Userkare Khendjer was the twenty-first

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 the ...

of the

Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt 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 ...

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 ...

.Darrell D. Baker: The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume I - Predynastic to the Twentieth Dynasty 3300–1069 BC, Stacey International, , 2008, p. 181 Khendjer possibly reigned for four to five years, archaeological attestations show that he was on the throne for at least three or four years three months and five days. Khendjer had a small

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 ...

built for himself in Saqqara and it is therefore likely that his capital was 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 ...

Chronological position

The exact chronological position of Khendjer in the Thirteenth Dynasty is not known for certain owing to uncertainties affecting earlier kings of the dynasty.

Turin King List

The Turin King List mentions Khendjer in between Sekhemre Khutawy Sobekhotep and ...kare Imyremeshaw. 7:19 The Dual King

Sekhemre Khutawy Sobekhotep Sekhemre Khutawy Sobekhotep (appears in most sources as Amenemhat Sobekhotep; now believed to be Sobekhotep I; known as Sobekhotep II in older studies) was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 13th Dynasty during the Second Intermediate Period, who reigned ...

reigned x years ... 7:20 The Dual King Userkare Khendjer, x years ... 7:21 The Dual King ...kara Imyremeshaw, 4 days

Theories

Egyptologist Darrell Baker makes him the twenty-first king of the dynasty, Ryholt sees him as the twenty-second king and Jürgen von Beckerath places him as the seventeenth pharaoh of the dynasty. Furthermore, the identity of his predecessor is still debated: Baker and Ryholt believe it was Wegaf, but that pharaoh is confused with

Khaankhre Sobekhotep Khaankhre Sobekhotep (now believed to be Sobekhotep II or Sobekhotep IV; known as Sobekhotep I in older studies) was a pharaoh of the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period. Evidence Sobekhotep appears in the Karnak k ...

, so that it is not known which one of the two founded the Thirteenth Dynasty and which one was Khendjer's predecessor.

Reign

The highest attested date for Khendjer's reign is the fourth month of the

season of the Inundation The Season of the Inundation or Flood ( egy, Ꜣḫt) was the first season of the lunar and civil Egyptian calendars. It fell after the intercalary month of Days over the Year ('). and before the Season of the Emergence ('). In the modern Copti ...

), day 15 in his fifth

regnal year A regnal year is a year of the reign of a sovereign, from the Latin ''regnum'' meaning kingdom, rule. Regnal years considered the date as an ordinal, not a cardinal number. For example, a monarch could have a first year of rule, a second year o ...

. Kim Ryholt notes that two dated control notes on stone blocks from his unfinished pyramid complex give him a minimum reign of 3 or 4 years 3 months and 5 days. The aforementioned control notes are dated to ''Year 1 I Akhet day 10'' and ''Year 5 IV Akhet day 15'' of his reign. In these control notes, the names of three officials involved in building the pyramid are also identified. They are the ''chamberlain of the palace'', Senebtyfy, the ''chamberlain'' Ameny and the chamberlain, Shebenu. The latter is also attested by other sources. Several absolute dates have been proposed for his reign, depending on the scholar: 1764—1759 BC as proposed by Ryholt and Baker, 1756—1751 BC as reported by Redford, and 1718—1712 BC as per Schneider.

Pyramid

Khendjer is known primarily from his

complex excavated by G. Jequier at

Saqqara Saqqara ( ar, سقارة, ), also spelled Sakkara or Saccara in English , is an Egyptian village in Giza Governorate, that contains ancient burial grounds of Egyptian royalty, serving as the necropolis for the ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis ...

which was perhaps completed as a

pyramidion A pyramidion (plural: pyramidia) is the uppermost piece or capstone of an Egyptian pyramid or obelisk. Speakers of the Ancient Egyptian language referred to pyramidia as ''benbenet'' and associated the pyramid as a whole with the sacred ...

was found. There was found a fragment of a

canopic jar Canopus (, ; grc-gre, Κάνωπος, ), also known as Canobus ( grc-gre, Κάνωβος, ), was an ancient Egyptian coastal town, located in the Nile Delta. Its site is in the eastern outskirts of modern-day Alexandria, around from the cent ...

, which offers a partial name for his queen, ''Seneb ...'' "which may be restored as Sonb enas" Other objects with the name of the king are a

stela 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''), wh ...

from Abydos recording building projects by the king at the

Osiris Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wsjr'', cop, ⲟⲩⲥⲓⲣⲉ , ; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎𐤓, romanized: ʾsr) is the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He wa ...

temple at Abydos, and naming the

vizier A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called '' katib'' (secretary), who was ...

Ankhu Ankhu was an Egyptian vizier of the early 13th Dynasty, who lived around 1750 BC. Family Ankhu was the son of a vizier. Labib Habachi proposed that his father was the vizier Zamonth. The mother of Ankhu is known as Henutpu, the name of Zamont ...

. Another stela once in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

(destroyed in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

), provides the name of the king's son "''Khedjer''". He might be a son of the king. Other objects with his name, according to the list provided by Ryholt, include three cylinder-seals from

Athribis Athribis ( ar, أتريب; Greek: , from the original Egyptian ''Hut-heryib'', cop, Ⲁⲑⲣⲏⲃⲓ) was an ancient city in Lower Egypt. It is located in present-day Tell Atrib, just northeast of Benha on the hill of Kom Sidi Yusuf. The to ...

, a tile found near

el-Lisht Lisht or el-Lisht ( ar, اللشت, translit=Al-Lišt) is an Egyptian village located south of Cairo. It is the site of Middle Kingdom royal and elite burials, including two pyramids built by Amenemhat I and Senusret I. The two main pyramids were ...

, scarab seals and an axe blade.

Theories

The name Khendjer is poorly attested in Egyptian. Khendjer "has been interpreted as a foreign name ''hnzr'' and equated with the Semitic personal name ''h(n)zr'', or"

boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The species is ...

" according to the Danish 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 ...

.K.S.B. Ryholt: ''The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, c.1800–1550 BC'', Carsten Niebuhr Institute Publications, vol. 20. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1997 He notes that this identification is confirmed by the fact that the name ''h(n)zr'' is written as ''hzr'' in a variant spelling of this king's name on a seal from this king's reign. Ryholt states that the word 'boar' is: : attested as ''huzīru'' in Akkadian, ''hinzīr'' in Arabic, ''hazīrā'' in Aramaic, ''hazīr'' in Hebrew (the name is attested as ''hēzīr'' in I Chron. 24:15, Neh. 10:20) ''hu-zi-ri'' in the Nuzi texts, ''hnzr'' in Ugarit, and perhaps ''hi-zi-ri'' in Amorite. Khendjer was, therefore, the earliest known Semitic king of a native Egyptian dynasty. Khendjer's

prenomen The ''praenomen'' (; plural: ''praenomina'') was a personal name chosen by the parents of a Roman child. It was first bestowed on the ''dies lustricus'' (day of lustration), the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the birt ...

or throne name, ''Userkare'', translates as "The Soul of Re is Powerful." Khendjer, however, may have had a second prenomen at his coronation: 'Nimaatre' which translates as 'The one who belongs to

Maat Maat or Maʽat ( Egyptian: mꜣꜥt /ˈmuʀʕat/, Coptic: ⲙⲉⲓ) refers to the ancient Egyptian concepts of truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, and justice. Ma'at was also the goddess who personified these concepts, and regul ...

is Re.' This name appears together with the name Khendjer at the top of the stela of Amenyseneb (Louvre C11).Jürgen von Beckerath: ''Untersuchungen zur politischen Geschichte der zweiten Zwischenzeit in Ägypten'', Glückstadt 1964, 238

References

{{authority control 18th-century BC Pharaohs Pharaohs of the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt