Neferefre 2419-2416 B.C

 

Neferefre Quick Facts

Chronology
Dynasty: 5th
Predecessor: Shepseskare
Successor: Niuserre
Highest Year: year of accessionFamily
Father: Neferirkare
Mother: Khentkaus II

Neferefre was the first of two sons of Neferikare to have succeeded his father. His reign lasted only a few years, enough, however, to have started a funerary complex at Abusir and to have left behind a few exquisite statues.

Biography of Neferefre

Neferefre was the first son of Neferirkare and Khentkaus II to come to the throne. He was probably preceded by Shepseskare, an ephemeral king who appears to have claimed the throne after Neferirkare. 
The Turin King-list is too fragmentary to provide us with the length of Neferefre's reign. The highest recorded year reference is the year of the accession of this king, making it unlikely that he had a very long reign. From the few remains of the mummy that was found in his tomb, and assuming these remains belonged to Neferefre himself, it has been suggested that the king may have died at the age of about 22 or 23.
He built a solar-temple named Hetep-Re, which has not yet been identified, and, at Abusir, started with the building of his own pyramid complex. The complex was left unfinished, an indication of a short reign indeed.

Neferefre Statuary

Several lovely statues of Neferefre were found during the excavation works at the remains of his funerary complex in Abusir.

Neferefre on a Throne

The restored statue of Neferefre.
Source: Verner, Abusir, p. 129.

Three fragments of a lovely statuette of Neferefre were found in his mortuary temple at Abusir by the Czech expedition of 1984/85. The largest fragment is of the torso and head with only part of the left arm and a sceptre missing. The second fragment is a portion of the statue's upper legs, confirming that this was a statue representing the king seated on his throne. The third and smallest fragment is part of the king’s right foot.
The king is represented wearing a short wig, but the uraeus, most likely crafted in a different material, is missing. His face is round, with fairly narrow eyes and full lips. The falcon-god Horus spreads his wings in a protective gesture behind the king’s head.
In his right hand, he holds a sceptre, part of which is missing. The right arm is broken off slightly above the elbow. Similar but better preserved statues of other kings, such as Khefren or Mykerinos, show that had the statuette’s left arm been preserved, the kings left hand would have rested on his knees, either stretched with the palm down, or clutched in a fist grasping a cloth.
Only part of the legs has been preserved, with the left leg being more damaged than the right.  The throne on which the king was seated is missing completely, as are the lower legs and the left foot. Of the right foot, only the toes are preserved, as well as part of the statue's base where the king's prenomen has been inscribed.

Striding Neferefre Statuette

80 cm in height, this is the largest statue of Neferefre, found at his funerary temple. Made of basalt, it represents the king, striding forward. He wears the White Crown, symbol of Upper Egypt, while in his right hand, he holds a mace.
It was found during the excavations at Neferefre’s Mortuary Temple at Abusir and is now part of the collection of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Source: Verner,  Abusir, Realm of Osiris, p. 128.

Torso and head of Neferefre

Torso and head of Neferefre.
Source: Verner, Abusir, p. 127.

The upper part of a small statue of Neferefre was found at his mortuary temple in Abusir. The head, torso and the upper parts of both arms have been preserved. From the position of the arms, it is clear that this statue represented the king while seated on a throne. Both arms would have been resting on his knees, one hand perhaps clutched in a fist and holding a piece of cloth!
The king wears the Nemes headdress,  an indication of his royal status. A false beard not only confirms his royalty, but also gives additional support to the statue’s head.
The fragment is 23.8 cm high, approximately half the height of the complete statue, which would have been between 45 and 50 cm high.

Fragment of a head of Neferefre

Head fragment of Neferefre.
Source: Verner, Abusir, p. 125.

Found at the funerary temple of Neferefre, this small diorite fragment shows the king wearing the nemes headdress and the false beard, both signs of royalty. 
The statue was damaged by fire, but it cannot be ascertained whether the cause of this fire was deliberate or accidental.

Titulary of Neferefre

Horus Name

1. Hr nfr xawHorus, beautiful of apparition

Nebti Name

2. nfr m nb.tjThe one who is beautiful with the Two Ladies
   

Golden Falcon Name

3. nfr bik nbwThe golden falcon is beautiful

Prenomen

4. nfr=f raNeferefre

Nomen

5. isiIsi

Kinglists

6. nfr xa raNeferkhare

Manetho
Africanus: Cherês
Eusebius: Eusebius does not mention this king.
Alternative names in modern-day literature
Neferefra, Reneferef, Raneferef

Pyramid Complex of Neferefre

Based on the Abusir Papyri, it was longtime suspected that Neferefre’s funerary monument had to be located at Abusir, but it took until the early 1970s for the remains of the unfinished pyramid complex which lay to the southwest of Neferirkare's to be identified as his.
The pyramid itself was indeed left unfinished, and the accompanying mortuary temple was but finished in the years following Neferefre's early death. No Satellite or Queen's Pyramids appear to have been built, nor has there been a trace of a causeway and a Valley Temple.

Interactive map of the Pyramid and Mortuary Temple of Neferefre. Click or tap on the little circles to learn more about the different elements of this monument.
Source: Lehner, Complete Pyramids, p. 147.

The King’s Pyramid
Neferefre's pyramid was started with a base of 65 metres square, approximately the size of Sahure's Pyramid. The builders had started levelling the ground where the pyramid was to be build and the had dug a pit in the middle of it, where the burial chamber was planned. They also dug a trench leading from the north side of the square towards the pit.

Neferefre’s unfinished pyramid just before the excavation works started.
Source: Verner, Abusir, Realm of Osiris, p. 114.

The mummified left hand of Neferefre is among the few remains found in his pyramid.
Source: Verner, Abusir, p. 118.

The entrance corridor was constructed in the trench. It led to an antechamber that was located under the centre of the pyramid. A door in the west wall of the antechamber led to the burial chamber.The burial chamber had a gabbled roof, but the number of limestone beams was reduced to one, where probably originally three were intended. The remaining space above the roof was filled with lumps of stone and rubble.
Few traces remain of the king's funerary equipment: some fragments of a red granite sarcophagus, fragments of alabaster canopic jars and some skeletal fragments of the king's mummy, including his left hand. From the few remains of his body, it has been determined that the king died at the age of about 22 or 23 years old.
Only one step of the core of the pyramid was finished, which has given this monument the shape of a mastaba. The core itself consisted of an outer wall of four or five courses of limestone and an inner wall of smaller blocks. The filling between these walls was made of roughly shaped limestone blocks, mortar and sand.

The Mortuary Temple
The mortuary temple that was built to the east of Neferefre's pyramid was completed in three stages.
The first stage, hastily finished following the king's death, may probably only have consisted of a small temple built against the east face of the pyramid. The entrance was unusually located in the south (rather than the east) and led to a vestibule and three chambers, one of which was the actual offering room, containing a false door made of red granite and an altar. If two seal impressions bearing the Horus-name of Shepseskare can be taken as evidence that it was Shepseskare and not Niuserre who succeeded Neferefre, then the chronology of the 5th Dynasty may need to be revised slightly.
The second stage of the mortuary temple was definitely added by Niuserre. It extended the original temple to the east and moved the entrance to the complex to the centre of the east as well. Niuserre also added several magazines to the temple. Two wooden boats, intended for the deceased king's journey to and through the world of the dead, were buried in one of these magazines. In the northern magazines, another archive was found informing us of the administration of the Abusir site. A large hypostyle hall, the earliest known in Ancient Egyptian architecture, was built in the south of the temple. It consisted of four rows of five, probably wooden columns of which only the bases remain. Several statues were found in this hall.
To the east of the hypostyle hall stretched the House of the Knife, a ritual butchery house were sacrificial animals were slaughtered for the offerings and festivals that were needed for the funerary cult(s) at Abusir. It was, however, only used as such for a short period. It was converted into storage during the third and last building phase of the temple.
During the third stage, the temple was again extend towards the east. A new entrance, supported by two columns was added, as well as a court lined with 24 wooden columns.The Abusir papyri suggest that the temple remained in use for quite a long time and that it played a pivotal role in the administration of the Memphite necropolis.