Pyramid of Neferefre
The pyramid of Neferefre, or pyramid of Raneferef, is the unfinished funerary monument built for the Egyptian pharaoh Neferefre of the Fifth Dynasty in the 25th century BC. It is the third and final pyramid built on the Abusir diagonal – a figurative line connecting the Abusir pyramids with Heliopolis – of the necropolis, and is sited south-west of Neferirkare's pyramid.
The pyramid was hastily converted into a square mastaba or primeval mound after Neferefre's early death. In the period between his death and mummification, an improvised, north–south oriented limestone mortuary temple was built on a strip of platform originally intended for the casing of the pyramid. It is unclear who constructed this initial phase of the temple, though clay sealings found in its vicinity suggest that it may have been the ephemeral ruler Shepseskare who commissioned it. During the reign of Nyuserre, Neferefre's younger brother, the temple was expanded twice. In the second phase, built from mudbrick, the temple was significantly extended to the east, a transverse corridor leading to five storage rooms was added, as were ten two-story storage magazines in the northern side of the temple, and, most significantly, a hypostyle hall. It contained twenty-two or twenty-four wooden columns, all lost, and many stone and wooden statues of the ruler, of which fragments have been found. A limestone ka statuette of Neferefre is significant among these statues, as it presents a motif previously only known from a single statue of Khafre. The usual elements of an entrance hall, columned courtyard, and five niche statue temple were forgone, though the entrance hall and columned courtyard were added in during the third phase of construction.
South-east of the mortuary temple, a large rectangular mudbrick building was uncovered. This was revealed to be "the Sanctuary of the Knife", an abattoir which was used for the ritual slaughter of animals as offerings for the mortuary cult. The Abusir Papyri preserve an event where 130 bulls were slaughtered during a ten-day festival. By the reign of Teti in the Sixth Dynasty, the abattoir had been bricked up and decommissioned. The mortuary cult of the king ceased activities after the reign of Pepi II, but was briefly revived in the Twelfth Dynasty. From the New Kingdom to the Nineteenth century, the monument was periodically farmed of its limestone. Despite this, the complex remains one of the best preserved of the Old Kingdom. In its substructure, excavators found fragments of a red granite sarcophagus and of Neferefre's mummy, who was found to have died at around twenty to twenty-three years of age. The mastaba tomb of Khentkaus III, likely Neferefre's wife, was discovered near his unfinished pyramid in Abusir. Inside the substructure fragments of a mummy were recovered, which were determined to belong to a twenty-year-old female. Her name and titles were found recorded on Baugraffiti, including the title "mother of the king". The identity of this king was not found recorded in the epigraphy of her tomb, but most likely refers to either Menkauhor or Shepseskare.
Location and excavation
Location
The unfinished pyramid is located south-west of Neferirkare's pyramid in the Abusir necropolis, between Saqqara and the Giza Plateau. It is seated on the Abusir diagonal, a figurative line touching the north-western corners of the pyramids of Sahure, Neferirkare, and Neferefre, and pointing towards Heliopolis. It is similar to the Giza diagonal which converges to the same point, except that the Giza pyramids are linked at their south-east corners instead. The siting of Neferefre's pyramid gives an indication of its position on a chronological scale. As the third and final pyramid in line on the Abusir diagonal, it follows that it is the third in line of succession following Sahure and Neferirkare. Similarly, it is the furthest of the three from the Nile delta, and thus held the least advantageous position for material transport. A limestone block, discovered by Édouard Ghazouli in the village of Abusir in the 1930s, depicts Neferirkare with his consort, Khentkaus II, and eldest son, Neferefre, further substantiating the chronology.Early surveys
The building was noticed during the early archaeological studies of the necropolis of Abusir, but not subject to thorough investigation. John Shae Perring, Karl Richard Lepsius, who catalogued the ruins as XXVI in his pyramid list, Jacques de Morgan, and Ludwig Borchardt each gave limited attention to the building.Borchardt carried out a trial excavation at the site, digging a trench into the open ditch that spanned from the north face of the monument to its center. He anticipated that if the tomb was functional, he would encounter the passage leading to the burial chamber. Substructure passages had north–south orientations pointing to the pole star, where Ancient Egyptians believed that the pharaoh would join Re in the sky and remain in the "heavenly ocean" for all eternity. By contrast the burial- and ante- chambers were oriented east–west, and the mummy itself was placed against the western wall with its head pointed north, but facing east. The experimental dig failed to find the passage, leading Borchardt to conclude that the structure was left incomplete and unused. Either by chance or error, Borchardt abandoned the dig whilst perhaps only away from discovering remnants of the passage. As a consequence of Borchardt's decision, the function of the monument and the identity of its owner remained a mystery for seventy years.
Charles University excavations and discoveries
A definitive assignment of an owner to the pyramid stump was not possible prior to the 1970s. It was speculatively attributed to Neferefre, or the ephemeral Shepseskare, and it was believed that the structure was abandoned before its completion, excluding the possibility of a burial and, consequently, a mortuary cult. Intensive research of the remains began in 1974, by the Czech team of Charles University in Prague. The owner was identified as Neferefre from a single cursive inscription, written in black on a block taken from the corridor. The archaeological excavations of the Czech team continued throughout the 1980s, coming to a halt in 1998.Mortuary complex
Layout
mortuary complexes typically consist of five main components: a valley temple; a causeway; a mortuary temple; a cult pyramid; and the main pyramid. Neferefre's complex consisted of an unfinished pyramid, comprising a single step that was hastily converted into a mound, and a mortuary temple built in three stages during the reigns of Nyuserre and, possibly, Shepseskare. The valley temple, causeway and cult pyramid were not built.Main pyramid
The pyramid's condition created the opportunity for a detailed examination of construction methodology employed by pyramid builders in the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties. In particular, the Czech team were able to test Lepsius' and Borchardt's accretion layer hypothesis – the method used in the Third Dynasty – for the construction of Fifth Dynasty pyramids.After exploring the Abusir necropolis in 1843, Lepsius developed the hypothesis that the Abusir pyramids were built by layering stone blocks at a ~75° angle against a central limestone spindle on the pyramid's vertical axis. Lepsius justified his hypothesis with the idea that it allowed the pharaoh to expand his tomb gradually over the course of his reign, but if this was the case, then there should be a correlation between regnal duration and pyramid size, yet no such relationship exists. Borchardt, who resurveyed the pyramids between 1902 and 1908, further promulgated the theory after discovering what he believed were accretion layers in Sahure's pyramid. His model of the internal structure of Sahure's pyramid, displayed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and his published plans for the Abusir pyramids garnered the hypothesis widespread support. The Egyptologists Vito Maragioglio and Celeste Rinaldi examined several Fourth and Fifth Dynasty pyramids in the 1960s, but failed to find any evidence supporting accretion layers, and instead found horizontal layers in the structures of the pyramids they visited, including Userkaf's and Sahure's. In the 1980s, the Czech Abusir Mission were able to thoroughly examine the internal structure of Neferefre's unfinished pyramid. The single completed step contained no accretion layers, and in Miroslav Verner's opinion, mostly likely none of the other Abusir pyramids did either.
At the pyramid site, builders had the ground levelled, and measures for the construction of the pyramid base taken. A large east–west oriented rectangular trench was excavated to form the basis of the pyramid's funerary apartments, and a deep north–south oriented ditch dug to form the corridor leading to those apartments. Two layers of massive limestone blocks were then set onto the prepared site, upon which the pyramid superstructure was to be built concurrently with the substructure.
The pyramid faces were framed by massive grey limestone blocks up to by by in size. The inner chambers and passageway were similarly framed, but using much smaller blocks. The frames were made by horizontally layering four or five courses of limestone, each thick, and bound using clay mortar, with particular attention paid to the mortaring of the corner stones. The pyramid core, between the two frames, was then packed with rubble fill composed of limestone chips, sand, pottery shards, and clay. Only the lowest step of Neferefre's pyramid was completed, before a hasty conversion into a square mastaba or primeval mound – as suggested by its name, iat, found in the Abusir Papyri – was made to accommodate his funeral. The single step, about tall, was enclosed by roughly dressed fine white Tura limestone blocks sloped at ~78°. Above the chamber's ceiling, a flat roof terrace was built then covered in a thin layer of clay and gravel, completing the monument. Burial preparations, including mummification rituals, took a prescribed minimum of seventy days. Completion of the pyramid, a project that took years to finish, was therefore impossible.
The Abusir pyramids were thus constructed in a radically different manner to those of the preceding dynasties. This method of construction, albeit less time and resource consuming, was careless and unstable, and meant that only the outer casing was constructed using high quality limestone. Stripped of their valuable casing, their cores were exposed to further human destruction and natural erosion, leaving the Abusir pyramids as ruinous, formless mounds.