Nynetjer (also known as Ninetjer and Banetjer) was the third pharaoh of the Second Dynasty of Egypt during the Early Dynastic Period, prior to the Old Kingdom period. The dates for his reign are uncertain; Egyptologists have proposed that it took place at some point between the late 29th and the early 27th century BC for 35 to 49 years, and most probably lasted around 40 years. Archaeologically, Nynetjer is the best-attested king of the early Second Dynasty and he is also recorded on several king lists dating to the Old Kingdom and the later Ramesside and Ptolemaic periods. There is strong evidence that he succeeded Nebra on the throne. The events at the end of his reign and the identity of his successor are much less clear. Both historical sources and archaeological evidence point to some breakdown or partition of the state along both religious and political lines, most probably seeing concurrent rulers reigning over Upper and Lower Egypt until the country was reunited by Khasekhemwy at the end of the dynasty.
Most of the events recorded for Nynetjer's reign on the Palermo Stone, the Old Kingdom royal annals, are regular religious festivals and censuses undertaken for taxation purposes. The probable locations for these events indicate that royal activity was largely confined to the capital Memphis and its vicinity in Lower Egypt, with the possible exception of a military campaign in Nubia. The administrative structure of the state continued on its First Dynasty () basis but became more sophisticated, with the earliest evidence for the administrative partition of Egypt into nomes, a regional management system, dating to Nynetjer's reign.
Nynetjer had a large gallery tomb dug for himself in Saqqara, now beneath parts of both Djoser's and Unas's pyramid complexes. His tomb comprises a maze of over 150 rooms, some of which are arranged to model a royal palace. Although it was disturbed during Egypt's later periods, the tomb when excavated still housed some of the original funerary equipment of the king. This included hundreds of jars that once held wine, beer and jujube fruits. Excavations have also produced numerous stone tools, some of which seem to have been used in a ritual feast for Nynetjer's burial. The subterranean tomb was probably built with associated superstructures, but these have not survived as they were levelled and overbuilt by subsequent pharaohs.
Chronology and identity Attestations
Archaeologically, Nynetjer is the best attested of the kings of the early Second Dynasty. His name appears in inscriptions on numerous stone vessels and clay sealings from his tomb at Saqqara. A large number of alabaster vessels and earthen jars with black ink inscriptions bearing his name were also found in the tomb of Seth-Peribsen (late Second Dynasty) at Abydos and in the galleries beneath the step pyramid of Djoser (early Third Dynasty). Further attestations include a small ivory vessel from Saqqara and sealings bearing his name from the tombs of three elite individuals in North Saqqara. Additional sealings were uncovered in a mastaba in Giza and in another tomb in Helwan.
Nynetjer's name also appears on a rock inscription near Abu Handal in Lower Nubia which shows a serekh of the king. A serekh is a rectangular symbol enclosing a royal name and representing the façade of a palace surmounted by the falcon of the god Horus. It is the oldest form of royal titulary from ancient Egypt. In this case the serekh only encloses a "N" sign but with the sign "Netjer" for "God" placed above the serekh in the position normally occupied by the Horus falcon. Consequently Nynetjer's name is rendered as "The God N". The absence of Horus may hint at religious disturbances as suggested by the later choices of Seth-Peribsen to have Set instead of Horus above his serekhs, and of Khasekhemwy, final ruler of the dynasty, to have both gods facing each other above his.
Relative chronology
Most Egyptologists agree on the relative chronological position of Nynetjer as the third ruler of the early Second Dynasty and successor of Nebra. This is directly attested by the contemporary statue of Hetepedief. The statue, uncovered in Memphis and made of speckled red granite, is one of the earliest examples of private Egyptian sculpture. Hetepedief was priest of the mortuary cults of the first three kings of the dynasty, whose serekhs are inscribed in seemingly chronological order on Hetepedief's right shoulder: Hotepsekhemwy, Nebra, and then Nynetjer. Further archaeological evidence supports this theory such as stone bowls of Hotepsekhemwy and Nebra reinscribed during Nynetjer's rule.
Several historical sources also point to the same conclusion. The oldest of these is the Old Kingdom royal annals, called after the name of its largest surviving fragment, the Palermo Stone. These annals were probably first compiled during the early Fifth Dynasty, possibly under Neferirkare Kakai (mid-25th century BC) around whose reign the record stops. These annals are considered to be a reliable witness to Nynetjer's rule in particular because, as the Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson puts it, they correctly give his name "in contrast to the corrupt, garbled variants found in later king lists". While the Palermo Stone does not preserve the identity of Nynetjer's immediate predecessors, it is consistent with him not being the first king of the dynasty. This source also presents an additional name for Nynetjer: Ren-nebu, meaning "golden offspring" or "golden calf". This name was also found on artefacts dating to Nynetjer's lifetime, and Egyptologists including Wilkinson and Wolfgang Helck think that it could be some kind of forerunner of the golden-Horus-name that was established in the royal titulature at the beginning of Third Dynasty under Djoser. The second-oldest historical source on Nynetjer is the Turin canon, a list of kings written under Ramses II (). It ranks him under the name Netjer-ren as the third king of his dynasty after Hotepsekhemwy and Nebra. Two more sources of the Ramesside era present similar informations: the Abydos King List gives a Banetjer as the third kind of the Second Dynasty, while the Saqqara table lists Banetjeru at the same position. Both Banetjer and Banetjeru are understood to be corrupt forms of Nynetjer's ancient name.
The latest ancient historical source on Nynetjer's reign is the Aegyptiaca, written during the reign of Ptolemy II (283246 BC) by Manetho. No copies of the Aegyptiaca have survived and it is now known only through later writings by Sextus Julius Africanus () and Eusebius (339). According to the Byzantine scholar George Syncellus (), Africanus and Eusebius wrote that the Aegyptiaca recorded "Binōthris" or "Biophis" as the third king of the Second Dynasty, Binōthris probably being the Hellenized form of Banetjer, the name used for Nynetjer during the Ramesside era.
Reign duration
The duration of Nynetjer's rule may be appraised from several historical sources. The surviving fragments of the Old Kingdom royal annals record the main events and Nile flood levels from what is probably the fifth or sixth year of Nynetjer's reign until the 21st. The remainder of the records concerning his rule are lost. Nonetheless, given the space afforded for each year on the annals and the position of subsequent reigns, reconstructions have been attempted from the surviving fragments to estimate the total of Nynetjer's years on the throne. With a single exception, all the Egyptologists who studied this problem have proposed long reigns lasting between 38 years and up to 49 years. The most recent reconstruction of the royal annals by Wilkinson in 2000 concludes that Nynetjer's record on the Palermo Stone was most probably of 40 complete or partial years. Two additional historical sources record a reign length for Nynetjer: firstly, the Turin Canon gives him 96 years of rule, which is universally rejected by modern Egyptologists. Secondly, in Africanus's version of the Aegyptiaca, king Binōthris—as Nynetjer was most probably known in Greek—is credited with a reign of 47 years.
Archaeological evidence favours a long reign too. A seated statuette of Nynetjer shows him wearing the ceremonial tight-fitting vestment of the Sed festival, a feast for the rejuvenation of the king that came to be celebrated for the first time only after the king had reigned for 30 years. This statuette is the earliest known representation in the round of a well-identified Egyptian king. That Nynetjer celebrated a Sed festival is further supported by the large quantity of stone vessels bearing Nynetjer's name that were unearthed in the galleries beneath Djoser's step pyramid, which were probably made in connection with the Sed festival.
Reign Events
The Palermo Stone mostly records standard rituals performed by the king, in particular the biennial "Following of Horus" connected to taxation, and regular religious festivals. These included special feasts of the god Sokar occurring every six years, the running of the Apis bull and an "adoration of the celestial Horus". Although not mentioned in the royal annals, the goddesses Bastet and Neith must also have been venerated as witnessed by stone bowls on which their names are associated with Nynetjer's. Another bowl bearing the king's name mentions a chapel of Hedjet, the white crown of Upper Egypt, possibly set up in Memphis, then probably the capital of Egypt. All of these activities took place in the Memphite area except possibly for one ritual associated to Nekhbet, goddess of Elkab. Wilkinson observes that, with few exceptions, Nynetjer is not well attested archaeologically outside of the Memphite region. This could point to royal activity being largely confined to Lower Egypt during his reign. The inscription bearing Nynetjer's name found in Nubia could be the main exception to this observation, as it may be a clue that he sent a military expedition into this region. Given that the expedition is not mentioned in the surviving fragments of the royal annals, which do not cover Nynetjer's reign after his 20th year on the throne, it may have taken place later.
Two special events are also recorded on the annals, namely the foundation of "Hor-ren", a temple, palace or estate during Nynetjer's seventh year of rule, and either the foundation of or the attack on two localities "Shem-Ra" and "Ha", the latter of which translates to "north land". This may refer to the suppression of a rebellion in Lower Egypt. Alternatively, for the Egyptologists Colin Reader and Jochem Kahl, this event is to be understood as part of the important development of the cult of the sun god Ra during the reigns of Nebra and Nynetjer. They interpret the record as referring to the foundation of an institution or building whose name, "Shem-Ra", has been variously translated as "The going of Ra", "The sun proceeds", or "The sun has come". For them as well as the Egyptologist Nicolas Grimal, the ancient Egyptians started to see their ruler as the offspring of the sun deity. Within this context, Nynetjer's name should be understood as meaning "He who belongs to the god (Ra)".
A smaller fragment of the annals, the Cairo Stone, may record further events belonging to Nynetjer's later reign: another festival of Sokar in his 24th year on the throne and a Following of Horus in his 34th, although the dating is uncertain. The surface of the stone slab in this section is much damaged and most of the record is illegible. The Egyptologist has proposed reading also the "birth" (creation) of a statue of Anubis and an "Appearance of the king of Lower and Upper Egypt". Among later historical sources, the Aegyptiaca reported concerning Binōthris that:
For Walter Bryan Emery this comment may possibly be related to the status of queens Meritneith and Neithhotep of the First Dynasty (), both of whom are believed to have held the Egyptian throne for several years.
Palermo stone, main fragment: