Nebiriau II (also Nebiryraw II, Nebiryerawet II) 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

pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian language, Egyptian: ''wikt:pr ꜥꜣ, pr ꜥꜣ''; Meroitic language, Meroitic: 𐦲𐦤𐦧, ; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') was the title of the monarch of ancient Egypt from the First Dynasty of Egypt, First Dynasty ( ...

of the Theban-based 16th Dynasty, during the

Second Intermediate Period The Second Intermediate Period dates from 1700 to 1550 BC. It marks a period when ancient Egypt was divided into smaller dynasties for a second time, between the end of the Middle Kingdom and the start of the New Kingdom. The concept of a Secon ...

Identity

He is commonly assumed by some Egyptologists to be the son of his predecessor

Nebiryraw I Sewadjenre Nebiryraw (also Nebiriau I, Nebiryerawet I) was an ancient Egyptian king of the Theban-based 16th Dynasty, during the Second Intermediate Period. Attestations His main attestation is in the Thebaid region, the Juridical Stela prese ...

, given the rarity of the name ''Nebiriau'' in Egyptian historical sources. Unlike his presumed father who ruled

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ', shortened to , , locally: ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the Nile River valley south of the delta and the 30th parallel North. It thus consists of the entire Nile River valley from Cairo south to Lake N ...

for 26 years, he was an obscure king who is completely unattested by contemporary archaeological sources.Ryholt, p.201 The only two non-contemporary attestations for Nebiriau II are the mention of his personal name on the Ramesside

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 ...

(position 13.5, his throne name was lost), and 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 metalloid ...

statuette of the god

Harpocrates Harpocrates (, Phoenician language, Phoenician: 𐤇𐤓𐤐𐤊𐤓𐤈, romanized: ḥrpkrṭ, ''harpokratēs'') is the god of silence, secrets and confidentiality in the Hellenistic religion developed in History of Alexandria#Ptolemaic era ...

(Cairo 38189). The four sides of the base of the statue were inscribed with the names written into cartouches; these are "Binpu", "Ahmose", "The good god Sewadjenre, deceased" and "The good god Neferkare, deceased" respectively.

Donald B. Redford Donald Bruce Redford (2 September 1934 – 18 October 2024) was a Canadian Egyptologist, archaeologist, and Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies at Pennsylvania State University; he retired in 2024. Redford directed a number of ...

(1986). ''Pharaonic king-lists, annals and day-books: a contribution to the study of the Egyptian sense of history''. Mississauga: Benben Publications, , p. 55 The first two were likely two princes of the royal family of the 17th Dynasty which would replace the 16th Dynasty shortly thereafter; Sewadjenre was the throne name of Nebiriau I and finally, it is believed that Neferkare is the otherwise unattested throne name of Nebiriau II. The finding is also peculiar because the cult of Harpocrates – and thus the statuette itself – dates back to the

Ptolemaic period The Ptolemaic Kingdom (; , ) or Ptolemaic Empire was an ancient Greek polity based in Egypt during the Hellenistic period. It was founded in 305 BC by the Macedonian Greek general Ptolemy I Soter, a companion of Alexander the Great, and ruled ...

i.e. about 1500 years after the people named on the statuette had lived. Nebiriau II was succeeded by an equally obscure king named Semenre who is attested by a single axe – inscribed with his throne name – and then by Seuserenre Bebiankh who is given 12 years in the Turin Canon.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nebiryraw 02 17th-century BC pharaohs 16th-century BC pharaohs Pharaohs of the Sixteenth Dynasty of Egypt