Mehibtawy Sekhemkare Amenemhat Sonbef (also Amenemhat Senbef) was an

Egyptian Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...

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

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 ...

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 ...

. 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 ...

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 ...

and Darrell Baker, he was the second king of the dynasty, reigning from 1800 BC until 1796 BC. 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

Identity

There is a debate between Egyptologists on whether or not Sekhemkare Sonbef is the same king as Sekhemkare Amenemhat V, fourth ruler of the 13th Dynasty. Indeed, Sonbef called himself "Amenemhat Sonbef"; this can be a double name, but can also be a filiation ''Son of Amenemhat Sonbef'', which both Ryholt and Baker see as evidence that Sonbef was a son of Amenemhat IV and a brother of

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 ...

, the founder of the 13th Dynasty. Thus, they see Sonbef and Amenemhat V as two different rulers, an opinion also shared by Jürgen von Beckerath. Ryholt and Baker further posit that Sonbef's and Amenemhat's rules were separated by the ephemeral reign of Nerikare, while von Beckerath believes it was Sekhemre Khutawy Pantjeny who reigned between the two.

: ''Untersuchungen zur politischen Geschichte der Zweiten Zwischenzeit in Ägypten'', Glückstadt, 1964

: ''Chronologie des pharaonischen Ägyptens'', Münchner Ägyptologische Studien 46. Mainz am Rhein, 1997 At the opposite

Detlef Franke Detlef Franke (November 24, 1952 in Lüneburg – September 2, 2007) was a German Egyptologist specialist of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. Biography Detlef Franke received his doctorate at the University of Hamburg in 1983 with his thesis "''Al ...

and

Stephen Quirke Stephen Quirke is an Egyptologist. He is the current Edwards Professor of Egyptian Archaeology and Philology at University College London. He has worked at the British Museum (1989–1998) and since 1999 at the Petrie Museum in London. He has publi ...

believe that Amenemhat V and Sonbef are one and the same person. Franke and others regard "Amenemhat Sonbef" as a double name. Indeed, double naming was common in Egypt and especially in the late 12th and 13th Dynasty.

Attestations

Sonbef is attested on column 7, line 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 ...

, where he appears as "Sekhemkare menemhat Sonbe". Although, as a king of the early 13th Dynasty, Sonbef certainly reigned from

Itjtawy Itjtawy (full Egyptian name ''Amenemhat-itj-tawy'' — "Amenemhat, Seizer of the Two Lands"), is the name of the royal city founded as a new capital by Twelfth Dynasty Egyptian King Amenemhat I, who ruled from approximately 1991 BC to 1962 BC ...

in the

Faiyum Faiyum ( ar, الفيوم ' , borrowed from cop, ̀Ⲫⲓⲟⲙ or Ⲫⲓⲱⲙ ' from egy, pꜣ ym "the Sea, Lake") is a city in Middle Egypt. Located southwest of Cairo, in the Faiyum Oasis, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum ...

, the only contemporary attestations of him are from south of Thebes. These include a scarab seal of unknown provenance, a cylinder seal from the Amherst collection and now in the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

,Cylinder seal of Amenemhat Senbef
at the MET Museum. and two inscribed blocks from

El-Tod El-Tod ( ar, طود , from , , , ) was the site of an ancient Egyptian town and a temple to the Egyptian god Montu. It is located southwest of Luxor, Egypt, near the settlement of Hermonthis. A modern village now surrounds the site. History ...

where he appears under the name Sekhemkare. Two Nile records are also attributable to him, one from Askut and dated to his year 3, and the other from

Semna The region of Semna is 15 miles south of Wadi Halfa and is situated where rocks cross the Nile narrowing its flow—the Semna Cataract. Semna was a fortified area established in the reign of Senusret I (1965–1920 BC) on the west bank of the N ...

Nubia Nubia () (Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), or ...

, dated to his year 4. A further, much damaged record from Semna and dated to a year 5 may also belong to him. The ownership of these Nile records is still in doubt however, as they only bear the prenomen Sekhemkare, which Amenemhat V also bore. The Egyptologist and archaeologist Stuart Tyson Smith, who studied the records initially attributed them to Sonbef, but later changed his opinion and attributed them to Amenemhat V.S. Smith: ''Askut in Nubia: The Economic and Ideology of Egyptian Imperialism in the Second Millenium B.C.'', Kegan Paul International, London and New York

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sonbef, Sekhemkare 18th-century BC Pharaohs Pharaohs of the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt