Editing Merneferre Ay (section)

===Attestations===
Merneferre Ay is well attested; no fewer than 62 [[Scaraboid seal|scarab seal]]s and one cylinder-seal<ref>Cylinder Seal of King Merneferre Aya, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], see the online catalog [http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/544388?rpp=30&pg=1&ft=Merneferre&pos=2] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140907124212/http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/544388?rpp=30&pg=1&ft=Merneferre&pos=2|date=2014-09-07}}</ref> bearing his name are known, 51 of which are of unknown provenance.<ref name="encyclo"/><ref>Five scarab-seals of Merneferre Ay are now in the [[Petrie Museum]], see three of them on [http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/chronology/2interkings/ayamerneferre.html Digital Egypt] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070204184744/http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/chronology/2interkings/ayamerneferre.html |date=2007-02-04 }}</ref><ref>[[Olga Tufnell]]: ''Studies on Scarab Seals, vol. II'', Aris & Philips, Warminster, 1984, pp. 159&ndash;161, 181, 184&ndash;187, 200, 368&ndash;369, seals No. 3168&ndash;3183, pl. LV&ndash;LVI.</ref> Among the scarabs of known provenance, three are from Lower Egypt, more precisely one from [[Bubastis]] and two from [[Leontopolis (Heliopolis)|Heliopolis]].<ref name="ryholt"/><ref name="encyclo"/> The rest of the scarabs of known provenance are from [[Abydos, Egypt|Abydos]], [[Qift|Coptos]] and [[Lisht]], all localities being in Middle or Upper Egypt. Other attestations of Ay include an obsidian globular jar now in the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]],<ref>Globular Jar of King Merneferre Aya, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], see the online catalog [http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/545940?rpp=30&pg=1&ft=Merneferre&pos=1] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140907122454/http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/545940?rpp=30&pg=1&ft=Merneferre&pos=1|date=2014-09-07}}</ref> a ball dedicated to [[Sobek]],<ref>Gerard Godron: ''Deux objets du Moyen-Empire mentionnant Sobek'', BIFAO 63 (1965), p. 197&ndash;200, [http://www.ifao.egnet.net/bifao/b?fic=Bifao063_art_13.pdf available online] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140907190829/http://www.ifao.egnet.net/bifao/b?fic=Bifao063_art_13.pdf |date=2014-09-07 }}</ref> an inscribed limestone block, part of a lintel, discovered in 1908 by [[Georges Legrain]] in [[Karnak]] and a [[pyramidion]].<ref name="encyclo"/><ref name="legrain">[[Georges Legrain]]: ''Notes d'inspection - Sur le Roi Marnofirrì'', in ''Annales du Service des antiquités de l'Egypte (ASAE) 9'' (1908) [https://archive.org/details/annalesduservice09egypuoft available not-in-copyright here], p. 276.</ref><ref name="habachi"/>

The pyramidion was confiscated from robbers by the Egyptian police in 1911 at [[Faqous|Faqus]], close to the ancient city of [[Avaris]]. It is carved with the name of Ay and shows him offering to [[Horus]] "Lord of heaven", demonstrating that a pyramid was built for him during his long reign.<ref name="habachi">[[Labib Habachi]]: "Khata'na-Qantir: Importance", ASAE 52 (1954) pp. 471&ndash;479, pl.16&ndash;17</ref><ref>[[Labib Habachi]]: ''Tell el-Dab'a and Qantir'', Osterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (2001), pp. 172&ndash;174, no. 18, {{ISBN|978-3-7001-2986-8}}</ref> The fact that the pyramidion was probably discovered by the robbers in modern-day Khatana, part of the ancient city of Avaris (modern-day [[Qantir]]) is important since it was likely the capital of the 14th Dynasty during Ay's lifetime. Egyptologists believe that the pyramidion originates in fact from [[Memphis, Egypt|Memphis]], in the necropolis of which Ay's pyramid must be located. Accordingly, this suggests that the pyramid was looted at the time of the [[Hyksos]] invasion c. 1650 BC and the pyramidion taken to Avaris at this moment.<ref name="ryholt"/><ref name="encyclo"/> This is vindicated by the "damaged text on the pyramidion [which] originally invoked four gods" two of whom were [[Ptah]] and Re-Horus (for Ra-Horakhty). The cults of these gods were based in the Memphite necropolis, not in Avaris.<ref name="ryholt"/> Other objects which suffered the same fate include two colossal statues of the 13th Dynasty king [[Imyremeshaw]].