Seventh pharaoh of the second Egyptian dynasty
Neferkasokar
(
Ancient Egyptian
Nefer
-
Ka
-
Seker
; which means “beautiful soul of Sokar” or “the soul of Sokar is complete”) was an Ancient Egyptian king (
pharaoh
) who may have ruled in Egypt during the
2nd Dynasty
. Very little is known about him, since no contemporary records about him have been found. Rather his name has been found in later sources.
[1]
Name sources
[
edit
]
Neferkasokar appears in the
Saqqara king list
from the tomb of the high priest
Tjuneroy
, where he is recorded as succeeding king Neferkare I and precedes king Hudjefa I in the ninth cartouche.
[2]
He also appears in the
Royal Canon of Turin
as the successor of a king
Neferkara I
and as the predecessor of king
Hudjefa I
. His cartouche can be found in column III, line 1. The Turin papyrus records him having a reign of 8 years and 3 months.
[3]
Furthermore, Neferkasokar's name appears on a
steatite
cylinder seal of unknown provenance. The inscription bears the king's name twice within royal cartouches. The first cartouche shows the name of the god
Sokar
on top, whilst the second cartouche places the syllable
Neferka
above the god's name. A guiding inscription says
Meri-netjeru
, which means "beloved one of the gods". This titulary was common from the Middle Kingdom onwards, thus the cylinder seal is not likely to originate from the 2nd Dynasty. Most Egyptologists date the object to the
13th Dynasty
. Some Egyptologists also question the authenticity of the seal.
[4]
Neferkasokar also plays an important role in a papyrus originating from the
Middle Kingdom
. The text was translated around 237 BC into the
demotic
language and is preserved in papyrus
p. Wien D6319
. The papyrus gives
instructions
on how to build temples and how the temple priests should perform their tasks.
The papyrus also includes a story that royal scribes under the supervision of prince
Djedefhor
had discovered an old document in a forgotten chamber, which was sealed by king Neferkasokar. The discovered papyrus contained a report of a
famine
that affected Egypt for seven years and king Neferkasokar was instructed by a celestial oracle through a dream to restore all Egyptian temples. When the king finished his mission successfully, the
Nile
started flowing normally again.
As a result, Neferkasokar issues a
decree
which is rediscovered by prince Djedefhor.
[5]
Egyptologist
and
linguist
Joachim Friedrich Quack
later gave this treatise the name "Book of the Temple".
[6]
Reign
[
edit
]
Very little is known about Neferkasokar's reign. Egyptologists such as
Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen Edwards
and
Walter Bryan Emery
think that Neferkasokar ruled only in
Lower Egypt
, since his name appeared in the Sakkara king list, but is missing from the Abydos king list while the Sakkara king lists reflect
Memphite
traditions. Neferkasokar is also thought to have ruled in Lower Egypt around the same time that kings such as
Peribsen
and
Sekhemib-Perenmaat
ruled in Upper Egypt. This assumption would be consistent with the view of a number of Egyptologists that at that time Egypt was divided into two parts. The theory of a divided realm since the end of king
Nynetjer
's reign is based on a study of the name of king Peribsen, whose name is connected to the
Ombite
deity
Seth
to show that he came from Ombos and ruled an area that included Ombos. Peribsen himself is contemporaneously documented in materials found in the
Thinite
region, but was excluded from documentation associated with the Memphites. His case therefore corresponds to Neferkasokar's case, but for Lower Egypt. Neferkasokar's predecessors may have been king
Senedj
and king
Neferkara I
; his successor may have been king
Hudjefa I
.
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
External links
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Thomas Schneider
:
Lexikon der Pharaonen
. Albatros, Dusseldorf 2002,
ISBN
3-491-96053-3
, page 175.
- ^
Jan Assmann, Elke Blumenthal, Georges Posener:
Literatur und Politik im pharaonischen und ptolemaischen Agypten
. Institut francais d'archeologie orientale, Paris/Kairo 1999,
ISBN
2-7247-0251-4
, page 277.
- ^
Alan H. Gardiner:
The Royal Canon of Turin
. Griffith Institute of Oxford, Oxford (UK) 1997,
ISBN
0-900416-48-3
; page 15 & Table I.
- ^
Jurgen von Beckerath:
Handbuch der agyptischen Konigsnamen
.
Deutscher Kunstverlag
, Munchen-Berlin 1984,
ISBN
3-422-00832-2
; page 29.
- ^
Martin A. Stadler:
Weiser und Wesir: Studien zu Vorkommen, Rolle und Wesen des Gottes Thot im agyptischen Totenbuch.
Mohr Siebeck, 2009,
ISBN
3-16-149854-2
; page 84 & 85.
- ^
Joachim Friedrich Quack:
Ein agyptisches Handbuch des Tempels und seine griechische Ubersetzung
. Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie und Epigraphik 119, 1997, S. 297?300.
- ^
Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen Edwards:
The Cambridge ancient history Vol. 1, Pt. 2: Early history of the Middle East, 3. Ausgabe (Reprint)
. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2006,
ISBN
0-521-07791-5
; page 35.
- ^
Wolfgang Helck:
Untersuchungen zur Thinitenzeit.
Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1987,
ISBN
3-447-02677-4
page 35.
- ^
Walter Bryan Emery: Agypten, Geschichte und Kultur der Fruhzeit, 3200-2800 v. Chr. Fourier, Munic 1964; page 19.
- ^
Herman Alexander Schlogl:
Das Alte Agypten
. Beck, Hamburg 2006,
ISBN
3-406-54988-8
; page 77 - 78.
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