Nikare (also Nikare I) may have been an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the Eighth Dynasty during the early First Intermediate Period (2181–2055 BC), at a time when Egypt was possibly divided between several polities. According to the Egyptologists Kim Ryholt, Jürgen von Beckerath and Darrell Baker he was the ninth king of the Eighth Dynasty.[1][2][3] As such, Nikare's seat of power would have been Memphis.
| Nikare I | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nykare | |||||||||||||||||
 The cartouche of Nikare on the Abydos King List. | |||||||||||||||||
| Pharaoh | |||||||||||||||||
| Reign | Unknown | ||||||||||||||||
| Predecessor | Neferkamin | ||||||||||||||||
| Successor | Neferkare Tereru | ||||||||||||||||
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| Dynasty | Eighth Dynasty | ||||||||||||||||
Attestations
editNikare is only known for certain thanks to the Abydos King List, a king list redacted during the reign of Seti I, where his name appears on the 48th entry. Nikare may also have been mentioned on the Turin canon but his name and duration of reign are lost to a large lacuna affecting kings 2 through 11 of the Eighth Dynasty.[1]
Artefacts
editAccording to the Egyptologist Peter Kaplony, a single faience cylinder-seal may possibly bear Nikare's name, and could thus be the only contemporary attestation of this king.[2][4]
A gold plaque, now in the British Museum, is inscribed with his name along with that of Neferkamin; however, it is now believed that this object is a modern forgery.[5]
References
edit- ^ a b Kim Ryholt: "The Late Old Kingdom in the Turin King-list and the Identity of Nitocris", Zeitschrift für ägyptische, 127, 2000, p. 99
- ^ a b Darrell D. Baker: The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume I - Predynastic to the Twentieth Dynasty 3300–1069 BC, Stacey International, ISBN 978-1-905299-37-9, 2008, p. 280-281
- ^ Jürgen von Beckerath: Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen, Münchner ägyptologische Studien, Heft 49, Mainz : P. von Zabern, 1999, ISBN 3-8053-2591-6, available online Archived 2015-12-22 at the Wayback Machine see p. 66-67
- ^ Peter Kaplony: Die Rollsiegel des Alten Reichs, vol. 2: Katalog der Rollsiegel, (= Monumenta Aegyptiaca. Vol. 3), La Fondation Égyptologique Reine Élisabeth, Brüssel 1981, issue 144.
- ^ Gold plaque EA 8444 in the British Museum.