Userkare Khendjer was a minor king of the early

Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt The Thirteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty XIII) was a series of rulers from approximately 1803 BC until approximately 1649 BC, i.e. for 154 years. It is often classified as the final dynasty of the Middle Kingdom (which includes ...

during the Middle Kingdom.Baker, Darrell D.: The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume I - Predynastic to the Twentieth Dynasty 3300–1069 BC, Stacey International, , (2008), p. 181. Khendjer possibly reigned for four to five years, archaeological attestations show that he was on the throne for at least three or four years three months and five days. Khendjer had a small

pyramid A pyramid () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as trian ...

built for himself in Saqqara and it is therefore likely that his capital was in

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 * Mem ...

Reign

The highest attested date for Khendjer's reign is ''Year 5 IV Akhet day 15'' (

season of the Inundation The Season of the Inundation or Flood () was the first season of the lunar and civil Egyptian calendars. It fell after the intercalary month of Days over the Year ('). and before the Season of the Emergence ('). In the Coptic and Egyptian cal ...

). Kim Ryholt notes that two dated control notes on stone blocks from his unfinished pyramid complex give him a minimum reign of 3 or 4 years 3 months and 5 days. The aforementioned control notes are dated to ''Year 1 I Akhet day 10'' and ''Year 5 IV Akhet day 15'' of his reign. In these control notes, the names of three officials involved in building the pyramid are also identified. They are the ''Interior Overseer of the Inner Palace'', Senebtyfy , the ''Interior Overseer'' Ameny and the Interior Overseer, Craftsman, Shebenu . The latter is also attested by other sources.

Attestations

Saqqara Saqqara ( : saqqāra ), also spelled Sakkara or Saccara in English , is an Egyptian village in the markaz (county) of Badrashin in the Giza Governorate, that contains ancient burial grounds of Egyptian royalty, serving as the necropolis for ...

South, the

Pyramid of Khendjer The pyramid of Khendjer was a pyramid built for the burial of the 13th dynasty pharaoh Khendjer, who ruled Egypt c. 1760 BC during the Second Intermediate Period. The pyramid, which is part of larger complex comprising a mortuary temple, a chap ...

may have been completed as it was found with a

pyramidion A pyramidion (plural: pyramidia) is the capstone of an Egyptian pyramid or the upper section of an obelisk. Speakers of the Ancient Egyptian language referred to pyramidia as ''benbenet'' and associated the pyramid as a whole with the sacred b ...

during excavations by G. Jequier. There was found a fragment of a

canopic jar Canopic jars are funerary vessels that were used by the Ancient Egypt, ancient Egyptians to house embalmed organs that were removed during the mummification process. They also served to store and preserve the viscera of their soul for the afterl ...

, which offers a partial name for his queen, ''Seneb ...'' "which may be restored as Sonb

enas Enas or ENAS may refer to: * Enas & enas, a 2000 Greek language film * Ny-Ålesund Airport, Hamnerabben, Svalbard, Norway * Enas Al-Ghoul Enas Al-Ghoul () is a Palestinian agricultural engineer specializing in rural development and environmental ...

" There are also some notes and marks of people working at the pyramid. At Abydos, a

stela 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 ...

, belonging to a Controller of the Phyle Amenyseneb, record a building project by the king at the Temple of

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 ...

. On this stela the name Khendjer also appear along with the prenomen Nimaatre. Some have speculated that Khendjer had a second prenomen. However, it was also the prenomen of

Amenemhat III :''See Amenemhat, for other individuals with this name.'' Amenemhat III (Ancient Egyptian: ''Ỉmn-m-hꜣt'' meaning 'Amun is at the forefront'), also known as Amenemhet III, was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the sixth king of the Twelfth Dyn ...

. Amenyseneb is also associated by another stela with

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 ...

Ankhu Ankhu was an Egyptian vizier during the early 13th Dynasty in the late Middle Kingdom. He is believed to have resided in Thebes in Upper Egypt. Family Parentage Ankhu was the son of a vizier. Labib Habachi proposed that his father was t ...

. See also a double-sided stela of Amenyseneb. Another stela once in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

(destroyed in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

), provides the name of the king's son "''Khedjer''". He might be a son of the king. Other objects with his name, according to the list provided by Ryholt, include three cylinder-seals from

Athribis Athribis (; Greek: , from the original , ) was an ancient city in Lower Egypt. It is located in present-day Tell Atrib, just northeast of Benha on the hill of Kom Sidi Yusuf. The town lies around 40 km north of Cairo, on the eastern bank o ...

, a tile found near

el-Lisht Lisht or el-Lisht () is an Egyptian village located south of Cairo. It is the site of Middle Kingdom royal and elite burials, including two pyramids built by Amenemhat I and Senusret I. The two main pyramids were surrounded by smaller pyramids of ...

, scarab

seals Seals may refer to: * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, or "true seal" ** Fur seal * Seal (emblem), a device to impress an emblem, used as a means of a ...

and an axe blade.

Non-contemporary attestations

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 ...

column 7:20 mentions "Dual King Userkare Khendjer, x years ...". In this list Khendjer is between Sekhemre Khutawy Sobekhotep (7:19) and

Imyremeshaw Smenkhkare Imyremeshaw was a minor king of the early 13th Dynasty during the late Middle Kingdom. He apparently had a short reign and is mainly attested in the Memphis-Faiyum region in Egypt. Attestations Imyremeshaw is mainly attested in th ...

(7:21).

Theories

The name Khendjer is poorly attested in Egyptian. Khendjer "has been interpreted as a foreign name ''hnzr'' and equated with the Semitic personal name ''h(n)zr'', or"

boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a Suidae, suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The speci ...

" according to the Danish Egyptologist

Kim Ryholt Kim Steven Bardrum Ryholt (born 19 June 1970) is a Danish Egyptologist. He 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 F ...

. Ryholt, K.S.B.: ''The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, c.1800–1550 BC'', Carsten Niebuhr Institute Publications, 20. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, (1997). He notes that this identification is confirmed by the fact that the name ''h(n)zr'' is written as ''hzr'' in a variant spelling of this king's name on a seal from this king's reign. Ryholt states that the word 'boar' is: :attested as ''huzīru'' in Akkadian, ''hinzīr'' in Arabic, ''hazīrā'' in Aramaic, ''hazīr'' in Hebrew (the name is attested as ''hēzīr'' in I Chron. 24:15, Neh. 10:20) ''hu-zi-ri'' in the Nuzi texts, ''hnzr'' in Ugarit, and perhaps ''hi-zi-ri'' in Amorite. Khendjer could be, according to this theory, the earliest known Semitic king of a native Egyptian dynasty. Khendjer's

prenomen The praenomen (; plural: praenomina) was a first name chosen by the parents of a Ancient Rome, Roman child. It was first bestowed on the ''dies lustricus'' (day of lustration), the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the ...

or throne name, ''Userkare'', translates as "The Soul of Re is Powerful."

Chronological position

The exact chronological position of Khendjer in the Thirteenth Dynasty is not known for certain owing to uncertainties affecting earlier kings of the dynasty. Egyptologist Darrell Baker makes him the twenty-first king of the dynasty, Ryholt sees him as the twenty-second king and Jürgen von Beckerath places him as the seventeenth pharaoh of the dynasty. Furthermore, the identity of his predecessor is still debated: Baker and Ryholt believe it was

Wegaf Khutawyre Wegaf (or Ugaf) was a pharaoh of the early Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt in the late Middle Kingdom/Second Intermediate Period. He is known from several sources, including a stele and statues. In the Turin King List he is the first ruler ...

, but that pharaoh is confused with

Khaankhre Sobekhotep Khaankhre Sobekhotep was a minor king of the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period. His chronological position is much debated. In literature, Khaankhre Sobekhotep is known as Sobekhotep I. However, he is now believ ...

, so that it is not known which one of the two founded the Thirteenth Dynasty and which one was Khendjer's predecessor. Several absolute dates have been proposed for his reign, depending on the scholar: 1764—1759 BC as proposed by Ryholt and Baker, 1756—1751 BC as reported by Redford, and 1718—1712 BC as per Schneider.Thomas Schneider following

Detlef Franke Detlef Franke (24 November 1952 – 2 September 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 "''Altägyptische Ve ...

: ''Lexikon der Pharaonen''.

References

{{Authority control 18th-century BC pharaohs Pharaohs of the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt