Sekhemre Sankhtawy Neferhotep III Iykhernofret was the third or fourth ruler of the
Theban 16th Dynasty, reigning after
Sobekhotep VIII
Sekhemre Seusertawy Sobekhotep VIII was possibly the third king of the 16th Dynasty of Egypt reigning over the Theban region in Upper Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period.Kim Ryholt, The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Inte ...
according to Egyptologists
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 ...
and Darrell Baker.
[Darrell D. Baker: The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume I - Predynastic to the Twentieth Dynasty 3300–1069 BC, Stacey International, , 2008, pp. 256-257] He is assigned a reign of 1 year in 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 is known primarily by a single stela from Thebes.
[Kim Ryholt, The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period c.1800-1550 B.C, Museum Tusculanum Press, (1997), p.202] In an older study,
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 ...
dated Neferhotep III to the end 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 ...
.
Extent of rule
In the heavily damaged stela (Cairo JE 59635
G 20799,
[Pascal Vernus (1982): "La stèle du roi Sekhemsankhtaouyrê Neferhotep Iykhernofret et la domination Hyksôs (stèle Caire JE 59635)", ''ASAE'' 68, pp.129-135.] Neferhotep III repeatedly calls Thebes ''"my city"'' and praises himself as ''"the guide of victorious Thebes"''.
This emphasis on Thebes is understood by Ryholt as showing that Neferhotep III reigned exclusively over the Theban region. Additionally, Baker points out the total lack of contemporary attestations for kings of the 16th Dynasty (except
Bebiankh
Seuserenre Bebiankh was a native ancient Egyptian king of the 16th Theban Dynasty during the Second Intermediate Period and, according to Kim Ryholt, the successor of king Semenre. He is assigned a reign of 12 years in the Turin Canon (11.8).Kim ...
and
Nebiryraw I
Sewadjenre Nebiryraw (also Nebiriau I, Nebiryerawet I) was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the Theban-based 16th Dynasty, during the Second Intermediate Period.
Reign
On the Turin Canon he is credited with a 26-year-long reign and was succeede ...
) outside of a 200 km long stretch of the Nile valley comprising Thebes, from
Hu in the north to
Edfu
Edfu ( egy, bḥdt, ar, إدفو , ; also spelt Idfu, or in modern French as Edfou) is an Egyptian city, located on the west bank of the Nile River between Esna and Aswan, with a population of approximately sixty thousand people. Edfu is the site ...
in the south.
That Neferhotep III ruled over little more than the Theban region is further strengthened by a stela of Neferhotep's successor
Seankhenre Mentuhotepi
Seankhenre Mentuhotepi was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh during the fragmented Second Intermediate Period. According to egyptologists Kim Ryholt and Darrell Baker, he was the fifth king of the Sixteenth Dynasty of Egypt, 16th Dynasty reigning over t ...
where Mentuhotepi states ''"I am the king within Thebes, this is my city"''.
Reign
In his Theban stela, Neferhotep III emphasizes his role as provider of food for his people stating that ''"he who nourishes his city, saving it from famine"''. This, together with his royal name Sekhemre Sanhktawy, ''The might of
Ra, who nourishes the Two Lands'' is a strong sign that
Upper Egypt
Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south.
In ancient ...
suffered from famines during the late 16th Dynasty. Another king of the period,
Senusret IV
Senusret IV Seneferibre was an ancient Egyptian Theban king during the late Second Intermediate Period that is attested only through finds from Upper Egypt. The chronological position of Senusret IV is unclear and even the dynasty to which he bel ...
, adopted a similar royal name.
Neferhotep III got certainly embroiled in a defensive war against 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 ...
15th Dynasty, which would ultimately overrun the 16th Dynasty state. Neferhotep praises himself on his stela as ''" He who raises his city, having been sunk through strife with foreigners''".
The stela is thought to contain the earliest known mention of the
Khepresh
The khepresh (''ḫprš'') was an ancient Egyptian royal headdress. It is also known as the blue crown or war crown. New Kingdom pharaohs are often depicted wearing it in battle, but it was also frequently worn in ceremonies. While it was once c ...
crown. Neferhotep is said to be "Adorned with the Khepresh, the living image of
Re, lord of terror". For reasons which remain difficult to understand, on the stela Neferhotep III is also referred to by the epithet ''Iykhernofret'' written inside a
cartouche
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 fea ...
:
[Ryholt, p.155]
<-M18-T28:r-nfr-t:Z2->
After his short reign, he was succeeded by a similarly short lived king Seankhenre Mentuhotepi
Seankhenre Mentuhotepi was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh during the fragmented Second Intermediate Period. According to egyptologists Kim Ryholt and Darrell Baker, he was the fifth king of the Sixteenth Dynasty of Egypt, 16th Dynasty reigning over t ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Neferhotep Iii
17th-century BC Pharaohs
Pharaohs of the Sixteenth Dynasty of Egypt