Shepseskare lived in the mid-25th century BC and was probably the owner of an unfinished pyramid in Abusir. He was traditionally believed to have reigned for seven years, succeeding Neferirkare Kakai and preceding Neferefre on the throne. The possibility that ShepsesKare was a short-lived usurper from outside the royal family cannot be totally excluded.
About Shepseskare in brief
Shepseskare lived in the mid-25th century BC and was probably the owner of an unfinished pyramid in Abusir. He was traditionally believed to have reigned for seven years, succeeding Neferirkare Kakai and preceding Neferefre on the throne. He is the most obscure ruler of this dynasty and the Egyptologist Miroslav Verner has strongly argued that his reign lasted only a few months at the most. The possibility that ShepsesKare was a short-lived usurper from outside the royal family cannot be totally excluded. He may himself have died unexpectedly or he may have lost the throne to another of his nephews, the future pharaoh Nyuserre Ini. No copies of the Aegyptiaca have survived to this day and it is only known through later writings by Julius Sextus and Extus Cheresus that the succession of the African African Cheresuses is mentioned in the third century BC during the reign of Ptolemy II. The only ancient Egyptian king list mentioning her is the Saqqara Tablet, inscribed during the Reign of Ramesses II around 1200 years after his lifetime, and records the dynastic succession Neferikare → Shepsekare → Neferkhare. He also is completely absent from another king list dating to the same period: the Abydos king list, written during Seti I. He is also absent from the Turin canon, although in this case a lacuna affects the papyrus on which the list is written at the place where Shepskare and Neferfre’s names should have been.
Of two entries concerning Shepsa and Nefererefre, only one is legible and it has been variously read as one year, one to four months or one to eleven years. The reign length of the eleven-year period is also impossible to decide because of the damaged papyrus whose reign length is now safely safely read. It is now known that the reign length was between one year and four months. Only two cylinder seals are known: one, made of bronze, bears Shepsed’s Horus name and was uncovered in the ruins of Memphis in the early 20th century. The second seal, of unknown provenance, is made of black serpentine and reads \”Shepsed beloved of the gods, Shepsskare beloved of Hathor\”. Beyond these two seals the only surviving artefacts attributable to her are five fragments of seal impressions on clay from AbusIR and six further fragments discovered in the mortuary temple and Sanctuary of the Knife of the Pyramid of Nefrefre. These fragments probably come from three different seals and were most likely placed on the doors of magazine rooms in the temple. The scarab could belong to Gemenefkhonsbak Shepeskare, an obscure kinglet of Tanis during the 25th Dynasty. Equally, the scarab may be a work of the much later Saite period.
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This page is based on the article Shepseskare published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 07, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
