Sekhemre Sementawy Djehuty was a minor king reigning over parts of

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ', shortened to , , locally: ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the Nile River valley south of the delta and the 30th parallel North. It thus consists of the entire Nile River valley from Cairo south to Lake N ...

during the

Second Intermediate Period The Second Intermediate Period dates from 1700 to 1550 BC. It marks a period when ancient Egypt was divided into smaller dynasties for a second time, between the end of the Middle Kingdom and the start of the New Kingdom. The concept of a Secon ...

. Djehuty is thought to be listed in the first entry of the 11th column of the Turin canon, credited with a reign of 3 years. According to Egyptologists Kim Ryholt and Darrell Baker, he was succeeded by Sobekhotep VIII. He may have been the second king of the Theban 16th Dynasty Alternatively, he may be a king of the late 13th Dynasty or the fourth king of the 17th Dynasty.

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

: ''Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen'', Münchner ägyptologische Studien, Heft 49, Mainz : P. von Zabern, 1999, , see p. 126–127.

Family

Due to a cosmetic box with the names of Djehuti found in the tomb of Queen Mentuhotep, it has been speculated that she was his king's wife.

Attestations

Contemporary attestations

All of Djehuti's contemporary attestions come from a long stretch of the

Nile The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the List of river sy ...

valley from Deir el-Ballas in the north to

Edfu Edfu (, , , ; 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 60,000 people. Edfu is the site of the Ptolemaic Temple of H ...

in the south. This roughly corresponds to the territory in the sphere of influence of the rulers of the 16th dynasty. At Deir el-Ballas, nomen and prenomen of Djehuti are known from a single block discovered by

Flinders Petrie Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie ( – ), commonly known as simply Sir Flinders Petrie, was an English people, English Egyptology, Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and the preservation of artefacts. ...

. At Edfu, a painted block bearing Djehuti's cartouche and showing him wearing the red crown of

Lower Egypt Lower Egypt ( ') 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, the Nile River split into sev ...

was uncovered. At Thebes, Djehuti is indirectly attested by objects from the burial of Queen Mentuhotep at Dra Abu el-Naga. This tomb was found intact in 1822 and her (now lost) coffin was inscribed with one of the earliest cases of the texts from the

Book of the Dead The ''Book of the Dead'' is the name given to an Ancient Egyptian funerary texts, ancient Egyptian funerary text generally written on papyrus and used from the beginning of the New Kingdom of Egypt, New Kingdom (around 1550 BC) to around 50 BC ...

. Mentuhotep's cosmetic box bears Djehuti's nomen, prenomen and cartouche together with funerary formulae and an inscription revealing that the box was a gift from the king.

Non-contemporary attestations

The Karnak King List #8 (1) mentions Sekhemre Sementawy (sḫm-rꜤ smn-tꜢwi), between a lost cartouce #7 (2) and another lost cartouche 9 (16). 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 (r. 1279–1213 BC), now in the Museo Egizio (Egyptian Museum) in Turin. The papyrus is the m ...

does not directly mention Djehuty, but there are several partial entries starting with Sekhemre. Thus he is sometimes associated with Turin King List 11:1.

Theories

Burial

It has been suggested that the unattributed Southern South Saqqara pyramid may have been built for Djehuti. This hypothesis is based on a fragmentary inscription found within the pyramid and reading "Weserkha...", a possible reference to ''Weserkhau'' i.e. Djehuti's Golden Horus name.

Christoffer Theis Christopher is the English version of a Europe-wide name derived from the Greek name Χριστόφορος (''Christophoros'' or '' Christoforos''). The constituent parts are Χριστός (''Christós''), "Christ" or "Anointed", and φέρει ...

, "Zum Eigentümer der Pyramide Lepsius XLVI / SAK S 6 im Süden von Sakkara", '' Göttinger Miszellen'' 218 (2008), pp. 101–105 This pyramid is in the Memphis-Faiyum region, while Djehuty is mainly attested in the Thebaid region.

Chronology

Djehuti's dynasty remains debated. Indeed, on this point, the Turin Canon is open to interpretations. There are several kings recorded with the name "Sekhemre .. and the damage to the original document does not preserve the complete name. As a result, Djehuti, named Sekhemre Sementawy, may in principle correspond to any "Sekhemre .. preserved on the king list, i.e. may be a ruler of the 13th, 16th and even 17th Dynasty. The Egyptologists Darrell Baker and Kim Ryholt believe that he was part of the 16th Dynasty, which controlled the Theban region after 1650 BC. Alternatively, two studies by Claude Vandersleyen and Christina Geisen date Djehuti's reign to the very end of the Memphite 13th Dynasty. Geisen's datation relies on stylistic considerations of his queen's coffin, which however, Stephen Quirke argues, uses unproven assumptions. An older theory of

, whose conclusions are shared by Hans Stock, contends that Djehuti was a ruler of the early 17th Dynasty, which arose in

after the collapse of 16th Dynasty following the short-lived

Hyksos The Hyksos (; Egyptian language, Egyptian ''wikt:ḥqꜣ, ḥqꜣ(w)-wikt:ḫꜣst, ḫꜣswt'', Egyptological pronunciation: ''heqau khasut'', "ruler(s) of foreign lands"), in modern Egyptology, are the kings of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt ( ...

conquest of Thebes. This theory is supported by the discovery of the tomb of Djehuti's queen, Mentuhotep, which is located in Dra' Abu el-Naga', a necropolis usually associated with the 17th Dynasty. Scholars such as Chris Bennett however, point out that this does not necessarily mean that Djehuti was buried in Dra' Abu el-Naga' as well.Christina Geisen, Zur zeitlichen Einordnung des Königs Djehuti an das Ende der 13. Dynastie, Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur, Bd. 32, (2004), pp. 149-157

Relationships

Some Egyptologists proposed that Djehuti was married to a granddaughter of the

vizier A vizier (; ; ) is a high-ranking political advisor or Minister (government), minister in the Near East. The Abbasids, Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was at first merely a help ...

Ibiaw who served under the 13th Dynasty king

Wahibre Ibiau Wahibre Ibiau was an ancient Egyptian petty king, perhaps of the 13th Dynasty, during the Second Intermediate Period of Egypt, Second Intermediate Period. He may have reigned for about 10 years according to the Turin King List. Reign Despite a r ...

c. 1712–1701 BC, and was thus most likely two generations removed from this king. In more recent times, however, it was pointed out that the link between Ibiaw and Djehuti's consort Mentuhotep is still unproven and that the proposed temporal correlation between Wahibre Ibiau and Djehuti remains conjectural.W. Grajetzki, ''Court Officials of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom'', London 2009, p. 40.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Djehuti, Sekhemresementawy 17th-century BC pharaohs Pharaohs of the Sixteenth Dynasty of Egypt