Merenre Nemtyemsaf I
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Merenre Nemtyemsaf I (meaning "Beloved of Ra,
Nemty In Egyptian mythology, Nemty (Antaeus in Greek, but probably not connected to the Antaeus in Greek mythology) was a god whose worship centered at Antaeopolis in the northern part of Upper Egypt. Nemty's worship is quite ancient, dating from at l ...
is his protection") was an Ancient Egyptian
pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: ''pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the an ...
, the fourth king of the
sixth dynasty The Sixth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty VI), along with the Third, Fourth and Fifth Dynasty, constitutes the Old Kingdom of Dynastic Egypt. Pharaohs Known pharaohs of the Sixth Dynasty are listed in the table below. Manetho acc ...
. He ruled Egypt for six to 11 years in the 23rd century BC, succeeding his father
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 ...
on the throne.


Family

Merenre was the son of queen
Ankhesenpepi I Ankhesenpepi I (also Ankhenespepi I or Ankhenesmeryre I) was a queen consort during the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt. Biography Ankhesenpepi was a daughter of the female vizier Nebet and her husband Khui, nomarch of Abydos. Ankhesenpepi's sister ...
and king
Pepi I 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 ...
, who probably begot him in his old age. Ankhesenpepi was a daughter of the
nomarch A nomarch ( grc, νομάρχης, egy, ḥrj tp ꜥꜣ Great Chief) was a provincial governor in ancient Egypt; the country was divided into 42 provinces, called nomes (singular , plural ). A nomarch was the government official responsib ...
of Abydos Khui and his wife
Nebet Nebet (“Lady”) was created vizier during the late Old Kingdom of Egypt by Pharaoh Pepi I of the Sixth Dynasty, her son-in-law. She is the first recorded female vizier in Ancient Egyptian history; the next one was in the 26th Dynasty.Naguib Kan ...
whom Pepi I made into a
vizier A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was a ...
during his reign, the sole women of the Old Kingdom period known to have held such a title. Khui and Nebet's son, Merenre's uncle
Djau Djau was a vizier of Upper Egypt during the Sixth Dynasty. He was a member of an influential family from Abydos; his mother was the vizier Nebet, his father was called Khui. His two sisters Ankhesenpepi I and Ankhesenpepi II married Pharaoh Pepi ...
served in the position of vizier under Merenre and Pepi II. Merenre had a full sister in princess Neith. Gustave Jéquier has proposed that Neith was married to Merenre, a possibility which Vivienne Callender observes is difficult to ascertain as Neith later remarried to Pepi II, explaining the absence of a tomb of her near Merenre's. Sixth dynasty royal seals and stone blocks found at Saqqara demonstrate that Merenre's aunt, queen Ankhesenpepi II who married Pepy I was also married to Merenre. 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 might have been Pepi II's father, rather than Pepi I as had been hitherto proposed. Merenre had at least one daughter,
Ankhesenpepi III Ankhesenpepi III was an ancient Egyptian queen of the Sixth Dynasty as a consort of Pepi II, who was probably her uncle. She was a daughter of Nemtyemsaf I and was named after her grandmother, Ankhesenpepi I.Dodson and Hilton: The Complete R ...
, who became the wife of Pepi II, and could also be the father of queen
Iput II :''About the river in Belarus and Russia see Iput River. For the early 6th dynasty queen, wife of Unas see Iput.'' Iput was an ancient Egyptian queen consort of the Sixth Dynasty, a sister and wife of Pepi II. Titles Her titles King’s Daught ...
.


Reign


Chronology

The relative chronological position of Merenre Nemtyemsaf I within the sixth dynasty is secured. Historical sources and archaeological evidences agree that he succeeded Pepi I Meryre on the throne and was in turn succeeded by Pepi II Neferkare. For example, the near-contemporary
South Saqqara Stone {{No footnotes, date=August 2020 The South Saqqara Stone is the lid of the sarcophagus of the ancient Egyptian queen Ankhenespepi, which was inscribed with a list for the reigns of the pharaohs of the 6th Dynasty from Teti, Userkare, Pepi I, Meren ...
, a royal annals inscribed during the reign of either Merenre or Pepi II, gives the succession "Teti → Userkare → Pepi I → Merenre I", making Merenre the fourth king of the Sixth Dynasty. Two more historical sources agree with this chronology: the Abydos king list, written under Seti I which places Merenre I's cartouche as the 37th entry between those of Pepi I and Pepi II, and the
Turin canon The Turin King List, also known as the Turin Royal Canon, is an ancient Egyptian hieratic papyrus thought to date from the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II, now in the Museo Egizio (Egyptian Museum) in Turin. The papyrus is the most extensive list av ...
, a list of kings on papyrus dating to the reign of Ramses II which records Merenre I in the fourth column, third row. Merenre's reign is difficult to date precisely in absolute terms. An absolute chronology referring to dates in our modern calendar is estimated by Egyptologists working backwards by adding reign lengths—themselves uncertain and inferred from historical sources and archaeological evidence—and, in a few cases, using ancient astronomical observations and radiocarbon dates. These methodologies do not agree perfectly and some uncertainty remains. As a result Merenre's rule is dated to some time around the early 23rd century BC.


Duration

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 Biennial means (an event) lasting for two years or occurring every two years. The related term biennium is used in reference to a period of two years. In particular, it can refer to: * Biennial plant, a plant which blooms in its second year and th ...
, occurring every two years. Based on a regular biennial count, the South Saqqara Stone, a contemporary royal annals, credits Merenre with a minimum reign of 11 to 13 years, twice the figure of five to six years attributed to him by historical sources. The 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. He also began a process of royal consolidation, appointing Weni as the first governor of all of
Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. In ancient ...
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.Anthony Spalinger, Dated Texts of the Old Kingdom, SAK 21 (1994), p.307


Accession to the throne: coregency

Pepi's rule seem to have been troubled at times, with at least one conspiracy against him hatched by one of his harem consorts. This may have given him the impetus to ally himself with Khui, the nomarch of Coptos, by marrying his daughters, queens Ankhesenpepi I and II. Egyptologist Naguib Kanawati conjectures that Pepi faced another conspiracy toward the end of his reign, 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 made heir to the throne at the expense of the designated heir 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 who pointed to a gold pendant bearing the names of both Pepi I and Merenre I as living kings, implying that both ruled concurrently for some time. In support of this hypothesis, Hans Goedicke mentions an inscription dated to Merenre's tenth year of reign from Hatnub, contradicting Manetho's figure of seven years for him. This could be evidence that Merenre dated the start of his reign before the end of his father's reign, as a coregency would permit. A possible further piece of evidence for a coregency is given by two copper statues uncovered in an underground store beneath the floor of a Ka-chapel of Pepi in
Hierakonpolis Nekhen ( egy, nḫn, ); in grc, Ἱεράκων πόλις Hierakonpolis ( either: City of the Hawk, or City of the Falcon, a reference to Horus or ''Hierakōn polis'' "Hawk City" in arz, الكوم الأحمر, el-Kōm el-Aḥmar, lit=the ...
. There the Egyptologist
James Quibell James Edward Quibell (11 November 1867 – 5 June 1935) was a British Egyptologist. Life Quibbell was born in Newport, Shropshire. He married the Scottish artist and archaeologist Annie Abernethie Pirie in 1900.Bierbrier, M. L. 2012. ''Who Was ...
uncovered a statue of King
Khasekhemwy Khasekhemwy (ca. 2690 BC; ', also rendered ''Kha-sekhemui'') was the last Pharaoh of the Second Dynasty of Egypt. Little is known about him, other than that he led several significant military campaigns and built the mudbrick fort known as Shune ...
of the
Second Dynasty The Second Dynasty of ancient Egypt (or Dynasty II, c. 2890 – c. 2686 BC) is the latter of the two dynasties of the Egyptian Archaic Period, when the seat of government was centred at Thinis. It is most known for its last ruler, K ...
, 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 Nine Bows is a visual representation in Ancient Egyptian art of foreigners or others. Besides the nine bows, there were no other generic representations of foreigners. Due to its ability to stand in for any nine enemies to Ancient Egypt, the ...
"—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: " erenrewas publicly associated as his father's successor on the occasion of the Jubilee he 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". The existence of the coregency remains uncertain. According to Egyptologists Jaromir Málek and Miroslav Verner, Merenre Nemtyemsaf I ascended the throne at an early age and died young. According to Verner, he may have been appointed coregent by his father Pepy I Meryre who might have tried to make the succession of the throne more secure following an earlier conspiracy. The hypothesis of a coregency is disputed by Vassil Dobrev and Michel Baud who analysed an heavily damaged contemporary royal annals, now known as the
South Saqqara Stone {{No footnotes, date=August 2020 The South Saqqara Stone is the lid of the sarcophagus of the ancient Egyptian queen Ankhenespepi, which was inscribed with a list for the reigns of the pharaohs of the 6th Dynasty from Teti, Userkare, Pepi I, Meren ...
. The annals, which may have been written under either Merenre or Pepi II, strongly suggest that Merenre directly succeeded his father in power with no traces in direct support of an interregnum or coregency. More precisely, the document preserves the record of Pepi I's final year and proceeds immediately to the first year of Merenre. Furthermore, 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 William Joseph Murnane (March 22, 1945 – November 17, 2000) was an American Egyptologist and author of a number of books and monographs on Ancient Egypt. He was director of the Great Hypostyle Hall Project at Luxor Karnak Temple, was a resear ...
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.


Foreign relations

Merenre sent mining expeditions to
Wadi Hammamat Wadi Hammamat ( en, Valley of Many Baths, ''India way; gateway to India'') is a dry river bed in Egypt's Eastern Desert, about halfway between Al-Qusayr and Qena. It was a major mining region and trade route east from the Nile Valley in ancien ...
to collect
greywacke Greywacke or graywacke (German ''grauwacke'', signifying a grey, earthy rock) is a variety of sandstone generally characterized by its hardness, dark color, and poorly sorted angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and small rock fragments or lit ...
and
siltstone Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility.Blatt ''et al.'' 1980, p ...
.
Alabaster Alabaster is a mineral or rock that is soft, often used for carving, and is processed for plaster powder. Archaeologists and the stone processing industry use the word differently from geologists. The former use it in a wider sense that includes ...
was extracted from
Hatnub Hatnub was the location of Egyptian alabaster quarries and an associated seasonally occupied workers' settlement in the Eastern Desert, about from el-Minya, southeast of el-Amarna. The pottery, hieroglyph inscriptions and hieratic graffiti at ...
in the
Eastern Desert The Eastern Desert (Archaically known as Arabia or the Arabian Desert) is the part of the Sahara desert that is located east of the Nile river. It spans of North-Eastern Africa and is bordered by the Nile river to the west and the Red Sea and ...
, a location where an expedition under the leadership of Weni was also tasked with quarrying of a very large
travertine Travertine ( ) is a form of terrestrial limestone deposited around mineral springs, especially hot springs. It often has a fibrous or concentric appearance and exists in white, tan, cream-colored, and even rusty varieties. It is formed by a pro ...
altar stone for the pyramid of Merenre. In parallel, Egypt maintained diplomatic and trade relations with
Byblos Byblos ( ; gr, Βύβλος), also known as Jbeil or Jubayl ( ar, جُبَيْل, Jubayl, locally ; phn, 𐤂𐤁𐤋, , probably ), is a city in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. It is believed to have been first occupied between 880 ...
. During Merenre's reign
Lower Nubia Lower Nubia is the northernmost part of Nubia, roughly contiguous with the modern Lake Nasser, which submerged the historical region in the 1960s with the construction of the Aswan High Dam. Many ancient Lower Nubian monuments, and all its modern p ...
became the focus of Egypt's foreign policy interests. Two rock reliefs depict the king receiving the submission of Nubian chieftains, the earliest of which, located on the ancient route from
Aswan Aswan (, also ; ar, أسوان, ʾAswān ; cop, Ⲥⲟⲩⲁⲛ ) is a city in Southern Egypt, and is the capital of the Aswan Governorate. Aswan is a busy market and tourist centre located just north of the Aswan Dam on the east bank of the ...
to
Philae ; ar, فيلة; cop, ⲡⲓⲗⲁⲕ , alternate_name = , image = File:File, Asuán, Egipto, 2022-04-01, DD 93.jpg , alt = , caption = The temple of Isis from Philae at its current location on Agilkia Island in Lake Nasse ...
, shows Merenre standing on the symbol for the union of the two lands suggesting that it was carved during his first year of reign. Toward the end of the Old Kingdom period, Nubia saw the arrival of the C-Group people from the south. Centered at
Kerma Kerma was the capital city of the Kerma culture, which was located in present-day Sudan at least 5,500 years ago. Kerma is one of the largest archaeological sites in ancient Nubia. It has produced decades of extensive excavations and research, in ...
they struggled intermittently with Egypt and its allies over the region which was the source of incense,
ebony Ebony is a dense black/brown hardwood, coming from several species in the genus ''Diospyros'', which also contains the persimmons. Unlike most woods, ebony is dense enough to sink in water. It is finely textured and has a mirror finish when pol ...
, animal skins, ivory and exotic animals brought back by caravans. Three Egyptian expeditions were sent by Merenre to procure luxury goods from Lower Nubia, were tribes had united to form a state, into the land of Yam, possibly modern-day
Dongola Dongola ( ar, دنقلا, Dunqulā), also spelled ''Dunqulah'', is the capital of the state of Northern Sudan, on the banks of the Nile, and a former Latin Catholic bishopric (14th century). It should not be confused with Old Dongola, an ancien ...
. These expeditions took place under the direction of the nomarch of
Elephantine Elephantine ( ; ; arz, جزيرة الفنتين; el, Ἐλεφαντίνη ''Elephantíne''; , ) is an island on the Nile, forming part of the city of Aswan in Upper Egypt. The archaeological sites on the island were inscribed on the UNESCO ...
Harkhuf. The first one lasted for seven months while the second took eight months. On the third expedition Harkhuf encountered the king of Yam who was then warring against Tjemehu people, possibly Libyans, and joined his forces with those of Yam to defeat their adversaries, thereby gaining riches. After these events, in the year of fifth cattle count since the beginning of his reign, Merenre may have travelled south to Elephantine from his capital to receive the submission of Nubian chieftains, as possibly indicated by his second relief pertaining to the matter, located opposite the cataract island of El-Hesseh. This relief, explicitly dated to the year of his fifth cattle count, mentions the rulers of the Nubian lands of Medja, Irertjt and Wawat kissing the ground and giving praise. On the same occasion, he might also have visited the
temple of Satet The Temple of Satet or Satis was an ancient Egyptian temple dedicated to the goddess Satet, a personification of the Nile inundation. The temple was located on the Nile Valley island of Elephantine, Egypt. Founded during the late Predynastic P ...
on Elephantine island to renew a granite shrine erected by Pepy I. Besides Harkhuf, another Egyptian high official who was active in Nubia at the time was Weni, who began his career under
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 bu ...
, rose through the ranks of the administration under
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 ...
when he became commander of the army and was finally made into the governor of Upper Egypt by Merenre. As chief of the army Weni hired Nubian mercenaries for his military campaigns in Sinai and the Levant, mercenaries which were also frequently employed as police force. Overall, Egyptian activities in Lower Nubia were sufficiently important during the later sixth dynasty that works were undertaken under Weni's direction excavating a canal near modern-day
Shellal Shellal ( ar, شلاّل) is a small ancient village on the banks of the Nile, south of Aswan in Upper Egypt. It was the traditional northern frontier of the Nubian region with both the Egyptian Empire and the Roman Empire. During the period of ...
running parallel to the
Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin language, Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered ...
in order to facilitate the navigation of the first-cataract.


Pyramid

The
pyramid of Merenre The pyramid of Pharaoh Merenre was constructed for Merenre Nemtyemsaf I during the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt at Saqqara to the south-west of the pyramid of Pepi I and a similar distance to the pyramid of Djedkare.Kinnaer, Jacques"The Pyramid of Me ...
which the Ancient Egyptians named ''Khanefermerenre'', variously translated as "Merenre appears in glory and his beautiful", "The perfection of Merenre rises", was built at South
Saqqara Saqqara ( ar, سقارة, ), also spelled Sakkara or Saccara in English , is an Egyptian village in Giza Governorate, that contains ancient burial grounds of Egyptian royalty, serving as the necropolis for the ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis. ...
. The pyramid is located some to the south-west of the
pyramid of Pepi I The pyramid of Pepi I (in ancient Egyptian Men-nefer-Pepi meaning Pepi's splendour is enduring) is the pyramid complex built for the Egyptian pharaoh Pepi I of the Sixth Dynasty in the 24th or 23rd century BC. The complex gave its name to the ...
and a similar distance to the pyramid of Djedkare.Kinnaer, Jacques
"The Pyramid of Merenre I".
Accessed 20 September 2008.
The inner passages of the pyramid were inscribed with the
pyramid texts The Pyramid Texts are the oldest ancient Egyptian funerary texts, dating to the late Old Kingdom. They are the earliest known corpus of ancient Egyptian religious texts. Written in Old Egyptian, the pyramid texts were carved onto the subterranea ...
. A mummy was uncovered in the burial chamber. Forensic analyses indicated that it belonged to a young man, with possible traces of his
sidelock of youth The sidelock of youth (also called a Horus lock, Prince's lock, Princess' lock, or side braid) was an identifying characteristic of the child in Ancient Egypt. It symbolically indicates that the wearer is a legitimate heir of Osiris. The sidelock ...
still visible. The identity of the mummy remains uncertain as Elliott Smith, who performed the analyses, observed that the technique employed for the wrapping was typical of the eighteenth dynasty (fl. c. 1550–1292 BC) rather than the sixth. Re-wrapping of older mummies are known to have occurred so that this observation does not necessarily preclude that the mummy be that of Merenre. For the remainder of the Old Kingdom period, the funerary cult of Merenre I had active priests even outside of his Saqqara mortuary temple, for example inscriptions in
Elkab Elkab, also spelled El-Kab or El Kab, is an Upper Egyptian site on the east bank of the Nile at the mouth of the Wadi Hillal about south of Luxor (ancient Thebes). Elkab was called Nekheb in the Egyptian language ( , Late Coptic: ), a name th ...
attest to the presence of priests of his cult officiating in or in the vicinity of the local temple of
Nekhbet Nekhbet (; also spelt Nekhebit) is an early predynastic local goddess in Egyptian mythology, who was the patron of the city of Nekheb (her name meaning ''of Nekheb''). Ultimately, she became the patron of Upper Egypt and one of the two patron d ...
.


Notes


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nemtyemsaf, Merenre, I 23rd-century BC Pharaohs Pharaohs of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt 23rd-century BC deaths