Khaba
| Khaba | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hudjefa II.?, Sedjes?, Huni? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Serekh of Khaba on a stone bowl of unknown provenance, Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, UC 15800. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pharaoh | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reign | duration unknown; ca. 2670 BC[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Predecessor | Sekhemkhet or Sanakht | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Successor | Huni (if not identical to him), Sanakht, Qahedjet | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Burial | 3rd Dynasty | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Khaba (also read as Hor-Khaba) was a pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, active during the 3rd Dynasty of the Old Kingdom period.[2][3] The exact time during which Khaba ruled is unknown[2][3] but may have been around 2670 BC,[1] and almost definitely towards the end of the dynasty.
King Khaba is considered to be difficult to assess as a figure of ancient Egypt. His name is archaeologically well-attested by stone bowls and mud seal impressions. Khaba's reign is securely dated to the Third Dynasty. Because of the contradictions within Ramesside king lists and the lack of contemporary, festive inscriptions, his exact chronological position within the dynasty remains disputed.
Attestations
Khaba's name appears on nine polished stone bowls, variously made of
His name also appears on several mud seal impressions found at Quesna (in the Delta),
Only one seal bears a well-preserved complete row of names or titles; the seal, numbered UC-11755, is undated and is now on display in the
Identity
Royal name
Khaba is known by his serekh and Golden Horus name only. His Nisut-Bity title and his Nebty name are unknown.[3] Additionally, Khaba is one of the very few kings from Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom times with an archaeologically proven Gold name, a likely predecessor to the Golden Horus name, which Khaba may also have introduced. Aside from Khaba, the only kings with Gold names who lived before king Sneferu, founder of the 4th dynasty, were Djer, Den, Nynetjer, Khasekhemwy, and Djoser.[3] From Snefru onward, the Golden Horus name became a fixed royal title to any ruling king, no matter how long the king ruled. Khaba's Golden Horus name can be found on several seal impressions, although its correct reading and translation are disputed. Peter Kaplony interprets it as Nub-iret or Nub iret-djedef, though he is unsure whether the syllable djedef was an inherent part of the name or an additional honorary title.[9] Thomas Schneider and Jürgen von Beckerath, in contrast, see Khaba's Golden Horus as Netjer-nub, which means "golden falcon". Khaba's Gold name is the first to show the infinitive form of the royal Gold name.[1]
Identification with Ramesside kinglists
Scholars face several problems in attempting to connect Khaba to royal names known from the Ramesside era (the
In contrast, Egyptologists Wolfgang Helck and Aidan Dodson suggest that Khaba could have been identical to the Ramesside names Sedjes and Hudjefa II. Both "names" are actually pseudonyms for a royal title that was illegible when the Ramesside scribes compiled the kinglists. This would match a king who ruled only a short time. The Turin Canon gives a short reign of 6 years for Hudjefa II.[2][11]
A minority of modern Egyptologists think that Khaba might be identical to a Ramesside cartouche name known as
Identification with Manetho's king list
It is also unknown under which Hellenized name the ancient historian Manetho listed Khaba. He might have been the same person as the listed Mesôchris or Sôÿphis,[2][4] but this in turn is doubted by Wolfgang Helck and Eberhard Otto. They connect both names with king Sanakht.[12]
Reign
Chronology
Because of the contradictions within Ramesside king lists and the lack of contemporary, festive inscriptions, the exact chronological position of Khaba remains disputed.[2] Egyptologist Nabil Swelim believes that Khaba could have been the direct successor to King Khasekhemwy, the last ruler of the 2nd dynasty. He bases his assumptions on similarities between the two's names: both begin with the syllable kha. As a comparison, he points to the names Netjerikhet (Djoser) and Sekhemkhet (Djoserteti), which also display such similarity and are widely assumed to have ruled back-to-back.[4]
Nevertheless, Swelim's theory is not widely accepted.[2][11] Grimal, Helck, Wilkinson and Stadelmann point out that during the 3rd dynasty it became a fashion that royal stone bowls with polished surfaces showed only Horus names, without any guiding inscriptions. This is also the case for the stone bowls of king Khaba. This decor style was practiced still under Sneferu, the founder of the 4th dynasty. Thus, Khaba is thought to have reigned close to the end of the Third Dynasty.[5][11][13]
Duration
The correct duration of Khaba's reign is also unknown. Should he be identical to the Ramesside cartouche names Sedjes (meaning "omitted") and Hudjefa (meaning "erased"), he might have ruled for six years, as the Turin Canon suggests. If Khaba was identical to king Huni, he might have ruled for 24 years.[11][14]
Events
The current archaeological situation allows no closer evaluation of Khaba's reign. The seal impressions from Elephantine only prove that this island seems to have been an important place to visit in Khaba's time. The inscriptions reveal that the seals and their belonging vessels originated from Thinis and that they were registered by the governor of Elephantine. Other seals show the depiction of the goddess
Tomb
Khaba is commonly thought to have built the
Alternatively, Khaba could have been interred in the aforementioned mastaba, which is located about 200 m (660 ft) north of the pyramid. Indeed, excavations of the mastaba yielded several stone bowls inscribed with Khaba's Horus name as well as two seal fragments of him. Although this is generally taken as a proof that Khaba was the pyramid owner, it could equally imply that the mastaba was Khaba's tomb and the pyramid that of another, yet unknown king.[5][6]
Other buildings from Khaba's reign
Mastaba Z500
Only two large mastaba tombs can be securely dated into Khaba's reign. The first one is known as Mastaba Z500, which is located at Zawyet el'Aryan. It lies around 200m north of the Layer Pyramid and has a south–north-orientation.[15] The mastaba ist made of mudbricks, its outer wall is niched and it contains only two large chambers without any typical tomb architecture elements. Because of this, Egyptologists such as Nabil Swelim believe that Mastaba Z500 was in fact a mortuary temple, belonging to the funerary complex of the Layer Pyramid. The datation of the building into Khaba's reign is based on numerous diorite and dolomite vessels and mud seal fragments, bearing the serekh name of king Khaba.[16]
Quesna Tomb
In 2010, an unknown mudbrick mastaba was discovered in Quesna, an archaeological site located in the Monufia Governorate (in the Nile Delta). The mastaba was once 14m in length and 6m in width. Its substructure contains a 3m wide corridor chapel, divided into three architectural sections: the first (northern) section is filled with rubble, the second (central) section contains a double room as the burial chamber and the third (southern) section has a burial shaft in its center. In 2014, a tiny mud seal fragment with the king's name was discovered inside. The true owner of the tomb, however, is unknown and archaeological excavations are still on-going.[17]
References
- ^ ISBN 3-491-96053-3, p. 97.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Aidan Dodson: The Layer Pyramid of Zawiyet el-Aryan: Its Layout and Context. In: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt (JARCE), No. 37 (2000). American Research Center (Hg.), Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake/Bristol 2000, ISSN 0065-9991, pp. 81–90.
- ^ ISBN 1-134-66420-6, p. 84–86, 171, 172 & 177.
- ^ a b c Nabil Swelim: Some Problems on the History of the Third Dynasty - Archaeological and Historical Studies, vol. 7. The Archaeological Society of Alexandria, Alexandria 1983, p. 199–202.
- ^ a b c d e Rainer Stadelmann: King Huni: His Monuments and His Place in the History of the Old Kingdom. In: Zahi A. Hawass, Janet Richards (Hrsg.): The Archaeology and Art of Ancient Egypt. Essays in Honor of David B. O'Connor, vol. II. Conceil Suprême des Antiquités de l'Égypte, Kairo 2007, p. 425–431.
- ^ ISBN 3-499-60890-1, p. 174–177.
- ^ a b c d Jean-Pierre Pätznik: Die Siegelabrollungen und Rollsiegel der Stadt Elephantine im 3. Jahrtausend v. Chr. p. 73–75.
- ^ Luxor Times: British archaeologists discovered an Old Kingdom Mastaba in Delta
- ISBN 3-447-00052-X, p. 173–174.
- ^ Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen Edwards u.a.: The Cambridge ancient history, vol.1, p. 156.
- ^ ISBN 3-447-02677-4, p.109.
- ISBN 3-447-02489-5, p. 250.
- ISBN 0-631-19396-0, p. 66.
- ISBN 0-472-08687-1, p. 189.
- ^ Mark Lehner: Z500 and The Layer Pyramid of Zawiyet el-Aryan. In: Studies in honor of William Kelly Simpson vol. II. (PDF), Boston 1997, p. 507-522.
- ^ Nabil Swelim: Some Problems on the History of the Third Dynasty - Archaeological and Historical Studies, volume 7. The Archaeological Society of Alexandria, Alexandria 1983, S. 27-32, 180 & 219.
- ^ Mada Masr: Tomb of little-known pharaoh unearthed in Nile Delta, press release in April 23, 2015 (English) Archived July 15, 2015, at the Wayback Machine.