Sebkay (alternatively Sebekay or Sebekāi) was an ancient Egyptian

pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: '' pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the ...

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 b ...

. For a long time his position created problems and he was most often placed into the

13th Dynasty In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The interval can be also described as a compound sixth, spanning an octave p ...

. However, the discovery of the tomb of a king with the name

Senebkay Woseribre Senebkay (alternatively Seneb Kay) was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh during the Second Intermediate Period. The discovery of his tomb in January 2014 supports the existence of an independent Abydos Dynasty, contemporary with the Fifteen ...

make it very likely that Sebkay is identical with the latter and the writing of the name Sebkay is just a misspelling of the name. Very little is known about him, since his name is attested only on a wooden

birth Tusk Birth tusks (also called magical wands or apotropaic wands) are wands for apotropaic magic (to ward off evil), mainly from the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. They are most often made of hippopotamus ivory ( Taweret, represented as a bipedal hippopotamus ...

(

wand A wand is a thin, light-weight rod that is held with one hand, and is traditionally made of wood, but may also be made of other materials, such as metal or plastic. Long versions of wands are often styled in forms of staves or sceptres, which ...

) found at Abydos and now in the

Cairo Museum The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum or the Cairo Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display ...

(CG 9433 / JE 34988).

Identity

Since the discovery of the wand, several

Egyptologist Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religiou ...

s have tried to identify this king with other rulers of the Second Intermediate Period.

Stephen Quirke Stephen Quirke is an Egyptologist. He is the current Edwards Professor of Egyptian Archaeology and Philology at University College London. He has worked at the British Museum (1989–1998) and since 1999 at the Petrie Museum in London. He has publi ...

believed that “Sebkay” was a diminutive for “

Sedjefakare Sedjefakare Kay Amenemhat VII was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 13th Dynasty. Attestations He is known from the Turin King List, and several other objects, including six cylinder seals, one bark stand from Medamud and two scarab seals. His name ...

”, which is the

throne name A regnal name, or regnant name or reign name, is the name used by monarchs and popes during their reigns and, subsequently, historically. Since ancient times, some monarchs have chosen to use a different name from their original name when they ac ...

of Kay-Amenemhat, while

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 of ...

considered the name a short form of the '' nomen'' “Sobekhotep” instead.Jürgen von Beckerath, ''Untersuchungen zur politischen Geschichte der Zweiten Zwischenzeit in Ägypten'', Glückstadt, Augustin, 1964, p. 46. Thomas Schneider supports von Beckerath's hypothesis, specifying that the king Sobekhotep likely was

Sobekhotep II Khaankhre Sobekhotep (now believed to be Sobekhotep II or Sobekhotep IV; known as Sobekhotep I in older studies) was a pharaoh of the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period. Evidence Sobekhotep appears in the Karnak k ...

.Thomas Schneider, in Erik Hornung, Rolf Krauss, and David A. Warburton (eds) ''Ancient Egyptian Chronology'', Brill, Leiden – Boston, 2006, pp. 178-79. A more radical hypothesis came from

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 ...

, who suggested the reading “Seb's son Kay”, ''

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...

'' splitting the name “Seb-kay” in two different pharaohs and thus filling a gap in the

Turin King List 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, now in the Museo Egizio (Egyptian Museum) in Turin. The papyrus is the most extensive list a ...

before Kay-Amenemhat. Furthermore, in this reconstruction the name of the last mentioned king should be considered a

patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. Patronymics are still in use, including mandatory use, in many countries worldwide, alt ...

too, and must be read “Kay's son Amenemhat”, thus setting a dynastic line consisting of three kings: Seb, his son Kay, and the latter's son Amenemhat. Ryholt's interpretation is considered daring and controversial by some egyptologists. In 2014, at Abydos, a team of archaeologists discovered the tomb of a previously unknown king of the Second Intermediate Period, called

. It has been suggested that this ruler and Sebkay might be the same person.Finding a Lost Pharaoh
, Archaeology and arts. Retrieved 08 May 2014 Wand Sebkay Daressy

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sebkay 17th-century BC Pharaohs Pharaohs of the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt 2nd-millennium BC births 2nd-millennium BC deaths Pharaohs of the Abydos Dynasty