Senebhenaf was an

ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

ian

vizier A vizier (; ; ) is a high-ranking political advisor or Minister (government), minister in the Near East. The Abbasids, Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was at first merely a help ...

during the

Second Intermediate Period The Second Intermediate Period dates from 1700 to 1550 BC. It marks a period when ancient Egypt was divided into smaller dynasties for a second time, between the end of the Middle Kingdom and the start of the New Kingdom. The concept of a Secon ...

. Senebhenaf is known from the coffin of his daughter, queen

Mentuhotep Mentuhotep (also Montuhotep) is an ancient Egyptian name meaning "''Montu is satisfied''" and may refer to: Kings * Mentuhotep I, nomarch at Thebes during the First Intermediate Period and first king of the 11th Dynasty * Mentuhotep II, reunifie ...

;W. Grajetzki, ''Court Officials of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom'', London 2009, p. 40. the inscriptions state that her father was Senebhenaf and her mother was Sobekhotep. Queen Mentuhotep was the wife of king

Djehuti Sekhemre Sementawy Djehuty was a minor king reigning over parts of Upper Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period. Djehuty is thought to be listed in the first entry of the 11th column of the Turin canon, credited with a reign of 3 years. Ac ...

. The position of this king within the Second Intermediate Period is uncertain (he has been attributed to both the early

16th 16 (sixteen) is the natural number following 15 and preceding 17. It is the fourth power of two. In English speech, the numbers 16 and 60 are sometimes confused, as they sound similar. Mathematics 16 is the ninth composite number, and a sq ...

and the early 17th dynasties), so the position of Senebhenaf is also not yet fixed. Some

Egyptologists This is a partial list of Egyptologists. An Egyptologist is any archaeologist, historian, linguist, or art historian who specializes in Egyptology, the scientific study of Ancient Egypt and its antiquities. Demotists are Egyptologists who speciali ...

K.S.B. Ryholt, op. cit., p. 192. suggested that Senebhenaf was possibly one of the two namesake sons of the vizier Ibiaw who officiated under 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 ...

pharaohs Wahibre Ibiaw and/or

Merneferre Ay Merneferre Ay (also spelled Aya or Eje, sometimes known as Ay I) was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the mid 13th Dynasty. The longest reigning pharaoh of the 13th Dynasty, he ruled a likely fragmented Egypt for over 23 years in the early to mid ...

; if validated, this association could establish a significant temporal link between the

Lower Egypt Lower Egypt ( ') is the northernmost region of Egypt, which consists of the fertile Nile Delta between Upper Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, from El Aiyat, south of modern-day Cairo, and Dahshur. Historically, the Nile River split into sev ...

rulers of the mid-late 13th Dynasty and the

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ', shortened to , , locally: ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the Nile River valley south of the delta and the 30th parallel North. It thus consists of the entire Nile River valley from Cairo south to Lake N ...

kingdom ruled by Djehuti. However, as pointed out by

Wolfram Grajetzki Wolfram Grajetzki (born 1960, in Berlin) is a German Egyptologist. He studied at Free University of Berlin and made his Doctor of Philosophy at the Humboldt University of Berlin. He performed excavations in Egypt, but also in Pakistan ...

, at the current state of knowledge such identification is purely conjectural. Ibiaw :? : Senebhenaf = Sobekhotep , , Mentuhotep = Djehuti

Bibliography

Labib Habachi Labib Habachi (لبيب حبشي; April 18, 1906 – February 18, 1984) was an Egyptian egyptologist. Dr. Habachi spent 30 years in the Antiquities Department of the Egyptian Government, ending his career as Chief inspector. During this period he ...

: "The Family of Vizier Ibiˁ and His Place Among the Viziers of the Thirteenth Dynasty", in ''Studien zur altägyptischen Kultur'' 11 (1984), pp. 113-126.

Notes

Ancient Egyptian viziers 17th-century BC Egyptian people People of the Sixteenth Dynasty of Egypt