Scenes from the Tomb Chapel of Raemkai
(Originally Built and Decorated for Neferirtenes)
Old Kingdom, Dynasty 5, originally reigns of Neferirkare through Niuserre (ca. 2446-2389 BCE),
usurped by Raemkai (with no changes to the scenes) before the beginning of the reign of Isesi (ca. 2381 BCE)
Limestone, From Saqqara, north of the Step Pyramid
Rogers Fund, 1908 (08.201.1)
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(From info card) "The original owner of this tomb chapel was Neferirtenes, holder of a number of administrative offices. The reuse of the tomb for Raemkai was most probably by royal decree. Either Neferiretenes ('What she [his mother] has done good'_ must have fallen into disgrace or his family had died out, leaving no one to care for his tomb. "The inscriptions call Raemkai (the name means 'the sun is my life force') 'king's bodily son,' and he may well have been a true prince, although we do not know definitely from which pharoah he descended. "Raemkai's offices were predominately of a religious character, but one title ('representative of el-Kab') points to an association with ceremonies around the king's robing and crowning, thus indicating that Raemkai was on occasion close to the pharoah's person." |
