Pepi I Meryre - Reign Length

Reign Length

An analysis of the damaged Dynasty 6 South Saqqara Stone Annal document gives him a reign of c. 48–49 years but this is not confirmed by the Turin King List which apparently assigns him 44 years, according to the Danish Egyptologist Kim Ryholt's analysis of this document. There has been some doubt regarding whether the cattle count dating system was strictly biannual or slightly irregular (with a year after skipped occasionally) That the latter situation appeared to be the case was suggested by the famous Year after the 18th Count, 3rd Month of Shemu day 27 inscription from Wadi Hammamat No. 74-75 which mentions the "first occurrence of the Heb Sed" in that year for Pepi. as well as a Year after the 18th Count, 4th Month of Shemu day 5 date in Sinai graffito No. 106 as the French Egyptologist Michel Baud noted in a 2006 book on Egyptian chronology. (This would be Year 36 if the Biannial dating system was used.) This information is significant because the Heb Sed Feast was always celebrated in a king's Year 30. If Pepi I was using a biennial counting system during his reign, these heb sed inscriptions should have been dated to the Year after the 15th Count instead. This could imply that the cattle count during the 6th dynasty was not regularly biannual. Michel Baud, however, stresses that the Year of the 18th count is preserved in the South Saqqara Stone and writes that:

"between the mention of count 18 and the next memorial formula which belongs to count 19, end of register D, the available space for count 18+ is the expected half of the average size of a theoretical compartment. It is hard to believe that such a narrow space corresponds to the jubilee celebration, which obviously had a considerable importance for this (and every) king."

Baud notes that there was a tendency during this ruler's administration to mention the first jubilee repeatedly in the years following its celebration—in connection with intense building activity at the king's funerary complex until even to the end of Pepi I's reign when this pharaoh's highest date—the Year of the 25th Count, 1st Month of Akhet day --from Hatnub Inscription No.3. appears; this ruler's final 25th count is also strikingly associated with Pepi I's first royal jubilee. The South Saqqara Stone confirms that Pepi I's last year was his Year of the 25th Count.

Therefore, the references to Pepi I's first jubilee being celebrated in his 18th cattle count are likely just part of this royal tendency to emphasize the king's first jubilee years after it was first celebrated and Michel Baud (and F. Raffaele) both note that the longest year compartment in the South Saqqara Stone appears "at the beginning of register D. Fortuituously or not, this compartment corresponds perfectly to year 30/31, if a strictly biannual system of numbering is presumed" for Pepi I's reign. (i.e. his 15th count) Therefore, the count was mostly likely biannual during Pepi I's reign and the reference to his final year—the 25 count—implies that he reigned for 49 years.