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Fourth Dynasty of Egypt - Wikipedia

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Old Kingdom dynasty (c. 2613–2494 BC)

The Fourth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty IV) is characterized as a "golden age" of the Old Kingdom of Egypt. Dynasty IV lasted from c. 2613 to c. 2498 BC.^[1] It was a time of peace and prosperity as well as one during which trade with other countries is officially documented.

The Fourth Dynasty heralded the height of the pyramid-building age. The peaceful rule of the Third Dynasty allowed artistic expressions to flourish.^[2] Building experiments done by King Sneferu led to the evolution of mastaba tombs into the smooth-sided pyramids like those seen on the Giza Plateau. No other period in Egyptian history equaled the accomplishments achieved during the Fourth Dynasty.^[3]

Sneferu, lauded as "Bringer of Beauty", "Master of All Justice", and "Ruler of Lower and Upper Nile", was the first pharaoh of the fourth dynasty. He descended from a family in Middle Egypt that lived near the city of Hermopolis, and most likely ascended to the throne by marrying a royal heiress. There is still debate as to who his father was, with the credit often being given to Huni, but this cannot be confirmed due to the break in dynasties. His mother, Meresankh I was either a lesser wife or concubine of Huni.

Until his reign, Egyptian kings were thought to be worldly incarnations of Horus, obtaining total deification exclusively in death. Sneferu was the first king to proclaim that he was the embodiment of Ra, a sun deity.

Sneferu built the Bent Pyramid, imitating King Djoser's tomb, approximately 150 years later.^[4] The Red Pyramid is considered to be the first of the "true" pyramids built by Sneferu and earned the name due to its red coloration from the limestone used. Sneferu is attributed to constructing the Medium pyramid, likely for the last king of the Third Dynasty, Huni.

Sneferu may also be responsible for a series of pyramids built in Selia, though no evidence dictates exactly who built them. He did commission a total of three pyramids during his reign.

Many of Snerferu's political expeditions were to other countries to secure two things: a substantial labor force, through slavery, and access to a large store of building materials. He frequently traveled to Nubia, and Libya for these. The excursions into Nubia, and Libya allowed an extensive labor force to accumulate requiring vast amounts of food sources in order to maintain.

Khufu, known to the Greek as Cheops, and Sneferu's successor—though it is unclear whether he was the biological son of Sneferu—was a widely known king. He is still known very well in present-day media, being featured in movies, novels, and television shows. His fame stems from his pyramid on the northeastern plateau at Giza, where he was buried. His mortuary temple was built on the northern end of the pyramid, which is no longer accessible due to grave robbers ravaging the area.

Only three-dimensional reliefs have been recovered and have lasted into modern day, including many limestone busts and clay figurines. Khufu's activities in and out of Egypt are not well documented, with the exception of his architecture.

The Ancient Greeks remain some of the only texts referencing Khufu, through which they viewed him as a cruel and wicked man who offended the deities and forced his subjects into slavery.^[5] Khufu, as the son of Sneferu, was believed to be illegitimate and therefore unworthy of the throne. Even if he was Sneferu's true son. He did very little to expand the country of Egypt and failed to follow his father's footsteps of territorial gains.

Djedefre is credited by historians with a reign of eight years. Not much is known of Djedefre, including his inconclusive lineage. It is possible that he is Khufu's son or that he was Khufu's brother. It is widely suggested that he is the son of a lesser queen who murdered the rightful heir to the throne and Djedefre's half brother, the crown prince Kawab.

Djedefre chose to build his pyramid several kilometers north of Giza, creating speculation that there was a family feud that caused him to want to be far away from Khufu's tomb. A more favorable conclusion was that Djedefre chose to be buried closer to Iunu, the center of the cult of Ra.

His pyramid also features a statue of his wife, Hetepheres II, in the form of a sphinx. She was a daughter of Khufu and had been the wife of Kawab. It is sometimes suggested that this was the first true sphinx, although there is debate about the sphinx at Giza that was credited to Khafre. She became the longest living royal member of the dynasty, living into the reign of Shepseskaf.

Khafre, son of Khufu, succeeded his supposed brother, Djedefre, after his short reign. He chose to build his pyramid close to his father, matching it in style and being almost as large. At the front of the pyramid causeway lies the Great Sphinx that is said to bear his features. There is still debate on whether his Sphinx was erected before Djedefre's.^[6] Khafre's sphinx was well-known and closer to his subjects, making it harder to determine which was built first due to biased record keeping.

Khafre built the most amount of statues for Dynasty IV, leading to greater evidence of his 25 year long rule. He did cause controversy however, with his statue depicting his ties still to the god Horus, rather than Ra.^[7]

Menkaure succeeded his father, Khafre, as King of Egypt. Menkaure is consistently depicted in his statuary as being around the personifications of deities, and nomes.

His pyramid is the third and smallest of those at Giza pyramid complex and is known as Netjer-er-Menkaure, which translates into "Menkaure is Divine". There was a sarcophagus found within the pyramid, that is approximately eight feet in length and three feet in height, made of basalt.

Shepseskaf is generally accepted as the last king of the Fourth Dynasty, succeeding Menkaure. There is no conclusive evidence of who his mother is, though it is believed that he was the son of a minor queen. Who his wife was also is unknown.It is also uncertain of his relationship to Menkaure, and if he was a son or brother.

Shepseskaf broke the chain of pyramid building by the previous five kings. Instead of a pyramid, he chose to construct a mastaba, a rectangular block, which is commonly referred to as the Mastabat al-Fir’aun ("Pharaoh's Bench").^[8]

The identification of Baka is unresolved.^[9] Several ancient lists of kings have survived. They do not agree, however, and none of them may be considered complete. The Turin King List has a lacuna between Khafre and Menkaure, where the author had listed a king who reigned between these two pharaohs. The name of the king and length of the reign are completely lost in the lacuna.^[10] The Saqqara Tablet also notes a king between Khafre and Menkaure, but here too, the name is lost.^[11] Some authorities have equated this king with Bikheris, on Manetho's list, who could correspond to the Egyptian name Baka or Bakare.

Perhaps the most intriguing evidence of the fourth dynasty is the status of Khentkaus I, also known as Khentykawes. She was a daughter of Menkaure and her tomb was built along the Menkaure causeway. She may have ruled as king.

Her tomb is a large mastaba tomb, with another off-center mastaba placed above it. The second mastaba could not be centered over her primary mastaba because of the free, unsupported, space in the rooms below.

On a granite doorway leading into her tomb, Khentkaus I is given titles that may be read either as mother of two kings of upper and lower Egypt, as mother of the king of upper and lower Egypt and king of upper and lower Egypt, or, as one scholar reads it, king of upper and lower Egypt and mother of two kings of upper and lower Egypt.

Furthermore, her depiction on this doorway also gives her the full trappings of kingship, including the false beard of the king. This depiction and the title given have led some Egyptologists to suggest that she reigned as king near the end of the fourth dynasty.

Her tomb was finished in a characteristic niche style of architecture, however, the niches were later filled in with a smooth casing of limestone.

On the whole, Egypt was ruled by two centers of power—legal authority and traditional authority. Legal authority constituted governing by the king, not over the people directly, but via viziers and nomarchs. Traditional authority was derived from the concept that the deities gave a king the divine right to rule as he pleased. At its heart, the Fourth Dynasty Egyptian government became organized so that only the king could direct traditional authority.

The Fourth Dynasty is a period in which a shift in religious practices can be seen. Worship of the sun was becoming the common practice, as the Cult of Ra grew in size. The worship of the Sun was centered around the tomb of the king, Djedefre in the city Heliopolis,which had been occupied since predynastic times, and named by the Ancient Greeks.^[12]

During the era centralization of the nations resources, material, organic, and human, began to develop a relationship to the king. The kings and their relation to the deities became unchallenged, with the kings carving their named into statues and monuments that had been previously reserved for deities. Khafre's famous statue, where a falcon was incorporated into his headgear, equated the king to the god Horus.

Kings no longer associated pyramids with the afterlife. The afterlife was once believed to be a divine kingdom that was represented as a type of idealistic heaven where only kings and pure hearts could go. Instead, the Fourth Dynasty represented a change in this idea, formulated the notion that the afterlife was a familiar place, taking the semblance of Earth.^[13]

The Old Kingdom saw a rise in the preservation of the deceased, making the preparation of bodies much more complex. The position of embalmer was created, and their jobs were solely to prepare a corpse in private. There were three ways to mummify a body: 1) Stucco: the body would be wrapped in fine linen and then covered in stucco plaster, the features of the body (including the face) were remodeled in the plaster;^[14] 2) Linen: the body would be wrapped in linen, which was sometimes treated with natron (a mixture of multiple sodium carbonates^[15]) and the linens would be treated with resin so that the features of the body could be modeled; and 3) Defleshing: removing all flesh and wrapping the bones in linens.^[16] Generally, organs were removed which were then put into jars that would accompany the body in the tomb, and the inside of the body flushed out.

Tombs in the Fourth Dynasty changed drastically. "Unimpressive" graves did not satisfy the elites, meaning they would settle for smaller structures if the interior was decorated. Hieroglyphic writings were important to elites because, one, it was a lavish display of wealth and, two, it guided their souls to the afterlife. The Fourth Dynasty, however, did not have these writings. Instead, the tomb was deeper and super-structures were larger. After the Giza pyramid complex, later generations of tombs were more reasonably sized. After the Middle Kingdom, royals abandoned pyramids; they preferred graves that were carved into living rock of the Upper Egyptian mountains.

The Age of the Pyramids refers to the fact that the Fourth Dynasty was the time when most of the well-known pyramids were built, which include those at Giza. King Sneferu was the first king to express an interest in funerary rites and tombs, which led him to the planning of the largest pyramid at Egypt. His first pyramids were called the Bent Pyramid and Red Pyramid. The "Age of the Pyramids" was not just about the building of large and easily recognizable structures, but also a change in funerary practices and rituals. This includes the burying of elites in large structures and the use of extensive mummification.

• Egyptian Fourth Dynasty Family Tree

1. ^ Shaw, Ian, ed. (2000). The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press. p. 480. ISBN 978-0-19-815034-3. OL 3968521M.
2. ^ Moliné, Miguel (2014-12-30). "Catalogue: Fourth Dynasty". Artehistoria (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-02-27.
3. ^ Egypt: Land and Lives of the Pharaohs Revealed, (2005), pp. 80–90, Global Book Publishing: Australia
4. ^ Levy, Janey (30 December 2005). The Great Pyramid of Giza: Measuring Length, Area, Volume, and Angles. Rosen Classroom. p. 4. ISBN 978-1-4042-6059-7.
5. ^ Tyldesley, Joyce. "Who was Khufu?".
6. ^ Spencer, A. J. (1990). "The Egyptian Pyramids. A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference. By J.P. Lepre. 233 × 156mm. Pp. xviii + 341, many ills. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, Inc. 1990. ISBN 0-89950-461-2. £37·50". The Antiquaries Journal. 70 (2): 479. doi:10.1017/S0003581500070906. S2CID 162040068. Retrieved 21 April 2018.
7. ^ Baines, John; Lesko, Leonard H.; Silverman, David P. (1991). Religion in Ancient Egypt: Gods, Myths, and Personal Practice. Cornell University Press. p. 97. ISBN 978-0-8014-9786-5.
8. ^ Spencer, A. J. (1990). "The Egyptian Pyramids. A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference. By J.P. Lepre. 233 × 156mm. Pp. xviii + 341, many ills. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, Inc. 1990. ISBN 0-89950-461-2. £37·50". The Antiquaries Journal. 70 (2): 479. doi:10.1017/S0003581500070906. S2CID 162040068. Retrieved 21 April 2018.
9. ^ Peter Jánosi: Giza in der 4. Dynastie. Die Baugeschichte und Belegung einer Nekropole des Alten Reiches. vol. I: Die Mastabas der Kernfriedhöfe und die Felsgräber, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien 2005, ISBN 3-7001-3244-1, page 64–65.
10. ^ Wolfgang Helck: Untersuchungen zu Manetho und den ägyptischen Königslisten, (= Untersuchungen zur Geschichte und Altertumskunde Ägyptens, Bd. 18), Leipzig/ Berlin 1956, page 52
11. ^ Aidan Dodson, Dyan Hilton: The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, The American University in Cairo Press, London 2004, ISBN 977-424-878-3, page 61
12. ^ Bolshakov, Andrey O (1991). "The Old Kingdom Representations of Funeral Procession". Göttinger Miszellen. 121: 31–54. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
13. ^ Roth, Ann Macy (1993). "Social Change in the Fourth Dynasty: The Spatial Organization of Pyramids, Tombs, and Cemeteries". Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt. 30: 33–55. doi:10.2307/40000226. JSTOR 40000226.
14. ^ "Fragments of stucco from a mummy". Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 12 March 2018.
15. ^ Gill, N.S. (20 August 2018). "Natron, Ancient Egyptian Chemical Salt and Preservative". ThoughtCo.
16. ^ "BBC - History - Ancient History in depth: Mummies Around the World". www.bbc.co.uk.

• v
• t
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Rulers of the

Hotepsekhemwy Nebra/Raneb Nynetjer Ba Nubnefer Horus Sa Weneg-Nebty Wadjenes Senedj Seth-Peribsen Sekhemib-Perenmaat Neferkara I Neferkasokar Hudjefa I Khasekhemwy

Indo-Mesopotamia relations

Djoser

Ikun-Shamash

Ansud

Pabilgagaltuku

Ur-Nanshe

Akurgal

Userkaf Sahure Neferirkare Kakai Neferefre Shepseskare Nyuserre Ini Menkauhor Kaiu Djedkare Isesi Unas

Sargon of Akkad Rimush Manishtushu

Ididish

La-erabum

Lim Dynasty

Siwe-Palar-Khuppak

(Shamshi-Adad dynasty
1808–1736 BCE)
(Amorites)
Shamshi-Adad I Ishme-Dagan I Mut-Ashkur Rimush Asinum Ashur-dugul Ashur-apla-idi Nasir-Sin Sin-namir Ipqi-Ishtar Adad-salulu Adasi

(Non-dynastic usurpers

(Adaside dynasty

Early Kassite rulers

Second Babylonian dynasty
("Sealand Dynasty")

Second Intermediate Period
Sixteenth
Dynasty of Egypt
Abydos
Dynasty
Seventeenth
Dynasty of Egypt

(1500–1100 BCE)
Kidinuid dynasty
Igehalkid dynasty
Untash-Napirisha

Ugarit (vassal of Hittites)

Setnakhte Ramesses III Ramesses IV Ramesses V Ramesses VI Ramesses VII Ramesses VIII Ramesses IX Ramesses X Ramesses XI

Third Intermediate Period

Twenty-first Dynasty of Egypt
Smendes Amenemnisu Psusennes I Amenemope Osorkon the Elder Siamun Psusennes II

Kingdom of Israel

Twenty-third Dynasty of Egypt
Harsiese A Takelot II Pedubast I Shoshenq VI Osorkon III Takelot III Rudamun Menkheperre Ini

Twenty-fourth Dynasty of Egypt

Kingdom of Judah

Urtak

(Sargonid dynasty)
Tiglath-Pileser^† Shalmaneser^† Marduk-apla-iddina II Sargon^† Sennacherib^† Marduk-zakir-shumi II Marduk-apla-iddina II Bel-ibni Ashur-nadin-shumi^† Nergal-ushezib Mushezib-Marduk Esarhaddon^† Ashurbanipal Ashur-etil-ilani Sinsharishkun Sin-shumu-lishir Ashur-uballit II

1. ^ Rulers with names in italics are considered fictional.
2. ^ Hallo, William W.; Simpson, William Kelly (1971). The Ancient Near East: A History. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. pp. 48–49. ISBN 978-0-15-502755-8.
3. ^ "Rulers of Mesopotamia". CDLI:wiki. Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative.
4. ^ Thomas, Ariane; Potts, Timothy, eds. (2020). Mesopotamia: Civilization Begins. Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum. p. 14. ISBN 978-1-60606-649-2.
5. ^ Roux, Georges (1992). Ancient Iraq. London: Penguin Books Limited. pp. 532–534 (Chronological Tables). ISBN 978-0-14-193825-7.
6. ^ ^{a b c} Per the Sumerian King List.
7. ^ Unger, Merrill F. (2014). Israel and the Aramaeans of Damascus: A Study in Archaeological Illumination of Bible History. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-62564-606-4.

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