 6 years. The British Egyptologists Ian Shaw and Paul Nicholson in a 1995 book raised Merenre I's reign from the traditional 6 year figure to 9 years. However, they were unaware of the contents of the South Saqqara Stone which was published in the same year by Baud & Dobrev and shows that Merenre had a minimum reign of 11 years with no co-regency with his father, Pepi I. One must note that cattle counts were not always biennial; for example, 18 had been performed by the 30th year of Pepi I's reign. It is therefore entirely possible that Merenre ruled for fewer than 11 years.

Sixth dynasty royal seals and stone blocks found at Saqqara demonstrate that Merenre's aunt, Queen Ankhesenpepi II, was the wife of both Pepi I and then Merenre himself. Since the South Saqqara Stone shows Merenre's reign intervened between Pepi I and Pepi II and lasted for a minimum of slightly over a decade, this indirectly indicates that Merenre I was actually Pepi II's father, rather than Pepi I as was traditionally assumed. Merenre's daughter was Ankhesenpepi III, the future wife of Pepi II.

Pyramid

The pyramid of Merenre was constructed during the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt at Saqqara 450 metres (1,480 ft) to the south-west of the pyramid of Pepi I and a similar distance to the pyramid of Djedkare.

Merenre Nemtyemsaf II 

Merenre Nemtyemsaf II was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, the sixth and penultimate ruler of the 6th Dynasty. He reigned for 1 year and 1 month in the first half of the 22nd century BC, at the very end of the Old Kingdom period. Nemtyemsaf II likely ascended the throne as an old man, succeeding his long-lived father Pepi II Neferkare at a time when the power of the pharaoh was crumbling.

Attestations

Merenre Nemtyemsaf II is attested on the 4th line, column 6 of the Turin canon, a king list redacted in the early Ramesside Period. Although his name is lost in the canon, the duration of its reign is still readable as 1 year and 1 month, following the reign of Pepi II Neferkare. Nemtyemsaf II is also attested on the 39th entry of the Abydos King List, which dates to the reign of Seti I and constitutes one of the best preserved historical records for the end of the Old Kingdom and beginning of the First Intermediate Period. The Abydos king list is the only document where Nemtyemsaf II bears the throne name Merenre. A later historical source also records the existence of Nemtyemsaf II: indeed he is mentioned in Manetho's Aegyptiaca, a history of Egypt written in the 3rd century BC. Manetho gives Nemtyemsaf II's name as Menthesouphis and credits him with one year of reign.

There is only one contemporary artefact known for sure to belong to Nemtyemsaf II. It is a damaged false door inscribed with Sa-nesu semsu Nemtyemsaf meaning "The elder king's son Nemtyemsaf" and discovered near the site of the pyramid of Neith, Pepi II's half-sister and queen and most likely Nemtyemsaf II's mother. As indicated by the epithet of "elder king's son", this inscription was made before Nemtyemsaf's accession to the throne, when he was the heir apparent and also shows that he bore this name before becoming a pharaoh. A second artefact may possibly belong to Nemtyemsaf II: a decree to protect the funerary cults of queens Ankhesenpepi I and Neith discovered in the mortuary temple of queen Neith. If this decree was indeed issued by Nemtyemsaf II, his Horus name would be S[...]tawy meaning "He who causes the two lands to...".

Reign

Nemtyemsaf II succeeded his father Pepi II after his extremely long reign, believed to have been between 64 and 94 years long. Nothing is known for certain of Nemtyemsaf's activities but he likely had to face the collapse of the royal power and the rise of the provincial nomarchs. Less than 3 years after his death, the Old Kingdom period ended and the chaos of the First Intermediate Period started. Nemtyemsaf II may possibly have started a pyramid for himself and, if so, it would likely have been in Saqqara, close to that of his father.

Herodotus story

In his Histories, the Greek historian Herodotus records a legend according to which an Egyptian queen Nitocris took revenge on the murder of her brother and husband by a rioting mob, allegedly Nemtyemsaf II, by drowning all his murderers during a banquet where she had gathered them. It is now recognized that the name "Nitocris" is a result of conflation and distortion from the name of a real male pharaoh, Neitiqerty Siptah, who succeeded Nemtyemsaf II.

Nitrocris 

Nitocris (Greek: Νίτωκρις) possibly was the last pharaoh of ancient Egypt's Sixth Dynasty. Her name is found in Herodotus' Histories and in writings by Manetho, but her historicity has been questioned. If she was in fact a historical person, then she may have been an interregnum queen, the sister of Merenre Nemtyemsaf II and the daughter of Pepi II and Queen Neith. Alternatively, the Egyptologist Kim Ryholt has argued that Nitocris is legendary and derives from the historical male pharaoh Neitiqerty Siptah, who succeeded Merenre Nemtyemsaf II at the transition between the Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period.

Greek tradition

According to Herodotus (Histories ii-100), she invited the murderers of her brother, the "king of Egypt", to a banquet, then killed them by flooding the sealed room with the Nile.

... [Nitocris] succeeded her brother. He had been the king of Egypt, and he had been put to death by his subjects, who then placed her upon the throne. Determined to avenge his death, she devised a cunning scheme by which she destroyed a vast number of Egyptians. She constructed a spacious underground chamber and, on pretense of inaugurating it, threw a banquet, inviting all those whom she knew to have been responsible for the murder of her brother. Suddenly as they were feasting, she let the river in upon them by means of a large, secret duct. (Herodotus)

Then, to avoid the other conspirators, she committed suicide (possibly by running into a burning room). Manetho claims she built the "third pyramid" at Giza, which is attributed by modern historians and archaeologists to pharaoh Menkaure of the Fourth dynasty. Manetho was most likely confused by the similarity of the names Menkara (the prenomen or "throne name" of Nitocris) and Menkaure.

Egyptian records

Nitocris is not mentioned, however, in any native Egyptian inscriptions and she possibly did not exist. It was long thought that Nitocris appears on a fragment of the Turin King List, dated to the Nineteenth Dynasty, under the Egyptian name of Nitiqreti (nt-ỉqrtỉ). The fragment where this name appears was thought to belong to the Sixth Dynasty portion of the king list, thus appearing to confirm both Herodotus and Manetho. However, microscopic analysis of the Turin King List suggests the fragment was misplaced in reassembling the fragmentary text, and that the name Nitiqreti is in fact a faulty transcription of the prenomen of a male king Netjerkare Siptah I, who is named on the Abydos King List as the successor of the Sixth Dynasty king Nemtyemsaf II. On the Abydos King List, Netjerkare Siptah is placed in the equivalent spot that Neitiqerty Siptah holds on the Turin King List.

In fiction

Two letters in the name are transposed in Bolesław Prus' 1895 historical novel Pharaoh, where "Nikotris" appears as the mother of the protagonist, Pharaoh "Ramses XIII" (there were only eleven pharaohs of that name).

The Queen's Enemies, a play by Lord Dunsany, is based upon Herodotus' account of Nitocris' murderous activities.

Nitocris is mentioned in two stories by H. P. Lovecraft, "The Outsider" and "Imprisoned with the Pharaohs". She is mentioned only in passing and portrayed as an evil queen reigning over ghouls and other horrors.

Tennessee Williams' first published work is the 1928 short story "The Vengeance of Nitocris", detailing the queen's careful plan for revenge. She makes the people who slew her brother die in a fitting way.

Le Basalte Bleu, a book by John Knittel, has a sort of time-travel plot in which the main character falls in love with the ancient queen. Knittel speculates that the origin of the Cinderella fairy tale lies in the marriage of Nitocris, who lost her golden sandal only to have it later found by the pharaoh.

Nitocris La Dame de Memphis is a book by Pierre Montlaur.

"The Mirror of Nitocris", a short story by Brian Lumley, features a mirror that once belonged to Nitocris which unleashes evil forces upon its owners.

Nitocris is Queen to Merenra II in the novel Rhodopis of Nubia by Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz, which tells the fateful love story of Pharaoh Merenra II (successor to Pepi II Six Dynasty) and the courtesan Rhodopis.

Karl Sanders has a song called "Slavery Unto Nitokris" on his second solo album, Saurian Exorcisms.

"By Scarab and Scorpion", a short story featuring the Green Hornet by Mark Ellis, features a plot involving an Egyptian museum exhibition featuring Queen Nitocris.

The title song from Celtic Frost's 1985 album "Morbid Tales" is based on the legend of Nitocris.

Nitocris appears in The Mummy and Miss Nitocris by George Griffith, where she is the namesake of an Egyptologist's daughter in whose person she is reincarnated.

Nitocris appears in Fate/Grand Order as a Caster-class and later an Assassin-class Servant with ties to Horus and Medjed. As Servants are influenced by fictional interpretations of their legends, Nitocris' powers are mostly based on Lovecraft and Lumley's stories about her, and she wields the titular mirror from the latter as her weapon.

A character named Nitocris appears in the Assassin's Creed Origins tie in novel, Desert Oath.  She is the God's Wife of Amun in Karnak temple and mother of Isidora. Her death between the novel and the events of the Curse of the Pharaohs DLC give Isidora motivation to use an Apple of Eden to bring about the wrath of the undead on Thebes.

Pepi I Meryre 

Pepi I Meryre (also Pepy I) was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, third king of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt, who ruled for over 40 years at the turn of the 24th and 23rd centuries BC, toward the end of the Old Kingdom period. He was the son of Teti, the founder of the dynasty, and ascended the throne only after the brief intervening reign of the shadowy Userkare. His mother was Iput, who may have been a daughter of Unas, the final ruler of the preceding Fifth Dynasty. Pepi I, who had at least six consorts, was succeeded by his son Merenre Nemtyemsaf I, with whom he may have shared power in a coregency at the very end of his reign. Pepi II Neferkare, who might also have been Pepi I's son, succeeded Merenre.

Several difficulties accumulated during Pepi's reign, beginning with the possible murder of his father and the ensuing reign of Userkare. Later, probably after his twentieth year of reign, Pepi faced a harem conspiracy hatched by one of his consorts who may have tried to have her son designated heir to the throne, and possibly another conspiracy involving his vizier at the end of his reign. Confronted with the protracted decline of pharaonic power and the emergence of dynasties of local officials, Pepi reacted with a vast architectural program involving the construction of temples dedicated to local gods and numerous chapels for his own cult throughout Egypt, reinforcing his presence in the provinces. Egypt's prosperity allowed Pepi to become the most prolific builder of the Old Kingdom. At the same time, Pepi favored the rise of small provincial centres and recruited officials of non-noble extraction to curtail the influence of powerful local families. Continuing Teti's policy, Pepi expanded a network of warehouses accessible to royal envoys and from which taxes and labor could easily be collected. Finally, he buttressed his power after the harem conspiracy by forming alliances with Khui, the provincial nomarch of Abydos, marrying two of his daughters, Ankhesenpepi I and Ankhesenpepi II, and making both Khui's wife Nebet and her son Djau viziers. The Egyptian state's external policy under Pepi comprised military campaigns against Nubia, Sinai and the southern Levant, landing troops on the Levantine coast using Egyptian transport boats. Trade with Byblos, Ebla and the oases of the Western Desert flourished, while Pepi launched mining and quarrying expeditions to Sinai and further afield.

Pepi had a pyramid complex built for his funerary cult in Saqqara, next to which he built at least a further six pyramids for his consorts. Pepi's pyramid, which originally stood 52.5 m (172 ft) tall, and an accompanying high temple, followed the standard layout inherited from the late Fifth Dynasty. The most extensive corpus of Pyramid Texts from the Old Kingdom cover the walls of Pepi I's burial chamber, antechamber and much of the corridor leading to it. For the first time, these texts also appear in some of the consorts' pyramids. Excavations revealed a bundle of viscera and a mummy fragment, both presumed to belong to the pharaoh. Pepi's complex, called Pepi Mennefer, remained the focus of his funerary cult well into the Middle Kingdom and ultimately gave its name to the nearby capital of Egypt, Memphis. Pepi's cult stopped early in the Second Intermediate Period. Pepi's monuments began to be quarried for their stone in the New Kingdom, and in the Mamluk era they were almost entirely dismantled.

Family

Parents

Pepi was the son of the pharaoh Teti and Iput. Her parentage is directly attested to by a relief on a decree uncovered in Coptos that mentions Iput as Pepi's mother, by inscriptions in her mortuary temple mentioning her titles as mother of a king and as mother of Pepi, by the architecture of her tomb which had been changed from an original mastaba form into a pyramid on the accession of her son to the throne, and by her mention as being Pepi's mother on the Sixth Dynasty royal annals. Iput may have been a daughter of Unas, the last pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty, although this remains uncertain and debated. She seems to have died before Pepi's accession to the throne. The observation that Teti was most probably Pepi's father follows from the location of Iput's tomb, next to Teti's pyramid as was customary for a queen consort.

Consorts

Egyptologists have identified six consorts of Pepi I with near certainty. Pepi's best-attested consorts were Ankhesenpepi I and Ankhesenpepi II, who both bore future pharaohs and were daughters of the nomarch of Abydos Khui and his wife Nebet. Further consorts are Nubwenet, Inenek-Inti, who became one of Pepi's viziers, and Mehaa (also called Haaheru). All were buried in pyramids adjacent to that of Pepi. Relief fragments from the necropolis surrounding Pepi's pyramid mention another consort, Sebwetet.

Two more consorts have been proposed for Pepi I based on partial evidence. The first is Nedjeftet, whose name is recorded on blocks excavated in the necropolis adjacent to Pepi's pyramid. The identification of Nedjeftet as Pepi's consort remains uncertain owing to the lack of inscriptions explicitly naming her husband. Given the location of Nedjeftet's blocks in the necropolis, she may be the owner of a pyramid west of Pepi's. The second is another consort, named Behenu, who was buried in the second largest queen pyramid of Pepi's necropolis, north of his. She could either be one of his consorts or a consort of Pepi II.

A final unnamed consort, only referred to by her title "Weret-Yamtes" meaning "great of affection", is known from inscriptions uncovered in the tomb of Weni, an official serving Pepi. This consort, whose name is purposefully left unmentioned by Weni, conspired against Pepi and was prosecuted when the conspiracy was discovered.

Children

Pepi fathered at least four sons. Ankhesenpepi I probably bore him the future pharaoh Merenre Nemtyemsaf I. Ankhesenpepi II was the mother of Pepi II Neferkare, who was probably born at the very end of Pepi I's reign given he was only six upon ascending the throne after Merenre's rule. While a majority of Egyptologists favor this hypothesis, an alternative one holds that Pepi II could be a son of Merenre. Another of Pepi I's sons was Teti-ankh, meaning "Teti lives", whose mother has yet to be identified. Teti-ankh is known only from an ink inscription bearing his name discovered in Pepi's pyramid. Buried nearby is Prince Hornetjerkhet, a son of Pepi with Mehaa.

At least three of Pepi I's daughters have been tentatively identified, all future consorts of Pepi II. The first, Meritites IV, was the king's eldest daughter and was buried in the necropolis surrounding her father's pyramid. The second is Neith, whom he fathered with Ankhesenpepi I. She may have been the mother of Pepi II's successor Merenre Nemtyemsaf II. The third is Iput II, whose identity as Pepi's daughter remains uncertain because her title of "daughter of the king" may only be honorary.

Chronology

Relative chronology

The relative chronology of Pepi I's reign is well established by historical records, contemporary artifacts and archeological evidence, which agree he succeeded Userkare and was succeeded by Merenre I Nemtyemsaf. For example, the near-contemporary South Saqqara Stone, a royal annal inscribed during the reign of Pepi II, gives the succession "Teti → Userkare → Pepi I → Merenre I", making Pepi the third king of the Sixth Dynasty. Two more historical sources agree with this chronology: the Abydos king list, written under Seti I which places Pepi I's cartouche as the 36th entry between those of Userkare and Merenre, and the Turin canon, a list of kings on papyrus dating to the reign of Ramses II which records Pepi I in the fourth column, third row.

Historical sources against this order of succession include the Aegyptiaca (Αἰγυπτιακά), a history of Egypt written in the 3rd century BC during the reign of Ptolemy II (283 – 246 BC) by Manetho. No copies of the Aegyptiaca have survived, and it is now known only through later writings by Sextus Julius Africanus and Eusebius. According to the Byzantine scholar George Syncellus, Africanus wrote that the Aegyptiaca mentioned the succession "Othoês → Phius → Methusuphis" at the start of the Sixth Dynasty. Othoês, Phius (in Greek, φιός), and Methusuphis are understood to be the Hellenized forms for Teti, Pepi I and Merenre, respectively, meaning that the Aegyptiaca omits Userkare. Manetho's reconstruction of the early Sixth Dynasty agrees with the Karnak king list written under Thutmosis III. This list places Pepi's birth name immediately after that of Teti in the seventh entry of the second row. Unlike other sources such as the Turin canon, the purpose of the Karnak king list was not to be exhaustive, but rather to list a selection of royal ancestors to be honoured. Similarly the Saqqara Tablet, written under Ramses II, omits Userkare, with Pepi's name given as the 25th entry after that of Teti.

Length of reign

The length of Pepi I's reign remains somewhat uncertain, although as of 2021, the consensus is that he ruled over Egypt for over 40 years, possibly 49 or 50 years and possibly longer.

During the Old Kingdom period, the Egyptians counted years from the beginning of the reign of the current king. These years were referred to by the number of cattle counts which had taken place since the reign's start. The cattle count was an important event aimed at evaluating the amount of taxes to be levied on the population. This involved counting cattle, oxen and small livestock. During the early Sixth Dynasty, this count was probably biennial, occurring every two years.

The South Saqqara Stone and an inscription in Hatnub both record the 25th cattle count under Pepi I, his highest known date. Accepting a biennial count, this indicates that Pepi reigned for 49 years. That a 50th year of reign could have also been recorded on the royal annal cannot be discounted, however, because of the damaged state of the South Saqqara Stone. Another historical source supporting such a long reign is Africanus' epitome of Manetho's Aegyptiaca, which credits Pepi I with a reign of 53 years.

Archaeological evidence in favor of a long reign for Pepi I includes his numerous building projects and many surviving objects made in celebration of his first Sed festival, which was meant to rejuvenate the king and was first celebrated on the 30th year of a king's rule. For example, numerous alabaster ointment vessels celebrating Pepi's first Sed festival have been discovered. They bear a standard inscriptions reading, "The king of Upper and Lower Egypt Meryre, may he be given life for ever. The first occasion of the Sed festival." Examples can now be found in museums throughout the world:

The Sed festival had a considerable importance for Old Kingdom kings. Representations of it were part of the typical decoration of temples associated with the ruler during the Old Kingdom, whether the king had actually celebrated it or not. As further evidence of the importance of this event in Pepi's case, the state administration seems to have had a tendency to mention his first jubilee repeatedly in the years following its celebration until the end of his rule in connection with building activities. For example, Pepi's final 25th cattle count reported on the Sixth Dynasty royal annals is associated with his first Sed festival even though it probably had taken place some 19 years prior.

Politics

Ascending the throne

Pepi's accession to the throne may have occurred in times of discord. Manetho, writing nearly 2000 years after Pepi's reign, claims that Pepi's father Teti was assassinated by his own bodyguards. The Egyptologist Naguib Kanawati has argued in support of Manetho's claim, noting for example that Teti's reign saw a significant increase in the number of guards at the Egyptian court, who became responsible for the everyday care of the king. At the same time, the figures and names of several contemporary palace officials as represented in their tombs have been erased purposefully. This seems to be an attempt at a damnatio memoriae targeting three men in particular: the vizier Hezi, the overseer of weapons Mereri and chief physician Seankhuiptah. These men could therefore be behind the regicide.

Pepi may have been too young to be king. In any case, he did not immediately succeed his father. King Userkare succeeded him instead, but Userkare's identity and relationship to the royal family remain uncertain. It is possible Userkare served only as a regent with Pepi's mother Iput as Pepi reached adulthood, occupying the throne in the interregnum until Pepi's coming of age. The apparent lack of resistance to Pepi's eventual accession supports such hypotheses.

Against this view, however, Kanawati has argued that Userkare's short reign—lasting perhaps only one year—cannot be a regency as a regent would not have assumed a full royal titulary as Userkare did, nor would he be included in king lists. Rather, Userkare could have been an usurper and a descendant of a lateral branch of the Fifth Dynasty royal family who seized power briefly in a coup, possibly with the support of the priesthood of the sun god Ra. This hypothesis finds indirect evidence in Userkare's theophoric name which incorporates the name of Ra, a naming fashion common during the preceding Fifth Dynasty that had fallen out of use since Unas's reign. Further archeological evidence of Userkare's illegitimacy in the eyes of his successor is the absence of any mention of him in the tombs and biographies of the many Egyptian officials who served under both Teti and Pepi I. For example, the viziers Inumin and Khentika, who served both Teti and Pepi I, are completely silent about Userkare and none of their activities during his time on the throne are reported in their tomb. The tomb of Mehi, a guard who lived under Teti, Userkare and Pepi, yielded an inscription showing that the name of Teti was first erased to be replaced by that of another king, whose name was itself erased and replaced again by that of Teti. Kanawati argues the intervening name was that of Userkare to whom Mehi may have transferred his allegiance. Mehi's attempt to switch back to Teti was seemingly unsuccessful, as there is evidence that work on his tomb stopped abruptly and that he was never buried there.

For the Egyptologist Miroslav Bárta (cs), further troubles might have arisen directly between Pepi and relatives of his father Teti. Bárta and Baud point to Pepi's apparent decision to dismantle the funerary complex of his paternal grandmother Sesheshet, as witnessed by blocks from this queen's complex which were found reused as construction material in Pepi's own mortuary temple. On the other hand, Wilfried Seipel disagrees with this interpretation of the blocks being reused by Pepi, instead, he thinks the blocks bear witness to Pepi's foundation of a pious memorial to his grandmother. At the same time as he apparently distanced himself from his father's line, Pepi transformed his mother's tomb into a pyramid and posthumously bestowed a new title on her, "Daughter of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt", thereby emphasising his royal lineage as a descendant of Unas, last ruler of the Fifth Dynasty.

Pepi chose the Horus name of Mery-tawy, meaning "He who is loved by the two lands" or "Beloved of the Two Lands", which Nicolas Grimal sees as a clear indication that he desired political appeasement in times of troubles. Similarly, Pepi chose the throne name Nefersahor, meaning "Perfect is the protection of Horus". Bárta adds that Pepi's writing of his own name "Mery-tawy" is also highly unusual: he chose to invert the order of the hieroglyphic signs composing it, placing the sign for "Beloved" before that for "Two Lands". For Bárta and Yannis Gourdon, this deliberate choice shows Pepi's deference to the powerful nobility of the country, on which he was dependent. Although there seems to be no direct relation between Userkare's brief reign and one or more later conspiracies against him, this evidence suggests some form of political instability at the time.

Provincial administration

In a long trend that began earlier in the Fifth Dynasty, the Old Kingdom Egyptian state was the subject of increasing decentralisation and regionalisation. Provincial families played an increasingly important role, marrying into the royal family, accessing the highest offices of the state administration and having a strong influence at the court, while also consolidating their hold over regional power bases by creating local dynasties. These processes, well under way during Pepi I's reign, progressively weakened the king's primacy and ascendancy over his own administration and would ultimately result in the princedoms of the First Intermediate Period. Teti and Pepi I seem to have developed several policies to counteract this. They both changed the organisation of the territorial administration during their reigns: many provincial governors were nominated, especially in Upper Egypt, while Lower Egypt was possibly under direct royal administration. In addition, Pepi instigated the construction of royal Ka-chapels throughout Egypt to strengthen the royal presence in the provinces. These expensive policies suggest Egypt was prosperous during Pepi's reign. Small provincial centres in areas historically associated with the crown became more important, suggesting that pharaohs of the Sixth Dynasty tried to diminish the power of regional dynasties by recruiting senior officials who did not belong to them and were loyal to the pharaoh. Some of these new officials have no known background, indicating they were not of noble extraction. The circulation of high officials, who were moved from key positions of power to other duties, occurred at an "astonishing" pace under Teti and Pepi I according to the Egyptologist Juan Carlos Moreno García, in what might have been a deliberate attempt to curtail the concentration of power in the hands of a few officials.

The Sixth Dynasty royal annals, only a small part of which are still legible, record further activities during Pepi's reign, including the offering of milk and young cows for a feast of Ra, the building of a "south chapel" on the occasion of the new year and the arrival of messengers at court. Further offerings of lapis-lazuli, cattle, bread and beer are mentioned, for gods including Horus and the Ennead.

Conspiracy

At some point in his reign, Pepi faced a conspiracy hatched by one of his harem consorts, only known by her title "Weret-Yamtes". Although Weni, who served as a judge during the subsequent trial, does not report the precise nature of her crime, this at least shows that the person of the king was not untouchable. If the conspiracy happened early in Pepi's reign as proposed by Wilfried Seipel and Vivienne Callender, the queen concerned could have been Userkare's mother and Teti's consort rather than Pepi's. Most scholars, however, agree with Hans Goedicke's thesis that the conspiracy occurred after more than two decades into Pepi's reign. For Goedicke, the queen could have been Merenre's mother. Nicolas Grimal and Baud see this as highly unlikely and outright outlandish respectively, as this queen's son would have been punished along with her. Rather, the queen might have attempted unsuccessfully to secure the throne for her son, whose name is now lost.

Perhaps in response to these events, Pepi changed his prenomen Nefersahor to Meryre, meaning "Beloved of Ra", even updating the inscriptions inside his pyramid. This late change with Pepi incorporating the sun god Ra's name into his own may reflect some agreement with the influential priesthood of Ra. Around this time, Pepi married two daughters of Khui, the provincial governor of Abydos. This may also have served to counteract the weakening of the king's authority over Middle and Upper Egypt by securing the allegiance of a powerful family. For Baud and Christopher Eyre, this also demonstrates that at the time of the Sixth Dynasty, government and power was still largely determined by family relationships rather than by bureaucracy.

The political importance of these marriages is furthered by the fact that for the first and last time until the 26th Dynasty some 1800 years later, a woman, Khui's wife Nebet, bore the title of vizier of Upper Egypt. Egyptologists debate whether this title was purely honorific or whether she really assumed the duties of a vizier. Later, Khui's and Nebet's son Djau was made vizier as well. Pepi's marriages might be at the origin of a trend which continued during the later Sixth and Eighth Dynasties, in which the temple of Min in Coptos—Khui's seat of power—was the focus of much royal patronage. The Coptos Decrees, which record successive pharaohs granting tax exemptions to the temple, as well as official honours bestowed by the kings on the local ruling family while the Old Kingdom society was collapsing, manifest this.

End of reign: coregency

The end of Pepi's rule may have been no less troubled than his early reign, as Kanawati conjectures that Pepi faced yet another conspiracy against him, in which his vizier Rawer may have been involved. To support his theory, Kanawati observes that Rawer's image in his tomb has been desecrated, with his name, hands and feet chiselled off, while this same tomb is dated to the second half of Pepi's reign on stylistic grounds. Kanawati further posits that the conspiracy may have aimed at having someone else designated heir to the throne at the expense of Merenre. Because of this failed conspiracy, Pepi I may have taken the drastic step of crowning Merenre during his own reign, thereby creating the earliest documented coregency in the history of Egypt. That such a coregency took place was first proposed by Étienne Drioton. A gold pendant bearing the names of both Pepi I and Merenre I as living kings, and the copper statues of Hierakonpolis, discussed below, indirectly support this. Goedicke has suggested further that an inscription mentioning King Merenre's tenth year of reign in Hatnub, contradicting Manetho's figure of seven years, is evidence that Merenre dated the start of his reign before the end of his father's reign, as a coregency would permit.

The coregency remains uncertain. The Sixth Dynasty Royal annals bear no trace either for or against it, but the shape and size of the stone on which the annals are inscribed makes it more probable that Merenre did not start to count his years of reign until soon after the death of his father. Furthermore, William J. Murnane writes that the gold pendant's context is unknown, making its significance regarding the coregency difficult to appraise. The copper statues are similarly inconclusive as the identity of the smaller one, and whether they originally formed a group, remains uncertain.

Military campaigns

Militarily, aggressive expansion into Nubia marked Pepi I's reign. The walls of the tombs of the contemporary nomarchs of Elephantine, alabaster vessels bearing Pepi's cartouche found in Kerma and inscriptions in Tumas report this. The Sixth Dynasty royal annals also recount at least one campaign into Nubia. Although the campaign narrative is now largely illegible, according to the Egyptologists Baud and Dobrev, it comprised three phases: first, messengers were sent to Nubia for negotiation and surveillance purposes; then the military campaign took place and finally a booty of men and goods was brought back to Egypt for presentation to the pharaoh.

To the north-east of Egypt, Pepi launched at least five military expeditions against the "sand dwellers" of Sinai and southern Canaan. These campaigns are recounted on the walls of the tomb of Weni, then officially a palace superintendent but given tasks befitting a general. Weni states that he ordered nomarchs in Upper Egypt and the Nile Delta region to "call up the levies of their own subordinates, and these in turn summoned their subordinates down through every level of the local administration". Meanwhile, Nubian mercenaries were also recruited and endowed with the power to enroll men and seize goods, so that in total tens of thousands of men were at Weni's disposal. This is the only text relating the raising of an Egyptian army during the Old Kingdom, and it indirectly reveals the absence of a permanent, standing army at the time. The goal of this army was either to repulse rebelling Semitic people or to seize their properties and conquer their land in southern Canaan, an action possibly motivated by the intense commercial activities between Egypt and this region. The Egyptians campaigned up to what was probably Mount Carmel or Ras Kouroun, landing troops on the coast using transport boats. Weni reports that walled towns were destroyed, fig trees and grape vines were cut down, and local shrines were burned.

Economy

The reign of Pepi I marks the apogee of the Sixth Dynasty foreign policy, with flourishing trade, several mining and quarrying expeditions and major military campaigns.

Foreign trade and mining

Trade with settlements along the Levantine coast, which had existed during the Fifth Dynasty, seems to have peaked under Pepi I and Pepi II. Their chief trade partner there might have been Byblos, where dozens of inscriptions on stone vessels showing Pepi's cartouches have been found, and a large alabaster vessel bearing Pepi's titulary and commemorating his jubilee from the Temple of Baalat Gebal. The high official, Iny, served Pepi during several successful expeditions to Byblos for which the king rewarded him with the name "Inydjefaw", meaning, "He who brings back provisions". Through Byblos, Egypt, had indirect contacts with the city of Ebla in modern-day Syria. The contact with Ebla is established by alabaster vessels bearing Pepi's name found near its royal palace G, destroyed in the 23rd century BC, possibly by the Akkadian Empire under Sargon. Trading parties departed Egypt for the Levant from a Nile Delta port called Ra-Hat, "the first mouth [of the Nile]". This trade benefited the nearby city of Mendes, from which one of Pepi's viziers probably originated. Further contacts with Canaan may be inferred from a statue of Pepi, which is said to have been unearthed in Gezer but has since been lost.

Expeditions and mining activities that were already taking place in the Fifth and early Sixth Dynasty continued unabated. These include at least one expedition of workmen and their military escort to the mines of turquoise and copper in Wadi Maghareh, Sinai,  around Pepi's 36th year on the throne. In all likelihood, this expedition departed Egypt from the Red Sea coast port of Ayn Soukhna, which was active during Pepi's reign. The same port may also have been the origin of an expedition to the southern Red Sea, possibly to Punt, as witnessed by Ethiopian obsidian discovered on the site. There were also one or more expeditions to Hatnub, where alabaster was extracted at least once in Pepi's 49th year of reign, as well as visits to the Gebel el-Silsila and Sehel Island. A trading expedition fetching lapis-lazuli and lead or tin may also have passed further south through Mirgissa. Greywacke and siltstone for building projects originated from quarries of the Wadi Hammamat, where some eighty graffiti mention Pepi I. At the same time, an extensive network of caravan routes traversed Egypt's Western Desert, for example, from Abydos to the Kharga Oasis and from there to the Dakhla and Selima Oases.

Domestic policies

Agricultural estates affiliated with the crown in the provinces during the preceding dynasty were replaced by novel administrative entities, the ḥwt, which were agricultural centres controlling tracts of land, livestock and workers. Together with temples and royal domains, these numerous ḥwt represented a network of warehouses accessible to royal envoys and from which taxes and labor could easily be collected. This territorial mode of organisation disappeared nearly 300 years after Pepi I's reign, at the dawn of the Middle Kingdom period.

Pepi decreed tax-exemptions to various institutions. He gave an exemption to a chapel dedicated to the cult of his mother located in Coptos. Another decree has survived on a stele discovered near the Bent Pyramid in Dashur, whereby in his 21st year of reign, Pepi grants exemptions to the people serving in the two pyramids towns of Sneferu:

My majesty has commanded that these two pyramid towns be exempt for him throughout the course of eternity from doing any work of the palace, from doing any forced labor for any part of the royal residence throughout the course of eternity, or from doing any forced labor at the word of anybody in the course of eternity.

The Egyptologist David Warburton sees such perpetual tax exemptions as capitulations by a king confronted with rampant corruption. Whether they were the result of religious or political motives, exemptions created precedents that encouraged other institutions to request similar treatment, weakening the power of the state as they accumulated over time.

Further domestic activities related to agriculture and the economy may be inferred from the inscriptions found in the tomb of Nekhebu, a high official belonging to the family of Senedjemib Inti, a vizier during the late Fifth Dynasty. Nekhebu reports overseeing the excavations of canals in Lower Egypt and at Cusae in Middle Egypt.

Building activities

Pepi I built extensively throughout Egypt, so much so that in 1900 the Egyptologist Flinders Petrie stated "this king has left more monuments, large and small, than any other ruler before the Twelfth Dynasty". The Egyptologist Jean Leclant reached a similar conclusion in 1999. He sees Pepi's rule as marking the apogee of the Old Kingdom owing to the flurry of building activities, administrative reforms, trade and military campaigns at the time. Pepi devoted most of his building efforts to local cults and royal Ka-chapels, seemingly with the objective of affirming the king's stature and presence in the provinces.

Ka-chapels

Ka-chapels were small cult buildings comprising one or more chambers to hold offerings dedicated to the cult of the Ka of a deceased or, in this case, the king. Such chapels dedicated to Pepi I were uncovered or are known from contemporary sources to have stood in Hierakonpolis, in Abydos, and in the central Nile Delta region, in Memphis, Zawyet el-Meytin, Assiut, Qus and beyond the Nile Valley in Balat, a settlement of the Dakhla Oasis. In addition, two chapels were built in Bubastis and probably more than one stood in Dendera. Finally, yet another chapel is believed to have existed in Elkab, where rock inscriptions refer to his funerary cult. All these buildings were probably peripheral to or inside larger temples hosting extensive cult activities. For example, the chapel at Abydos was next to the temple of Khenti-Amentiu. For the Egyptologist Juan Moreno García, this proximity demonstrates the direct power that the king still held over the temples' economic activities and internal affairs during the Sixth Dynasty.

In an underground store beneath the floor of Hierakonpolis' Ka-chapel of Pepi, the Egyptologist James Quibell uncovered a statue of King Khasekhemwy of the Second Dynasty, a terracotta lion cub made during the Thinite era, a golden mask representing Horus and two copper statues. Originally fashioned by hammering plates of copper over a wooden base, these statues had been disassembled, placed inside one another and then sealed with a thin layer of engraved copper bearing the titles and names of Pepi I "on the first day of the Heb Sed" feast. The two statues were symbolically "trampling underfoot the Nine bows"—the enemies of Egypt—a stylized representation of Egypt's conquered foreign subjects. While the identity of the larger adult figure as Pepi I is revealed by the inscription, the identity of the smaller statue showing a younger person remains unresolved. The most common hypothesis among Egyptologists is that the young man shown is Merenre. As Alessandro Bongioanni and Maria Croce write: "[Merenre] was publicly associated as his father's successor on the occasion of the Jubilee [the Heb Sed feast]. The placement of his copper effigy inside that of his father would therefore reflect the continuity of the royal succession and the passage of the royal sceptre from father to son before the death of the pharaoh could cause a dynastic split." Alternatively, Bongioanni and Croce have also proposed the smaller statue may represent "a more youthful Pepy I, reinvigorated by the celebration of the Jubilee ceremonies".

Temples

The close association between Ka-chapels and temples to deities might have spurred building activities for the latter. For example, the Bubastis ensemble of Pepi I comprised a 95 m × 60 m (312 ft × 197 ft) enclosure wall with a small rectangular Ka-chapel housing eight pillars near its north corner. This ensemble was peripheral to the main Old Kingdom temple dedicated to the goddess Bastet. In Dendera, where a fragmentary statue of a seated Pepi I has been uncovered, Pepi restored the temple complex to the goddess Hathor. He seems particularly to have desired to be associated with her, using the epithet "son of Hathor of Dendera" on numerous vessels found throughout Egypt and abroad. In Abydos, he built a small rock cut chapel dedicated to the local god Khenti-Amentiu, where he is again referred to as "Pepi, son of Hathor of Dendera". Pepi also referred to himself as the son of Atum of Heliopolis, direct evidence for the strengthening of the Heliopolitan cults at the time.

At the southern border of Egypt, in Elephantine, several faience plaques bearing Pepi's cartouche have been uncovered in the temple of Satet. These may suggest royal interest in the local cult. An alabaster statue of an ape with its offspring bearing Pepi I's cartouche was uncovered in the same location, but it was probably a gift of the king to a high official who then dedicated it to Satet. In this temple, Pepi built a red granite naos,  destined either to house the goddess's statue, or a statue of Pepi I himself, which would mean the naos was yet another Ka-chapel. Pepi I's cartouche and the epithet "beloved of Satet" is inscribed on the naos, which stands 1.32 m (4.3 ft) high. Pepi seems to have undertaken wider works in the temple, possibly reorganising its layout by adding walls and an altar. In this context, the faience tablets bearing his cartouche may be foundation offerings made at the start of the works, although this has been contested. For the Egyptologist David Warburton, the reigns of Pepi I and II mark the first period during which small stone temples dedicated to local deities were built in Egypt.

Pyramid complex

Pepi I had a pyramid complex built for himself in South Saqqara, which he named Men-nefer-Pepi variously translated as "Pepi's splendour is enduring", "The perfection of Pepi is established", "The beauty of Pepi endures", or "The perfection of Pepi endures". The shortened name Mennefer for the pyramid complex progressively became the name of the nearby capital of Egypt—which had originally been called Ineb-hedj. In particular, the Egyptian Mennefer ultimately gave Memphis in Greek, a name which is still in use for this ancient city. Pepi I's mortuary complex is neighboured on its south-west corner by a necropolis built during his own reign and the reigns of Merenre and Pepi II. The necropolis housed the pyramids of Pepi I's consorts and their dedicated funerary temples.

Main pyramid

Pepi's main pyramid was constructed in the same fashion as royal pyramids since the reign of Djedkare Isesi some 80 years earlier: a core built six steps high from small roughly dressed blocks of limestone bound together using clay mortar encased with fine limestone blocks. The pyramid, now destroyed, had a base length of 78.75 m (258 ft; 150 cu) converging to the apex at ~ 53° and once stood 52.5 m (172 ft; 100 cu) tall. Its remains now form a meager mound of 12 m (39 ft; 23 cu), containing a pit in its centre dug by stone thieves.

The substructure of the pyramid was accessed from the north chapel which has since disappeared. From the entrance, a descending corridor gives way to a vestibule leading into the horizontal passage. Halfway along the passage, three granite portcullises guard the chambers. As in preceding pyramids, the substructure contains three chambers: an antechamber on the pyramids vertical axis, a serdab with three recesses to its east, and a burial chamber containing the king's sarcophagus to the west. Extraordinarily, the pink granite canopic chest that is sunk into the floor at the foot of the sarcophagus has remained undisturbed. Discovered alongside it was a bundle of viscera presumed to belong to the pharaoh. The provenance of a mummy fragment and fine linen wrappings discovered in the burial chamber are unknown, but they are hypothesized to belong to Pepi I.

The walls of Pepi I's antechamber, burial chamber, and much of the corridor are covered with vertical columns of inscribed hieroglyphic text. The hieroglyphs are painted green with ground malachite and gum arabic, a colour symbolising renewal. His sarcophagus is also inscribed on its east side with the king's titles and names, as part of a larger set of spells that includes texts at the bottom of the north and south walls opposite the sarcophagus, and in a line running across the top of the north, west, and south walls of the chamber. The writing comprises 2,263 columns and lines of text from 651 spells, of which 82 are unique to Pepi's pyramid. This is the most extensive corpus of Pyramid Texts from the Old Kingdom. The tradition of inscribing texts inside the pyramid was begun by Unas at the end of the Fifth Dynasty, but originally discovered in Pepi I's pyramid in 1880. Their function, like that of all funerary literature, was to enable the reunion of the ruler's ba and Ka, leading to the transformation into an akh, and to secure eternal life among the gods in the sky.

Mortuary temple

Pepi's pyramid was part of a wider funerary complex comprising a small cult pyramid and mortuary temple surrounded by an enclosure wall. The purpose of the cult pyramid remains unclear. While it had a burial chamber, it was never used as such and must have been a purely symbolic structure. It may have hosted the pharaoh's Ka, or a miniature statue of the king, and could have been used for ritual performances centring around the burial and resurrection of the Ka spirit during the Sed festival. Excavations of the small cult pyramid yielded statue fragments, pieces of stelae and offering tables which indicate the continuation of Pepi's funerary cult into the Middle Kingdom.

A valley temple by the Nile and a causeway leading from this temple up to the pyramid on the desert plateau completed the overall construction. The high temple, next to the pyramid, was laid out according to a standard plan, making it nearly the same as the temples of Djedkare Isesi, Unas, and Teti. The temple had an entrance hall some 6.29 m (20.6 ft) high, now almost completely destroyed, leading into an open columned courtyard. Storage rooms to the north and south flanked the hall. The inner temple contained a chapel with five statue niches, an offering hall and other core chambers. Either the mortuary temple or the causeway might have been lined with statues of kneeling bound captives representing Egypt's traditional enemies. Both the temple and the causeway are now heavily damaged due the activity of lime makers, who extracted and burned the construction stones to turn them into mortar and whitewash in later times. In particular, the original location of the statues remains uncertain as they had been displaced, ready to be thrown into a lime furnace.

Necropolis of Pepi I

Pepi's mortuary complex was the centre of a wider necropolis which comprised the tombs of the royal family and further afield those of the high officials of the state administration including a tomb for Weni. Pepi had pyramids built for his consorts to the south and south-west of his pyramid. These were all located outside the complex' enclosure wall but inside an area delimited by a street to the west. Three of the main queens' pyramids were built in a row on an east–west axis, each with a base side dimension of about 20 m (66 ft). The Ancient Egyptians referred to the owners of these pyramids as the "Queen of the East", "Queen of the Centre" and "Queen of the West".

Pyramid of Nebwenet

The pyramid of the queen of the east belonged to Nebwenet, whose name, image and titles are preserved on a fallen jamb uncovered in the attached mortuary temple. The pyramid had a base of 26.2 m (86 ft), making it similar in size to the other pyramids of the necropolis. On its northern face was a small mudbrick chapel, which hosted a limestone altar, now broken. The pyramid's substructures were accessed from a descending passageway leading first to an antechamber and, from there, to the burial chamber slightly to the south of the pyramid's apex. This chamber yielded fragments of pink granite sarcophagus and pieces of inscribed alabaster. To the east was a serdab and the scant remnants of funerary equipment.

Pyramid of Inenek-Inti

Immediately west of the pyramid of the queen of the east was the pyramid of the queen of the centre, Inenek-Inti. The name, image and titles of this queen are inscribed on jambs and two 2.2 m (7.2 ft) high red-painted obelisks on either side of the gateway to the mortuary temple, establishing that Inenek-Inti was buried there. With a base of 22.53 m (73.9 ft), the pyramid size and layout is similar to that of Nebwenet, except that the burial chamber is located precisely beneath the pyramid apex. Fragments of a greywacke sarcophagus and pieces of stone vessels were uncovered there. Unlike Ankhesenpepi II's burial chamber, that of Inenek-Inti had no inscriptions on its walls. Inenek's mortuary temple was much larger than Nebwenet's, surrounding her pyramid on its eastern, northern and southern sides. Inenek's complex also comprised a small cult pyramid, 6.3 m (21 ft) at the base, on the south-east corner of the mortuary temple.

Queen of the West

West of Inenek's pyramid is that of the queen of the west. The identity of this pyramid's owner is preserved on an obelisk in front of her pyramid only as "the eldest daughter of the king". The pyramid had a base length of around 20 m (66 ft), similar to those of Inenek and Nebwenet, and now stands 3 m (9.8 ft) tall. Entry into the substructure is gained on the north face. The burial chamber is located under the vertical axis of the pyramid. The location of the serdab is unusual, being to the south of the burial chamber instead of east. Substantial remains of funerary equipment were found inside including wooden weights, ostrich feathers, copper fish hooks, and fired-clay vessels, but none bore their owner's name. It has a hastily built mortuary temple, with an offering hall and a room with two statue niches. Relief fragments discovered depict scenes of processions and estates, along with an incomplete cartouche of Pepi I's name.

Pyramid of Ankhesenpepi II

The pyramid of Ankhesenpepi II occupies the south-western extremity of the necropolis of Pepi I. With a base of 31.4 m (103 ft), the pyramid once reached 30 m (98 ft) high, making it the largest of the queens' pyramids. The funerary complex of Ankhesenpepi II was also the largest in the necropolis except for that of Pepi himself, covering an area of 3,500 m2 (38,000 sq ft). It comprised a mortuary temple to the north of the pyramid and 20 storage rooms for offerings. The queen's funerary complex had a monumental entrance with a granite frame, its lintel bearing the queen's name and titles being more than 3.6 m (12 ft) wide and weighing over 17 tons. A small chapel stood on the pyramid northern face, at the entrance of the substructures. Painted reliefs of which only scant remains have been found including a small scene depicting the queen and a princess on a boat among papyrus plants, adorned the accompanying funerary temple. The burial chamber walls were inscribed with spells from the pyramid texts, a privilege that had been the preserve of kings. Fragments from a black basalt sarcophagus were uncovered onsite.

Pyramid of Behenu

With a base of 26.2 m (86 ft), Queen Behenu's pyramid was of similar size and layout to the other queens' pyramids of the necropolis. Located on the western end of the necropolis, immediately north-west of Mehaa's tomb on which it intrudes, Behenu's mortuary temple was on the pyramid's southern face with a cult pyramid on its south-east corner. The entrance of the temple, flanked with two granite obelisks, led to several rooms, which once housed statues and offering altars, while a further 10 rooms served for storage. The burial chamber measured 6.24 m × 2.88 m (20.5 ft × 9.4 ft), and its walls were inscribed with numerous spells of the pyramid texts. The head of a wooden statue of the queen as well as her opened basalt sarcophagus were unearthed there.

Pyramid of Mehaa

Pepi's consort Mehaa was buried in a pyramid on the south-west corner of Pepi's enclosure wall. Directly adjacent to Mehaa's pyramid's eastern face was her mortuary temple, where a relief bearing the name and image of Prince Hornetjerykhet, her son, was uncovered. Mehaa's pyramid is intruded upon by the pyramid of Behenu, establishing that Mehaa was a consort of Pepi I early in his reign while Behenu lived in the later part of his rule.

Legacy

Old Kingdom

Pepi I was the object of a funerary cult after his death, with ritual activities taking place in his funerary complex up until the Middle Kingdom. This means that Pepi's cult continued to be celebrated during the First Intermediate Period, a period during which the Egyptian state seems to have collapsed, with only brief interruptions of the cultic activities at times of important political instability.

As members of the royal family and high officials had continued to be buried in the necropolis next to Pepi's pyramid during the reigns of Merenre and Pepi II, including Ankhesenpepi II and III and Pepi's daughter Meritites, Pepi's necropolis had grown and had attracted burials from the highest officials such as vizier Weni. Starting with the reign of Pepi II, the necropolis also attracted burials from private individuals as well as popular devotion to him and his consorts. The deposit of numerous offering tables throughout the site confirms this.

Middle Kingdom

The conquest of Egypt under Mentuhotep II seems to have interrupted all activities in the necropolis. These resumed towards the end of the Eleventh Dynasty, when the state-sponsored funerary cult of Pepi was renewed, albeit in a more limited form than earlier. At this time, private cultic activities seem to cease in the wider necropolis of Pepi, rather concentrating in Pepi's own mortuary temple, mainly around his statues, then accessible to important officials participating in the pharaoh's cult. Meanwhile, the abandonment of certain parts of the mortuary temple and the queens' necropolis led to the installation of novel tombs. The most prominent of these was that of the high official Reheryshefnakht, who had a small pyramid complex built for himself in the midst of the tombs of the Sixth Dynasty royal family. The royal cult of Pepi I seems to have ended with the onset of the Second Intermediate Period.

New Kingdom

The New Kingdom period witnessed renewed private burials in the necropolis of Pepi, including in several rooms of his mortuary temple which were used as a catacomb at the time, although no such tomb was found in the main room hosting the royal funerary cult, suggesting continued use. The individuals buried in the necropolis belonged to the lower ranks of Egyptian society, as shown by the simplicity, if not the absence, of funerary equipment, while those using the catacombs were richer.

The consequences of the long-lasting cults of Old Kingdom pharaohs during the New Kingdom are apparent in the Karnak king list. It was composed during the reign of Thutmosis III to honour a selection of royal ancestors. Several pharaohs of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasty including Nyuserre Ini, Djedkare Isesi, Teti and Pepi I are mentioned on the list by their birth name, rather than throne name. The Egyptologist Antonio Morales believes this is because the popular cults for these kings, which existed well into the New Kingdom, referred to these kings using their birth name.

Later, during the reign of Ramses II, limited restoration works on the Old Kingdom monuments took place in the Memphite area under the direction of Prince Khaemweset. Pepi's pyramid complex was among those restored, as shown by inscriptions left on-site by Khaemweset, even though it was actively being used for private burials. Pepi I's necropolis was, therefore, probably in a ruined state at this point, with the area with the queens' pyramids serving as a stone quarry. Khaemweset stated he had found the pyramid "abandoned" and "recalled his proprietor for posterity". The progressive accumulation of burials in the passages leading up to the temple cult rooms blocked all access to it, demonstrating that Pepi's funerary cult had ceased.

Late Period

The stone quarrying activities, which were limited to Pepi's necropolis during the New Kingdom and had spared his mortuary temple, became widespread during the Late Period of Egypt, with intermittent burials continuing nonetheless. Both the stone robbing and funerary activities stopped at some point during the period, and the necropolis was abandoned until the Mamluk period when intense stone quarrying resumed.

Teti 

Teti, less commonly known as Othoes, sometimes also Tata, Atat, or Athath in outdated sources, was the first king of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt. He was buried at Saqqara. The exact length of his reign has been destroyed on the Turin King List but is believed to have been about 12 years.

Biography

Teti had several wives:

Iput, the daughter of Unas, the last king of the Fifth dynasty. Iput was the mother of Pepi I.

Khuit, who may have been the mother of Userkare (according to Jonosi and Callender)

Khentkaus IV

Neith

Teti is known to have had several children. He was the father of at least three sons and probably ten daughters. Of the sons, two are well attested, a third one is likely:

Pepi I

Tetiankhkem

Nebkauhor, with the name of Idu, "king’s eldest son of his body", buried in the mastaba of Vizier Akhethetep/Hemi, buried in a fallen Vizier’s tomb, within the funerary complex of his maternal grandfather

According to N. Kanawati, Teti had at least nine daughters, by a number of wives, and the fact that they were named after his mother, Sesheshet, allows researchers to trace his family. At least three princesses bearing the name Seshseshet are designated as "king’s eldest daughter", meaning that there were at least three different queens. It seems that there was a tenth one, born of a fourth queen as she is also designated as "king’s eldest daughter".

Seshseshet, whose name was Waatetkhéthor, married to Vizier Mereruka, in whose mastaba she has a chapel. She is designated as "king’s eldest daughter of his body". She may have been the eldest daughter of Iput.

Seshseshet with the name of Idut, "king’s daughter of his body", who died very young at the beginning of her father’s reign and was buried in the mastaba of Vizier Ihy.

Seshseshet Nubkhetnebty, "king’s daughter of his body", wife of Vizier Kagemni, represented in her husband’s mastaba. She was maybe also born of Iput.

Seshseshet, also called Sathor, married to Isi, resident governor at Edfu and also titled vizier. She also would have been born of Iput I.

Seshseshet, with the name of Sheshit, king’s eldest daughter of his body and wife of the overseer of the great court Neferseshemptah, and is depicted in her husband’s mastaba. As she is an eldest daughter of the king, she cannot be born of the same mother as Waatkhetethor and therefore may have been a daughter of Queen Khuit.

Seshseshet also called Sheshti, "king’s daughter of his body", married to the keeper of the head ornaments Shepsipuptah, and depicted in her husband’s mastaba.

Seshseshet with the beautiful name of Merout, entitled "king’s eldest daughter" but without the addition "of his body" and therefore born of a third, maybe a minor queen, and married to Ptahemhat.

Seshseshet, wife of Remni, "sole companion" and overseer of the department of the palace guards

Seshseshet, married to Pepyankh Senior of Meir

The so-called "Queen of the West Pyramid" in King Pepy I cemetery. She is called "king’s eldest daughter of his body" and king's wife of Meryre (the name of Pepy I). Therefore, she is a wife of Pepi and most certainly his half-sister. As she is also an eldest daughter of the king, her mother must be a fourth queen of Teti.

Another possible daughter is princess Inti.

Reign and possible assassination

During Teti's reign, high officials were beginning to build funerary monuments that rivaled that of the pharaoh. His vizier, Mereruka, built a mastaba tomb at Saqqara which consisted of 33 richly carved rooms, the biggest known tomb for an Egyptian nobleman. This is considered to be a sign that Egypt's wealth was being transferred from the central court to the officials, a slow process that culminated in the end to the Old Kingdom.[citation needed]

The Egyptian priest and chronicler Manetho states that Teti was murdered by his palace bodyguards in a harem plot, and he appears to have been briefly succeeded by a shortlived usurper, Userkare. Teti was buried in the royal necropolis at Saqqara. His pyramid complex is associated with the mastabas of officials from his reign. Teti's highest date is his Year after the 6th Count 3rd Month of Summer day lost (Year 12 if the count was biannual) from Hatnub Graffito No.1. This information is confirmed by the South Saqqara Stone Annal document from Pepi II's reign which gives him a reign of around 12 years.

Third "subsidiary" pyramid to Teti's tomb

Teti's mother was the Queen Sesheshet, who was instrumental in her son's accession to the throne and a reconciling of two warring factions of the royal family. Sesheshet lived between 2323 BC to 2291 BC. Egypt's chief archaeologist Zahi Hawass, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, announced, on 11 November 2008, that she was entombed in a 4,300-year-old 5-metre (16-foot) tall pyramid at Saqqara. This is the 118th pyramid discovered thus far in Egypt, the largest portion of its 2-metre wide casing was built with a superstructure 5 metres high. It originally reached 14 metres, with sides 22 metres long.

Once 5 stories tall, it lay beneath 7 meters (23 feet) of sand, a small shrine and mud-brick walls from later periods. The third known "subsidiary" pyramid to Teti's tomb was originally 46 feet (14 meters) tall and 72 feet (22 meters) square at its base, due to its walls having stood at a 51-degree angle. Buried next to the Saqqara Step Pyramid, its base lies 65 feet underground and is believed to have been 50 feet tall when it was built.

Funerary temple of Queen Neith

In January 2021, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced the discovery of more than 50 wooden sarcophagi in 52 burial shafts dating back to the New Kingdom period, as well as a 13ft-long papyrus containing texts from the Book of the Dead.

Archaeologists led by Zahi Hawass at Saqqara also found the funerary temple of queen Neith and warehouses made of bricks. Previously unknown to researchers, she was a wife of Teti.

Userkare 

Userkare (also Woserkare, meaning "Powerful is the soul of Ra") was the second pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty, reigning briefly, 1 to 5 years, in the late 24th to early 23rd century BC. Userkare's relation to his predecessor Teti and successor Pepi I is unknown and his reign remains enigmatic. Although he is attested in historical sources, Userkare is completely absent from the tomb of the Egyptian officials who lived during his reign. In addition, the Egyptian priest Manetho reports that Userkare's predecessor Teti was murdered. Userkare is often considered to have been a short-lived usurper. Alternatively, he may have been a regent who ruled during Teti's son's childhood who later ascended the throne as Pepi I.

Attestations

Historical sources

Userkare is present on the Abydos King List, a list of kings written during the reign of Seti I (1290–1279 BC) over 1000 years after the early Sixth Dynasty. Userkare's cartouche occupies the 35th entry of the list, between those of Teti and Pepi I, making him the second pharaoh of the dynasty. Userkare was possibly also listed on the Turin canon, a king list composed during the reign of Ramesses II (1279–1213 BC). Unfortunately, a large lacuna affects the second line of the fourth column of the papyrus on which the list was written, the place were Userkare's name might have been located.

Contemporaneous sources

Secure attestations

Few artefacts dating to Userkare's lifetime have survived to this day, the only secure attestions contemporaneous with his reign being two cylinder seals inscribed with his name and titles and a copper mallet from the Michaelides collection. The mallet bears a small inscription giving the name of a crew of workmen "Beloved ones of Userkare" who hailed from Wadjet, the 10th nome of Upper Egypt, located around Tjebu, south of Asyut.

Possible attestations

The French Egyptologists Michel Baud and Vassil Dobrev have also proposed that a copper axe head discovered in Syria could belong to Userkare. The axe bears the name of another crew of workmen called the "Beloved ones of the Two Golden Falcons", where "Two Golden Falcons" is the golden Horus name of a pharaoh. Although both Khufu and Sahure bore this name and either one of them may be the owner of the axe, Baud and Dobrev note that Teti's and Pepi's golden horus names are "Golden Falcon who Unites" and "Three Golden Falcons", respectively. It is thus tempting to conclude that Userkare's was "Two Golden Falcons" and that the axe belongs to him.

The English Egyptologist Flinders Petrie has tentatively identified Userkare with a king named Ity attested by a single rock inscription found in the Wadi Hammamat. The inscription, dated to the first year of reign of Ity, mentions a band of 200 sailors and 200 masons under the direction of the overseers Ihyemsaf and Irenakhet sent to the Wadi Hammamat to collect stones for the construction of Ity's pyramid called "Bau Ity", meaning "Glory of Ity". Petrie's identification of Userkare with Ity relies solely on his estimation of the inscription to the Sixth Dynasty and the fact that Userkare is the only king of this period whose full titulary is not known. This identification is nowadays deemed conjectural and several First Intermediate Period dates have been proposed for Ity.

South Saqqara Stone

In addition to historical and contemporaneous sources, details about Userkare's reign were once given on the nearly contemporaneous South Saqqara Stone, a royal annal of the Sixth Dynasty dating to the reign of Merenre Nemtyemsaf I or Pepi II. Unfortunately, an estimated 92% of the original text was lost when the stone was roughly polished to be reused as a sarcophagus lid, possibly in the late First Intermediate (c. 2160–2055 BC) to early Middle Kingdom period (c. 2055–1650 BC). The presence of Userkare on the annal can nonetheless be inferred from a large space between the sections concerning the reigns of Teti and Pepi I as well as from traces of a royal titulary in this space. Although the text reporting Userkare's activities is lost, its length suggests that Userkare ruled Egypt for four or less likely two years.

Reign

Given the scarcity of documents pertaining to Userkare, his relations to his predecessor and successor are largely uncertain and Egyptologists have proposed a number of hypotheses regarding his identity and reign. These fall broadly into two contradictory scenarios: one that sees Userkare as a legitimate ruler or regent, while the other perceives Userkare as an usurper, possibly responsible for the murder of his predecessor Teti.

As a legitimate ruler

The Egyptologists William Stevenson Smith, William C. Hayes and Nicolas Grimal believe that Userkare briefly ruled Egypt either as a legitimate stopgap ruler or as a regent with queen Iput I. Indeed, Teti's son Pepi I reigned for circa 50 years, indicating that he was likely very young at the death of his father, likely too young to immediately assume the throne. The theory that Userkare was merely a regent is rejected by many Egyptologists, including Naguib Kanawati, on the basis that Userkare is mentioned on the Turin and Abydos king lists and hold full royal titulary, something reserved exclusively to reigning pharaohs.

In support of the hypothesis that Userkare was a legitimate stopgap ruler, Grimal stresses that he is well attested by historical and contemporaneous sources, in particular the Saqqara Stone. This seems in contradiction with the idea that, being illegitimate, he was victim of a Damnatio memoriae by his successor Pepi. In addition, there is no direct evidence of difficulties associated with Pepi I's rise on throne in the archeological record, which one could expect had Userkare been a usurper.

As a usurper to the throne

The Egyptian priest Manetho who wrote a history of Egypt, the Aegyptiaca, in the 3rd century BC during the reign of Ptolemy II (283–246 BC), mentions that Othoes –the hellenized name of Teti– was murdered by his bodyguards or attendants. Based on this statement, Egyptologists have found it plausible that Userkare participated in or at least benefited from Teti's assassination, despite Userkare's absence from the Aegyptiaca. Userkare's name is theophoric and incorporates the name of the sun god Ra, a naming fashion common during the preceding Fifth Dynasty. Since Teti was not a son of the last Fifth Dynasty king Unas, some Egyptologists have proposed that Userkare could have been a descendant of a lateral branch of the Fifth Dynasty royal family who briefly seized power in a coup.

The Egyptian-Australian Egyptologist Naguib Kanawati also finds the hypothesis that Userkare was a short-lived legitimate ruler or regent "unconvincing". Indeed, archeological evidence lends credence to the idea that Userkare was illegitimate in the eyes of his successor Pepi I. In particular, there is no mention of Userkare in the tombs and biographies of the many Egyptian officials who served under both Teti and Pepi I. The viziers Inumin and Khentika, who served both Teti and Pepi I, are completely silent about Userkare and none of their activities during Userkare's time on the throne are reported in their tomb. Furthermore, the tomb of Mehi, a guard who lived under Teti, Userkare and Pepi, yielded an inscription showing that the name of Teti was first erased to be replaced by that of another king, whose name was itself erased and replaced again by that of Teti. Kanawati argues that the intervening name was that of Userkare to whom Mehi may have transferred his allegiance. Mehi's attempt to switch back to Teti was seemingly unsuccessful, as there is evidence that work on his tomb stopped abruptly and that he was never buried there.

Tomb

The location of the tomb of Userkare has not yet been identified. The brevity of his reign implies that the tomb was probably unfinished at his death, making modern identification difficult. Since Userkare was a Sixth Dynasty pharaoh, his tomb was presumably planned to be a pyramid. A possible vindication of this hypothesis is the copper mallet mentioning a team of paid workers from the nome of Wadjet. These workers were likely involved in an important building project, likely to be Userkare's pyramid.

Two hypotheses for the location of Userkare's pyramid have been put forth. The Egyptologist Vassil Dobrev proposed that Userkare's pyramid is located in the area of Saqqara South known today as Tabbet al-Guesh, north-west of the mortuary complex of Pepi I. Indeed, a large necropolis of Sixth Dynasty administration officials is found there, which according to Dobrev, hints at the nearby presence of a royal pyramid. The astrophysicist Giulio Magli believes instead that the pyramid of Userkare is to be found midway between those of Pepi I and Merenre Nemtyemsaf I, at a place that would make the three pyramids form a line parallel to the one formed by the pyramids of Sekhemkhet, Unas, Djoser, Userkaf and Teti to the North.

And that's yout stories for today. Tomorrow we will learn about Djedkare Shemai , Neferkare Khendu , Merenhor , Neferkamin , Nikare , Neferkare Tereru , Neferkare Pepiseneb and Neferkamin Anu .

Until tomorrow....

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