Sixth Dynasty of Egypt

The Sixth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty VI), along with the Third, Fourth and Fifth Dynasty, constitutes the Old Kingdom of Dynastic Egypt.

History

The Sixth Dynasty is considered by many authorities as the last dynasty of the Old Kingdom, although The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> includes Dynasties VII and VIII as part of the Old Kingdom. Manetho writes that these kings ruled from Memphis, since their pyramids were built at Saqqara, very close one to another.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

By the Fifth Dynasty, the religious institution had established itself as the dominant force in society;Template:Sfn a trend of growth in the bureaucracy and the priesthood, and a decline in the pharaoh's power had been established during Neferirkare Kakai's reign.Template:Sfn During Djedkare Isesi's rule, officials were endowed with greater authority—evidenced by the opulent private tombs they constructed—eventually leading to the creation of a feudal system in effect.Template:Sfn These established trends—decentralization of authority, coupled with growth in bureaucracy—intensified during the three decades of Unas's rule, which also witnessed economic decline.Template:Sfn This continued into the Sixth Dynasty, leading into the First Intermediate Period.Template:Sfn

Pharaohs

Known pharaohs of the Sixth Dynasty are listed in the table below.Template:Sfn Manetho accords the dynasty 203 regnal years from Teti to Nitocris, while the Turin Canon assigns 181 regnal years, but with three additional kings concluding with Aba – discounting the reigns of the added Eighth Dynasty kings, this is reduced to 155 regnal years.Template:Sfn This estimate varies between both scholar and source.Template:Efn

Dynasty VI pharaohs

Nomen (personal name)	Prenomen (throne name)Template:Sfn	Horus-name	Image	Proposed Dates	Estimated Regnal Duration	Pyramid	Queen(s)
Teti	Teti	Seheteptawy	File:Statue of Teti Quibell Saqqara 1.jpg	2345–2333 BC	Manetho: 30–33 years Royal Turin Canon (RTC): < 7 months Cattle count: 6th = 12–13 yearsTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn	Pyramid of Teti at Saqqara	Iput I Khuit Khentkaus IV Neith
Userkare	(unknown)	(unknown)	File:Abydos KL 06-02 n35.jpg	2333–2331 BC	Manetho: Unattested,Template:Sfn possibly involved in Teti's murderTemplate:Sfn RTC: Possibly lost in lacunaTemplate:Sfn Cattle count: Unknown, lost in lacuna(?)Template:Sfn
Pepi I	Nefersahor (originally) Merenre (later)	Merytawy	File:PepiI-CopperStatue-Cropped.png	2331–2287 BC	Manetho: 52 yearsTemplate:Sfn RTC: 20 or 44 yearsTemplate:Sfn Cattle count: 25th = 49–50 yearsTemplate:Sfn	Pyramid of Pepi I in South Saqqara	Ankhesenpepi I Ankhesenpepi II Nubwenet Meritites IV Inenek-Inti Mehaa Nedjeftet
Nemtyemsaf I	Merenre	Ankhkhau	File:Merenre.jpg	2287–2278 BC	Manetho: 7 years RTC: 6 years Cattle count: 5th + 1 year = 10 yearsTemplate:Sfn	Pyramid of Merenre in South Saqqara	Ankhesenpepi II
Pepi II	Neferkare	Netjerkhau		2278–2184 BC	Manetho: 94 years RTC: > 90 years Cattle count: 33rd = 64–66 yearsTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn	Pyramid of Pepi II in South Saqqara	Neith Iput II Ankhesenpepi III Ankhesenpepi IV Udjebten
Nemtyemsaf II	Merenre [Nemty?]emsaf	(unknown)		2184 BC	Manetho: 1 yearTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn RTC: 1 year, 1 monthTemplate:Sfn
Netjerkare or Nitocris	Siptah	(unknown)	File:Abydos KL 07-01 n40.jpg	2184–2181 BC	Manetho: Nitocris for 12 yearsTemplate:Sfn RTC: Originally thought to identify Nitocris,Template:Sfn a recent study of the papyrus has altered this assessment in favour of Netjerkare, who is also attested on the Abydos king list.Template:Sfn

Teti

Template:Main Teti is identified as the first king of the Sixth DynastyTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn by Manetho, after the conclusion of the reign of Unas.Template:Sfn He acceded to the throne in the 23rd century BC.Template:Sfn

Teti is assigned a regnal duration of 30 or 33 years by ManethoTemplate:Sfn — improbably long as the celebration of a Sed festival is not attested to, and the latest date recorded corresponds to the sixth cattle count, 12 or 13 years into his reign. The Royal Canon of Turin (RTC) gives another unlikely estimate of seven months.Template:Sfn The archaeologist Hartwig Altenmüller mediates between Manetho and the record of the cattle count to offer a reign length of around 23 years.Template:Sfn The Egyptologists Peter Clayton and William Smith accord 12 years to his reign.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn

The relationship between Teti and his predecessors remains unclear, but his wife Iput is thought to be a daughter of Unas.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn This would mean that Teti ascended to the throne as Unas's son-in-law.Template:Sfn His inauguration solved a potential succession crisis, Unas having died without a male heir.Template:Sfn Teti adopted the Horus name Seheteptawy (meaning "He who pacifies the Two Lands") to establish his reign as one of renewed political unity.Template:Sfn The transition appears to have occurred smoothly,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and Teti retained officials from his predecessors of the Fifth Dynasty, such as viziers Mehu and Kagemni who had begun their careers under Djedkare Isesi.Template:Sfn Despite this, the RTC too inserts a break between Unas and Teti, which the Egyptologist Jaromìr Malek contends relates to a "change of location of the capital and royal residence".Template:Sfn The capital migrated from "White Wall" to the populous suburbs further south to "Djed-isut"—derived from the name of Teti's pyramid and pyramid town, and located east of the monument. The royal residence might have been yet further south, in the valley away and across a lake from the city, east of South Saqqara—where the pyramids of Djedkare Isesi and Pepi I were built.Template:Sfn

Teti had his daughter, Sesheshet, married to one of his viziers and later chief priest, Mereruka, a clear sign of his interest in co-operating with the noble class.Template:Sfn Mereruka was buried close to Teti's pyramid, in a lavish tomb in North Saqqara.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn As part of his policy of pacification, Teti issued a decree exempting the temple at Abydos from taxation. He was the first ruler to be closely associated with the cult of Hathor at Dendera.Template:Sfn Abroad, Teti maintained trade relations with Byblos and Nubia.Template:Sfn

Teti commissioned the construction of a pyramid at North Saqqara. His pyramid follows the standard set by Djedkare Isesi, with a base length of Template:Convert converging to the apex at ~53° attaining a peak height of Template:Convert.Template:Sfn The substructure of the pyramid was very similar to Unas's and Djedkare Isesi's; it had a descending corridor and horizontal passage guarded at about the middle by three granite portcullises, leading to an antechamber flanked to its east by the serdab with its three recesses and to its west by the burial chamber containing the sarcophagus.Template:Sfn The walls of the chambers and a section of the horizontal passage were inscribed with Pyramid Texts, as in Unas' pyramid.Template:Sfn The mortuary temple, with the exception of its entrance, conforms to the same basic plans as his predecessors.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The complex contained a cult pyramid to the south-east of the pyramid with base length Template:Convert.Template:Sfn The causeway connecting to the mortuary temple is yet to be excavated,Template:Sfn while the valley temple and pyramid town are entirely missing.Template:Sfn Teti's pyramid became the site of a large necropolis, and included the pyramids of his wives Neith and Iput, mother of Pepi I.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Iput's skeleton was discovered buried in her pyramid in a wooden coffin.Template:Sfn

Manetho claims that Teti was assassinated by a bodyguard, but no contemporary sources confirm this.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The story, if true, might explain the references to the ephemeral ruler Userkare, proposed to have briefly reigned between Teti and Pepi I.Template:Sfn Userkare is attested to in the Royal Turin Canon and Abydos king-list, and is mentioned in several contemporaneous documents.Template:Sfn

Pepi I

During this dynasty, expeditions were sent to Wadi Maghara in the Sinai Peninsula to mine for turquoise and copper, as well as to the mines at Hatnub and Wadi Hammamat. The pharaoh Djedkara sent trade expeditions south to Punt and north to Byblos, and Pepi I sent expeditions not only to these locations, but also as far as Ebla in modern-day Syria.

Pepi II

The most notable member of this dynasty was Pepi II, who is credited with a reign of 94 years.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Neitiqerty

Also known by the Greek name Nitocris, this woman is believed by some authorities to have been not only the first female pharaoh but the first queen in the world, although it is currently accepted that her name is actually a mistranslation of the king Neitiqerty Siptah.

File:Seated statue of an official on block chair. Limestone. 6th Dynasty. From Egypt. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London.jpg

Seated statue of an official on block chair. Limestone. 6th Dynasty. From Egypt. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London

The rise of the nobility

With the growing number of biographical inscriptions in non-royal tombs,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> our academic knowledge of the contemporary history in Egyptian broadened.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> There is modern confirmation of records describing an unsuccessful plot against Pepi I,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and of a letter written by the young king Pepi II, whi expressed excitement that one of his expeditions would return with a dancing pygmy from the land of Yam, located south of Nubia.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

These non-royal tomb inscriptions are one example of the growing power of the nobility, which further weakened the king’s absolute rule. As a result, it is believed that after the death of the long-lived Pepi II, his vassals were sufficiently entrenched to resist the authority of his many successors. This may have contributed to the rapid decline of the Old Kingdom.

Comparison of regnal lists

The ancient king lists are in broad agreement on the order of monarchs in this dynasty, though Userkare was sometimes omitted. The Saqqara Tablet additionally omits all kings who reigned after Pepi II and before the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. The Karnak King List is very selective. The Turin King List is in a fragmentary state and most names of kings for this dynasty are now lost.

Historical Pharaoh	Abydos King List	Karnak King List	Saqqara Tablet	Turin King List<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref>	Manetho<ref name="Manetho2">Template:Cite web</ref>	Reign Years
						Turin List<ref name=":0" />	Manetho<ref name="Manetho2" />
Teti	Teti	Teti	Teti	Name lost	Othoes	Unknown years, 6 months and 21 days	30
Userkare	Userkare	–	–	Name lost	–	Lost	–
Pepi I Meryre	Meryre	Pepi	Pepi	Name lost	Phios	20 years	53
Merenre Nemtyemsaf I	Merenre	Merenre	Merenre	Name lost	Methusouphis	44 years	7
Pepi II Neferkare	Neferkare	–	Neferkare	Name lost	Phiops	90+ years	94
Merenre Nemtyemsaf II	Merenre Saemsaf	–	–	Name lost	Menthesouphis	1 year and 1 month	1
Netjerkare Siptah	Netjerikare	–	–	Netiqerty Siptah	Nitokris	Lost	12

Sixth Dynasty timeline

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DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:-2345 till:-2181 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:30 start:-2345 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:10 start:-2345

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 barset:Rulers

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 from: -2345 till: -2333 color:PA text:"Teti"
 from: -2333 till: -2331 color:PA text:"Userkare"
 from: -2331 till: -2287 color:PA text:"Pepi I"
 from: -2287 till: -2278 color:PA text:"Nemtyemsaf I"
 from: -2278 till: -2184 color:PA text:"Pepi II
 from: -2184 till: -2183 color:PA text:"Nemtyemsaf II"
 from: -2183 till: -2181 color:PA text:"Netjerkare"

 barset:skip

</timeline>

Sources

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