Woseribre Senebkay (alternatively Seneb Kay) 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 th ...

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 ...

. The discovery of his tomb in January 2014 supports the existence of an independent Abydos Dynasty, contemporary with the

Fifteenth In music, a fifteenth or double octave, abbreviated ''15ma'', is the interval between one musical note and another with one-quarter the wavelength or quadruple the frequency. It has also been referred to as the bisdiapason. The fourth harmonic, ...

and Sixteenth Dynasties during the Second Intermediate Period.

Attestation

He might also appear in 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, now in the Museo Egizio (Egyptian Museum) in Turin. The papyrus is the most extensive list ...

, where there appear two kings with the throne name "Weser... re" (the names are only partly preserved). A further possible object with his name is a

magical 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 c ...

bearing the name ''

Sebkay Sebkay (alternatively Sebekay or Sebekāi) was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh during the Second Intermediate Period. For a long time his position created problems and he was most often placed into the 13th Dynasty. However, the discovery of the tomb ...

''. The wand was found at

Abydos Abydos may refer to: *Abydos, a progressive metal side project of German singer Andy Kuntz *Abydos (Hellespont), an ancient city in Mysia, Asia Minor * Abydos (''Stargate''), name of a fictional planet in the ''Stargate'' science fiction universe ...

but could refer to one or possibly two kings of the earlier

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 ...

. The existence of the so-called Abydos Dynasty was first proposed by

Detlef Franke Detlef Franke (November 24, 1952 in Lüneburg – September 2, 2007) was a German Egyptologist specialist of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. Biography Detlef Franke received his doctorate at the University of Hamburg in 1983 with his thesis "''A ...

and later further developed 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 1997.

Death

The Skeleton of Senebkay show he died at the age of 35-40 from multiple battlewounds.

Tomb

Senebkay's tomb (CS9) was discovered in 2014 by Josef W. Wegner of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

and a team of Egyptian archaeologists in the southern part of

Abydos, Egypt Abydos ( ar, أبيدوس, Abīdūs or ; Sahidic cop, Ⲉⲃⲱⲧ ') is one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt, and also of the eighth nome in Upper Egypt. It is located about west of the Nile at latitude 26° 10' N, near the modern ...

. The four-chamber tomb has a decorated

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

burial chamber. Most blocks of the chamber were reused from older structures, such as the stela of

Idudju-iker Idudju-iker was an ancient Egyptian high official who lived around 2050 BC in the 11th Dynasty. His title ''foremost one of the chiefs of Lower Nubia'' demonstrates his important position in the administration of Lower Nubia. Idudju-iker is only k ...

. On the east, short wall there is a painted depiction of the two

Wadjet Wadjet (; egy, wꜢḏyt "Green One"), known to the Greek world as Uto (; grc-koi, Οὐτώ) or Buto (; ) among other renderings including Wedjat, Uadjet, and Udjo, was originally the ancient local goddess of the city of Dep. It became part ...

-eyes. Left and right are standing the goddess

Neith Neith ( grc-koi, Νηΐθ, a borrowing of the Demotic form egy, nt, likely originally to have been nrt "she is the terrifying one"; Coptic: ⲛⲏⲓⲧ; also spelled Nit, Net, or Neit) was an early ancient Egyptian deity. She was said to b ...

and Nut. Over the scene is depicted a winged sun disc. On the North wall is depicted a standing goddess; her name is destroyed. There are short text lines mentioning the deities Duamutef and Qebehsenuf. In the center of the wall appears the cartouche with the king's name Senebkay. The South wall is much destroyed. There are visible the remains of two female deities. Texts mention the deities Amset and Hapi. The head of the king was once decorated with a mummy mask.Wegner, Josef: ''Kings of Abydos, solving an Ancient Egyptian Mystery'', in: ''Current World Archaeology, Magazine'', 64, April/May 2014, Volume 6, no. 4, p. 26 The texts record the pharaoh's titulary and call him the "king of

Upper and Lower Egypt In Egyptian history, the Upper and Lower Egypt period (also known as The Two Lands) was the final stage of prehistoric Egypt and directly preceded the unification of the realm. The conception of Egypt as the Two Lands was an example of the dual ...

, Woseribre, the son of Re, Senebkay". Senebkay's name was found inscribed inside a royal

cartouche In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an oval with a line at one end tangent to it, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. The first examples of the cartouche are associated with pharaohs at the end of the Third Dynasty, but the f ...

. Some of the burial equipment, such as the wooden canopic box, were taken from older tombs. The remains of the canopic box was originally inscribed for a king Sobekhotep, likely from the nearby tomb S10, now believed to belong to Sobekhotep IV.Wegner, Josef W. (2015). "A royal necropolis at south Abydos: New Light on Egypt's Second Intermediate Period". Near Eastern Archaeology. 78 (2): 69–70. See p. 70 The tomb did not house many funerary goods and may have been robbed in ancient times. The king was around tall and died between the ages of 35 and 40. Studies on his skeleton reveal he was most likely killed in battle. There are eighteen wounds on his bones, impacting his lower back, feet and ankles. The cutting angles suggest he was hit from below, perhaps while he was on a chariot or on horseback. Upon falling to the ground, he was killed by several axe blows to the skull. The curvature of the wounds on the skull indicate the use of

battle axe A battle axe (also battle-axe, battle ax, or battle-ax) is an axe specifically designed for combat. Battle axes were specialized versions of utility axes. Many were suitable for use in one hand, while others were larger and were deployed two-ha ...

s contemporary to the Second Intermediate Period.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Senebkay Woseribre 17th-century BC Pharaohs Pharaohs of the Sixteenth Dynasty of Egypt 2014 archaeological discoveries 2nd-millennium BC births 2nd-millennium BC deaths Pharaohs of the Abydos Dynasty Monarchs killed in action Axe murder

Attestation

Death

Tomb

See also

References