Semenkare Nebnuni
Semenkare Nebnuni (also Nebnun and Nebnennu) is a poorly attested pharaoh of the early 13th Dynasty during the Second Intermediate Period. He is mainly known for his position in the Turin King List.
| Semenkare Nebnuni | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nebnun, Nebnennu, Nebennu | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Nebnuni (right) offering to Ptah (left) on a stele from Gebel el-Zeit | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pharaoh | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reign | 1785-1783 BC (Ryholt)[1] or 1741 BC (Franke)[2] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Predecessor | Amenemhat VI (Ryholt) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Successor | Sehetepibre | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Dynasty | 13th Dynasty | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Attestation
Nebnuni's name is given in the Turin canon on column 7, line 11 (Gardiner col. 6, line 11). The length of Nebnuni's reign is mostly lost in a lacuna of the papyrus, except for the end "[...] and 22 days".[1][3]
The only contemporary attestation of Nebnuni is a faience stele showing the king before Ptah "South of his wall", a memphite epithet of the god, and on the other before Horus, "Lord of the foreign countries". The stele is also inscribed with Nebnuni's nomen and prenomen. The stele was discovered at Gebel el-Zeit on the Red Sea coast in the Sinai, where mines of galena were located.[4]
Reign
The Egyptologist Kim Ryholt credits Nebnuni with a reign of two years, from 1785 BC until 1783 BC. Alternatively, Egyptologists Rolf Krauss, Detlef Franke and Thomas Schneider give Nebuni only one year of reign in 1739 BC.[2] Although little is known of Nebnuni's reign, the existence of his stele shows that during this period, rulers of the 13th Dynasty still wielded sufficient power to organize mining expeditions in the Sinai for the supply of construction materials and the production of luxury items. Finally, Ryholt points to the lack of royal connections between Nebnuni and his predecessor. He thus concludes that Nebnuni may have usurped the throne.[1][3]
Theories
According to Egyptologists Darrell Baker and Kim Ryholt, Nebnuni was the ninth ruler of the 13th Dynasty.[1][3] Alternatively, Jürgen von Beckerath and Detlef Franke see him as the eighth king of the dynasty.[5][6][7]
See also
References
- 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, excerpts available online here.
- Thomas Schneider following Detlef Franke: Lexikon der Pharaonen, Albatros, Düsseldorf 2002, ISBN 3-491-96053-3
- 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, p. 245
- Georges Castel and Georges Soukiassian: Dépôt de stèles dans le sanctuaire du Nouvel Empire au Gebel Zeit, BIFAO 85 (1985), ISSN 0255-0962, p. 290, pl. 62
- Jürgen von Beckerath: Untersuchungen zur politischen Geschichte der Zweiten Zwischenzeit in Ägypten, Glückstadt, 1964
- Jürgen von Beckerath: Chronologie des pharaonischen Ägyptens, Münchner Ägyptologische Studien 46, Mainz am Rhein, 1997
- Thomas Schneider: Ancient Egyptian Chronology - Edited by Erik Hornung, Rolf Krauss, And David a. Warburton, available online, see p. 176