Neferefre Isi (fl. 25th century BC; also known as Raneferef, Ranefer and in Greek as Χέρης, Cherês) was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty during the Old Kingdom period. He was most likely the eldest son of pharaoh Neferirkare Kakai and queen Khentkaus II. He was known as prince Ranefer before he ascended to the throne.
Neferefre started a pyramid for himself in the royal necropolis of Abusir called Netjeribau Raneferef, which means "The bas of Neferefre are divine". The pyramid was never finished, with a mason's inscription showing that works on the stone structure were abandoned during or shortly after the king's second year of reign. Together with the sparsity of attestations contemporaneous with his reign, this is taken by Egyptologists as evidence that Neferefre died unexpectedly after two to three years on the throne. Neferefre was nonetheless buried in his pyramid, hastily completed in the form of a mastaba by his second successor and presumably younger brother, pharaoh Nyuserre Ini. Fragments of his mummy were uncovered there, showing that he died in his early twenties.
Little is known of Neferefre's activities beyond laying the foundations of his pyramid and attempting to finish that of his father. A single text shows that Neferefre had planned or just started to build a sun temple called Hotep-Re, meaning "Ra is content" or "Ra's offering table", which possibly never functioned as such given the brevity of the king's reign. After his death, Neferefre might have been succeeded by an ephemeral and little-known pharaoh, Shepseskare, whose relation with Neferefre remains highly uncertain and debated.
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this photo has no caption but is from the touregypt site
quote: About this hall were found fragments of statues of Neferefre, made of diorite, basalt, limestone, reddish quartzite and wood, and wooden figures of captive enemies, along with other cult objects. Among the statues were six relatively complete, though mostly broken statues of Neferefre. The most beautiful of these, was well as the smallest at about 35 centimeters high, was a rose-colored limestone statue unearthed in fragments and incomplete. It depicted the young pharaoh sitting on a throne and holding a mace, or hedj, the emblem of royal power to his chest. The king's head was originally adorned with a uraeus, and protected from behind by the outstretched wings of Horus, the falcon god. The largest statue made of the stone was about 80 centimeters high, though the largest statue of all was a life-size wooden one, though only fragments of it were unearthed. All of the statues display perfect workmanship in relation to the materials used and the actual depiction of the pharaoh. Now on permanent display in the Egyptian Antiquity Museum in Cairo, the represent the third largest collection of royal statuary from the Old Kingdom.
The small, wooden statues of the enemies of Egypt included those of Asians, Nubians and Libyans, kneeling with their hands tied behind their backs. These statues may have originally been situated on the royal throne or naos in which the statue of the pharaoh was located. Captured enemies kneeling before the pharaoh are a completely royal motif linked with the Ancient Egyptian concept the pharaohs ability to keep order in the universe.
I have never heard of these enemies of Neferefre statuettes or seen this one. I'm not entire convinced this smaller photo here is from the 5th dyn but looking into it
Posted by the lioness, (Member # 17353) on :
I had seen this before but had not noticed how early it is
