Gemenefkhonsbak
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Shepseskare-irenre Gemenefkhonsbak was an
ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...
ian king of the Tanite 23rd Dynasty.


Evidence and interpretation

The evidence for King Gemenefkhonsubak comes almost entirely from inscriptions on blocs recovered from the ruins of Tanis. He was first recognized as a pharaoh by
Pierre Montet Jean Pierre Marie Montet (27 June 1885 – 19 June 1966) was a French Egyptologist. Biography Montet was born in Villefranche-sur-Saône, Rhône, and began his studies under Victor Loret at the University of Lyon. He excavated at Byblos i ...
, in his publication of inscribed blocs from the Sacred Lake of
Amun Amun was a major ancient Egyptian deity who appears as a member of the Hermopolitan Ogdoad. Amun was attested from the Old Kingdom together with his wife Amunet. His oracle in Siwa Oasis, located in Western Egypt near the Libyan Desert, r ...
at Tanis, although Serge Sauneron had already noticed his birth name on a stele.
Kenneth Kitchen Kenneth Anderson Kitchen (1932 – 6 February 2025) was a British biblical scholar, Ancient Near Eastern historian, and Personal and Brunner Professor Emeritus of Egyptology and honorary research fellow at the School of Archaeology, Classics and ...
placed Gemenefkhonsbak's reign at Tanis sometime in c. 700–680 BC, commenting that his date was "wholly uncertain." He also characterized Gemenefkhonsbak as a "kinglet," probably reigning before the King Pedubast who was contemporary with the Assyrian interventions (in c. 670–667 BC). Further consideration of the evidence from Tanis allowed the attribution of the Horus name Seankhtawy to Shepseskare-irenre Gemenefkhonsbak. This also makes it possible to assign him a probable wife, the King's Daughter and King's Wife Nebethetepetdiiau (''Nb.t-ḥtp.t-dj-jȝw''), and a daughter, the King's Daughter Khonsusaes (''Ḫnsw-sȝ.s''). Frédéric Payraudeau found the period between Year 6 of
Taharqa Taharqa, also spelled Taharka or Taharqo, Akkadian: ''Tar-qu-ú'', , Manetho's ''Tarakos'', Strabo's ''Tearco''), was a pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt and qore (king) of the Kingdom of Kush (present day Sudan) from 690 to 664 BC. ...
(in 685 BC) and the attestations of Pedubast III by the Assyrians (in 671–667 BC) the most likely time for the reign of Gemenefkhonsbak and possibly other local kings at Tanis. In subsequent studies, Meffre and Payraudeau placed the newly identified King Neferkare Pami II as the successor of
Osorkon IV Usermaatre Osorkon, designated Osorkon IV, was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh during the late Third Intermediate Period. Long considered the last king of the 22nd Dynasty, he was '' de facto'' little more than ruler in Tanis and Bubastis, in Lower ...
at Tanis, leaving Gemenefkhonsbak as his eventual successor (possibly following a period of interruption under the
Kushite The Kingdom of Kush (; Egyptian: 𓎡𓄿𓈙 𓈉 ''kꜣš'', Assyrian: ''Kûsi'', in LXX Χους or Αἰθιοπία; ''Ecōš''; ''Kūš''), also known as the Kushite Empire, or simply Kush, was an ancient kingdom in Nubia, centered a ...
25th Dynasty The Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XXV, alternatively 25th Dynasty or Dynasty 25), also known as the Nubian Dynasty, the Kushite Empire, the Black Pharaohs, or the Napatans, after their capital Napata, was the last dynasty of t ...
), and had Gemenefkhonsbak succeeded immediately or eventually by Pedubast III. While some scholars identify Pedubast III with Sehetepibre Pedubast, Payraudeau identifies the latter as Pedubast II at the start of the Tanite 23rd Dynasty on the basis of geopolitical and stylistic considerations. A king with the throne name Sekhemkare (sharing the Horus name Seankhtawy with Gemenefkhonsbak) is considered as possibly intervening between Gemenefkhonsbak and Pedubast III, but instead may have reigned at Athribis rather than Tanis.


Attestations

Few monuments bearing his name have been found. The better known among these is a
hieratic Hieratic (; ) is the name given to a cursive writing system used for Ancient Egyptian and the principal script used to write that language from its development in the third millennium BCE until the rise of Demotic in the mid-first millennium BCE ...
stele A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...
from Heliopolis and now in the
Museo Egizio The Museo Egizio () or Egyptian Museum is an archaeological museum in Turin, Italy, specializing in Art of Ancient Egypt, Egyptian archaeology and anthropology. It houses List of museums of Egyptian antiquities, one of the largest collections of ...
of
Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...
; on this stele, this king is depicted while spearing a foreigner who lies before
Osiris Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wikt:wsjr, wsjr'') was the ancient Egyptian deities, god of fertility, agriculture, the Ancient Egyptian religion#Afterlife, afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was ...
. According to
Miroslav Verner Miroslav Verner (born 31 October 1941) is a Czech egyptologist, who specializes in the history and archaeology of Ancient Egypt of the Old Kingdom and especially of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt. Verner is a specialist on the archaeology of the O ...
, a
scaraboid seal Scarabs are amulets and impression seals shaped according to the eponymous beetles, which were widely popular throughout ancient Egypt. They survive in large numbers today, and through their inscriptions and typology, these artifacts prove to be a ...
of unknown origin reading ''Shepeskare'', which
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. ...
attributed to pharaoh
Shepseskare Shepseskare or Shepseskara (Egyptian for "Noble is the Soul of Ra"; died 2458 BC) was an Ancient Egyptian king, the fourth or fifth ruler of the Fifth Dynasty (2494–2345 BC) during the Old Kingdom period. Shepseskare lived in the mid- 25th ...
of the 5th Dynasty at the beginning of the 20th century, may instead belong to Gemenefkhonsbak.Verner 2000: 582.


References


Bibliography

*Aston, David A. 2009, ''Burial Assemblages of Dynasty 21-25: Chronology—Typology—Developments'', Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenchaften. *Beckerath, Jürgen von 1999, ''Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen'', Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern. *Bonhême, Marie-Ange 1987, ''Les noms royaux dans l’Égypte de la troisième période intermédiaire'', Cairo. *Kitchen, Kenneth A. 1996, ''The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (1100–650 BC)'', 3rd ed., Warminster: Aris & Phillips. *Leprohon, Ronald J. 2013, ''The Great Name: Ancient Egyptian Royal Titulary'', Atlanta. *Meffre, Raphaëlle, and Frédéric Payraudeau 2018, "Enquête épigraphique, stylistique et historique sur les blocs du lac sacré de Mout à Tanis," ''Bulletin de la société française d'Égyptologie'' 199: 128-143. *Meffre, Raphaëlle, and Frédéric Payraudeau 2019, "Un nouveau roi à la fin de l’époque libyenne: Pami II," ''Revue d'égyptologie'' 69: 147-158. *Montet, Pierre 1952, ''Les énigmes de Tanis'', Paris. *Montet, Pierre 1966, ''Le lac sacré de Tanis'', Paris. *Payraudeau, Frédéric 2015, "La situation politique de Tanis sous la XXVeme Dynastie," in: P. Kousoulis, N. Lazaridis (eds.), ''Proceedings of the Tenth International Congress of Egyptologists, University of the Aegean, Rhodes, 22-29 May 2008'' (OLA 241), Louvain: 849-860. *Payraudeau, Frédéric 2020, ''L'Égypte et la vallée du Nil Tome 3: Les époques tardives (1069–332 av. J.-C.)'', Paris: Presses universitaires de France. *Sauneron, Serge 1962, "Une stèle «égarée» du roi Gemnefkhonsoubak," ''Chronique d'Égypte'' 37: 291-292. *Verner, Miroslav 2000, "Who was Shepseskara, and when did he reign?", in: Miroslav Bárta, Jaromír Krejčí (eds.), ''Abusir and Saqqara in the Year 2000'', Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Oriental Institute, Prague,
available online
. 8th-century BC pharaohs 7th-century BC pharaohs Non-dynastic pharaohs People of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt {{AncientEgypt-bio-stub