Merenre Nemtyemsaf II (died 2213 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 sixth and penultimate ruler of the

6th 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. History The Sixth Dynasty is considered by many authorities as the last dynasty of the ...

. 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 In ancient Egyptian history, the Old Kingdom is the period spanning –2200 BC. It is also known as the "Age of the Pyramids" or the "Age of the Pyramid Builders", as it encompasses the reigns of the great pyramid-builders of the Fourth Dynast ...

period. Nemtyemsaf II likely ascended the throne as an old man, succeeding his long-lived father

Pepi II Neferkare Pepi II Neferkare ( 2284 BC – 2214 BC) was a king of the Sixth Dynasty in Egypt's Old Kingdom. 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 Nemty ...

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 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 (r. 1279–1213 BC), now in the Museo Egizio (Egyptian Museum) in Turin. The papyrus is the m ...

, a king list redacted in 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 ...

. 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.Darrell D. Baker: ''The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume I - Predynastic to the Twentieth Dynasty 3300–1069 BC'', Stacey International, , 2008, p. 211–212 Abydos KL 06-06 n39

Nemtyemsaf II is also attested on the 39th entry of 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 ...

, which dates to 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 ...

and constitutes one of the best preserved historical records for the end of the

and beginning of 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 ...

. 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 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 ...

's ''

Aegyptiaca 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 ...

'', 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.Jürgen von Beckerath: ''Chronologie des pharaonischen Ägypten'' (Chronology of the Egyptian Pharaohs), Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern (1997), p. 152. There is only one contemporary artefact known for sure to belong to Nemtyemsaf II. It is a damaged

false door A false door, or recessed niche, is an artistic representation of a door which does not function like a real door. They can be carved in a wall or painted on it. They are a common architectural element in the tombs of ancient Egypt, but appeared p ...

inscribed with ''Sa-nesu semsu Nemtyemsaf,'' meaning "The elder king's son Nemtyemsaf", and was discovered near the site of the pyramid of

Neith Neith (, a borrowing of the Demotic (Egyptian), Demotic form , also spelled Nit, Net, or Neit) was an ancient Egyptian deity, possibly of Ancient Libya, Libyan origin. She was connected with warfare, as indicated by her emblem of two crossed b ...

, Pepi II's half-sister and queen and most likely Nemtyemsaf II's mother.Aidan Dodson and Dyan Hilton: ''The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt'', Thames & Hudson (2004), , see p. 73 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 king. A second artefact may possibly belong to Nemtyemsaf II: a decree to protect the funerary cults of queens

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 w ...

and

discovered in the mortuary temple of queen Neith. If this decree was indeed issued by Nemtyemsaf II, his

Horus name The Horus name is the oldest known and used crest of ancient Egyptian rulers. It belongs to the " great five names" of an Egyptian pharaoh. However, modern Egyptologists and linguists are starting to prefer the more neutral term "serekh name". T ...

would be ''S ..awy'' 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 around 64 years. 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

nomarch A nomarch (, Great Chief) was a provincial governor in ancient Egypt; the country was divided into 42 provinces, called Nome (Egypt), nomes (singular , plural ). A nomarch was the government official responsible for a nome. Etymology The te ...

s. 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 Saqqara ( : saqqāra ), also spelled Sakkara or Saccara in English , is an Egyptian village in the markaz (county) of Badrashin in the Giza Governorate, that contains ancient burial grounds of Egyptian royalty, serving as the necropolis for ...

, close to that of his father.

Herodotus story

In his ''

Histories Histories or, in Latin, Historiae may refer to: * the plural of history * ''Histories'' (Herodotus), by Herodotus * ''The Histories'', by Timaeus * ''The Histories'' (Polybius), by Polybius * ''Histories'' by Gaius Sallustius Crispus (Sallust) ...

'', the Greek historian

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

records a legend according to which an Egyptian queen

Nitocris Nitocris () possibly was the last queen of the Sixth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. Her name is found in writings long considered as relatively accurate resources: a major chronological documentation of the reigns of the kings of ancient Egypt that wa ...

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.

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, 127, 2000. See p. 91

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Merenre Nemtyemsaf 2 Nemtyemsaf 02 Pepi II Neferkare Ancient murdered monarchs 3rd-millennium BC births 3rd-millennium BC deaths