Neferkaure
{{Short description|Egyptian pharaoh}}
{{Infobox pharaoh
|name=Neferkaure
|alt_name= Neferkawre, Kha[bau?]
|Image=Abydos KL 07-15 n54.jpg
|Caption=The cartouche of Neferkaure on the Abydos King List
|prenomen = Neferkaure
Nfr k3.w Rˁ
Perfect are the Kas of Ra
|prenomen_hiero =
|golden=
|nebty=
|horus=Kha[bau?]
Ḫ3-[...]
|horus_hiero=
|predecessor=Qakare Ibi
|Dynasty=8th Dynasty
|father=
|mother=
|children=
|birth_date=
|death_date=c. 2163 BC
|burial=
|monuments=
|Reign=Around 4 years and 2 months, c. 2167 – c. 2163 BC|Predecessor=Possibly Ibi|Successor=Possibly Khuwihapi}}
Neferkaure (died {{Circa}} 2163 BC) was a king of ancient Egypt during the First Intermediate Period. According to the Abydos King List and the latest reconstruction of the Turin canon by Kim Ryholt, he was the 15th king of the Eighth Dynasty.Kim Ryholt: The Late Old Kingdom in the Turin King-list and the Identity of Nitocris, Zeitschrift für ägyptische, 127, 2000, p. 99 This opinion is shared by the Egyptologists Jürgen Beckerath, Thomas Schneider, and Darell Baker.Jürgen von Beckerath: Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen. Deutscher Kunstverlag, München/ Berlin 1984, {{ISBN|3-422-00832-2}}, p. 59, 187.Thomas Schneider: Lexikon der Pharaonen. Albatros, Düsseldorf 2002, {{ISBN|3-491-96053-3}}, p. 174.Darrell D. Baker: The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume I - Predynastic to the Twentieth Dynasty 3300–1069 BC, Stacey International, {{ISBN|978-1-905299-37-9}}, 2008, p. 272-273 As a king of the Eighth Dynasty, Neferkaure's seat of power was MemphisIan Shaw: The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, {{ISBN|978-0192804587}} and he may not have held power over all of Egypt.
Attestations
Neferkaure is named on the 54th entry of the Abydos King List, a king list redacted some 900 years after the First Intermediate Period during the reign of Seti I. Neferkaure's name is lost in a lacuna of the Turin canon affecting column 5, line 11 of the document. The length of Neferkaure's reign is nonetheless preserved with "4 years and 2 months".Jürgen von Beckerath: The Date of the End of the Old Kingdom of Egypt, JNES 21 (1962), p.143
Neferkaure is also known from a contemporary inscription, a fragmentary decree inscribed on a limestone slab known as Coptos Decree h and concerning offerings for the temple of Min at Coptos. One of the two existing fragments of this decree was given by Edward Harkness to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it is now on display in Gallery 103.The decree on the [http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/552242 catalog of the MET]
The decree is dated to the fourth regnal year of Neferkaure, which is the highest attested date of any king of the Eighth Dynasty.William C. Hayes: The Scepter of Egypt: A Background for the Study of the Egyptian Antiquities in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 1, From the Earliest Times to the End of the Middle Kingdom , MetPublications, 1978, pp.136-138, [http://www.metmuseum.org/research/metpublications/The_Scepter_of_Egypt_Vol_1_From_the_Earliest_Times_to_the_End_of_the_Middle_Kingdom available online] The first sign of the king's Horus name is clearly present while the second sign is debated. von Beckerath commits only to the first sign and reads Kha[...], while Baker and William C. Hayes read Khabau. The decree is addressed to the then governor of Upper Egypt, Shemay, and requires that fixed amounts of offerings be given at regular intervals to the god Min and then possibly to a statue of the king.
References
{{reflist}}
{{s-start}}
{{s-bef
| before = Possibly Ibi
}}
{{s-ttl
| title = King of Egypt
| years = c. 2167 – c. 2163 BC
}}
{{s-aft
| after = Possibly Khuwihapi
}}
{{end}}
{{Pharaohs}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Neferkaure}}
Category:22nd-century BC pharaohs
Category:Pharaohs of the Eighth Dynasty of Egypt