Sekhemre Seusertawy Sobekhotep VIII was possibly the third king of the 16th Dynasty of Egypt reigning over the Theban region in Upper Egypt 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 ...

.Kim Ryholt, The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period c.1800-1550 B.C, Museum Tusculanum Press, (1997)Darrell D. Baker: The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume I - Predynastic to the Twentieth Dynasty 3300–1069 BC, Stacey International, , 2008, p. 454 Alternatively, he may be a ruler of the

13th 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 pl ...

or 17th Dynasty. If he was a king of the 16th Dynasty, Sobekhotep VIII would be credited 16 years of reign by the Turin canon, starting c. 1650 BC, at the time of the

Hyksos Hyksos (; Egyptian '' ḥqꜣ(w)- ḫꜣswt'', Egyptological pronunciation: ''hekau khasut'', "ruler(s) of foreign lands") is a term which, in modern Egyptology, designates the kings of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt (fl. c. 1650–1550 BC). T ...

invasion of Egypt. __FORCETOC__

Chronological position

The 2nd line of the 11th column of 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 ...

reads ''Sekhem ..e'' and refers, according to Egyptologists

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 ...

and Darrell Baker, to Sekhemre Seusertawy, which is Sobekhotep VIII's nomen. If this identification is correct, then Sobekhotep VIII reigned for 16 years as the third king of the 16th Dynasty. This would make him the direct successor of Djehuti and the predecessor to

Neferhotep III Sekhemre Sankhtawy Neferhotep III Iykhernofret was the third or fourth ruler of the Theban 16th Dynasty, reigning after Sobekhotep VIII according to Egyptologists Kim Ryholt and Darrell Baker.Darrell D. Baker: The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: V ...

, although his relation to both of these kings remains unknown. In his reconstruction of the chronology of the

, Ryholt proposes that Sobekhotep VIII reigned from 1645 BC until 1629 BC, shortly after 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 com ...

took over 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 ...

and the city of

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

, thereby precipitating the collapse of the 13th Dynasty. In older studies by Egyptologists

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 ...

and

Labib Habachi Labib Habachi (لبيب حبشي) (April 18, 1906 – February 18, 1984) was an influential Coptic Egyptian Egyptologist. Dr Habachi spent 30 years in the Antiquities Department of the Egyptian Government, ending his career as Chief inspector. ...

, Sobekhotep VIII was considered to be a king of the 13th Dynasty.Labib Habachi: ''A high inundation in the temple of Amenre at Karnak in the thirteenth dynasty'', in: Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur. 1 (1974), p. 207–214 and 296.

Attestation

The only contemporary attestation of Sobekhotep VIII is a stela found inside the third pylon at

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. Constru ...

. This stela was used as construction material to fill the pylon during

Amenhotep III Amenhotep III ( egy, jmn-ḥtp(.w), ''Amānəḥūtpū'' , "Amun is Satisfied"; Hellenized as Amenophis III), also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent or Amenhotep the Great, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. According to different ...

's extensive works at the site. The stela is dated to the epagomenal, or final five days, of Sobekhotep VIII's fourth regnal year, and describes his attitude at a temple, probably that of Karnak, during a massive

Nile flood The flooding of the Nile has been an important natural cycle in Egypt since ancient times. It is celebrated by Egyptians as an annual holiday for two weeks starting August 15, known as ''Wafaa El-Nil''. It is also celebrated in the Coptic Church b ...

:Translation by John Baines in: ''The Inundation Stela of Sobekhotep VIII'', Acta Orientalia (1974), pp. 36, 39-54
Available online
/ref> According to Egyptologist John Baines, who studied the stela in detail, by coming to the temple as it was flooded, the king reenacted the Egyptian story of the creation of the world in imitating the actions of the creator god

Amun Amun (; also ''Amon'', ''Ammon'', ''Amen''; egy, jmn, reconstructed as ( Old Egyptian and early Middle Egyptian) → (later Middle Egyptian) → ( Late Egyptian), cop, Ⲁⲙⲟⲩⲛ, Amoun) romanized: ʾmn) was a major ancient Egypt ...

- Ra, to which the stela iconography closely associates the king, ordering the waters to recede from around the primordial mount.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sobekhotep 08 17th-century BC Pharaohs Pharaohs of the Sixteenth Dynasty of Egypt Pharaohs of the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt Pharaohs of the Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt