19 Facts About Shepseskaf

Shepseskaf was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt, the sixth and probably last ruler of the fourth dynasty during the Old Kingdom period.

Shepseskaf reigned most probably for four but possibly up to seven years in the late 26th to mid 25th century BC.

Shepseskaf's decisions to abandon the Giza necropolis and to build a mastaba, that is a flat-roofed rectangular structure, rather than a pyramid for himself are significant and continue to be debated.

Possibly because of this, and the small dimensions of his tomb compared to those of his forebears and his short reign, Shepseskaf was the object of a relatively minor state-sponsored funerary cult that disappeared in the second half of the fifth dynasty.

Identity of Shepseskaf's mother is even more uncertain than that of his father.

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Shepseskaf was possibly an issue from a second, non-royal, marriage of Bunefer.

Shepseskaf was long thought to be a daughter of Shepseskaf following a hypothesis by the 19th century Egyptologist Emmanuel de Rouge.

Finally, Mark Lehner proposes that Shepseskaf fathered pharaoh Userkaf with queen Khentkaus I, an idea shared by Kozloff but rejected by Barta who thinks they were brothers.

Shepseskaf's reign is difficult to date precisely in absolute terms.

Similarly, in his Giza tomb prince Sekhemkare reports about his career under the kings Khafre, Menkaura, Shepseskaf, Userkaf and Sahure, while the high priest Ptahshepses describes being born under Menkaure, growing up under Shepseskaf and starting his career under Userkaf.

In column III, line 15 King Shepseskaf is listed, line 16 is wholly in a lacuna while the end of Userkaf's name is legible on line 17.

Duration of Shepseskaf's rule is uncertain but it is generally taken to have lasted probably four but perhaps up to seven years.

Verner points notably to the unfinished state of his mastaba to conclude Shepseskaf's rule did not exceed the four years attributed to him by the Turin canon.

The site of Shepseskaf's tomb, said to be a pyramid, was chosen that same year.

Finally Shepseskaf probably decreed a daily offering of 20 measures of something to the senuti shrine.

Some officials who served under Shepseskaf are known from the funerary inscriptions they made on their tombs and which mention the king.

For Barta, Shepseskaf simply decided to come back to the traditional burial grounds of Saqqara and Abusir, a choice that therefore does not need to be seen as a sign of religious conflicts within the royal family, as had been proposed by Hassan.

Shepseskaf might have been forced to take this decision if Egypt experienced economic difficulties at the time as Verner posits, or perhaps Menkaure's failure to complete his mortuary temple could have made Shepseskaf more cautious about his own tomb.

Furthermore no evidence for Shepseskaf's cult has been found beyond the mid fifth dynasty, while the cults of some of his close successors lasted beyond the end of the Old Kingdom.