Sonbef

Mehibtawy Sekhemkare Amenemhat Sonbef (also

Amenemhat Senbef) was an Egyptian pharaoh of the Sonbef
13th Dynasty during the Second Intermediate Period. Senbef, Amenemhat Senbef
According to Egyptologists Kim Ryholt, Jürgen von
Beckerath and Darrell Baker, he was the second king of
the dynasty, reigning from 1800 BC until
1796 BC.[3][4][6][7]

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 Cylinder seal bearing the royal titulary of
Amenemhat Sonbef, which both Ryholt and Baker see as Sonbef, drawing by Flinders Petrie.[1][2]
evidence that Sonbef was a son of Amenemhat IV and a
Pharaoh
brother of Sekhemre Khutawy Sobekhotep, the founder
of the 13th Dynasty.[3][4] Thus, they see Sonbef and Reign 4 years, 1800–1796BC[3] or
Amenemhat V as two different rulers, an opinion also 1799–1795BC[1] (13th Dynasty)
shared by Jürgen von Beckerath.[3][4][6][7] Ryholt and Predecessor Sekhemre Khutawy Sobekhotep
Baker further posit that Sonbef's and Amenemhat's rules
were separated by the ephemeral reign of Nerikare, while Successor Nerikare (Ryholt) or Pantjeny
von Beckerath believes it was Sekhemre Khutawy (von Beckerath)
Pantjeny who reigned between the two. [6][7] At the Royal titulary
opposite Detlef Franke and Stephen Quirke believe that
Amenemhat V and Sonbef are one and the same
person.[8][9] 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.[10]

Attestations
Sonbef is attested on column 7, line 6 of the Turin canon, where he appears as "Sekhemkare [Amenemhat
Sonbe]f".[3] Although, as a king of the early 13th Dynasty, Sonbef certainly reigned from Itjtawy in the
Faiyum, the only contemporary attestations of him are from south of Thebes.[4] These include a scarab seal of
unknown provenance, a cylinder seal from the Amherst collection and now in the Metropolitan Museum of
Art,[1] and two inscribed blocks from El-Tod 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 in
Nubia, dated to his year 4.[3] A further, much damaged record from Semna and dated to a year 5 may also
belong to him.[4] 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,[11] but later changed his opinion and
attributed them to Amenemhat V.[12]
References
1. Cylinder seal of Amenemhat Senbef (http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collecti
ons/544370) at the MET Museum.
2. Flinders Petrie: Scarabs and cylinders with names (1917), available copyright-free here (https://
archive.org/details/scarabscylinders00petr), pl. XVIII
3. 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
4. Baker, Darrell D. (2008). The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume I - Predynastic to the
Twentieth Dynasty 3300–1069 BC. Stacey International. pp. 457–458. ISBN 978-1-905299-37-
9.
5. Alan H. Gardiner: The royal canon of Turin. Griffith Institute, Oxford 1997, ISBN 0900416483,
Vol 3.
6. Jürgen von Beckerath: Untersuchungen zur politischen Geschichte der Zweiten Zwischenzeit
in Ägypten, Glückstadt, 1964
7. Jürgen von Beckerath: Chronologie des pharaonischen Ägyptens, Münchner Ägyptologische
Studien 46. Mainz am Rhein, 1997
8. Detlef Franke: Zur Chronologie des Mittleren Reiches (12.-18. Dynastie) Teil 1 : Die 12.
Dynastie, in Orientalia 57 (1988)
9. New arrangement (http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/chronology/2interkings/kings2intermediate.
html) of the 13th dynasty, on digital Egypt.
10. Stephen Quirke: In the Name of the King: on Late Middle Kingdom Cylinders, in: Timelines,
Studies in Honour of Manfred Bietak, Leuven, Paris, Dudley, MA. ISBN 90-429-1730-X, 263-64
11. S. Smith: Askut and the Role of the Second Cataract Forts, in JARCE, vol XXVII
12. 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

Preceded by
Pharaoh of Egypt Succeeded by
Sekhemre Khutawy
Thirteenth Dynasty Nerikare
Sobekhotep

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sonbef&oldid=977991180"

This page was last edited on 12 September 2020, at 06:16 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this
site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.