Nyuserre Ini
Nyuserre Ini was an Ancient Egyptian king, the sixth ruler of the Fifth Dynasty during the Old Kingdom period. He is credited with a reign of 24 to 36 years depending on the scholar, and likely lived in the second half of the 25th century BCE. Nyuserre was the younger son of Neferirkare Kakai and queen Khentkaus II, and the brother of the short-lived king Neferefre. He may have succeeded his brother directly, as indicated by much later historical sources. Alternatively, Shepseskare may have reigned between the two as advocated by Miroslav Verner, albeit only for a few weeks or months at the most. The relation of Shepseskare with Neferefre and Nyuserre remains highly uncertain. Nyuserre was in turn succeeded by Menkauhor Kaiu, who could have been his nephew and a son of Neferefre.
Nyuserre was the most prolific builder of his dynasty, having built three pyramids for himself and his queens and completed a further three for his father, mother and brother, all in the necropolis of Abusir. He built the largest surviving temple to the sun god Ra constructed during the Old Kingdom, named Shesepibre or "Joy of the heart of Ra". He also completed the Nekhenre, the Sun temple of Userkaf in Abu Gorab, and the valley temple of Menkaure in Giza. In doing so, he was the first king since Shepseskaf, last ruler of the Fourth Dynasty, to pay attention to the Giza necropolis, a move which may have been an attempt to legitimise his rule following the troubled times surrounding the unexpected death of his brother Neferefre.
There is little evidence for military action during Nyuserre's reign; the Egyptian state continued to maintain trade relations with Byblos on the Levantine coast and to send mining and quarrying expeditions to Sinai and Lower Nubia. Nyuserre's reign saw the growth of the administration, and the effective birth of the nomarchs, provincial governors who, for the first time, were sent to live in the provinces they administered rather than at the pharaoh's court.
As with other Old Kingdom pharaohs, Nyuserre benefited from a funerary cult established at his death. In Nyuserre's case, this official state-sponsored cult existed for centuries, surviving the chaotic First Intermediate Period and lasting until the Twelfth Dynasty of the Middle Kingdom. In parallel, a spontaneous popular cult appeared, with people venerating Nyuserre under his birth name "Iny". In this cult, Nyuserre played a role similar to that of a saint, being invoked as an intercessor between the believer and the gods. It left little archaeological evidence and seems to have continued until the New Kingdom, nearly 1,000 years after his death.
Contemporaneous sources
Nyuserre Ini is well attested in sources contemporaneous with his reign, for example in the tombs of some of his contemporaries including Nyuserre's manicurists Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum, the high officials Khufukhaf II, Ty, Rashepses, Neferefre-ankh and Khabawptah, and the priests of his funerary cult Nimaatsed and Kaemnefert.Historical sources
Nyuserre is attested in three ancient Egyptian king lists, all dating to the New Kingdom. The earliest of these is the Karnak king list, which was commissioned by Thutmose III to honour some of his forebears and which mentions Nyuserre in the fourth entry, which shows his birth name "Iny" in a cartouche. Nyuserre's prenomen occupies the 30th entry of the Abydos King List, written nearly 200 years later during the reign of Seti I. Nyuserre's prenomen was most likely also given on the Turin canon, dating to the reign of Ramses II, but it has since been lost in a large lacuna affecting the document. Fragments of his reign length are still visible on the papyrus, indicating a reign of somewhere between 11 and 34 years. Nyuserre is the only Fifth Dynasty king absent from the Saqqara Tablet.Nyuserre was also mentioned in the Aegyptiaca, a history of Egypt probably written in the 3rd century BCE during the reign of Ptolemy II by the Egyptian priest Manetho. Even though no copies of the text survive, it is known through later writings by Sextus Julius Africanus and Eusebius. In particular, Africanus relates that the Aegyptiaca mentioned a pharaoh ´Ραθούρης, that is "Rathurês", reigning for forty-four years as the sixth king of the Fifth Dynasty. "Rathurês" is believed to be the Hellenised form of Nyuserre.
Reign
Accession to the throne
Two competing hypotheses exist in Egyptology to describe the succession of events running from the death of Neferirkare Kakai, the third king of the Fifth Dynasty, to the coronation of Nyuserre Ini, the sixth ruler of the dynasty. Relying on historical sources, where Nyuserre is said to have directly succeeded Neferefre, many Egyptologists such as Jürgen von Beckerath and Hartwig Altenmüller have traditionally believed that the following succession took place: Neferirkare Kakai → Shepseskare → Neferefre → Nyuserre Ini. In this scenario, Neferefre is the father of Nyuserre, who would have become pharaoh after Neferefre's unexpected death. Neferefre would be the successor of Shepseskare, credited with seven years of reign, as indicated in Manetho's Aegyptiaca.This view was challenged, most notably by Miroslav Verner in 2000 and 2001, following excavations of the Abusir necropolis, which indicated that Neferefre's purported predecessor Shepseskare most likely reigned for only a few months between Neferefre and Nyuserre Ini. Verner proposes that the royal succession was Neferirkare Kakai → Neferefre → Shepseskare → Nyuserre Ini. In support of this hypothesis is Verner's observation that Neferefre and Nyuserre were very likely full brothers, both sons of Neferirkare Kakai, There is also evidence that Neferefre was Neferirkare's eldest son and in his early twenties at the death of his father, and thus would have been likely to inherit the throne. These observations, in addition to further archaeological evidence such as the lack of a pyramid of Shepseskare and the position of Neferefre's own, convinced Verner that Neferefre directly succeeded his father, dying after a very short reign of about two years.
Nyuserre was then still a child and, in this hypothesis, his claim to the throne faced a serious challenge in the person of his possible uncle Shepseskare who might have been a son of Sahure. Alternatively, Shepseskare may have been a short-lived son of Neferefre or, less likely, an usurper from outside the royal family. In any case, Shepseskare apparently succeeded in holding the crown for a short time. Nyuserre ultimately prevailed however, either because of Shepseskare's own premature death or because he was backed by powerful high officials and members of the royal family, foremost among whom were his mother Khentkaus II and Ptahshepses. This latter hypothesis is motivated by the exalted positions that both individuals seem to have enjoyed. The mortuary temple of Khentkaus II was designed to imitate that of a king, for example by incorporating its own satellite pyramid and having an alignment on an east–west axis. These features, together with Khentkaus II peculiar title of Mwt Nisw bity Nisw bity, originally translated by "Mother of the king of Upper and Lower Egypt the king of Upper and Lower Egypt" led some scholars, including Verner, to propose that she might even have reigned in her own right. This hypothesis is now deemed unlikely, and her title is rather translated as "Mother of two kings of Upper and Lower Egypt". Ptahshepses became vizier under Nyuserre, whose daughter he married; received the honorary title of "King's son"; and was buried in one of the largest private tombs in Egypt. According to Verner and Nigel Strudwick, the architectural elements of this tomb such as its lotus-bud columns similar to those used in Nyuserre's own temple, boat pits and layout of the burial chamber, demonstrate "the favor shown by that king to his son-in-law".
Reign length
Historical and archaeological evidence
Manetho's Aegyptiaca related that Nyuserre reigned for 44 years, a figure which is rejected by Egyptologists, who rather credit him with about three decades of reign owing to the paucity of secure dates for his rule.The entry of the Turin canon pertaining to Nyuserre is damaged and the duration of his rule is difficult to read with certainty. Following Alan Gardiner's 1959 study of the canon, scholars such as Nigel Strudwick credited Nyuserre with 11 years of reign. Gardiner's reading of the canon was then reevaluated from facsimiles, yielding a 24 to 25 years figure for Nyuserre's reign. This duration is accepted by some scholars including Nicolas Grimal. More recent analyses of the original papyrus conducted by Kim Ryholt have shown that Nyuserre's reign length as reported on the document could equally be 11–14, 21–24, or 31–34 years. The later figure is now favoured by Egyptologists including Strudwick and Verner.
The view that Nyuserre reigned in excess of twenty years is furthermore supported by archaeological evidence, which points to a fairly long reign for him. Verner, who has been excavating the Abusir necropolis on behalf of the University of Prague since 1976, points in particular to Nyuserre's numerous constructions, amounting to no less than three new pyramids, the completion of a further three, the construction of the largest sun temple built during the Old Kingdom.
Nyuserre's ''Sed'' festival
The hypothesis of a reign more than three decades long for Nyuserre Ini is supported, albeit indirectly, by reliefs discovered in his solar temple showing him participating in a Sed festival. This festival was meant to rejuvenate the king and was normally first celebrated after 30 years of rule. Representations of the festival were part of the typical decorations of temples associated to the king during the Old Kingdom and mere depictions of it do not necessarily imply a long reign. For example, a relief showing Sahure in the tunic of the Sed festival has been found in his mortuary temple, although both historical sources and archeological evidence agree that he ruled Egypt for less than 14 full years.Yet, in Nyuserre's case, these reliefs taken together with the archaeological evidence have convinced most Egyptologists that Nyuserre enjoyed over 30 years of reign and that "the sed-festival scenes from Abu Gurab the 30th jubilee of the king's accession to the throne".
The reliefs of Nyuserre's Sed festival offer a rare glimpse into the ritual acts carried out during this ceremony. In particular, the festival seems to have involved a procession in a barque over a body of water, a detail either not represented or lost in all subsequent representations of the festival until the reign of Amenhotep III, over 1,000 years after Nyuserre's lifetime.