Neferkaseker

Cartouche of Neferkaseker

After Sened three kings do not appear on the Abydos list, and Neferkaseker is one of them. In the lists from Sakkara (from the tomb of Áaka) and in the royal Canon from the Turin papyrus he is attested by his neswy-bity name, but his Horus-name within a serek has not been base. A cylinder seal opinion from him base in a unknown place in the Nile Valley points good similarities in style and composition to the one of Peribsen from Milan, a piece that has been questioned. If this impression containing two cartouches with his name written in different ways (picture above right) is genuine and modern, it would be the second oldest known cartouche with a king's name found in Egypt so far.

Being a pharaoh not so well known (i.e. more or less unknown), Egyptologists have found a remarkable papyrus fragment from the second century A.D. written by demotic hieroglyphs.  It deals with prospecting a temple in the Faiyum area and has a visible though damaged text that has been interpreted as: Na w-nfr-ka-skr by some scholars (picture left). The roll of the king in this text is not quite detectable, but the preparation of the building can have been guided by a sketch or depiction from Neferkaseker's time as a prototype. If so, that means an impressive persistence in the archives from the Department of Royal Constructions, spanning for 3000 years.

Neferkare

Cartouche of Neferkare

There are no contemporary remains from the king Neferkare. Various rulers have had this name and the sound elements building up the name are very common. Archaeologists know him only from the two king lists from Áaka's tomb at Sakkara and the lettering in the papyrus from Turin known as the "Royal Canon of Turin". In the third list of substance - the Abydos king list from a wall in the temple of pharaoh Seti I from the 19th dynasty, he does not exist and nor does his immediate replacement. This temple is from 1200 years after the second dynasty and so are the other 2 lists. If the deletion of him and his replacement has to do with a tradition in Abydos (with hostility to the northern Memphis domain during the second dynasty) we don't know.

In both the Saqqara and Turin lists he has the position between Sened and Neferkaseker and in Manteho's list he is in the same place under the Greek-formed name Nepherkheres. At the end of the Old Kingdom about dynasty 6 his name comes to light during various rulers. This shows that he and other more than or less unfamiliar kings from the same time, was far from forgotten by the generations that follow them. Picture at top right points the cartouche with Neferkare's name as it appears in the Saqqara list. It contains the signs KA with the put up arms (meaning soul) and Nefer (a sign possibly showing a belly and a windpipe) significant beautiful and the sun (or really solar god) Re.

Nubnefer (Unknown—2751)

Fragment show the name of Nubnefer

Pharaoh Nubnefer is a shadowy figure during this unknown part of the second dynasty. His existence, presented by pharaoh's name and royal titles, has only been good in a couple of fragmentise from two places in the galleries deep the Step pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara. They both are incised parts of broken stone vessels and his name has by some scholars been read reverse - Nefernub (picture right).

His Horus-name (within a serek) has not been found and there might be a possibility that his found, so called nswt-bity name, is from another king. Egyptologist Helck made carefully estimations in the 1970s about Nubnefer's place, and came to the conclusion that he reigned close to pharaoh Ninetjer. His time in office appears to have been a very short one, and nothing is mentioned about him after his death, not regular indirectly.

One theory from others is that Nubnefer was the nswt-bity name of king Nebre (the predecessor of Ninejer), due to the fact that this name of his has never been got. The king Khaires from Manetho's list checks the best to Nubnefer only by its place and the following names, but the reign of 17 years is hard to trust unless his remains was deliberately erased by his followers. Kaires can be of another deep king who came to upset on a waterproofings in El-Kab got by English egyptologist Flinders Petrie. (Petrie 'Scarabs and Cylinders' pl. VIII; id. 'History' 7.ed p.26). His name can be read - Kara, (with the related element KA and R to Kaires) and this single piece of stiff is the only proof of his being.