Seheqenre Sankhptahi 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 ...

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 fifty-fourth or fifty-fifth king of this dynasty. He most likely reigned for a short period over the Memphite region during the mid-17th century BC, some time between 1663 BC and 1649 BC. __FORCETOC__

Attestions

Pharaoh Seheqenre Sankhptahi is named and represented on the stele of ''royal sealer'' and ''overseer of sealers'' Nebsumenu dating to Year One of his reign. The origin of the stele is not known for certain—the stele was acquired in 1999 by the National Archaeological Museum of Spain from a private collector. However,

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 ...

notes that it depicts Sankhptahi offering oil to the god Ptah "''He who is south of his wall''" (''rsy-snb=f'') and to

Anubis Anubis (; grc, Ἄνουβις), also known as Inpu, Inpw, Jnpw, or Anpu in Ancient Egyptian () is the god of death, mummification, embalming, the afterlife, cemeteries, tombs, and the Underworld, in ancient Egyptian religion, usually depict ...

"''Lord of bandagers''" (''nb wtyw''), both of which are epithets from the Memphite region. Ryholt concludes that Seheqenre Sankhptahi probably reigned over

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 thus belongs to 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 ...

, which had control over the region at the time. Furthermore, Ryholt suggests that Sankhptahi may himself have been born in Memphis, as indicated by his theophorous name based on Ptah, the god of the city. Museo Arqueológico Nacional - 1999-99-4 - Estela de Nebsumenu 01

Museo Arqueológico Nacional - 1999-99-4 - Estela de Nebsumenu 01

According to the latest reading 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 ...

by Ryholt, Seheqenre Sankhptahi is attested there, on column 8 line 25, which contains the damaged prenomen '' ��-n-Rˁ''. Ryholt remarks that Seheqenre is the only king of the period whose name matches these signs and reads '' .ḥ��-n-Rˁ'', Seheqenre on the Turin canon. Ryholt finally points to a blue-green

steatite Soapstone (also known as steatite or soaprock) is a talc-schist, which is a type of metamorphic rock. It is composed largely of the magnesium rich mineral talc. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occur in the ...

cylinder seal of unknown provenance and bearing the golden horus name Sekhaenptah, ''S.ḫˁ-n-ptḥ'', ''He whom Ptah causes to appear'', as maybe belonging to Seheqenre Sankhptahi.

Percy Newberry Percy Edward Newberry (23 April 1869 – 7 August 1949) was a British Egyptologist. Biography Percy Newberry was born in Islington, London on 23 April 1869. His parents were Caroline () and Henry James Newberry, a woollen warehouseman. Newbe ...

simply dates the seal to "about the end of the Middle Kingdom" without further identification of its owner. The seal is probably lost: originally in the Timmins collection housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it is now reportedly missing from the museum.

Family

A stele of unknown provenance, although probably Memphite in origin, and dated on stylistic grounds to 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 ...

presents a list of members of a royal family and gives the king's son name as '' ptḥ-i''. If this prince is the future pharaoh Seheqenre Sankhptahi as Ryholt proposes, then pharaoh ''Se ..are'' is his father and ''Minemsaes'' and ''Sit ..' are his sisters. The stele is housed 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 ...

(CG20600).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sankhptahi, Seheqenre 17th-century BC Pharaohs Pharaohs of the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt

Attestions

Family

Further reading

References