Thamphthis is the
hellenized
Hellenization (other British spelling Hellenisation) or Hellenism is the adoption of Greek culture, religion, language and identity by non-Greeks. In the ancient period, colonization often led to the Hellenization of indigenous peoples; in th ...
name of an ancient
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
ian ruler (
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
4th Dynasty in the
Old Kingdom
In ancient Egyptian history, the Old Kingdom is the period spanning c. 2700–2200 BC. It is also known as the "Age of the Pyramids" or the "Age of the Pyramid Builders", as it encompasses the reigns of the great pyramid-builders of the Fourth ...
, who may have ruled around 2500 BC under the name Djedefptah for between two and nine years. His original Egyptian name is lost, but it may have been ''Djedefptah'' or ''Ptahdjedef'' ("he endures like
Ptah
Ptah ( egy, ptḥ, reconstructed ; grc, Φθά; cop, ⲡⲧⲁϩ; Phoenician: 𐤐𐤕𐤇, romanized: ptḥ) is an ancient Egyptian deity, a creator god and patron deity of craftsmen and architects. In the triad of Memphis, he is the hu ...
") according to William C. Hayes. Thamphthis is one of the shadowy rulers of the Old Kingdom, since he is completely unattested in contemporary sources. For this reason, his historical figure is discussed intensely by
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...
s and
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 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious ...
s.
Background
Since Thamphthis' name was found in the historical works of
Manetho, the ''Aegyptiacae'',
[William Gillian Waddell: ''Manetho (The Loeb classical library 350)''. pp. 47–49] Egyptologists are trying to connect this ruler with contemporary kings to build up a continuous chronology, which resulted in controversies and debates.
As early as 1887,
Eduard Meyer
Eduard Meyer (25 January 1855 – 31 August 1930) was a German historian. He was the brother of Celticist Kuno Meyer (1858–1919).
Biography
Meyer was born in Hamburg and educated at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums and later at the univer ...
viewed Thamphthis as a mere
usurper
A usurper is an illegitimate or controversial claimant to power, often but not always in a monarchy. In other words, one who takes the power of a country, city, or established region for oneself, without any formal or legal right to claim it as ...
, who was not allowed to be mentioned in royal annals or have his own mortuary cult because he gained the throne illegitimately. Peter Jánosi goes further and says that Thamphthis is a fiction, due to the lack of archaeological support. He claims that Thamphthis should be erased from modern kinglists.
Winfried Seipel and Hermann Alexander Schlögl instead postulate that the historical figure behind Thamphthis could have been queen
Khentkaus I
Khentkaus I, also referred to as Khentkawes, was a royal woman who lived in ancient Egypt during both the Fourth Dynasty and the Fifth Dynasty. She may have been a daughter of king Menkaure, the wife of both king Shepseskaf and king Userkaf (t ...
. This theory is supported by Khentkaus being depicted in her mortuary temple as a ruling pharaoh with nemes-headdress, king's beard and uraeus-diadem on her forehead. But this theory is problematic since Khentkaus' name never appears inside a ''
serekh
In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a serekh is a rectangular enclosure representing the niched or gated façade of a palace surmounted by (usually) the Horus falcon, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. The serekh was the earliest conven ...
'' or royal cartouche.
Wolfgang Helck
Hans Wolfgang Helck (16 September 1914 – 27 August 1993) was a German Egyptologist, considered one of the most important Egyptologists of the 20th century. From 1956 until his retirement in 1979 he was a professor at the University of Hamburg. H ...
points out that Khentkaus I could have been the mother of Thamphthis, so Thamphthis would have been the son of king
Shepseskaf
Shepseskaf (meaning "His Ka is noble") was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt, the sixth and probably last ruler of the fourth dynasty during the Old Kingdom period. He reigned most probably for four but possibly up to seven years in the late 26th t ...
. As a possible wife of Thamphthis he proposes a princess named
Bunefer
Bunefer was an ancient Egyptian queen from the 4th or 5th dynasty. It is not known which king she was married to. Bunefer was buried in tomb G 8408 in the Central Field of the Giza Necropolis.
Life
Bunefer's titles were preserved in her tom ...
, who may have been the daughter of Shepseskaf. She was a priestess of Shepseskaf.
Name sources and contradictions
In the Manethonian tradition of the historian
Sextus Julius Africanus
Sextus Julius Africanus (c. 160 – c. 240; Greek: Σέξτος Ἰούλιος ὁ Ἀφρικανός or ὁ Λίβυς) was a Christian traveler and historian of the late second and early third centuries. He is important chiefly because o ...
, who translated Manetho, Thamphthis is described as the last ruler of the 4th dynasty with a reign of nine years. In the tradition of the historians
Eusebius
Eusebius of Caesarea (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος ; 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian ...
and
Eratosthenes
Eratosthenes of Cyrene (; grc-gre, Ἐρατοσθένης ; – ) was a Greek polymath: a mathematician, geographer, poet, astronomer, and music theorist. He was a man of learning, becoming the chief librarian at the Library of Alexandria ...
his name is missed. Eusebius gives the reason that Thamphthis was not meant to be named, for he "didn't do something worth to be mentioned".
[Alan B. Lloyd: ''Herodotus, book II.''. pp. 77ff.]
A further source for the chronology of rulers of the Old Kingdom is the Royal Canon of Turin, composed during the 19th dynasty around 1300 BC. It names kings which are omitted in many other kinglists. But the Turin Canon is damaged at several spots, so many royal names are fragmentary or completely lost in lacunae today. For this reason it cannot be excluded that Thamphthis' name was originally present in this document too, since the ''Aegyptiacae'' of Manetho are mostly consistent with the Turin Canon. In column III, line 12 king Khafre is mentioned, after him, in line 13, a lacuna appears. After king Shepseskaf, mentioned in line 15, a second lacuna appears. Whilst line 13 may possibly be assigned to a king Baka, the missing line 16 could have originally held Thamphthis' name. These lacunae cover two years during which a king could have reigned.[Kim Ryholt, Adam Bülow-Jacobsen: ''Inclusion of Fictitious Kings''. In: ''The political situation in Egypt during the second Intermediate Period''. p. 17.]
The Royal kinglist of Saqqara from the tomb of Tjuneroy (19th dynasty) lists nine kings for the 4th dynasty, whilst the Abydos King List gives only six names. Curiously the Saqqara-Table has after Shepseskaf two cartouches before Userkaf
Userkaf (known in Ancient Greek as , ) was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the founder of the Fifth Dynasty. He reigned for seven to eight years in the early 25th century BC, during the Old Kingdom period. He probably belonged to a branch of the ...
, but both are heavily damaged, so the original names are no longer legible. Whilst one of these two cartouches once may have held Thamphthis' name, the other cartouche remains a mystery.
A rock inscription in the Wadi Hammamat made in the Middle Kingdom presents a list of the cartouche-names of Khufu
Khufu or Cheops was an ancient Egyptian monarch who was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty, in the first half of the Old Kingdom period ( 26th century BC). Khufu succeeded his father Sneferu as king. He is generally accepted as having co ...
, Djedefre
Djedefre (also known as Djedefra and Radjedef – Modern Greek: ) was an ancient Egyptian king (pharaoh) of the 4th Dynasty during the Old Kingdom. He is well known by the Hellenized form of his name Rhatoisēs (Ῥατοίσης) by Manetho. ...
, Baufra and prince Djedefhor
Djedefhor or Hordjedef was a noble Egyptian of the 4th Dynasty. He was the son of Pharaoh Khufu and his name means "Enduring Like Horus".
Biography
Djedefhor was a son of Pharaoh Khufu and half-brother of pharaohs Djedefre and Khafre., p.58 Que ...
(also recorded as Hordjedef). Curiously Djedefhor's name is written in a cartouche, too. This leads to the possibility that he could have been a king for a very short while himself. If this was true, this fact would close the chronological gaps. But contemporary sources don't show Djedefhor and Baufra as kings; they give to these two only the titles of princes and call them both "son of the king".
The tomb inscriptions of several high officials, princes and priests do not preserve any evidence that some kind of internal political conflict had arisen or that a usurper had seized the throne of Egypt. Prince Sekhemkare reports about his career under the kings Khafre, Menkaura
Menkaure (also Menkaura, Egyptian transliteration ''mn-k3w-Rˁ''), was an ancient Egyptian king (pharaoh) of the fourth dynasty during the Old Kingdom, who is well known under his Hellenized names Mykerinos ( gr, Μυκερῖνος) (by Hero ...
, Shepseskaf, Userkaf and even Sahure
Sahure (also Sahura, meaning "He who is close to Re") was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the second ruler of the Fifth Dynasty (c. 2465 – c. 2325 BC). He reigned for about 13 years in the early 25th century BC during the Old Kingdom Period. ...
, but makes no mention of Thamphthis. The same goes for the high official Netjer-pu-nesut, who was honoured under the kings Djedefre, Khafre, Menkaura, Shepseskaf, Userkaf and Sahure. Again no Thamphthis is mentioned. The 5th dynasty high priest and official Ptahshepses
Ptahshepses was the vizier and son-in-law of the Fifth Dynasty pharaoh Nyuserre Ini. As such he was one of the most distinguished members of the royal court.
Ptahshepses' mastaba complex in Abusir is considered by many to be the most exten ...
who served under king Niuserre
Nyuserre Ini (also Niuserre Ini or Neuserre Ini; in Greek known as Rathurês, ''Ῥαθούρης'') was an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh, the sixth ruler of the Fifth Dynasty during the Old Kingdom period. He is credited with a reign of 24 to 35 ye ...
and took care of the mortuary cults of king Menkaura and Shepseskaf also made no reference to Thamphthis. The late Patrick F. O'Mara in a GM 158 paper notes that "no royal monument private tomb in the cemeteries of Gizeh and Saqqara record names of any other xcept the aforementionedkings for the ourthdynasty. No names of estates of the period compounded with royal names make mention of any other ourth dynastykings than these, nor do the names of the royal grandchildren, who often bore the name of a royal ancestor as a component of their own" names.
The lack of contemporary attestations for Thamphthis does not by itself prove that he was a "faux king" or "phantom king" since he may well have been a short-lived ruler of the 4th Dynasty. The stela of the 5th Dynasty official Khau-Ptah is informative: while this official lists his career in an uninterrupted sequence of Sahure, Neferirkare, Raneferef and Niuserre, he completely omits Shepseskare. Shepseskare or Sisires likely did not rule Egypt for the seven years assigned to him by both Manetho and the Turin Canon judging by the paucity of contemporary records for his rule, but he certainly ruled Egypt for a brief period of time. This is established by the existence of two cylinder seals identifying him and four or five fragments of clay sealings bearing his name. In more recent years, "several new sealings f Shepseskare
F, or f, is the sixth Letter (alphabet), letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphabet#Let ...
which were found in Abusir also show that Shepseskare did exist.[Miroslav Verner, ''Who was Shepseskare and when did he reign''?, in ''Abusir and Saqqara in the Year 2000'' (''ArOr Suppl''.9, 2000,) pp. 581–602] Verner argues that the archaeological context of the sealings show that Shepseskare succeeded Raneferef (rather than the reverse as Manetho and the Turin Canon states) and that a dynastic struggle ensued in which Shepseskare was soon overthrown by Niuserre, Raneferef's brother, after a very brief reign. This would explain the surprising omission of Shepseskare by Khau-ptah since the former was a usurper who briefly seized the throne after Raneferef's death. But there is no evidence for any dynastic difficulties in the late 4th Dynasty and the complete lack of contemporary attestations for Thamphthis is strong evidence for regarding him as a phantom king. In this situation, the two year figure assigned to him by later Egyptian records could possibly be added to Shepseskaf's existing 4-year reign.
Literature
* 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 ...
: ''Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen'', von Zabern, Mainz 1999,
* Jürgen von Beckerath: ''Chronologie des pharaonischen Ägypten'', von Zabern, Mainz 1997
* Iowerth Eiddon Stephen Edwards: ''The Cambridge ancient history'', Band 3. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2000,
* William C. Hayes: ''The Scepter of Egypt'', Band 1: ''From the Earliest Times to the End of the Middle Kingdom''. Yale University Press, New York 1990 (Neuauflage),
* Wolfgang Helck
Hans Wolfgang Helck (16 September 1914 – 27 August 1993) was a German Egyptologist, considered one of the most important Egyptologists of the 20th century. From 1956 until his retirement in 1979 he was a professor at the University of Hamburg. H ...
: ''Geschichte des Alten Ägypten''. BRILL, Leiden 1981,
* Peter Jánosi: ''Giza in der 4. Dynastie. Die Baugeschichte und Belegung einer Nekropole des Alten Reiches''. Band I: ''Die Mastabas der Kernfriedhöfe und die Felsgräber''. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien 2005,
* Alan B. Lloyd: ''Herodotus, book II: commentary 99-182''. BRILL, Leiden 1988,
* Eduard Meyer, Johannes Duemichen: ''Geschichte des alten Aegyptens''. Band 1 von: ''Allgemeine Geschichte in Einzeldarstellungen''. Grote, Hamburg 1887
* Kim Ryholt, Adam Bülow-Jacobsen: ''The political situation in Egypt during the second Intermediate Period''. Museum Tusculanum Press, 1997,
* Wilfried Seipel: ''Untersuchungen zu den ägyptischen Königinnen der Frühzeit und des Alten Reiches''. University of California, 1980
* Ian Shaw: ''The Oxford history of ancient Egypt''. Oxford University Press, Oxford (UK) 2002,
* William Gillian Waddell: ''Manetho - The Loeb classical library; 350 -''. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.) 2004 (Reprint),
References
{{authority control
3rd-millennium BC births
3rd-millennium BC deaths
25th-century BC Pharaohs
26th-century BC Pharaohs
People whose existence is disputed