Mersekhemre Ined was a

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 an ...

of the late

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 ...

, possibly the thirty-fifth king of this dynasty. As such he would have reigned from

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 ...

over Middle and Upper Egypt for a short time either during the early or mid-17th century, from 1672 until 1669 BC or from 1651 until 1648 BC. He may be the same king as Mersekhemre Neferhotep II.

Identity

The identity of Mersekhemre Ined with respect to Neferhotep II is still in doubt. Two royal statues of a king named Mersekhemre Neferhotep were uncovered by

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, ...

in 1903 in the Karnak Cachette and are 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 ...

, CG 42023 and CG 42024. Additionally, a king Mersekhemre Ined is mentioned in entry 7.6 of 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 av ...

and a king Mersekhemre appears in the Karnak king list, entry VI, 2. Egyptologists

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 of t ...

, Detlef Franke,

Jacques Kinnaer Jacques Kinnaer (born 1966) is a Belgian Egyptologist Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5 ...

, Rolf Krauss and

Donald B. Redford Donald Bruce Redford (born September 2, 1934) is a Canadian Egyptologist and archaeologist, currently Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies at Pennsylvania State University. He is married to Susan Redford, who is also an Egyptolo ...

conclude that the Mersekhemre Ined of the Turin canon and Mersekhemre Neferhotep are one and the same person.Jürgen von Beckerath: Untersuchungen zur politischen Geschichte der zweiten Zwischenzeit in Ägypten. Glückstadt 1964, p. 60, 254 (XIII 30) In contrast,

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 ...

sees in these documents the references to two distinct rulers with the same official royal name, as for example in the case of Merhotepre

Sobekhotep V Merhotepre Sobekhotep (also known as Sobekhotep V; Sobekhotep VI in older studies) was an Egyptian king of the 13th Dynasty during the Second Intermediate Period. According to egyptologist Kim Ryholt he was the thirtieth pharaoh of the dynasty, wh ...

and

Merhotepre Ini Merhotepre Ini (also known as Ini I or Ini II) was the successor of Merneferre Ay, possibly his son, and the thirty-third king of the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt. He is assigned a brief reign of 2 Years, 3 or 4 Months and 9 days in the Turin Canon ...

. Rather, Ryholt identifies Neferhotep II with a king "''Mer...re''" on column 8 row 16 of the Turin canon, which would place Neferhotep II at the very end of the 13th Dynasty, possibly the dynasty's 46th ruler. However, this entry of the Turin canon may refer to Mershepsesre Ini II instead, with Neferhotep II being the same king as Mersekhemre Ined.

Reign

According to the latest reading of the Turin canon by

, Mersekhemre Ined reigned for 3 years, 1 to 4 months and 1 day.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, p.71 & p.192 He likely ruled Middle and Upper Egypt while 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 ...

14th 14 (fourteen) is a natural number following 13 (number), 13 and preceding 15 (number), 15. In relation to the word "four" (4), 14 is spelled "fourteen". In mathematics * 14 is a composite number. * 14 is a square pyramidal number. * 14 is a s ...

15th Dynasty The Fifteenth Dynasty was a foreign dynasty of ancient Egypt. It was founded by Salitis, a Hyksos from West Asia whose people had invaded the country and conquered Lower Egypt. The 15th, 16th, and 17th Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combin ...

probably already controlled large parts of the Delta region during Mersekhemre Ined's time on the throne in the late 13th Dynasty.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ined, Mersekhemre 17th-century BC Pharaohs Pharaohs of the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt