Nynetjer

Nynetjer (also known as Ninetjer and Banetjer) was the third pharaoh of the Second Dynasty of Egypt during the Early Dynastic Period, prior to the Old Kingdom period. The dates for his reign are uncertain. Egyptologists have proposed that it took place at some point between the late 29th and the early 27th century BC for 35 to 49 years, and most probably lasted around 40 years. Archaeologically, Nynetjer is the best-attested king of the early Second Dynasty and he is also recorded on several king lists dating to the Old Kingdom and the later Ramesside and Ptolemaic periods. There is strong evidence that he succeeded Raneb on the throne. The events at the end of his reign and the identity of his successor are much less clear. Both historical sources and archaeological evidence point to some breakdown or partition of the state along both religious and political lines, most probably seeing concurrent rulers reigning over Upper and Lower Egypt until the country was reunited by Khasekhemwy at the end of the dynasty.

Most of the events recorded for Nynetjer's reign on the Palermo Stone, the Old Kingdom royal annals, are regular religious festivals and censuses undertaken for taxation purposes. The probable locations for these events indicate that royal activity was largely confined to the capital Memphis and its vicinity in Lower Egypt, with the possible exception of a military campaign in Nubia. The administrative structure of the state continued on its First Dynasty (c. 3150 – 3000 BC) basis but became more sophisticated, with the earliest evidence for the administrative partition of Egypt into nomes, a regional management system, dating to Nynetjer's reign.

Nynetjer had a large gallery tomb dug for himself in Saqqara, now beneath parts of both Djoser's and Unas's pyramid complexes. His tomb comprises a maze of over 150 rooms, some of which are arranged to model a royal palace. Although it was disturbed during Egypt's later periods, the tomb when excavated still housed some of the original funerary equipment of the king. This included hundreds of jars that once held wine, beer and jujube fruits. Excavations have also produced numerous stone tools, some of which seem to have been used in a ritual feast for Nynetjer's burial. The subterranean tomb was probably built with associated superstructures but these have not survived as they were levelled and overbuilt by subsequent pharaohs.

Archaeologically, Nynetjer is the best attested of the kings of the early Second Dynasty. His name appears in inscriptions on numerous stone vessels and clay sealings from his tomb at Saqqara. A large number of alabaster vessels and earthen jars with black ink inscriptions bearing his name were also found in the tomb of Seth-Peribsen (late Second Dynasty) at Abydos and in the galleries beneath the step pyramid of Djoser (early Third Dynasty). Further attestations include a small ivory vessel from Saqqara and sealings bearing his name from the tombs of three elite individuals in North Saqqara. Additional sealings were uncovered in a mastaba in Giza and in another tomb in Helwan.

Nynetjer's name also appears on a rock inscription near Abu Handal in Lower Nubia which shows a serekh of the king. A serekh is a rectangular symbol enclosing a royal name and representing the façade of a palace surmounted by the falcon of the god Horus. It is the oldest form of royal titulary from ancient Egypt. In this case the serekh only encloses a "N" sign but with the sign "Netjer" for "God" placed above the serekh in the position normally occupied by the Horus falcon. Consequently Nynetjer's name is rendered as "The God N". The absence of Horus may hint at religious disturbances as suggested by the later choices of Seth-Peribsen to have Set instead of Horus above his serekhs and of Khasekhemwy, final ruler of the dynasty, to have both gods facing each other above his.

Most Egyptologists agree on the relative chronological position of Nynetjer as the third ruler of the early Second Dynasty and successor of Raneb. This is directly attested by the contemporary statue of Hetepedief. The statue, uncovered in Memphis and made of speckled red granite, is one of the earliest example of private Egyptian sculpture. Hetepedief was priest of the mortuary cults of the first three kings of the dynasty, whose serekhs are inscribed in seemingly chronological order on Hetepedief's right shoulder: Hotepsekhemwy, Raneb, and then Nynetjer. Further archaeological evidence supports this theory such as stone bowls of Hotepsekhemwy and Raneb reinscribed during Nynetjer's rule.

Several historical sources also point to the same conclusion. The oldest of these is the Old Kingdom royal annals, called after the name of its largest surviving fragment, the Palermo Stone. These annals were probably first compiled during the early Fifth Dynasty, possibly under Neferirkare Kakai (mid-25th century BC) around whose reign the record stops. These annals are considered to be a reliable witness to Nynetjer's rule in particular because, as the Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson puts it, they correctly give his name "in contrast to the corrupt, garbled variants found in later king lists". While the Palermo Stone does not preserve the identity of Nynetjer's immediate predecessors, it is consistent with him not being the first king of the dynasty. This source also presents an additional name for Nynetjer: Ren-nebu, meaning "golden offspring" or "golden calf". This name was also found on artefacts dating to Nynetjer's lifetime, and Egyptologists including Wilkinson and Wolfgang Helck think that it could be some kind of forerunner of the golden-Horus-name that was established in the royal titulature at the beginning of Third Dynasty under Djoser. The second-oldest historical source on Nynetjer is the Turin canon, a list of kings written under Ramses II (c. 1303 – 1213 BC). It ranks him under the name Netjer-ren as the third king of his dynasty after Hotepsekhemwy and Raneb. Two more sources of the Ramesside era present similar informations: the Abydos King List gives a Banetjer as the third kind of the Second Dynasty, while the Saqqara table lists Banetjeru at the same position. Both Banetjer and Banetjeru are understood to be corrupt forms of Nynetjer's ancient name.

The latest ancient historical source on Nynetjer's reign is the Aegyptiaca, written during the reign of Ptolemy II (283 – 246 BC) by Manetho. No copies of the Aegyptiaca have survived and it is now known only through later writings by Sextus Julius Africanus (c. 160 – 240) and Eusebius (c. 260/265 – 339). According to the Byzantine scholar George Syncellus (fl. 800), Africanus and Eusebius wrote that the Aegyptiaca recorded "Binōthris" or "Biophis" as the third king of the Second Dynasty, Binōthris probably being the Hellenized form of Banetjer, the name used for Nynetjer during the Ramesside era.