Nerikare was an

Egyptian Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...

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 ...

of the

13th Dynasty In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The interval can be also described as a compound sixth, spanning an octave p ...

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 b ...

. According to the Egyptologists

Kim Ryholt Kim Steven Bardrum Ryholt (born 19 June 1970) 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 Formation in the Earliest Litera ...

and Darrell Baker, he was the third king of the dynasty, reigning for a short time in 1796 BC. K.S.B. Ryholt: ''The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, c. 1800 – 1550 BC'', Carsten Niebuhr Institute Publications, vol. 20. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1997 Alternatively

Jürgen von Beckerath Jürgen von Beckerath (19 February 1920, Hanover – 26 June 2016, Schlehdorf) was a German Egyptologist. He was a prolific writer who published countless articles in journals such as '' Orientalia'', ''Göttinger Miszellen'' (GM), '' Journal of ...

sees Nerikare as the twenty-third king of the 13th Dynasty, reigning after

Sehetepkare Intef Sehetepkare Intef (also known as Intef IV or Intef V) was the twenty-third king of the 13th Dynasty during the Second intermediate period. Sehetepkare Intef reigned from Memphis for a short period, certainly less than ten years, between 1759 BC an ...

: ''Untersuchungen zur politischen Geschichte der Zweiten Zwischenzeit in Ägypten'', Glückstadt, 1964

: ''Chronologie des pharaonischen Ägyptens'', Münchner Ägyptologische Studien 46. Mainz am Rhein, 1997

Attestations

Nerikare is known primarily from a single stele dated to year 1 of his reign. The stele was published in 1897 but is now lost. Karl Richard Lepsius: ''Denkmaler'' Abtheilung II Band I
Available online see p. 152
Lepsius: ''Denkmaler, Text'', I (1897) 15 In addition, the prenomen of a king who could be Nerikare is attested on a Nile record from

Semna The region of Semna is 15 miles south of Wadi Halfa and is situated where rocks cross the Nile narrowing its flow—the Semna Cataract. Semna was a fortified area established in the reign of Senusret I (1965–1920 BC) on the west bank of the N ...

, near the second cataract of the Nile in

Nubia Nubia () (Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), or ...

. The record is dated to the first regnal year of this king, whose name was read as "Djefakare" by egyptologists F. Hintze and W. F. Reineke.

however notes that the prenomen was misread by the discoverers of the record with Gardiner's sign G14 ''nry'', representing a vulture, mistaken for the sign G42 representing a duck and reading ''ḏf3''. Thus, Ryholt and others, such as Darrell Baker, now reads the name as "Nerikare".

Chronological position

Ryholt points out that known Nile records, which are similar to the one he attributes to Nerikare, all date to the time period from the late 12th to early 13th dynasties. He thus concludes that Nerikare too must have been a king of this time period, and since "Nerikare" does not appear 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 ...

, Ryholt proposes that he was mentioned in the ''wsf'' lacuna affecting the third king of the dynasty in the Turin canon (column 7, line 6). A ''wsf'' (literally "missing") lacuna signals a lacuna in the document from which the Turin canon was copied in Ramesside times. This would establish Nerikare as the third king of the dynasty, although the lacuna might have comprised two kings and Nerikare could possibly be the fourth ruler, following an unknown king. The duration of Nerikare's reign is reported as exactly 6 years on the Turin canon, however Ryholt has shown that this is true for all kings marked as ''wsf'' and that this figure was likely inserted by the author of the king list in order to avoid chronological gaps. Instead, Ryholt proposes that Nerikare reigned for only 1 year. Furthermore, the existence of a Nile record dated to his first regnal year indicates that he accessed the throne at the beginning of a calendar year, before the season of inundation during which such records were inscribed.See Ryholt, p. 321

Nomen

In his 1997 study of the second intermediate period,

proposes that Nerikare's nomen may have been "Sobek". This nomen appears on three seals, which can be dated to the 13th dynasty, before

Sobekhotep III Sobekhotep III (throne name: Sekhemre-sewadjtawy) was an Egyptian king of the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt who reigned three to four years, c. 1740 BC or 1700 BC. Family Parents and siblings The family of the king is known from several sources. ...

. Since the nomina of all but two kings of this period are known, he argues that only Nerikare or

Sekhemrekhutawy Khabaw Sekhemrekhutawy Khabaw was an Ancient Egypt, Egyptian pharaoh of the early Thirteenth dynasty of Egypt, 13th Dynasty during the Second Intermediate Period. Attestations Khabaw is well attested through archaeological finds. Fragments of a red gr ...

might have borne this nomen.See Ryholt, note 89 p.34

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nerikare 18th-century BC Pharaohs Pharaohs of the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt