Sewadjenre Nebiryraw (also Nebiriau I, Nebiryerawet I) 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 ...
of the
Theban-based
16th Dynasty, during the
Second Intermediate Period
The Second Intermediate Period marks a period when ancient Egypt fell into disarray for a second time, between the end of the Middle Kingdom and the start of the New Kingdom. The concept of a "Second Intermediate Period" was coined in 1942 by ...
.
Reign
On 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 ...
he is credited with a 26-year-long reign and was succeeded by his namesake
Nebiryraw II, who may have been his son.
[, pp. 155, 202] All the seals issued by Nebiryraw were made of clay or
frit
A frit is a ceramic composition that has been fused, quenched, and granulated. Frits form an important part of the batches used in compounding enamels and ceramic glazes; the purpose of this pre-fusion is to render any soluble and/or toxic compo ...
rather than the usual
steatite
Soapstone (also known as steatite or soaprock) is a talc-schist, which is a type of metamorphic rock. It is composed largely of the magnesium rich mineral talc. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occur in the zo ...
which implies there were no mining expeditions dispatched to 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 ...
region of Egypt during his reign. Two seals of this king were found at
Lisht
Lisht or el-Lisht ( ar, اللشت, translit=Al-Lišt) is an Egyptian village located south of Cairo. It is the site of Middle Kingdom royal and elite burials, including two pyramids built by Amenemhat I and Senusret I. The two main pyramids were ...
which at the time was part of the
Hyksos
Hyksos (; Egyptian '' ḥqꜣ(w)- ḫꜣswt'', Egyptological pronunciation: ''hekau khasut'', "ruler(s) of foreign lands") is a term which, in modern Egyptology, designates the kings of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt (fl. c. 1650–1550 BC).
T ...
realm; this finding may demonstrate diplomatic contacts between the Theban dynasty and the Hyksos during Nebiryraw's reign, although this is uncertain.
Attestations
Besides the mention in the Turin Canon and the aforementioned seals, Nebiryraw I is mainly known from the
Juridical Stela, a well known administrative document dated to his regnal Year 1, now at the
Cairo Museum
The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum or the Cairo Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display ...
(JE 52453).
Also in Cairo (JE 33702) there is a
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
dagger bearing his throne name, discovered by
Flinders Petrie
Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie ( – ), commonly known as simply Flinders Petrie, was a British Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and the preservation of artefacts. He held the first chair of Egypt ...
in a cemetery at
Hu, in late 1890s. Nebiryraw is also depicted along with the goddess
Maat
Maat or Maʽat ( Egyptian:
mꜣꜥt /ˈmuʀʕat/, Coptic: ⲙⲉⲓ) refers to the ancient Egyptian concepts of truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, and justice. Ma'at was also the goddess who personified these concepts, and regul ...
on a small stela which is part of the Egyptian collection located in
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...
.
Nebiryraw's throne name ''Sewadjenre'' (along with the epithets "
good god" and "
deceased
Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...
") appears on the base of a
bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
statuette of the god
Harpocrates
Harpocrates ( grc, Ἁρποκράτης, Phoenician: 𐤇𐤓𐤐𐤊𐤓𐤈, romanized: ḥrpkrṭ, ''harpokrates'') was the god of silence, secrets and confidentiality in the Hellenistic religion developed in Ptolemaic Alexandria (and also ...
now in Cairo (JE 38189), along with other royal names, two of them – Ahmose and Binpu – apparently belonging to princes of the
17th Dynasty
The Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XVII, alternatively 17th Dynasty or Dynasty 17) was a dynasty of pharaohs that ruled in Upper Egypt during the late Second Intermediate Period, approximately from 1580 to 1550 BC. Its mainly Theba ...
which would replace the 16th Dynasty shortly thereafter. The statuette also mentions a "good god Neferkare, deceased" which is generally believed to be the throne name of Nebiryraw's purported son and successor, Nebiryraw II. The statuette is clearly non-contemporary, however, since the cult of Harpocrates was introduced during the
Ptolemaic period i.e. about 1500 years after the people named on the statuette had lived.
[, p. 55]
References
External links
scarab of Nebiriau I
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nebiryraw 01
17th-century BC Pharaohs
Pharaohs of the Sixteenth Dynasty of Egypt
17th-century BC deaths
Year of birth unknown