Djedkheperew (also known as Djedkheperu) was an Egyptian

pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian language, Egyptian: ''wikt:pr ꜥꜣ, pr ꜥꜣ''; Meroitic language, Meroitic: 𐦲𐦤𐦧, ; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') was the title of the monarch of ancient Egypt from the First Dynasty of Egypt, First Dynasty ( ...

of the

13th Dynasty The Thirteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty XIII) was a series of rulers from approximately 1803 BC until approximately 1649 BC, i.e. for 154 years. It is often classified as the final dynasty of the Middle Kingdom (which includes ...

reigning for an estimated two-year period, from c. 1772 BC until 1770 BC.K.S.B. Ryholt, ''The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period'', ''Carsten Niebuhr Institute Publications'', vol. 20. Copenhagen:

Museum Tusculanum Press Museum Tusculanum Press (Danish: ''Museum Tusculanums Forlag'') is an independent academic press historically associated with the University of Copenhagen, publishing mainly in the humanities, social sciences and theology. It was founded in 1975 as ...

, 1997
excerpts available online
Darrell D. Baker: ''The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume I - Predynastic to the Twentieth Dynasty 3300–1069 BC'', Stacey International, , 2008, p. 86-87 According to Egyptologists

Kim Ryholt Kim Steven Bardrum Ryholt (born 19 June 1970) is a Danish Egyptologist. He 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 F ...

and Darrell Baker, Djedkheperew was the 17th king of this dynasty. Djedkheperew is this pharaoh's

Horus name The Horus name is the oldest known and used crest of ancient Egyptian rulers. It belongs to the " great five names" of an Egyptian pharaoh. However, modern Egyptologists and linguists are starting to prefer the more neutral term "serekh name". T ...

; the

prenomen The praenomen (; plural: praenomina) was a first name chosen by the parents of a Ancient Rome, Roman child. It was first bestowed on the ''dies lustricus'' (day of lustration), the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the ...

and nomen of Djedkheperew, which would normally be employed by modern conventions to name a pharaoh, are unknown. __FORCETOC__

Attestations

;Contemporary attestations The reign of Djedkheperew is supported by eleven seal impressions from Egyptian fortresses at the

second cataract The Cataracts of the Nile are shallow lengths (or whitewater rapids) of the Nile river, between Khartoum and Aswan, where the surface of the water is broken by many small boulders and stones jutting out of the river bed, as well as many rocky ...

Nubia Nubia (, Nobiin language, Nobiin: , ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the confluence of the Blue Nile, Blue and White Nile, White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), and the Cataracts of the Nile, first cataract ...

. Ten of these seal impressions were found at

Uronarti Uronarti is an island and archaeological site in the Nile just south of the Cataracts of the Nile, Second Cataract in the north of Sudan. The site features a massive ancient fortress that still stands on its northern end. This fortress is one of ...

in close association with seal impressions of Sekhemrekhutawy Khabaw and Maaibre Sheshi.

: ''The Date of Kings Sheshi and Yaqubhar and the Rise of the Fourteenth Dynasty'', in ''The Second Intermediate Period (Thirteenth-Seventeenth Dynasties), Current Research, Future Prospects'', Marcel Maree ed., Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 192, Leuven, Peeters, 2010, pp. 109–126 The last one was discovered in

Mirgissa Mirgissa (originally Iken) was a settlement in Northern (state), Northern state, Sudan. Situated at the Cataracts of the Nile, 2nd cataract in Wadi Halfa, it contained one of the largest fortresses in Nubia. In the time of Thutmose II, 250 to 450 ...

. Besides the seal impressions, Djedkheperew is authenticated by the ''Bed of Osiris'', a massive sculpture of black

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

showing Osiris lying on a bier. The ''Bed of Osiris'' was found in the tomb of the 1st Dynasty pharaoh

Djer Djer (or Zer or Sekhty; ) is considered the third pharaoh of the First Dynasty of ancient Egypt in current Egyptology. He lived around the mid 31st century BC and reigned for c. 40 years. A mummified forearm of Djer or his wife was discovered by ...

, which the ancient Egyptians had come to identify with the tomb of

Osiris Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wikt:wsjr, wsjr'') was the ancient Egyptian deities, god of fertility, agriculture, the Ancient Egyptian religion#Afterlife, afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was ...

. The sculpture is now in the

Egyptian Museum The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, commonly known as the Egyptian Museum (, Egyptian Arabic: ) (also called the Cairo Museum), located in Cairo, Egypt, houses the largest collection of Ancient Egypt, Egyptian antiquities in the world. It hou ...

. The sculpture was tentatively attributed to another 13th Dynasty pharaoh,

Khendjer Userkare Khendjer was a minor king of the early Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt during the Middle Kingdom.Baker, Darrell D.: The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume I - Predynastic to the Twentieth Dynasty 3300–1069 BC, Stacey International, , ( ...

, by Leahy, but recent examinations of the inscriptions proved that it originally bore the name of Djedkheperew. The nomen of Djedkheperew was erased at some point in antiquity, but carelessly enough that some of it is still readable. ;On the Turin canon Djedkheperew is not mentioned on 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 (r. 1279–1213 BC), now in the Museo Egizio (Egyptian Museum) in Turin. The papyrus is the m ...

, a king list compiled in the early

Ramesside period The New Kingdom, also called the Egyptian Empire, refers to ancient Egypt between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC. This period of ancient Egyptian history covers the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth dynasties. Through radioc ...

, which serves as a reference document for the history of the Second Intermediate Period. Ryholt argues that this is because Djedkheperew's reign (as well as that of his predecessor, Sekhemrekhutawy Khabaw and immediate successor(s) Sebkay, all absent from the canon) was already lost in a lacuna of the document from which the canon was copied. That this must be true is indicated by artifacts showing that Khabaw succeeded Hor on the throne and Sebkay as a predecessor(s) of Amenemhat VII, when the canon lists Amenemhat VII directly as Hor's successor (column 7, lines 17 and 18).

Family and reign

According to Ryholt, Djedkheperew was a brother of his predecessor Sekhemrekhutawy Khabaw and a son of pharaoh Hor Awibre. Ryholt based his conclusion on the seals from Uronarti and the ''Bed of Osiris''. The seals show that Khabaw and Djedkheperew reigned closely in time, while what remains of the name of Djedkheperew on the ''Bed of Osiris'' shows that his nomen started with ''hrw''. This suggests that Djedkheperew's nomen indicated his

filiation Filiation is the legal term for the recognized legal status of the relationship between family members, or more specifically the legal relationship between parent and child. As described by the Government of Quebec: Filiation is the relationship ...

to Hor. Since Khabaw is known to have succeeded Hor, Ryholt deduced that Djedkheperew was Khabaw's brother and successor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Djedkheperew 18th-century BC pharaohs Pharaohs of the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt

Attestations

Family and reign

See also

References