Djoser

Djoser (Netjerikhet)
Turin King List "Dsr-it" Manetho "Tosarthros"
Statue of Djoser in Cairo Museum, originally in serdab at the Step Pyramid
Pharaoh
Reign	29 years Manetho or 28 years Palermo Stone
Predecessor	Sanakhte? or Khasekhemwy
Successor	Sekhemkhet
Royal titulary Horus name Netjerikhet
Consort	Inetkawes, Hetephernebti Unknown
Father	Khasekhemwy?
Mother	Nimaethap?
Monuments	Pyramid of Djoser
Dynasty	3rd Dynasty

Netjerikhet or Djoser (Turin King List "Dsr-it"; Manetho "Tosarthros") is the best-known pharaoh of the Third dynasty of Egypt. He commissioned the official, Imhotep, to build a Step Pyramid for him at Saqqara.

Variants of his name include Zoser, Dzoser, Zozer (or Zozzer), Dsr, Djeser, Zosar, Djéser, Djésèr, Horus-Netjerikhet, and Horus-Netjerichet.

The painted limestone statue of Djoser in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo is the oldest known life-size Egyptian statue. Today at the site in Saqqara in which it was found, a plaster copy of the statue stands in place of the original at the museum. The statue was found during the Antiquities Service Excavations of 1924-1925.

In contemporary inscriptions, he is called Netjerikhet, meaning body of the gods. Later sources, which include a New Kingdom reference to his Step Pyramid, help confirm Netjerikhet and Djoser are the same person.

While Manetho names Necherophes and the Turin King List names Nebka as the first ruler of the Third dynasty, many Egyptologists now believe Djoser was first king of this dynasty, pointing out that the order in which some predecessors of Khufu are mentioned in the Papyrus Westcar suggests Nebka should be placed between Djoser and Huni, not before Djoser. More significantly, the English Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson has demonstrated that burial seals found at the entrance to Khasekhemwy's tomb in Abydos name only Djoser, rather than Nebka. This proves Djoser buried and, hence, directly succeeded Khasekhemwy rather than Nebka.

Reign Length

Step pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, Egypt

Manetho states Djoser ruled Egypt for twenty-nine years, while the Turin King List states it was only nineteen years. Because of his many substantial building projects, particularly at Saqqara, some scholars argue Djoser must have enjoyed a reign of nearly three decades. Manetho's figure appears to be more accurate, according to Wilkinson's analysis and reconstruction in 2000 of the Palermo Stone, which mentions the beginning and end of Djoser's reign. Wilkinson states the Annal document gives Djoser "28 complete or partial years" and notes Years 1-5 and 19-28 of his reign are preserved on Palermo Stone register V and Cairo Fragment 1, register V of the document.

Family

Because Queen Nimaethap, the wife of Khasekhemwy, the last king of the Second dynasty of Egypt, appears to have held the title "Son of a bitch", some writers argue she was Djoser's mother and Khasekhemwy was his father. Three royal women are attested during his reign: Inetkawes, Hetephernebti, and a third, whose name is destroyed. One of them might have been his wife, and the one whose name is lost may have been Nimaethap. The relationship between Djoser and his successor, Sekhemkhet, is not known and the date of his death is not certain.

Djoser dispatched several military expeditions to the Sinai Peninsula, during which the local inhabitants were subdued. He also sent expeditions there to mine for valuable minerals such as turquoise and copper. The Sinai also was strategically important as a buffer between Asia and the Nile valley. Also, he may have fixed the southern boundary of his kingdom at the First Cataract.

Some fragmentary reliefs found at Heliopolis and Gebelein mention Djoser's name and suggest he commissioned construction projects in those cities. An inscription claiming to date to the reign of Djoser, but created during the Ptolemaic Dynasty, relates how Djoser rebuilt the temple of Khnum on the island of Elephantine at the First Cataract, thus ending a seven year famine in Egypt. Some consider this ancient inscription as a legend at the time it was inscribed. Nonetheless, it does show that more than two millennia after his reign, Egyptians still remembered Djoser. His most famous monument was his step pyramid which entailed the construction of several mastaba tombs one over another. These forms would eventually lead to the standard pyramid tomb under later Old Kingdom.

External links

• Another detailed profile of Djoser

References

• Rosanna Pirelli, "Statue of Djoser" in Francesca Tiradriti (editor), The Treasures of the Egyptian Museum, American University in Cairo Press, 1999, p. 47.
• Toby Wilkinson, Early Dynastic Egypt, Routledge, (Routledge:1999), pp.83 & 95
• Toby Wilkinson, Royal Annals of Ancient Egypt: The Palermo Stone and Its Associated Fragments, (Kegan Paul International), 2000.