Abydos Dynasty
Abydos Dynasty | |||||||||||
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c. 1650 BC–c. 1600 BC | |||||||||||
Map of Egypt during the Fifteenth, Abydos, and Sixteenth Dynasties | |||||||||||
Capital | Abydos | ||||||||||
Common languages | Egyptian language | ||||||||||
Religion | Ancient Egyptian religion | ||||||||||
Government | Absolute monarchy | ||||||||||
Historical era | Bronze Age | ||||||||||
• Established | c. 1650 BC | ||||||||||
• Disestablished | c. 1600 BC | ||||||||||
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Periods and dynasties of ancient Egypt | ||
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All years are BC | ||
XXXIII | 305–30 |
The Abydos Dynasty is hypothesized to have been a short-lived local
Debate over existence
Evidence in favor
The existence of an Abydos Dynasty was first proposed by
The existence of the dynasty may have been vindicated in January 2014, when the tomb of the previously unknown pharaoh Senebkay was discovered in the southern part of Abydos, an area called "Anubis Mountain" in ancient times. If Senebkay indeed belongs to the Abydos Dynasty, his tomb might signal the royal necropolis of this dynasty, adjacent to the tombs of the Middle Kingdom rulers.[1] Since then, excavations have revealed no less than eight anonymous royal tombs dating to the Second Intermediate Period similar in style and size to Senebkay's burial, as well as two tombs, possibly pyramids, dating to the mid 13th-Dynasty, S9 and S10, which may belong to Neferhotep I and his brother Sobekhotep IV.[4]
Evidence against
The existence of an Abydos Dynasty is not agreed by all scholars. For example, Marcel Marėe observes that a workshop operating from Abydos and producing stelae for two kings associated with the Abydos Dynasty,
Countering the argument in favor of the Abydos Dynasty based on the tomb of Senebkay, Alexander Ilin-Tomich argues that certain Middle Kingdom pharaohs, such as Senusret III and Sobekhotep IV, also have their tombs at Abydos, yet nobody places these kings into an Abydos-based dynasty. At the opposite, he wonders whether Senebkay might be a king of the Theban 16th Dynasty.[6]
Territory
If the Abydos Dynasty was indeed a dynasty, the seat of its power would probably have been either Abydos or
Rulers
The following 16 entries of the Turin canon are attributed to the Abydos Dynasty by Kim Ryholt:[3]
Prenomen of the King | Entry of the Turin canon | Transliteration |
---|---|---|
Woser[...]re | Col 11. Line 16 | Wsr-[...]-Rˁ |
Woser[...]re | Col 11. Line 17 | Wsr-[...]-Rˁ |
Eight kings lost | Col 11. Lines 18-25 | |
[...]hebre | Col 11. Line 26 | [...]-hb-[Rˁ] |
Three kings lost | Col 11. Lines 27-29 | |
[...]hebre (uncertain) | Col 11. Line 30 | [...]-ḥb-[Rˁ] |
[...]webenre | Col 11. Line 31 | [...]-wbn-[Rˁ] |
Some of the above rulers may identify with the four attested kings tentatively attributable to the Abydos Dynasty, given here without regard for their (unknown) chronological order:
Name of king | Image | Comment |
---|---|---|
Sekhemraneferkhau Wepwawetemsaf | May belong to the late 16th Dynasty[5] | |
Sekhemrekhutawy Pantjeny | May belong to the late 16th Dynasty[5] | |
Menkhaure Snaaib | May belong to the late 13th Dynasty[7][8][9] | |
Woseribre Senebkay | Perhaps identifiable with a Woser[...]re of the Turin canon | |
Khuiqer | Uncertain date and period of reign, attributed by Detlef Franke to the Abydos Dynasty[10] |
References
- ^ a b "Giant Sarcophagus Leads Penn Museum Team in Egypt To the Tomb of a Previously Unknown Pharaoh". Penn Museum. January 2014. Retrieved 16 Jan 2014.
- ^ Detlef Franke: Zur Chronologie des Mittleren Reiches. Teil II: Die sogenannte Zweite Zwischenzeit Altägyptens, In Orientalia 57 (1988), p. 259
- ^ ISBN 8772894210.
- S2CID 163519900.
- ^ ISBN 978-90-429-2228-0. p. 247, 268
- ^ Alexander Ilin-Tomich: The Theban Kingdom of Dynasty 16: Its Rise, Administration and Politics, in: Journal of Egyptian History 7 (2014), 146; Ilin-Tomich, Alexander, 2016, Second Intermediate Period. In Wolfram Grajetzki and Willeke Wendrich (eds.), UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, Los Angeles. http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz002k7jm9 p. 9-10
- ^ Jürgen von Beckerath: Untersuchungen zur politischen Geschichte der Zweiten Zwischenzeit in Ägypten, Glückstadt, 1964
- ^ Jürgen von Beckerath: Chronologie des pharaonischen Ägyptens, Münchner Ägyptologische Studien 46. Mainz am Rhein, 1997
- ^ Jürgen von Beckerath: Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen, Münchner ägyptologische Studien 49, Mainz 1999.
- ISSN 1015-5104.