Sharek or Shalek could have been a poorly known
ancient Egyptian
pharaoh during the
Second Intermediate Period of Egypt
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 ...
.
Attestation
He is only attested on a non-contemporary document, a
genealogy of a priest named Ankhefensekhmet who lived at the end of the
22nd Dynasty
The Twenty-second Dynasty of Egypt is also known as the Bubastite Dynasty, since the pharaohs originally ruled from the city of Bubastis. It was founded by Shoshenq I.
The Twenty-first, Twenty-second, Twenty-third, Twenty-fourth, and Twenty-f ...
– thus several centuries after Sharek's supposed reign; perhaps for this reason, Danish
Egyptologist Kim Ryholt doubts his existence. On the document, Sharek is placed one generation before the well-known
Hyksos pharaoh
Apepi of 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 combin ...
.
[ The genealogy of Ankhefensekhmet is now exhibited at the Neues Museum in Berlin (inv. no. 23673).
]
Identification
Both Nicolas Grimal and William C. Hayes have proposed that Sharek should be identified with a king named Salitis, given as the founder of the Hyksos 15th Dynasty in Manetho
Manetho (; grc-koi, Μανέθων ''Manéthōn'', ''gen''.: Μανέθωνος) is believed to have been an Egyptian priest from Sebennytos ( cop, Ϫⲉⲙⲛⲟⲩϯ, translit=Čemnouti) who lived in the Ptolemaic Kingdom in the early third ...
's ''Aegyptiaca'', a history of Egypt written in the 2nd century BC.[, p. 59][, p. 185] They further propose that Sharek/Salitis is the same person as Sheshi, a ruler during Egypt's Second Intermediate Period mentioned on nearly 400 scarab seals.
References
17th-century BC Pharaohs
Pharaohs of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt
Second Intermediate Period of Egypt
People whose existence is disputed
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