Although he is attested in some historical sources, Userkare is completely absent from the tomb of the Egyptian officials who lived during his reign and usually report the names of the kings whom they served.

Furthermore, the figures of some high officials of the period have been deliberately chiselled out in their tombs and their titles altered, for instance the word "king" being replaced by that of "desert".

Unfortunately, a large lacuna affects the second line of the fourth column of the papyrus on which the list was written, the place were Userkare's name might have been located.

[15] Few artefacts dating to Userkare's lifetime have survived to this day, the only secure attestions contemporaneous with his reign being two cylinder seals[2][note 1] inscribed with his name and titles,[20] and a copper mallet from the Michaelides collection.

[21] The mallet bears a small inscription giving the name of a crew of workmen "Beloved ones of Userkare" who hailed from Wadjet, the 10th nome of Upper Egypt, located around Tjebu, south of Asyut.

[22] The French Egyptologists Michel Baud and Vassil Dobrev have also proposed that a copper axe head discovered in Syria could belong to Userkare.

[11] The English Egyptologist Flinders Petrie has tentatively identified Userkare with a king named Ity attested by a single rock inscription found in the Wadi Hammamat.

[40] In support of the hypothesis that Userkare was a legitimate stopgap ruler, Grimal stresses that he is well attested by historical and contemporaneous sources, in particular the South Saqqara Stone.

For example his funerary complex may have been planned yet never erected, which they find would provide a better explanation for its absence than a "speculative"[33] attempt on Pepi I's behalf to erase traces of his predecessor's rule.

[43] In particular Teti's eight to 12 years of reign would imply that Userkare would have been around 10 at the time of his coronation and facing a resenting older brother, possibly explaining the paucity of attestations of his rule.

[51] A similar situation is encountered in the mastaba of Merefnebef, a "lowly"[52] official and courtier who started his career under Teti then was elevated to the highest position, becoming vizier, in all probability under Userkare.

[57] For Karol Myśliwiec who excavated the tomb, this shows that "the infamy of the most shameful moment in [Merefnebef's] career, that of being (probably) promoted to the function of vizier by the usurper Userkare, was visibly remembered for generations".

Brand who sees here an instance of a wider pattern of promotion of low-ranking officials to the highest offices under Userkare, followed by their demotions or expulsions under Pepi I.

The Egyptologist Vassil Dobrev proposed that Userkare's pyramid is located in the area of Saqqara South known today as Tabbet al-Guesh, north-west of the mortuary complex of Pepi I.

Indeed, a large necropolis of Sixth Dynasty administration officials is found there, which according to Dobrev, hints at the nearby presence of a royal pyramid.