Location

The unfinished pyramid is located south-west of Neferirkare's pyramid^[18][19] in the Abusir necropolis,^[1] between Saqqara and the Giza Plateau.^[20] It is seated on the Abusir diagonal,^[7] a figurative line touching the north-western corners of the pyramids of Sahure, Neferirkare, and Neferefre, and pointing towards Heliopolis (Iunu). It is similar to the Giza diagonal which converges to the same point, except that the Giza pyramids are linked at their south-east corners instead.^[18] The siting of Neferefre's pyramid gives an indication of its position on a chronological scale. As the third and final pyramid in line on the Abusir diagonal, it follows that it is the third in line of succession following Sahure and Neferirkare.^[7][21] Similarly, it is the furthest of the three from the Nile delta, and thus held the least advantageous position for material transport.^[21] A limestone block, discovered by Édouard Ghazouli in the village of Abusir in the 1930s, depicts Neferirkare with his consort, Khentkaus II, and eldest son, Neferefre, further substantiating the chronology.^[18][22]

Early surveys

The building was noticed during the early archaeological studies of the necropolis of Abusir, but not subject to thorough investigation. John Shae Perring (1835–1837),^[23] Karl Richard Lepsius (1842–1846),^[23] who catalogued the ruins as XXVI in his pyramid list,^[24] Jacques de Morgan, and Ludwig Borchardt each gave limited attention to the building.^[1]

Borchardt carried out a trial excavation at the site, digging a trench into the open ditch that spanned from the north face of the monument to its center. He anticipated that if the tomb was functional, he would encounter the passage leading to the burial chamber. Substructure passages had north-south orientations pointing to the pole star, where Ancient Egyptians believed that the pharaoh would join Re in the sky and remain in the "heavenly ocean" for all eternity. By contrast the burial- and ante- chambers were oriented east-west, and the mummy itself was placed against the western wall with its head pointed north, but facing east. The experimental dig failed to find the passage, leading Borchardt to conclude that the structure was left incomplete and unused. Either by chance or error, Borchardt abandoned the dig whilst perhaps only 1 m (3.3 ft) away from discovering remnants of the passage. As a consequence of Borchardt's decision, the function of the monument and the identity of its owner remained a mystery for seventy years.^[25]

Charles University excavations and discoveries

A definitive assignment of an owner to the pyramid stump was not possible prior to the 1970s. It was speculatively attributed to Neferefre, or the ephemeral Shepseskare, and it was believed that the structure was abandoned before its completion, excluding the possibility of a burial and, consequently, a mortuary cult.^[26] Intensive research of the remains began in 1974,^[7] by the Czech team of Charles University in Prague.^[21][27] The owner was identified as Neferefre from a single cursive inscription, written in black on a block taken from the corridor.^[28] The archaeological excavations of the Czech team continued throughout the 1980s,^[28] coming to a halt in 1998.^[29]

Layout

Old Kingdom mortuary complexes typically consist of five main components: (1) a valley temple; (2) a causeway; (3) a mortuary temple; (4) a cult pyramid; and (5) the main pyramid.^[30] Neferefre's complex consisted of an unfinished pyramid, comprising a single step that was hastily converted into a mound,^[5] and a mortuary temple built in three stages during the reigns of Nyuserre and, possibly, Shepseskare.^[31] The valley temple, causeway and cult pyramid were not built.^[32]

Main pyramid

The pyramid's condition created the opportunity for a detailed examination of construction methodology employed by pyramid builders in the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties.^[33][34] In particular, the Czech team were able to test Lepsius' and Borchardt's accretion layer hypothesis – the method used in the Third Dynasty^[34] – for the construction of Fifth Dynasty pyramids.^[33][9]

After exploring the Abusir necropolis in 1843,^[35] Lepsius developed the hypothesis that the Abusir pyramids were built by layering stone blocks at a ~75° angle against a central limestone spindle on the pyramid's vertical axis.^[36] Lepsius justified his hypothesis with the idea that it allowed the pharaoh to expand his tomb gradually over the course of his reign, but if this was the case, then there should be a correlation between regnal duration and pyramid size, yet no such relationship exists.^[37] Borchardt, who resurveyed the pyramids between 1902–08,^[35] further promulgated the theory after discovering what he believed were accretion layers in Sahure's pyramid.^[37] His model of the internal structure of Sahure's pyramid, displayed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and his published plans for the Abusir pyramids garnered the hypothesis widespread support.^[36] The Egyptologists Vito Maragioglio and Celeste Rinaldi examined several Fourth and Fifth Dynasty pyramids in the 1960s, but failed to find any evidence supporting accretion layers, and instead found horizontal layers in the structures of the pyramids they visited, including Userkaf's and Sahure's.^[37] In the 1980s, the Czech Abusir Mission^[34] were able to thoroughly examine the internal structure of Neferefre's unfinished pyramid.^[9] The single completed step contained no accretion layers,^[9] and in Miroslav Verner's opinion, mostly likely none of the other Abusir pyramids did either.^[3]

At the pyramid site, builders had the ground levelled, and measures for the construction of the pyramid base taken.^[28] A large east-west oriented rectangular trench was excavated to form the basis of the pyramid's funerary apartments, and a deep north-south oriented ditch dug to form the corridor leading to those apartments.^[28] Two layers of massive limestone blocks were then set onto the prepared site, upon which the pyramid superstructure was to be built^[21] concurrently with the substructure.^[28][7]

The pyramid faces were framed by massive grey limestone blocks up to 5 m (16 ft) by 5.5 m (18 ft) by 1 m (3.3 ft) in size. The inner chambers and passageway were similarly framed, but using much smaller blocks.^[38] The frames were made by horizontally layering four or five courses of limestone, each 1 m (3.3 ft) thick,^[34] and bound using clay mortar, with particular attention paid to the mortaring of the corner stones.^[3] The pyramid core, between the two frames, was then packed with rubble fill composed of limestone chips, sand, pottery shards, and clay.^[38][36] Only the lowest step of Neferefre's pyramid was completed,^[9] before a hasty conversion into a square mastaba or primeval mound – as suggested by its name, iat (hill), found in the Abusir Papyri^[5] – was made to accommodate his funeral.^[39][28] The single step, about 7 m (23 ft; 13 cu) tall, was enclosed by roughly dressed fine white Tura limestone blocks sloped at ~78°.^[40] Above the chamber's ceiling, a flat roof terrace was built then covered in a thin layer of clay and gravel, completing the monument.^[41] Burial preparations, including mummification rituals, took a prescribed minimum of seventy days. Completion of the pyramid, a project that took years to finish, was therefore impossible.^[28]

The Abusir pyramids were thus constructed in a radically different manner to those of the preceding dynasties.^[36] This method of construction, albeit less time and resource consuming, was careless and unstable, and meant that only the outer casing was constructed using high quality limestone.^[42] Stripped of their valuable casing, their cores were exposed to further human destruction and natural erosion, leaving the Abusir pyramids as ruinous, formless mounds.^[43]

Substructure

The pyramid substructure was accessed from slightly above ground level on the middle of the pyramid's north side. A descending corridor, deflected slightly to the south-east, led to the funerary apartments. The corridor was reinforced with red granite near its terminus, and guarded by a red granite portcullis. In the middle of the corridor was a further security measure in the form of a massive red granite interlocking "jaw[-like]" barrier. A barrier of this type has not been verified in any other building, but appears to have been included due to the lack of protection for the tomb from above. The corridor terminates at an antechamber, with a burial chamber lying further to the west. The rooms are oriented along the east-west axis and each apartment was originally covered by a gabled fine white limestone ceiling. These have been severely damaged by stone thieves quarrying inside the pyramid who had easy access to the chambers from the roof terrace where they dug a ditch and set up a workshop. The pyramid was likely plundered in the First Intermediate Period, and then periodically mined for stone from the New Kingdom through to the nineteenth century.^[44]

In spite of the devastation wrought by stone thieves, remnants of the burial have been preserved. Inside the substructure fragments of a red granite sarcophagus, pieces of four alabaster canopic jars, alabaster sacrificial offering containers, and a partial mummy were recovered.^[40] The sarcophagus was covered by a convex lid with rectangular end pieces, had body walls 35 cm (1 ft 2 in) thick, and a length of no more than 2.7 m (8.9 ft).^[45] The red granite build is noteworthy, as Fifth Dynasty sarcophagi were typically made of greywacke. This suggests that Neferefre's sarcophagus was most likely an emergency solution.^[46] The mummy remains have been identified as belonging to a twenty to twenty-three-year-old male, probably Neferefre.^[40] Blocks from above the gabled ceiling also regularly contain an inscription reading Hut Neferefre approximately "Burial area of Neferefre".^[47] At the end of the corridor, a block with a date rnpt sp tpy, ꜣbd 4 ꜣḫt was uncovered, corresponding to the first or second year of Neferefre's reign, or assuming a biennial census then theoretically a third year, and briefly preceding the interruption of the pyramid construction process.^[48]

Mortuary temple

At the end of the 1970s, with written evidence supporting its existence and a working hypothesis that the tomb was functional, a search was conducted for the mortuary temple of Neferefre's unfinished pyramid by the Czech team. A magnetometric survey of the sand plain on the pyramid's east side revealed a large, articulate, T-shaped mudbrick building buried under the sand. The building was confirmed to be the mortuary temple in the subsequent excavations.^[49]

Sanctuary of the Knife

South-east of the mortuary temple, a rectangular north-south oriented mudbrick building, built in two phases, was uncovered.^[79][75] The building served as a ritual abattoir in service to the mortuary cult.^[80][75] Temple archive papyri and vessel inscriptions identify it as "the Sanctuary of the Knife", and preserve an event in which 130 bulls were slaughtered at the abattoir during a ten-day festival.^[80][67]

The abattoir had a single, wide entrance in its north side through which cattle, goats, gazelles, and other animals were herded inside.^[80] In the north-west of the building was an open slaughterhouse, and in the north-east a butchery where the meat was prepared.^[81] There was also a staircase up to the roof terrace, which was perhaps used for drying meats.^[82] The remaining abattoir was occupied by storage rooms,^[82] which became the only operating area of the building after the third stage of the temple's construction.^[67] The abattoir was fully decommissioned and bricked up during the reign of Teti, at the start of the Sixth Dynasty.^[78] A Middle Kingdom burial was unearthed in the abattoir, belonging to a hunchbacked – caused by severe tuberculosis of the bone – man called Khuiankh, who had served as one of the last priests of the mortuary cult.^[78]

Perimeter wall

The unfinished pyramid and mortuary temple were surrounded by a massive brick perimeter wall, reinforced with limestone monoliths at its corners.^[75]