AN ERASED NAME OF THE PHARAOH MERIKARE
The widespread opinion that the pharaoh Merikare ruled at the end of the Heracleopolitan Monarchy is based on a false presumption. Contrary to W. Schenkel assertion, the phonetic change w > y, occurring in the biographical inscriptions of Merikare's nomarch Khety II in Asyut, entered into Egyptian writing not under the late XI th dynasty, but is already on display in the rock inscriptions of Wadi Hilal as early as under Old Kingdom dynasty VI. Therefore the abovementioned phonetic change cannot be used as a criterion to prove that Merikare's reign overlapped with that of the Theban ruler Nebhapetre Mentuhotep I. On the other hand, the present author's hypothesis of Merikare's being the sixth Heracleopolitan of the Turin King List and his ascension to the throne about half a century before the Heracleopoitans' overturn is quite in accord with the biographical inscription of Sebekuseri from Matariya. The time span between the birth of Sebekuseri in the reign of Merikare and erasing the latter's name in the days of the Theban's final victory could not be less than a few decades. The guess of E. Brovarski about erasing the element «mry-kA-ra» in the name mrt-[...]-iy.t(i) on a stele from the Teti pyramid cemeteries leads ultimately to the same conclusion.