Qa'a's Reign

Family

The Tomb

Aftermath After Qa'a's death, archaeological evidence appears to indicate that some kind of succession struggle broke out. This would be highly unlikely if there would have been a legitimate heir to the throne in an age able to take up rulership. Thus, we can conclude, Qa'a either died without a surviving son or all existing sons were too young to take the throne.
There are two names popping up regularly on this subject. The first one is Sneferka also spelled Seneferka and other similar forms of it. Sneferka is a serekh-name that appears on several vessels. The problem is, while the writing is without doubt a serekh, it is an unusual one by the order of the used hieroglyphs, thus allowing a number of possible readings: Sneferka, Seneferka, Neferseka, Sakenefer and as at least one egyptologist claims also as Neferkaes, which would make that king a queen ... and no, the ancient Egyptians had no idea about that kind of surgery.
The places, where this serekh was found, are interesting. Number 1 is the tomb of Merka, a nobleman from the time of Qa'a. Which essentially places Sneferka or Neferkaes or whatever one prefers as reading, in time next to Qa'a, making this one a possible successor. Number two was found in the gallery of Pharaoh Djoser's tomb in Saqquara. Now, Djoser is 3rd Dynasty, approximately 230-250 years later. And since Djoser's tomb, the famous step-pyramid at the time of Sneferka not even was an idea, either, this was a replicate of an older original or an original that was transported from somewhere else. For unknown reasons, a lot of people assume, that things, without clear origin in our time always bear the taint of fake per se, but if something is found in an old tomb, even it is more than two centuries away from the time it was allegedly produced, people buy it without questions. This trust in guys, who have a history to fake all kinds of inscriptions, knew the methods, had unrestricted access to the original items, tools and materials and possible motive, it makes me always a little uneasy.
Number three stems from an anonymous mastaba in Saqquara ... well, and since all Saqquara is a 2nd, 3rd and early 4th Dynasty necropolis, there is some chance, this one is maybe in time a little nearer than the step pyramid. Well, maybe even about fifty years near to the time it was allegedly produced. Which basically poses the same problem as #2.
There is actually a #4. It is in the private Georges-Michailidis-Collection. This one is the only one without a Horus which in itself makes it look a little fishy and since there is no clear origin, most egyptologists ignore it due to doubts of it's authenticity.

So far about Sneferka. There is another one, but since all we have from him is hard to read, almost unrecognizable and also wirtten in a quite erratic way that makes even Sneferka look like the grammatical genius, nobody really dares to officially read this name. And since there appears to be a bird in it and since the over-bird in Egypt was of course Horus, he got more nicknamed than really read as "Horus-Bird".
Now, Qa'a dead, two names popping up, it had to be a power struggle? But lets have a closer look at the options. Since, at least one egyptologist thinks, it could be Neferkaes instead of Sneferka, the first name could as well be a queen who took over for a time till a son was old enough (as Merneith did). Or they were really contenders for the throne. Or one was maybe from Upper, the other one from Lower Egypt and one tried already then to reunite Egypt. We don't know and that is the only thing, we know for sure. But whether option it was, for Egypt, it had to be a time of political uncertainty. So, personally, I don't want to hang the subject of two names appearing for a short time after Qa'a died (and some claim Sneferka was maybe a name Qa'a used himself for a short time), too high. We talk about times without modern appendix surgeries, no penicillin, not even a headache pill. Chances, that some disease or an accident got even to a pharaoh are pretty high and since all the ones before got mostly away, maybe we see here just two regular kings who got killed by some flu. Statistically even that is possible and would lead to the same ripples as a power struggle. Because there is one detail, we also know: When Hotepsekhemwy appears on the stage as first pharaoh of the 2nd Dynasty, he is already ruler over a reunited Egypt, he is in power, he is already pretty strong by all we can estimate. Which means, the country, he rulled, it was strong as well, it just doesn't appear to be weakened by a civil war. Thus, in my opinion, there are some doubts possible about the common consensus of a war of roses in this time of Egyptian history.