Senusret IV Seneferibre was an ancient Egyptian Theban king during the late

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 ...

that is attested only through finds from

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. In ancient E ...

. The chronological position of Senusret IV is unclear and even the dynasty to which he belongs is debated.

Chronological position

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 of ...

Senusret IV belonged to the late

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 ...

, while

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 ...

classifies him as a king of the 16th Dynasty with an uncertain position in the dynasty.K.S.B. Ryholt: ''The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period c. 1800-1550 B.C'', Carsten Niebuhr Institute Publications 20., Copenhagen, 1997, . Alternatively, Norbert Dautzenberg proposed that Senusret IV is part of the 17th Dynasty. Dautzenberg bases this hypothesis on his reading of entry 11.4 of the Turin canon as referring to Senusret IV. He also attributes

graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

on a gate of the Medamud temple mentioning a king "Senusret" to Senusret IV since the gate was decorated by Sobekemsaf I, who lived during the early 17th Dynasty. Both arguments are rejected by Ryholt: first, Ryholt notes that the Turin canon entry 11.4 is not compatible with Senusret IV's prenomen and second, he observes that the gate of the temple of Medamud was built by Senusret III so the graffiti is likely to refer to this king rather than Senusret IV. In the new arrangement the dynasty of Senusret IV is left partially undetermined, being simply categorized as late 13th to early 17th.

Attestations

Senusret IV is attested on the Karnak king list under his prenomen "Senefer ..e". The most important contemporary attestation of the king is a 2m 75 cm tall colossal statue of him, sculpted in pink granite and discovered in Karnak in 1901 by

Georges Legrain Georges Albert Legrain (4 October 1865, in Paris – 22 August 1917, in Luxor) was a French Egyptologist. Life and work From 1883 to 1890 Legrain was a student at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, but he also studied Egyptology at that time, ...

. Other attestations include a block from

El-Tod El-Tod ( ar, طود , from , , , ) was the site of an ancient Egyptian town and a temple to the Egyptian god Montu. It is located southwest of Luxor, Egypt, near the settlement of Hermonthis. A modern village now surrounds the site. History ...

and the upper-right corner of a stela discovered in 1907 by Legrain in

Karnak The Karnak Temple Complex, commonly known as Karnak (, which was originally derived from ar, خورنق ''Khurnaq'' "fortified village"), comprises a vast mix of decayed temples, pylons, chapels, and other buildings near Luxor, Egypt. Constr ...

and which is inscribed with the date II

Shemu The Season of the Harvest or Low Water was the third and final season of the lunar and civil Egyptian calendars. It fell after the Season of the Emergence (') and before the spiritually dangerous intercalary month ('), after which the New Yea ...

1 of the first regnal year of Senusret IV. Finally, a lintel from

Edfu Edfu ( egy, bḥdt, ar, إدفو , ; also spelt Idfu, or in modern French as Edfou) is an Egyptian city, located on the west bank of the Nile River between Esna and Aswan, with a population of approximately sixty thousand people. Edfu is the site ...

and an axe-blade bearing the nomen Senusret have also been attributed to Senusret IV based on stylistic considerations. In the case of the axe blade, however, some have attributed it to

Senusret I Senusret I (Middle Egyptian: z-n-wsrt; /suʀ nij ˈwas.ɾiʔ/) also anglicized as Sesostris I and Senwosret I, was the second pharaoh of the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt. He ruled from 1971 BC to 1926 BC (1920 BC to 1875 BC), and was one of the mo ...

.Axe-blade: Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology 16324, visibl
online here

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 Egyp ...

: ''Tools and Weapons'', 9, pl. 5

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Senusret 04 17th-century BC Pharaohs 16th-century BC Pharaohs Pharaohs of the Sixteenth Dynasty of Egypt Pharaohs of the Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt Pharaohs of the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt