Sobekemsaf II

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Relief of Sekhemre Wadjkhau Sobekemsaf at the Temple of Monthu (Medamud)
Relief of Sekhemre Wadjkhau Sobekemsaf at the Temple of Monthu (Medamud)

Sobekemsaf II Sekhemrewadjkhaw was a pharaoh of Egypt during the 17th Dynasty. He is attested by a series of inscriptions mentioning a mining expedition to the rock quarries at Wadi Hammamat in the Eastern Desert during his reign. One of the inscriptions is explicitly dated to his Year 7.[1] Sobekemsaf II's son--similarly named Sobekemsaf after his father--is attested in Cairo Statue CG 386 from Abydos which depicts this young prince standing between his father's legs.[2] Sobekemsaf's chief wife was Queen Nubemhet. He also restored and decorated the Temple of Monthu at Medamud where a fine relief of this king making an offering before the gods has survived.

A wooden canopic chest bearing the name 'Sobekemsaf' on it has been attributed to this king by two prominent Egyptologists, Aidan Dodson and Kim Ryholt because it is known that the tomb of Sekhemre Shedtawy Sobekemsaf I was sacked and destroyed by fire in antiquity by grave robbers. In contrast, "the damage suffered by Cat. 26 (ie: Sobekemsaf II's chest) is minor, consistent with what it might have suffered at the hands of Qurnawi dealers."[3] Dodson dates Sekhemre Wadjkhaw Sobekemsaf's reign after Djehuty and Intef VI because his canopic chest is slightly larger--4.1 cm longer and 3.4 cm higher--than the known canopic chests belonging to the latter two kings as well as the fact that the inscriptions on Sobekemsaf II's box were "written vertically, rather than in the horizontal arrangement found on those of Djehuty and Sekhemre Wepmaet [Intef VI]."[4] This suggests that Sobekemsaf II's ruled Egypt after these 2 kings.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Kim Ryholt, The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, Carsten Niebuhr Institute Publications," vol.20. (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1997) ISBN 87-7289-421-0, p.174
  2. ^ Ryholt, op. cit., p.272
  3. ^ Aidan Dodson, The Canopic Equipment of the Kings of Egypt, (Kegan Paul Intl: 1994), p.41
  4. ^ Dodson, op. cit., p.40
Preceded by
Intef VIII		 Pharaoh of Egypt
Seventeenth Dynasty		 Succeeded by
Senakhtenre Tao I
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