Ankhtifi

Ankhtifi Nomarch of the 3rd nomos of Upper Egypt
Ankhtifi from his tomb at el-Mo'alla
Dynasty	10th dynasty
Pharaoh	n.d.
Burial	El-Mo'alla

Ankhtifi (or Ankhtify) was a nomarch of Hierakonpolis and a supporter of the pharaoh in Herakleopolis Magna (10th Dynasty), which was locked in a conflict with the Theban based 11th Dynasty kingdom for control of Egypt. Hence, Ankhtifi was possibly a rival to the Theban rulers Mentuhotep I and Intef I. He lived during the First Intermediate Period, after the Egyptian Old Kingdom state had collapsed, and at a time when economic hardship, political instability, and foreign invasion challenged the fabric of Egyptian society.

The precise pharaoh under whom Ankhtifi served is anything but certain; the sequence and number of kings in the 9th and 10th dynasties is a matter of widely varying conjecture. Only a few of the many names on the much later king-lists have had their reigns or existence corroborated through scattered archaeological finds. The only pharaoh mentioned in Ankhtifi's tomb is in the following isolated inscription: "Horus brings/brought (or may Horus bring) a (good) inundation for his son Ka-nefer-Re." Some Egyptologists have proposed identifying this Ka-nefer-Re with the throne name Neferkare, attested only on the Turin Canon (and several times there) for this dynasty. However, uncertainty about the verb tense in the inscription has led to disagreement among various scholars as to whether this pharaoh "Neferkare" would have ruled in Ankhtifi's youth, or at the time of the events he describes, or indeed if it were not a king Neferkare before Ankhtifi's time, who had ruled toward the end of the Old Kingdom from Memphis.

Ankhtifi, as nomarch or governor of the third nome of Upper Egypt, built and extensively decorated his tomb at El-Mo'alla, and inscribed the tomb’s walls with his autobiography, which details his initiatives in re-establishing order in the land, his resistance against Thebes, and the appalling suffering of the people of Egypt during his lifetime. It is one of the most significant inscriptions to come from the "dark ages" that begin with the collapse of the Old Kingdom, then become increasingly clearer with the approach of the Middle Kingdom, ca. 2000 BC. Ankhtifi states in his tomb autobiography: