Sekhemkare

See Amenemhat, for other individuals with this name.

Amenemhat V
Statue of Amenemhat V, from Elephantine.
Pharaoh
Reign	1796 – 1793 BC (Ryholt) 1746 – 1743 BC (Franke)
Predecessor	Nerikare (Ryholt) Pantjeny (Beckerath)
Successor	Ameny Qemau (Ryholt) Sehotepibre (Beckerath)
Royal titulary Prenomen  (Praenomen) Sekhemkare Sḫm-k3-Rˁ Mighty is the Ka of Ra Nomen Amenemhat Jmn m ḥ3.t Amun is in front Turin canon: Amenemhat Jmn m ḥ3.t Amun is in front
Children	possibly Ameny Qemau[1]
Dynasty	13th Dynasty

Sekhemkare Amenemhat V was an Egyptian pharaoh of the early 13th Dynasty during the Second Intermediate Period.

The identity of Amenemhat V is debated by a minority of Egyptologists, as he could be the same person as Sekhemkare Amenemhat Sonbef, the second ruler of the 13th Dynasty. According to Egyptologists Kim Ryholt and Darrell Baker, he was the 4th king of the dynasty, reigning from 1796 BC until 1793 BC.[1][2]

Attestations

Elephantine, Statue

Amenemhat V is attested by a single artefact contemporaneous with his lifetime, a statue of him from Elephantine, originally set up in the Temple of Satet and inscribed with the following dedication:

The good god, lord of the two lands, lord of the ceremonies, the king of Upper and Lower Egypt Sekhemkare, the son of Ra Amenemhat, beloved of Satet, lady of Elephantine, may he live for ever.

The head and arms of the statue were discovered in the 19th century in the ruins of a temple built to honor a nomarch named Heqaib and are in Kunsthistorisches Museum Inv. 37 in Vienna.[3] The body of the statue bearing the above inscription was discovered in the year 1932 and is now in the Aswan Museum.[1][2]

Lahun, Legal document

At Lahun, the name "Sekhemkare" is attested from a legal document, dating to year 3, some months and days.[4]

Non-Contemporary Attestations

Amenemhat V is attested on column 7, line 7 of the Turin canon, which credits him with a reign of three to four years.

Theories

There is a debate between Egyptologists as whether Sekhemkare Amenemhat V is the same king as Sekhemkare Sonbef, whom Kim Ryholt, Jürgen von Beckerath and Darrell Baker see as the 2nd ruler of the 13th Dynasty. Indeed, Sonbef called himself "Amenemhat Sonbef", which Ryholt argues must be understood as "Amenemhat [Sa] Sonbef", The Son of Amenemhat Sonbef, i.e. Sonbef would be the son of Amenemhat IV. In particular, they see Sonbef and Amenemhat V as two different rulers.[1][2][5][6] Ryholt and Baker further posit that Sonbef's and Amenemhat's rules were separated by the ephemeral reign of Nerikare, while von Beckerath believes it was Sekhemre Khutawy Pantjeny who reigned between the two.[5][6] At the opposite Detlef Franke and Stephen Quirke believe that the "Amenemhat" in Sonbef's title is part of his name and identifies him as Amenemhat V, thus seeing the two kings as one and the same person.[7][8] In other terms, Franke and others regard "Amenemhat Sonbef" as a double name. Indeed, double naming was common in Egypt and especially in the late 12th and 13th Dynasty.[9]

See also

• List of Pharaohs

References

1. K.S.B. Ryholt, The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, c. 1800-1550 BC, (Carsten Niebuhr Institute Publications,, vol. 20. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1997), 336-337, file 13/2 and 13/4.
2. Darrell D. Baker: The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume I - Predynastic to the Twentieth Dynasty 3300–1069 BC, Stacey International, ISBN 978-1-905299-37-9, 2008
3. Kunsthistorisches Museum Inv. 37
4. Petrie, Flinders (1898). Hieratic papyri from Kahun and Gurob : (principally of the Middle Kingdom). Quaritch. pp. 19–22, pl. IX.
5. Jürgen von Beckerath: Untersuchungen zur politischen Geschichte der Zweiten Zwischenzeit in Ägypten, Glückstadt, 1964
6. Jürgen von Beckerath: Chronologie des pharaonischen Ägyptens, Münchner Ägyptologische Studien 46. Mainz am Rhein, 1997
7. Detlef Franke: Zur Chronologie des Mittleren Reiches (12.-18. Dynastie) Teil 1 : Die 12. Dynastie, in Orientalia 57 (1988)
8. New arrangement of the 13th Dynasty, on digital Egypt.
9. Stephen Quirke: In the Name of the King: on Late Middle Kingdom Cylinders, in: Timelines, Studies in Honour of Manfred Bietak, Leuven, Paris, Dudley, MA. ISBN 90-429-1730-X, 263-64

Preceded by Nerikare

Pharaoh of Egypt Thirteenth Dynasty

Succeeded by Ameny Qemau