Semqen (also Šamuqēnu) was an

Hyksos Hyksos (; Egyptian language, Egyptian ''wikt:ḥqꜣ, ḥqꜣ(w)-wikt:ḫꜣst, ḫꜣswt'', Egyptological pronunciation: ''hekau khasut'', "ruler(s) of foreign lands") is a term which, in modern Egyptology, designates the kings of the Fifteenth ...

ruler of

Lower Egypt Lower Egypt ( ar, مصر السفلى '; ) 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, t ...

during the

Second Intermediate Period The Second Intermediate Period marks a period when ancient Egypt fell into disarray for a second time, between the end of the Middle Kingdom and the start of the New Kingdom. The concept of a "Second Intermediate Period" was coined in 1942 by ...

in the mid-17th century BC. According to

Jürgen von Beckerath Jürgen von Beckerath (19 February 1920, Hanover – 26 June 2016, Schlehdorf) was a German Egyptologist. He was a prolific writer who published countless articles in journals such as '' Orientalia'', '' Göttinger Miszellen'' (GM), '' Journal o ...

he was the third king of the 16th Dynasty and a vassal of the Hyksos kings of the

15th Dynasty The Fifteenth Dynasty was a foreign dynasty of ancient Egypt. It was founded by Salitis, a Hyksos from West Asia whose people had invaded the country and conquered Lower Egypt. The 15th, 16th, and 17th Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combin ...

: ''Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen'', Münchner ägyptologische Studien, Heft 49, Mainz : P. von Zabern, 1999,
available online
see p. 120–121. This opinion was shared by

William C. Hayes William Christopher Hayes (March 21, 1903 – July 10, 1963) was an American Egyptologist. His main fields of study were history of Egyptian art and translation/interpretation of texts.W. C. Hayes, ''The Scepter of Egypt'', part II, 4th print ...

and

Wolfgang Helck Hans Wolfgang Helck (16 September 1914 – 27 August 1993) was a German Egyptologist, considered one of the most important Egyptologists of the 20th century. From 1956 until his retirement in 1979 he was a professor at the University of Hamburg. H ...

but recently rejected by

Kim Ryholt Kim Steven Bardrum Ryholt (born 19 June 1970) 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 Formation in the Earliest Litera ...

. In his 1997 study of the Second Intermediate Period, Ryholt argues that the kings of the 16th Dynasty ruled an independent Theban realm c. 1650–1580 BC. 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
excerpts available online here.
/ref> Consequently, Ryholt sees Semqen as an early Hyksos king of the 15th Dynasty, perhaps its first ruler. This analysis has convinced some Egyptologists, such as Darrell Baker and Janine Bourriau,Darrell D. Baker: The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume I - Predynastic to the Twentieth Dynasty 3300–1069 BC, Stacey International, , 2008, p. 378 but not others including Stephen Quirke.

Attestations

Semqen's only contemporary attestation is a brown

steatite Soapstone (also known as steatite or soaprock) is a talc- schist, which is a type of metamorphic rock. It is composed largely of the magnesium rich mineral talc. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occur in th ...

scarab-seal from

Tell el-Yahudiyeh Leontopolis ( Egyptian: ''Ney-ta-hut'') is the Greek name for the modern area of Tell el Yehudiye or Tell el-Yahudiya (Egyptian Arabic: ''Jewish Mound''). It was an ancient city of Egypt in the 13th nome of Lower Egypt (the Heliopolite Nome), o ...

in the

Nile Delta The Nile Delta ( ar, دلتا النيل, or simply , is the delta formed in Lower Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Po ...

Olga Tufnell Olga Tufnell (26 January 1905 – 11 April 1985) was a British archaeologist who assisted on the excavation of the ancient city of Lachish in the 1930s. She had no formal training in archaeology, but had worked as a secretary for Flinders Petri ...

: Studies on Scarab Seals Vol. 2, Aris & Phillips 1984, , see seal num. 3463 and pl. LXII, p. 382. Significantly, the seal gives him the title of ''Heka-chasut'', "Ruler of the foreign lands", a title exclusively associated with the early Hyksos rulers.

Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie ( – ), commonly known as simply Flinders Petrie, was a British Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and the preservation of artefacts. He held the first chair of Egypt ...

: ''Egypt and Israel'', London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1911
available online copyright-free
/ref> Furthermore, the design of the seal indicates that it was likely produced either during the 14th or the 15th Dynasty, the latter being much more probable. Hyksos on the seal of king Semqen

The original location of the seal, the title it is inscribed with and its design led Ryholt to propose that Semqen belonged to the early 15th Dynasty, although he also points to the conjectural nature of this proposition. Ryholt further adds that the title ''Heka-chasut'', even if securely dated to the 15th Dynasty, may not have been borne only by the rulers of this dynasty. Once belonging to the

Fraser Fraser may refer to: Places Antarctica * Fraser Point, South Orkney Islands Australia * Fraser, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb in the Canberra district of Belconnen * Division of Fraser (Australian Capital Territory), a former federal e ...

collection, the scarab seal is currently part of a private collection.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Semqen 17th-century BC Pharaohs Pharaohs of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt