Hor Awibre (also known as Hor I) was an Egyptian
pharaoh
Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: '' pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until th ...
of the
13th Dynasty
In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The interval can be also described as a compound sixth, spanning an octave p ...
reigning from c. 1777 BC until 1775 BC
[K.S.B. Ryholt, ''The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period'', ''Carsten Niebuhr Institute Publications'', vol. 20. Copenhagen: ]Museum Tusculanum Press
Museum Tusculanum Press (Danish: ''Museum Tusculanums Forlag'') is an independent academic press historically associated with the University of Copenhagen, publishing mainly in the humanities, social sciences and theology. It was founded in 1975 as ...
, 1997
excerpts available online
or for a few months, c. 1760 BC or c. 1732 BC, during the
Second Intermediate Period
The Second Intermediate Period marks a period when ancient Egypt fell into disarray for a second time, between the end of the Middle Kingdom and the start of the New Kingdom. The concept of a "Second Intermediate Period" was coined in 1942 b ...
. Hor is known primarily thanks to his nearly intact tomb discovered in 1894 and the rare life-size wooden statue of the king's Ka it housed.
Attestations
![Jar Lid with Partial Name of the 13th Dynasty King Hor I LACMA M](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Jar_Lid_with_Partial_Name_of_the_13th_Dynasty_King_Hor_I_LACMA_M.80.203.226.jpg)
Hor Awibre is mentioned on the
Turin canon The Turin King List, also known as the Turin Royal Canon, is an ancient Egyptian hieratic papyrus thought to date from the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II, now in the Museo Egizio (Egyptian Museum) in Turin. The papyrus is the most extensive list ...
, a king list compiled in the early
Ramesside period
The Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XX, alternatively 20th Dynasty or Dynasty 20) is the third and last dynasty of the Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom period, lasting from 1189 BC to 1077 BC. The 19th and 20th Dynasties furthermore togeth ...
.
The canon gives his name on the 7th column, line 17 (Gardiner entry 6.17 ). Beyond the Turin canon, Hor remained unattested until the discovery in 1894 of his nearly intact tomb in
Dashur
DahshurAlso transliterated ''Dahshour'' (in English often called ''Dashur'' ar, دهشور ' , ''Dahchur'') is a royal necropolis located in the desert on the west bank of the Nile approximately south of Cairo. It is known chiefly for several p ...
by
Jacques de Morgan
Jean-Jacques de Morgan (3 June 1857, Huisseau-sur-Cosson, Loir-et-Cher – 14 June 1924) was a French mining engineer, geologist, and archaeologist. He was the director of antiquities in Egypt during the 19th century, and excavated in Memp ...
, see below.
Further attestations of Hor have come to light since then, comprising a jar lid of unknown provenance and a plaque, now in the Berlin Museum, both inscribed with his name.
Another plaque with his name was found at the pyramid of Amenemhat I at Lisht. There were found several faience plaques with 13th Dynasty king's names. More importantly, a
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies un ...
architrave
In classical architecture, an architrave (; from it, architrave "chief beam", also called an epistyle; from Greek ἐπίστυλον ''epistylon'' "door frame") is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of columns.
The term can a ...
with the
cartouches
In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an oval with a line at one end tangent to it, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. The first examples of the cartouche are associated with pharaohs at the end of the Third Dynasty, but the fe ...
of Hor and his successor
Sekhemrekhutawy Khabaw
Sekhemrekhutawy Khabaw was an Ancient Egypt, Egyptian pharaoh of the early Thirteenth dynasty of Egypt, 13th Dynasty during the Second Intermediate Period.
Attestations
Khabaw is well attested through archaeological finds. Fragments of a red gr ...
in close juxtaposition was uncovered in
Tanis
Tanis ( grc, Τάνις or Τανέως ) or San al-Hagar ( ar, صان الحجر, Ṣān al-Ḥaǧar; egy, ḏꜥn.t ; ; cop, ϫⲁⲛⲓ or or ) is the Greek name for ancient Egyptian ''ḏꜥn.t'', an important archaeological site in the ...
, in the Nile Delta. The architrave probably originated in
Memphis
Memphis most commonly refers to:
* Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt
* Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city
Memphis may also refer to:
Places United States
* Memphis, Alabama
* Memphis, Florida
* Memphis, Indiana
* Memp ...
and came to the Delta region during the
Hyksos
Hyksos (; Egyptian '' ḥqꜣ(w)- ḫꜣswt'', Egyptological pronunciation: ''hekau khasut'', "ruler(s) of foreign lands") is a term which, in modern Egyptology, designates the kings of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt (fl. c. 1650–1550 BC).
T ...
period.
Based on this evidence, the egyptologist
Kim Ryholt
Kim Steven Bardrum Ryholt (born 19 June 1970) is a professor of Egyptology at the University of Copenhagen and a specialist on Egyptian history and literature. He is director of the research centeCanon and Identity Formation in the Earliest Litera ...
proposed that Sekhemrekhutawy Khabaw was a son and coregent of Hor Awibre.
Reign
According to Ryholt and Darrell Baker, Hor Awibre was the fifteenth ruler of the 13th Dynasty.
[Darrell D. Baker: ''The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume I - Predynastic to the Twentieth Dynasty 3300–1069 BC'', Stacey International, , 2008, p. 112-113-114] Alternatively,
Detlef Franke
Detlef Franke (November 24, 1952 in Lüneburg – September 2, 2007) was a German Egyptologist specialist of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt.
Biography
Detlef Franke received his doctorate at the University of Hamburg in 1983 with his thesis "''A ...
and
Jürgen von Beckerath
Jürgen von Beckerath (19 February 1920, Hanover – 26 June 2016, Schlehdorf) was a German Egyptologist. He was a prolific writer who published countless articles in journals such as '' Orientalia'', ''Göttinger Miszellen'' (GM), '' Journal o ...
see him as the fourteenth king of the dynasty. No evidence has been found that relate Hor to his predecessor on the throne,
Renseneb, which led Ryholt and Baker to propose that he was an usurper.
Hor Awibre's reign length is partially lost to a lacuna of the Turin canon and is consequently unknown. According to the latest reading of the Turin canon by Ryholt, the surviving traces indicate the number of days as "''
.. and7 days''".
In the previous authoritative reading of the canon by
Alan Gardiner
Sir Alan Henderson Gardiner, (29 March 1879 – 19 December 1963) was an English Egyptologist, linguist, philologist, and independent scholar. He is regarded as one of the premier Egyptologists of the early and mid-20th century.
Personal life
G ...
, which dates to the 1950s, this was read as
"''
..7 months''".
Alan Gardiner
Sir Alan Henderson Gardiner, (29 March 1879 – 19 December 1963) was an English Egyptologist, linguist, philologist, and independent scholar. He is regarded as one of the premier Egyptologists of the early and mid-20th century.
Personal life
G ...
, editor. ''Royal Canon of Turin''. Griffith Institute, 1959. (Reprint 1988. ) This led scholars such as
Miroslav Verner
Miroslav Verner (born October 31, 1941 in Brno) is a Czech egyptologist, who specializes in the history and archaeology of Ancient Egypt of the Old Kingdom and especially of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt.
Biography
Verner was the director of th ...
and Darrell Baker to believe that Hor's reign was ephemeral, while Ryholt's reading leaves a longer reign possible and indeed Ryholt credits Hor with 2 years of reign.
In any case, Hor most likely reigned only for a short time, in particular not long enough to prepare a pyramid, which was still the common burial place for kings of the early 13th dynasty. Regardless of the duration of his reign, Hor was seemingly succeeded by his two sons
Sekhemrekhutawy Khabaw
Sekhemrekhutawy Khabaw was an Ancient Egypt, Egyptian pharaoh of the early Thirteenth dynasty of Egypt, 13th Dynasty during the Second Intermediate Period.
Attestations
Khabaw is well attested through archaeological finds. Fragments of a red gr ...
and
Djedkheperew
Djedkheperew (also known as Djedkheperu) was an Egyptian pharaoh of the Thirteenth dynasty of Egypt, 13th Dynasty reigning for an estimated two-year period, from c. 1772 BC until 1770 BC.K.S.B. Ryholt, ''The Political Situation in Egypt during the ...
.
Tomb
![Hor Awibre Scepters](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Hor_Awibre_Scepters.png)
Hor is mainly known from his nearly intact tomb, discovered in 1894 by Jacques de Morgan working in collaboration with
Georges Legrain
Georges Albert Legrain (4 October 1865, in Paris – 22 August 1917, in Luxor) was a French Egyptologist.
Life and work
From 1883 to 1890 Legrain was a student at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, but he also studied Egyptology at that time, ...
and
Gustave Jequier in
Dahshur
DahshurAlso transliterated ''Dahshour'' (in English often called ''Dashur'' ar, دهشور ' , ''Dahchur'') is a royal necropolis located in the desert on the west bank of the Nile approximately south of Cairo. It is known chiefly for several p ...
.
Jacques de Morgan
Jean-Jacques de Morgan (3 June 1857, Huisseau-sur-Cosson, Loir-et-Cher – 14 June 1924) was a French mining engineer, geologist, and archaeologist. He was the director of antiquities in Egypt during the 19th century, and excavated in Memp ...
: ''Fouilles a Dahchour, mars-juin, 1894'', Vienna, 1895
Available online
The tomb was nothing more than a
shaft built on the north-east corner of the
pyramid
A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...
of the
12th Dynasty pharaoh
Amenemhat III
:''See Amenemhat, for other individuals with this name.''
Amenemhat III ( Ancient Egyptian: ''Ỉmn-m-hꜣt'' meaning 'Amun is at the forefront'), also known as Amenemhet III, was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the sixth king of the Twelfth Dy ...
.
The tomb was originally made for a member of Amenemhat's court and was later enlarged for Hor, with the addition of a stone burial chamber and antechamber.
Although the tomb had been pillaged in antiquity, it still contained a
naos with a rare life-size wooden statue of the
Ka of the king. This statue is one of the most frequently reproduced examples of Ancient Egyptian art and is now in the
Egyptian Museum
The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum or the Cairo Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display a ...
under the catalog number CG259.
It is one of the best-preserved and most accomplished wooden statues to survive from antiquity, and illustrates an artistic genre that must once have been common in Egyptian art, but has rarely survived in such good condition.
![Pic 44 hor](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Pic_44_hor.JPG)
The tomb also contained the partly gilded rotten wooden
coffin of the king. The king's wooden funerary mask, its eyes of stones set in
bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
,
had been stripped of its gold gilding but still held the king's skull. Hor's canopic box was also found complete with its
canopic vessels.
The mummy of the king had been ransacked for his jewelry and only Hor's skeleton was left in his coffin.
The king was determined to have been in his forties at the time of his death. Other artifacts from the tomb include small statues, alabaster and wooden vases, some
jewelry
Jewellery ( UK) or jewelry (U.S.) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a western ...
, two alabaster
stelae
A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...
inscribed with blue painted hieroglyphs and a number of
flail
A flail is an agriculture, agricultural tool used for threshing, the process of separating cereal, grains from their husks.
It is usually made from two or more large sticks attached by a short chain; one stick is held and swung, causing the othe ...
s,
scepters
A sceptre is a staff or wand held in the hand by a ruling monarch as an item of royal or imperial insignia. Figuratively, it means royal or imperial authority or sovereignty.
Antiquity
Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia
The '' Was'' and other ...
and wooden staves which had all been disposed in a long wooden case. These had been intentionally broken in pieces.
The tomb also housed weapons such as a granite macehead
and a golden-leaf dagger and numerous pottery.
Next to the burial of Hor was found the totally undisturbed tomb of the 'king's daughter'
Nubhetepti-khered
Nubhetepti-khered was an ancient Egyptian ''king's daughter'' of the Thirteenth Dynasty. She is basically only known from her undisturbed burial at Dahshur which was discovered in 1894 by Jacques de Morgan, close to the pyramid of Amenemhat III ...
. She was likely a daughter of Hor
[Dodson, Aidan and Hilton, Dyan. The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. 2004. ] or otherwise a daughter of Amenemhat III.
[Verner, Miroslav. The Pyramids: The Mystery, Culture, and Science of Egypt's Great Monuments. Grove Press. 2001 (1997). ]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hor, Awybre
18th-century BC Pharaohs
Pharaohs of the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt