Sobekhotep IV.

Name of Sobekhotep IV.
Colossal statue of Sobekhotep IV; Louvre , Paris
Horus name	Ankh -ib-taui ˁnḫ-jb-t3.w (j) May the heart of the two countries live
Sideline	Wadj-chau W3ḏ-ḫˁw Fresh from appearances
Gold name	...- bau ...- b3w ... der Bas (souls)
Throne name	Cha-nefer-Re Ḫˁ-nfr-Rˁ The perfection of Re appears
Proper name	Sobekhotep Sbk ḥtp Sobek is satisfied
Royal Papyrus Turin (No. VI 27 throne and proper name in a cartouche)	Cha-nefer-Re-Sobek-hotep Ḫˁ-nfr-Rˁ-Sbk-ḥtp The perfection of Re appears, Sobek is satisfied
Greek at  Artapanos	Chenephres

Sobekhotep IV. Was an ancient Egyptian king ( Pharaoh ) of the 13th Dynasty ( Second Intermediate Period ), who lived from around 1733 to around 1724 BC. Or around 1694 to around 1685 BC Ruled. The 13th dynasty consists of a long line of rulers who only ruled briefly and who remained on the throne for only a few years on average. These often do not seem to have been related to each other. Sobekhotep IV is one of the few rulers who came from a family that had at least one other ruler. He was probably the most important ruler of the 13th Dynasty.

origin

This pharaoh was born in Thebes , as he reports on a stele from the Karnak temple . His father was the father of God Chaanchef and his mother a certain Kemi. The grandfather was a middle-class military man with the name Nehy and the title city ​​soldier (anx n nwt), whose wife was called Senebtisi. His brother, who ruled before him, was Neferhotep I. It is striking to what extent these two rulers emphasize their non-royal origins on the monuments. This is otherwise hardly known from ancient Egypt, Sobekhotep IV is known from the time before he became king. He appears in some of the inscriptions of his brother Neferhotep I near Aswan as the son of a king . Since the father of Sobekhotep IV was definitely not a ruler, this is good evidence that this designation was used as a title at that time and did not express a real relationship.

family

The ruler's well-known family consisted of his wife Tjan , his sons Sobekhotep Miu , Sobekhotep Djadja , Chaanchef and Amenhotep and his daughter Nebetiunet .

Regency

Sobekhotep IV was probably the most important ruler of the 13th dynasty. His highest known year of reign is the year 8, and he is probably the last ruler before the beginning of the New Kingdom to rule all of Egypt and Lower Nubia as well. Numerous scarabs of the ruler were found , which his parents name. In the British Museum in London there is a fragment of an inscription which perhaps tells of military campaigns to Lower Nubia, but the text and its interpretation is controversial. A private stele may also refer to this campaign and the Jewish writer Artapanos reports that this ruler moved to Nubia. He also mentions that parts of the delta rebelled under the ruler. After all, the story of Moses is said to have taken place under him .

Court

It is known of the ruler's court that the vizier Neferkare Iymeru built the house of millions of years for the ruler. This vizier is attested by numerous monuments . Treasurer was Senbi , who was already in office under Neferhotep I, and steward of a Nebanch , who led an expedition to the Wadi el-Hudi under the king. Nebanch comes from an important family that in the next generation was related to the royal family through Queen Nubchaes . A statue of the Great Chief Amenemhat, bearing the ruler's name, was found in Karnak . In general, there are relatively many objects from private persons from this time that bear the name of the ruler and thus prove his influence.

Construction activity

Two colossal statues found in Tanis are believed to have originated in Memphis. Another from Hutsneferu. Components from Abydos are evidence of his building activity there. Likewise, he probably expanded the Temple of Karnak and, according to an inscription on the statue of his vizier Iymeru Neferkare, lived in Thebes for a million years . A long inscription from Thebes reports donations to the Temple of Amnun and that the ruler came to Thebes from the north. This is considered to be important evidence that at that time the capital was still in the north of the country. Various expedition inscriptions in Wadi el-Hudi and in Wadi Hammamat tell of the procurement of raw materials. His grave was probably in Abydos.

After his time

If not under this ruler, then shortly afterwards the unity of the empire broke down. It is not known whether any of his sons succeeded him. After all, the successor of Sobekhotep IV is also called Sobekhotep.

See also

• List of pharaohs

literature

• Jürgen von Beckerath : Investigations into the political history of the second interim period in Egypt (= Egyptological research. Volume 23). Augustin, Glückstadt / New York 1964, pp. 57-58, 246-250 (XIII 24).
• Thomas Schneider : The Relative Chronology of the Middle Kingdom and the Hyksos Period (Dyns. 12-17). In: Erik Hornung, Rolf Krauss, David A. Warburton (eds.): Ancient Egyptian Chronology (= Handbook of Oriental studies. Section One. The Near and Middle East. Volume 83). Brill, Leiden / Boston 2006, ISBN 978-90-04-11385-5 , pp. 168-196 ( online ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dating from Thomas Schneider: Lexikon der Pharaonen. Artemis & Winkler, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-7608-1102-7 .
2. ^ Paris, Louvre, inventory A 16, A17 and Cairo, Egyptian Museum.
3. ↑ WM Flinders Petrie: Abydos. Volume I (= Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund. Volume 22). Egypt Exploration Fund, London 1902, pp. 29, 34, 41, plate LIX, 1. ( digitized ).
4. ↑ Inventory: Louvre A. 125.
5. ^ J. Wegner: A Royal Necropolis at Abydos. In: Near Eastern Archeology. Volume 78, No. 2, 2015, p. 70.

predecessor	Office	successor
Sahathor	Pharaoh of Egypt 13th Dynasty	Sobekhotep V.