Menkare (died 2200 BC) was an

ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

ian

king King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

, the first or second ruler of the Eighth Dynasty. Menkare probably reigned a short time at the transition between the Old Kingdom period and the

First Intermediate Period The First Intermediate Period, described as a 'dark period' in ancient Egyptian history, spanned approximately 125 years, c. 2181–2055 BC, after the end of the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Old Kingdom. It comprises the seventh Dynasty, Seventh (altho ...

, in the early 22nd century BC.Darrell D. Baker: ''The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume I - Predynastic to the Twentieth Dynasty 3300–1069 BC'', Stacey International, , 2008, p. 197 The rapid succession of brief reigns at the time suggests times of hardship, possibly related to a widespread

aridification Aridification is the process of a region becoming increasingly arid, or dry. It refers to long term change, rather than seasonal variation. It is often measured as the reduction of average soil moisture content. It can be caused by reduced preci ...

of the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

, known as the 4.2 kiloyear event. As a king of the Eighth Dynasty, according to

Manetho Manetho (; ''Manéthōn'', ''gen''.: Μανέθωνος, ''fl''. 290–260 BCE) was an Egyptian priest of the Ptolemaic Kingdom who lived in the early third century BCE, at the very beginning of the Hellenistic period. Little is certain about his ...

, Menkare's seat of power would have been Memphis. __FORCETOC__

Attestations

;Historical source Menkare's only secure historical source is the

Abydos king list The Abydos King List, also known as the Abydos Table or the Abydos Tablet, is a list of the names of 76 kings of ancient Egypt, found on a wall of the Temple of Seti I at Abydos, Egypt. It consists of three rows of 38 cartouches (borders enclos ...

, a list of kings redacted during the reign of

Seti I Menmaatre Seti I (or Sethos I in Greek language, Greek) was the second pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt during the New Kingdom of Egypt, New Kingdom period, ruling or 1290 BC to 1279 BC. He was the son of Ramesses I and Sitre, and th ...

for religious purposes and which today serves as the primary historical source for kings of the early First Intermediate Period. The

praenomen The praenomen (; plural: praenomina) was a first name chosen by the parents of a Ancient Rome, Roman child. It was first bestowed on the ''dies lustricus'' (day of lustration), the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the ...

''Menkare'' appears on the 41st entry of the list. Another king list redacted during the early

Ramesside period The New Kingdom, also called the Egyptian Empire, refers to ancient Egypt between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC. This period of ancient Egyptian history covers the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth dynasties. Through radioc ...

, the Turin canon, may have listed Menkare as well. Unfortunately, a large lacuna affects the papyrus of the canon where Menkare's name would have been listed.

Kim Ryholt Kim Steven Bardrum Ryholt (born 19 June 1970) is a Danish Egyptologist. He is a professor of Egyptology at the University of Copenhagen and a specialist on Egyptian history and literature. He is director of the research centeCanon and Identity F ...

: ''The Late Old Kingdom in the Turin King-list and the Identity of Nitocris'', Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 127:87–100, (2000). ;Contemporaneous source The tomb of queen Neit in South Saqqara houses a relief showing the queen in front of a damaged royal cartouche. The Egyptologist Percy Newberry proposed that the cartouche reads ''Menkare'', which would thus be the sole contemporaneous attestation for this king having survived to this day. This opinion is shared by Gae Callender, who reexamined Jéquier's plates of the inscription. ;A source from a later period Seal Menkare

Another possible, though not contemporaneous, attestation of Menkare is a cylinder seal made of glazed

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 subdu ...

, now in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

under the catalog number 30557, and inscribed with the text "''The Good God, Lord of the Two Lands, Menkare''". Harry Reginald Hall: ''Catalogue of Egyptian Scarabs, etc., in the British Museum'', vol I: ''Royal Scarabs'', British Museum 1913
available online
see p. 272 seal num 2650. The seal dates to the 26th Dynasty, some 1,700 years after Menkare's lifetime. The attribution of the seal to Menkare is unlikely: given that Menkare is a rather obscure king, some scholars have suggested instead that the seal bears a mistake and actually refers to the better known pharaoh

Menkaure Menkaure or Menkaura (; 2550 BC - 2503 BC) was a king of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt during the Old Kingdom. He is well known under his Hellenized names Mykerinos ( by Herodotus), in turn Latinized as Mycerinus, and Menkheres ( by Manetho). ...

, builder of the third pyramid of Giza.

Refuted identification with Nitocris

In an old hypothesis, the Egyptologist

Flinders Petrie Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie ( – ), commonly known as simply Sir Flinders Petrie, was an English people, English Egyptology, Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and the preservation of artefacts. ...

suggested that Menkare should be equated with queen Nitocris, a legendary figure appearing in Herodotus' '' Histories'' and

's '' Aegyptiaca'' and who is believed to have lived close to Menkare's lifetime. Petrie based his hypothesis on the fact that Nitocris is credited with the construction of the third pyramid of Giza by Manetho. Since this pyramid was in fact built by Menkaure, Petrie surmised that Manetho fell victim to a tradition which had confused Menkare and Menkaure.

: ''A History of Egypt'', Volume 1, 1902
available online
see p. 86, 104–105. Similarly, the seal would seem to be another manifestation of this confusion. Petrie's hypothesis has been thoroughly disproven by modern analyses of the Turin canon however, and Nitocris is now known to originate from the names of the real ruler Netjerkare Siptah. The attribution of the seal remains uncertain.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Menkare 23rd-century BC pharaohs 22nd-century BC pharaohs Pharaohs of the Eighth Dynasty of Egypt 3rd-millennium BC births 3rd-millennium BC deaths