Peribsen (2751—2743)

Observed by three kings, sendji, neterka, neferkara, before khasekhemwy, Peribsen was the fourth king of the Dynasty 2. He was really not the legitimate heir of Nintejer. In fact, many historians believe that the king was an outsider who instigated coup against King Nintejer. King Peribsen used the designation of seth in his titles. Unfortunately, nothing from Peribsen's era is well documented except for his mortuary complex near Abydos.
King Peribsen was a ruler who had his roots in the South, and was probably ruling from there throughout his time on the throne. Not a single trace of him is base in Lower Egypt with an elision of a writing with his name discovered in Sakkara and brought there in afterward times. He was the first pharaoh to write his name within a cartouche as seen in a preserved cylinder seal now in the Egyptian museum in Turin in Italy.

He made a remarkable change in royal custom by putting the god Set on top of his serek, (picture right) thereby disregarding the old south Horus falcon that from earliest times had been the symbol of pharaoh. This move was plain a political,/religious statement and he thereby took side in the current conflict between the supporters of these gods.

Vesse foundl in the tomb of Peribsen
Another King called Sekhemib-Perenmaat (see aabove) might have been a separate ruler, but most scholars take the view that this was the name of Peribsen before "conversion". "King Sekhemib" thus has no tomb in Abydos but the name has been got on labels in the domain inside and outside Peribsen's tomb. When he became king of Upper Egypt it might have been after civil war against Lower Egypt. His opponent might perchance have been king Sened and these two thus found each part of the Nile Valley. At some point Peribsen took over the whole country. We know this from inscriptions getting from his tomb in Abydos that tell about tribute, or conqueror?, concerning the town of Sethroë in the delta.

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.

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