S 10 (Abydos)

S 10 is the modern name given to a monumental ancient Egyptian tomb complex at Abydos in Egypt. The tomb is most likely royal and there are indications suggesting that the 13th Dynasty pharaoh Sobekhotep IV (around 1725 BC) was buried here.

Description

The tomb structure is part of a royal necropolis dating back to the late Middle Kingdom – Second Intermediate Period, which is located just next to the much bigger funerary complex of Senusret III of the 12th Dynasty, at the foothills of the so-called Mountain of Anubis.^[1][2] It was excavated in 1901-2 and was found heavily looted and disturbed. The complex consists of a rectangular brick walled structure, described by the excavators as a mastaba. At the north side there is an entrance to a system of underground and limestone paved corridors leading to the burial chamber that was found heavily destroyed. More recent excavations discovered fragments of a canopic jar, demonstrating that the tomb was once used.^[3] There is evidence that the tomb was already heavily looted in the Second Intermediate Period. A massive (60-ton) red quartzite sarcophagus quarried at El-Gabal el-Ahmar near the modern Cairo,^[4] most likely originally located in this tomb, was found in a later royal tomb in the same necropolis (CS6). The wooden planks of the coffin in the tomb were reused by king Senebkay for his own neighboring burial (CS9).^[2] The coffin was inscribed on the outside with Coffin Texts spells 777-785. Only few parts of the texts survived, but coffins with these spells are typical for the late Middle Kingdom at Abydos. On the fragments there appears the name of the king Sobekhotep.^[5]

Nothing was found of the superstructure, but it is possible that there was a pyramid on top.^[6] There were also found several fragments of a funerary stela. They were most likely reused in the tomb of king Senebkay, albeit no fragment was found in context. On the fragments of the stela appears again the name Sobekhotep.^[7]

Attribution

For a long time it was uncertain who was buried here. Excavations in 2003 and in 2014 made it very likely that the structure was once a royal tomb;^[8] In the latter date, during the excavation directed by Josef W. Wegner of the University of Pennsylvania, a fragment of a relief naming a king Sobekhotep was found in the complex. While in early press reports, published just after the discovery, king Sobekhotep I was named as owner of the tomb,^[9] further analisys now indicates that this might belong to Sobekhotep IV instead.^[2]

References