Userkare

The king list carved in the temple of Seti I at Abydos places Userkare between Teti and Pepi I, so a thousand years later he was still counted among the rightful pharaohs. His name, "the ka of Ra is strong", is built like the names of the pharaohs of the Fifth Dynasty, which has led some scholars to think that he came from a branch of the old royal family. His parents are unknown. Some suggest he was a son of Teti by Queen Khuit.

The direct evidence of his reign is very small. Two cylinder seals with his name and a copper mallet, a tool used by builders or quarrymen, are the only objects certainly of his time. Some inscribed blocks and a copper axe head have also been linked with him, but these attributions are uncertain. No statue, no relief showing him and no building of his have been identified.

In 1932 a large stone slab was found at South Saqqara, reused as the lid of the sarcophagus of a queen. It turned out to carry the royal annals of the Sixth Dynasty, a record of each reign year by year, like the Palermo Stone for earlier pharaohs. But before its reuse the surface had been ground down, and about nine tenths of the text is lost. Between the sections for Teti and Pepi I there is space for a short reign, probably of two to four years, which most scholars give to Userkare.

Two main views exist. Some Egyptologists see Userkare as a usurper, perhaps from a side branch of the royal family, who seized power when Teti died. Others think he ruled legitimately for a short time, perhaps as a regent while Pepi I was still a child, which would fit with the very long reign of Pepi I that followed. A few have even suggested a joint rule of the two. The evidence is too thin to decide.

Manetho writes that Teti was murdered by his bodyguards, but he does not mention Userkare at all. Some historians have linked the two: a pharaoh who came to the throne after a murder and then disappeared from most records would fit the picture of a plot. No contemporary document mentions the murder or names those responsible, so any role of Userkare in it remains a hypothesis.

His name is missing from the tombs of officials of the period, and in some tombs at Saqqara the names and figures of certain officials were later chiselled away. The Australian Egyptologist Naguib Kanawati sees this as revenge by Pepi I against supporters of Userkare. Other scholars find no clear proof of a deliberate erasure and think the few traces simply reflect a short reign that left no finished monuments. That later king lists still include him suggests that his rule was accepted as legitimate.

Userkare is one of the riddles of the Old Kingdom. He ruled Egypt for a few years at a moment of possible crisis, yet left almost nothing behind. Whether he was a usurper, a regent or simply a pharaoh who died early, his reign marks the uneasy start of the Sixth Dynasty.