Хуни: Последний фараон III династии Древнего Египта

Ancient Egyptian king and pharaoh

Huni (original reading unknown) was an ancient Egyptian king, the last pharaoh of the Third Dynasty of Egypt during the Old Kingdom period. Following the Turin king list, he is commonly credited with a reign of 24 years, ending c. 2613 BC. Huni's chronological position as the last king of the third dynasty is fairly certain, but there is uncertainty about the succession order of rulers at the end of the 3rd dynasty. It is also unclear under which Hellenized name the ancient historian Manetho listed him in his Aegyptiacae: mostly likely Aches, as Winfried Barta proposes. Many Egyptologists believe that Huni was the father and direct predecessor of King Sneferu, but this is questioned by other scholars. Huni is seen by scholars as a confusing figure in Egyptian history, because he was long remembered in Egyptian traditions, but very few documents, objects or monuments from his reign have survived. Huni is also attested in mastaba L6 at Saqqara, attributed to the official Metjen and dating to the end of the 3rd dynasty. There, an inscription was found with the name of a royal domain Hw. t njswt. hw ("Hut nisut hu") of Huni. Huni is further mentioned on the back of the Palermo stone in the section concerning the reign of the 5th dynasty king Neferirkare Kakai, who apparently had a mortuary temple built for the cult of Huni. The temple, however, has not yet been located. Most scholars today think that this extract may strengthen the theory that Huni was the last king of the 3rd dynasty and immediate predecessor of king Snefru (the first ruler of the 4th dynasty).

Huni's identity is difficult to establish, since his name is passed down mostly as cartouche name and in different variations. The earliest mention of his cartouche name may possibly appearing on the granite cone from Elephantine, which might be contemporary. Otherwise, the earliest appearances of Huni's cartouche can be found on the Palermo Stone P1, dating to the 5th dynasty, and on the Prisse Papyrus of the 13th dynasty. Huni's cartouche can also be found in the Saqqara kinglist and the Turin Canon, both dating back to the 19th dynasty. The Abydos kinglist, which also dates to the 19th dynasty, mysteriously omits Huni's name and gives instead a Neferkara I who is unknown to Egyptologists. The reading and translation of his cartouche name is also disputed. In general, two basic versions of his name exist: an old version, which is closest to the (lost) original, and a younger version, which seems to be based on ramesside interpretations and misreadings. The genealogical position of Huni in the family line of ruling kings, during the time when the 3rd dynasty ended and the 4th started, is highly disputed. Contemporary and later documents often mention Huni and his follower Snefru in the same sentence, always in direct succession. Therefore, Egyptologists and historians believe that Huni might have even been related to Snefru. A key figure in this case is queen Meresankh I, the royal mother of Snefru. She definitely bore the title of a queen, but no contemporary source connects her name with the title of a daughter or wife of Huni. This circumstance raises doubts in the family relationship between Huni and Snefru. Today most scholars prefer to believe the historian Manetho, who claims in his Aegyptiacae that with the enthronement of Snefru a different royal house gained power over Egypt and a new dynasty had begun. A possible wife of Huni was instead a queen Djefatnebty, whose name appears in black ink inscriptions on beer vases from Elephantine. Her name is guided by the title great one of the hetes sceptre, making her definitely a queen consort. According to an interpretation by Günter Dreyer, Djefatnebty's death is mentioned alongside several events during the reign of king Huni, although no king is mentioned in the inscription by his name. Dreyer is convinced that the notations concern the 22nd year of Huni's reign, since the Turin canon credits him with a reign of 24 years and no 3rd dynasty king is archaeologically proven to have ruled so long. Dreyer's interpretation is not commonly accepted, though. But other scholars, such as Wolfgang Helck and Wilfried Seipel, raise strong doubts against this theory. They argue that the title of Hetepheres does not explicitly reveal to whom she was married in her lifetime.

Next to nothing is known of Huni's time on the throne. Huni is given a reign of 24 years by the Turin canon, which is commonly accepted by scholars. Religious or military activities are not known from his reign. Another hint of possible building projects and city foundations under Huni might be hidden in the name of the historical city of Ehnas (today better known as Heracleopolis Magna). Wolfgang Helck points out, that the Old Kingdom name of this city was Nenj niswt and that this name was written with exactly the same hieroglyphs as the cartouche name of Huni. Thus, he proposes Huni as the founder of Ehnas. Additionally, the tomb inscription of Metjen mentions a mortuary domain in the nome of Letopolis. This building hasn't been found by archaeologists yet. After his death, Huni seems to have enjoyed a long lasting mortuary cult. The Palermo stone, which was made over a hundred years after Huni's death, mentions donations made to a funerary complex temple of Huni. Huni's name is also mentioned in the Prisse Papyrus, a further evidence that Huni was remembered long after his death since the papyrus was written during the 12th dynasty. Closer examinations of the pyramid surroundings however revealed several tomb inscriptions and pilgrim graffiti praising the "beauty of the white pyramid of king Snefru". They further call for prayers to Snefru and "his great wife Meresankh I". Additionally, the surrounding mastaba tombs date to the reign of King Snefru. Huni's name has yet to be found anywhere near the pyramid. These indices led Egyptologists to the conclusion that the pyramid of Meidum was never Huni's, but rather an achievement of Snefru, planned and constructed as a cenotaph. Ramesside graffiti reveal that the white limestone covering still existed during the 19th dynasty and thus started to collapse slowly after that period. The rest of the limestone covering and the first inner layers were robbed during the New Kingdom period and the Roman period. This practice continued in Christian and Islamic times, in particular during the construction works of the Arabs in the 12th century AD. Arab writers describe the Meidum pyramid as a "mountain with five steps". Finally, several regional earthquakes damaged the monument. Additionally, egyptologists such as Rainer Stadelmann point out that it was uncommon for rulers during the Old Kingdom to usurp or finish the tomb of a predecessor; all that a succeeding king did was to bury and seal the tomb of his predecessor.

A mysterious mud brick pyramid, originally planned to be the size of that of Khafrâ, was uncovered in Abu Rawash and documented by Karl Richard Lepsius, who listed it in his list of pyramids as Pyramid I. The pyramid was already a heap of rubble at the time his excavations in the 1840s: only a stump of brick layers was left. Lepsius nonetheless discovered a narrow corridor leading down to a nearly square chamber. In it, he found a roughly hewn stone sarcophagus. Lepsius dated the pyramid to the late 3rd dynasty and proposed a connection to King Huni. Today, this theory is no longer accepted. In 1989, Egyptologist Nabil Swelim examined the pyramid more precisely and found that it was made of small mud bricks, with a quarter of its inner core hewn out of a natural bedrock. The rock core itself contained several rock cut tombs dating back to the 5th and 6th dynasty. Swelim and others Egyptologists, such as Toby Wilkinson, point out that it would be surprising for a royal pyramid to have been completely destroyed less than 300 years after its construction, only to be re used for simple rock cut tombs. Additionally, he points to the unusual geographic position of the pyramid: Old Kingdom pyramids were commonly built on high grounds, while the pyramid Lepsius I lies on a flat plain. Thus, the dating of this monument to the late 3rd dynasty no longer seems tenable.

Several small step pyramids along the Nile river are also credited to Huni. Those small pyramids had a cultic function and marked important royal estates. They contained no internal chambers and were not used for burial purposes. One of them is located at the eastern end of Elephantine island and a granite cone with Huni's name was discovered nearby in 1909. Therefore, this little pyramid is the only one that may be credited to Huni with some certainty. Some scholars such as Andrzej Ćwiek contest this attribution however, pointing out that it might be at least possible that the granite cone of Huni was re used in later times, when ramesside priests restored cultic places of the Old Kingdom period. The only cultic step pyramid that can be definitively connected to an Old Kingdom ruler is a small step pyramid known as the Seila Pyramid, located at the Faiyum Oasis. Two large stela with the name of Snefru were found in front of the pyramid, thus indicating the king responsible for its construction. Since Snefru was Huni's likely immediate successor, this might indicate however that cultic pyramids were indeed constructed at the transition between the 3rd and 4th dynasties.

Huni's burial site remains unknown. Since the Meidum pyramid can be excluded, egyptologists and archaeologists propose several alternative burial sites. As already pointed out, Rainer Stadelmann and Miroslav Verner propose the Layer pyramid at Zawyet el Aryan as Huni's tomb, because they identify Huni with Khaba, who is in turn well connected with the Layer pyramid, since several stone bowls with his Horus name were found in the surrounding necropolis. Alternatively, Stadelmann proposes a huge mastaba at Meidum as Huni's burial. Mastaba M17 was originally around large by wide and was approximately high. The above ground part was made of unburnt mud bricks and filled with rubble from the second building phase of the Meidum pyramid. The subterranean structure contained a deep shaft leading into a corridor and several large chapels and niches. The burial chamber was plundered in antiquity, every decoration was destroyed and/or stolen. The large, roughly hewn sarcophagus contained the remains of a violently tattered mummy. Stadelmann and Peter Janosi think that the mastaba was either the tomb of a crown prince, who died an heir to the throne of king Snefru, or it was the burial of Huni himself. Miroslav Bárta instead proposes mastaba AS 54 in South Abusir as the most possible burial site. This is promoted by the finding of a polished magnesite bowl, which shows the niswt bity title of Huni. The mastaba itself was once pretty large and contained large niches and chapels. It also contained a quite large amount of polished dishes, vases and urns. Contradictorily, nearly all the vessels are undecorated, no ink inscription or carving were found on the objects. Thus, the name of the true owner is yet unknown. Only one vessel clearly shows Huni's name while a few other might show small traces. Bárta thus sees two possibilities for the owner of the mastaba: it was either a very high ranked official, such as a prince of Huni's time, or king Huni himself.

The transition from Huni's to Sneferu's reigns is referenced to set the fictional time setting of the Instructions of Kagemni (an ancient Egyptian instructional text of wisdom literature).