Pepi I Meryre - Monuments

Monuments

Two copper statues of Pepi I and his son Merenre were found at Hierakonpolis; they are thought to depict the two royals symbolically "trampling underfoot the Nine bows," a stylized representation of Egypt's conquered foreign subjects. These rare statues were found in one of the underground stores of the temple of Nekhen "together with a statue of king Khasekhemwy (Second Dynasty) and a terracota lion cub made during the Thinite era." The statues had been disassembled and placed inside one another and sealed with a thin layer of engraved copper bearing the titles and names of Pepi I "on the first day of the Jubilee" or Heb Sed feast. While the identity of the larger adult figure as Pepi I is revealed by the inscription, the identity of the smaller and younger statue remains unresolved. The most common hypothesis among Egyptologists is that the athletic young man in the smaller statue was Merenre

"who was publicly associated as his father's successor on the occasion of the Jubilee. The placement of his copper effigy inside that of his father would therefore reflect the continuity of the royal succession and the passage of the royal sceptre from father to son before the death of the pharaoh could cause a dynastic split."

More recently, however, it has been suggested that the smaller statue is in fact that "of a more youthful Pepy I, reinvigorated by the celebration of the Jubilee ceremonies."

Pepi I was a prolific builder who ordered extensive construction projects in Upper Egypt at Dendera, Abydos, Elephantine and Hierakonpolis. One of his most important court officials was Weni the Elder who had a great canal built at the First Cataract for the king. Weni was singly responsible for hearing an unusual charge against a Queen Weret-yamtes, a resident in Pepi’s harem. Weni gives no further information on this event.