Template:Short description Template:Distinguish Template:Infobox pharaoh Menkaure or Menkaura (Template:Langx; Template:Circa 2550 BC - Template:Circa 2503 BC) was a king of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt during the Old Kingdom. He is well known under his Hellenized names Mykerinos (Template:Langx by Herodotus), in turn Latinized as Mycerinus, and Menkheres (Template:Langx by Manetho). According to Manetho, he was the throne successor of king Bikheris, but according to archaeological evidence, he was almost certainly the successor of Khafre. Africanus (from Syncellus) reports as rulers of the fourth dynasty Sôris, Suphis I, Suphis II, Mencherês (=Menkaure), Ratoisês, Bicheris, Sebercherês, and Thamphthis in this order.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Menkaure became famous for his tomb, the Pyramid of Menkaure, at Giza and his statue triads, which showed him alongside the goddess Hathor and various regional deities.
FamilyEdit
Template:See also Menkaure was the son of Khafre and the grandson of Khufu. A flint knife found in the mortuary temple of Menkaure mentioned a king's mother Khamerernebty I, suggesting that Khafre and this queen were the parents of Menkaure. Menkaure is thought to have had at least two wives.
Possible son with Khamerernebty IIEdit
Queen Khamerernebty II is the daughter of Khamerernebty I and the mother of a king's son Khuenre. The location of Khuenre's tomb suggests that he was a son of Menkaure, making his mother the wife of this king.<ref name="G13">Grajetzki, Ancient Egyptian Queens: A Hieroglyphic Dictionary, Golden House Publications, London, 2005, p13-14 Template:ISBN</ref><ref name="JT">Tyldesley, Joyce. Chronicle of the Queens of Egypt. Thames & Hudson. 2006. Template:ISBN</ref>
- Khuenre: Menkaure was not succeeded by Prince Khuenre, likely his eldest son, who predeceased Menkaure, but rather by Shepseskaf, a younger son of this king.<ref>Clayton, pp.57-58</ref>
Queen Rekhetre is known to have been a daughter of Khafre and as such the most likely identity of her husband is Menkaure.<ref name="G13" />
Possible children with unknown spouse(s)Edit
Its possible that Menkaure had other children, but no mothers have been identified.
- Shepseskaf (died c. 2498 BC): The successor to Menkaure and likely his son.
- Sekhemre: Known from a statue and possibly a son of Menkaure.
- A daughter who died in early adulthood is mentioned by Herodotus. She was placed at a decorated hall of the palatial area at Sais, in a hollow gold layered wooden zoomorphic burial feature in the shape of a kneeling cow covered externally with a layer of red decoration except the neck area and the horns that were covered with adequate layers of gold.<ref>Herodotus, Historia, B:129-132</ref>
- Khentkaus I: possible daughter of Menkaure<ref>Hassan, Selim: Excavations at Gîza IV. 1932–1933. Cairo: Government Press, Bulâq, 1930. pp 18-62</ref>
The royal court included several of Menkaure's half brothers. His brothers Nebemakhet, Duaenre, Nikaure, and Iunmin served as viziers during the reign of their brother. His brother Sekhemkare may have been younger than he was and became vizier after the death of Menkaure.<ref name="PM">Porter, Bertha and Moss, Rosalind, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Statues, Reliefs and Paintings Volume III: Memphis, Part I Abu Rawash to Abusir. 2nd edition (revised and augmented by Dr Jaromir Malek, 1974). Retrieved from gizapyramids.org</ref>
ReignEdit
The length of Menkaure's reign is uncertain. The ancient historian Manetho credits him with a reign of 63 years, but this is surely an exaggeration. The Turin King List is damaged at the spot where it should present the full sum of years, but the remains allow a reconstruction of "..?.. + 8 years of rulership". Egyptologists think that 18-year reign was meant to be written, which is generally accepted. A contemporary workmen's graffito reports about the "year after the 11th cattle count". If the cattle count was held every second year (as was tradition at least up to king Sneferu), Menkaure might have ruled for 22 years.<ref>Miroslav Verner: Archaeological Remarks on the 4th and 5th Dynasty Chronology. In: Archiv Orientální, Vol. 69. Prague 2001, page 363–418.</ref>
In 2013, a fragment of the sphinx of Menkaure was discovered at Tel Hazor at the entrance to the city palace.<ref>Ancient Egyptian leader makes a surprise appearance at an archaeological dig in Israel July 9, 2013, sciencedaily.com</ref>
Pyramid complexEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Menkaure's pyramid at Giza was called Netjer-er-Menkaure, meaning "Menkaure is Divine". This pyramid is the smallest of the three main pyramids at Giza. This pyramid measures Template:Convert at the base and Template:Convert in height.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> There are three subsidiary pyramids associated with Menkaure's pyramid.
These other pyramids are sometimes labeled G-IIIa (East subsidiary pyramid), G-IIIb (Middle subsidiary pyramid) and G-IIIc (West subsidiary pyramid). In the chapel associated with G-IIIa a statue of a queen was found. It is possible that these pyramids were meant for the queens of Khafre. It may be that Khamerernebti II was buried in one of the pyramids.<ref name="JT"/><ref name="PM"/>
Valley templeEdit
The Valley temple was a mainly brick built structure that was enlarged in the fifth or sixth Dynasty. From this temple come the famous statues of Menkaure with his queen and Menkaure with several deities. A partial list includes:<ref name="PM"/>
- Nome triad, Hathor-Mistress-of-the-Sycomore seated, and King and Hare-nome goddess standing, greywacke, in Boston Mus. 09.200.
- Nome triad, King, Hathor-Mistress-of-the-Sycomore and Theban nome-god standing, greywacke. (Now in Cairo Mus. Ent. 40678.)
- Nome triad, King, Hathor-Mistress-of-the-Sycomore and Jackal-nome goddess standing, greywacke. (Now in Cairo Mus. Ent. 40679.)
- Nome triad, King, Hathor-Mistress-of-the-Sycomore and Bat-fetish nome -goddess standing, greywacke. (Now in Cairo Mus. Ent. 46499.)
- Nome triad, King, Hathor, and nome-god standing, greywacke. (Middle part in Boston Mus. 11.3147, head of King in Brussels, Mus. Roy. E. 3074.)
- Double-statue,’ King and wife (Khamerernebty II) standing, uninscribed, greywacke. (Now in Boston Mus. 11.1738.)
- King seated, life-size, fragmentary, alabaster. (Now in Cairo Mus. Ent. 40703.)
- King seated, lower part, inscribed seat, alabaster. (Now in Boston Mus. 09.202)
Mortuary TempleEdit
At his mortuary temple more statues and statue fragments were found. An interesting find is a fragment of a wand from Queen Khamerernebty I. The piece is now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Khamerernebti is given the title King's Mother on the fragment.<ref name="PM"/>
SarcophagusEdit
Template:Multiple image In 1837, English army officer Richard William Howard Vyse, and engineer John Shae Perring began excavations within the pyramid of Menkaure. In the main burial chamber of the pyramid they found a large stone sarcophagus Template:Convert long, Template:Convert in width, and Template:Convert in height, made of basalt. The sarcophagus was not inscribed with hieroglyphs although it was decorated in the style of palace facade. Adjacent to the burial chamber were found wooden fragments of a coffin bearing the name of Menkaure and a partial skeleton wrapped in a coarse cloth. The sarcophagus was removed from the pyramid and was sent by ship to the British Museum in London, but the merchant ship Beatrice carrying it was lost after leaving port at Malta on October 13, 1838. The other materials were sent by a separate ship, and those materials now reside at the museum, with the remains of the wooden coffin case on display.
It is now thought that the coffin was a replacement made during the much later Saite period, nearly two millennia after the king's original interment. Radio carbon dating of the bone fragments that were found, place them at an even later date, from the Coptic period in the first centuries AD.<ref>Boughton, Paul "Menkaura's Anthropoid Coffin: A Case of Mistaken Identity?" Ancient Egypt. August/September 2006. p.30-32.</ref>
Records from later periodsEdit
According to Herodotus (430 BC), Menkaure was the son of Khufu (Greek Cheops), and he alleviated the suffering his father's reign had caused the inhabitants of ancient Egypt. Herodotus adds that he suffered much misfortune: his only daughter, whose corpse was interred in a wooden bull (which Herodotus claims survived to his lifetime), died before him. Subsequently the oracle at Buto predicted he would only rule six more years. Template:Quote
In popular cultureEdit
- Menkaure was the subject of a poem by the nineteenth century English poet Matthew Arnold, entitled "Mycerinus".
- Menkaure, using the Greek version of his name, Mencheres, is a major character in the Night Huntress series of books by Jeaniene Frost, depicted as an extremely old and powerful vampire living in modern times. He is a protagonist of one book in the series.
Gallery of imagesEdit
- Seal Impression with Name of King Menkaure LACMA M.80.202.837.jpg
Seal Impression with Name of King Menkaure LACMA M.80.202.837
- Menkaura-ColossalStatue MuseumOfFineArtsBoston.png
Colossal alabaster statue of Menkaure at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (possibly a usurped statue of Khafre)
- MenkauraAndQueen MuseumOfFineArtsBoston.png
Greywacke statue of Menkaure and Queen Khamerernebty II at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
- Egypt.Giza.Menkaure.01.jpg
Menkaure's Pyramid in Giza.
- Menkaura-FragmentaryTriad MuseumOfFineArtsBoston.png
Fragmentary statue triad of Menkaure flanked by the goddess Hathor (left) and a male nome god (right), Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
- Menkaura-FragmentarySeatedStatue MuseumOfFineArtsBoston.png
Fragmentary alabaster statue of Menkaure at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
- Menkaura-FragmentaryStatueTorso MuseumOfFineArtsBoston.png
Fragmentary alabaster statue of Menkaure at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
- Menkaura-FragmentaryStatueHead MuseumOfFineArtsBoston.png
CitationClass=web }}</ref> or Shepseskaf<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
- Mykerinos CG 42.jpg
Statuette of Menkaure of uncertain provenance, now in the Egyptian Museum
- Menkaura-AnthropoidCoffinFragment-Drawing1840.png
Drawing of the anthropoid coffin fragment inscribed with the name of the king Menkaure made by excavator Richard Vyse and published in 1840.
- Basalt cylinder seal of pharaoh Menkaure, from Egypt, Old Kindom, 4th Dynasty, 2539-2511 BCE. Neues Museum, Berlin.jpg
Basalt cylinder seal of pharaoh Menkaure, from Egypt. Neues Museum, Berlin
- Greywacke Statue of Menkaure, Cairo Museum.jpg
Greywacke Statue of Menkaure flanked by Hathor and Anput, Cairo Museum 2023
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
- Menkaure and His Queen by Dr. Christopher L.C.E. Witcombe.
- View photos, videos, current status and other information on the pyramid of Menkaure at Talking Pyramids