Neferirkare II

Neferirkare
Neferirkare II
The cartouche of Neferirkare on the Abydos King List.
Pharaoh
Reign	1 year and 6 months, c. 2160 BC (7th/8th Dynasty)
Predecessor	Neferkauhor
Successor	uncertain; possibly Meryibre Khety
Royal titulary
Burial	unknown

Neferirkare (sometimes referred to as Neferirkare II because of Neferirkare Kakai) was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the 7th/8th Dynasty during the early First Intermediate Period (2181–2055 BC). According to the egyptologists Kim Ryholt, Jürgen von Beckerath and Darell Baker he was the 17th and final king of the combined 7th/8th Dynasty. For many scholars, this makes Neferirkare the last pharaoh of the Old Kingdom, which comes to an end with the 8th Dynasty.

Neferirkare II's name is clearly attested on the 56th entry of the Abydos King List, a king list which was redacted some 900 years after the First Intermediate Period during the reign of Seti I. The latest reconstruction of the Turin canon, another king list compiled in the Ramesside era, indicates that Neferirkare II is also attested there on column 5, line 13.

Farouk Gomaà, William C. Hayes and Baker identify Neferirkare II with the horus name Demedjibtawy (Dmḏ-ib-t3wy, "He who unifies the heart of the two lands") appearing on a single decree, the Coptos Decree R, now in the Egyptian Museum, JE 41894. The decree concerns the temple of Min at Coptos, exempting it from dues and duties. This identification is rejected by Jürgen von Beckerath.

Another proposed identification concerns the prenomen Wadjkare (W3ḏ-k3-Rˁ, "Flourishing is the Ka of Ra"), which also appears on the Coptos Decree R.Kurt Heinrich Sethe, Gomaà, Hayes and Baker see Wadjkare as distinct from Demedjibtawy, but von Beckerath believes that Wadjkare may have been the prenomen of Neferkare II and the same person as Demedjibtawy. At the opposite, Gomaà and Hayes equate Wadjkare with an obscure ruler named Hor-Khabaw. Alternatively, Hans Goedicke proposed that Wadjkare is the predecessor of Demedjibtawy and places both rulers chronologically into the 9th Dynasty. Thomas Schneider leaves the problem open and relates Wadjkare equally to either Neferkare II or Neferirkare II without further reference to Demedjibtawy.