Sened

Name of Sened
Sened's name in Cartouche No. 13 of the Abydos King List
Proper name	Sened Snd The Feared Nisutsened (Nisut sened) Nsw.t snd The feared king
Royal Papyrus Turin (No. II, 24)	Sened Snḏ
List of Kings of Abydos (Seti I) (No.13)	Senedj Sndj The Feared
Saqqara King List (No.7)	Sened Snḏ

Sened is the proper name of an ancient Egyptian king ( Pharaoh ) who ruled during the 2nd Dynasty . Since his name is not documented at the time, Egyptology and archeology discuss his historical identity . The exact duration of his reign is unknown, the royal papyrus Turin certifies a reign of 70 years, the Greek historian Manetho names the ruler Sethénes and notes in his Aegyptiaca a duration of 41 years.

Name receipts

Cartouche name of Sened in the list of kings of Saqqara

Bronze statuette of Sened with his cartouche name on the reverse

The earliest mention of Sened's name comes from the early 4th Dynasty . In the mastaba of the high official Scheri in Saqqara there is a false door which gives the name of Sened and the name of King Peribsen in cartouches in one sentence. According to the inscription, Scheri was "Head of the Wab priest of Peribsen in the necropolis of Sened, at its mortuary temple and all other seats". The fact that Sened and Peribsen's names were written in cartouches is strictly an anachronism , since cartouches were only introduced under King Huni during the 3rd Dynasty . Other priests who performed the funeral service for Sened in Scheri's time were Inkef and Sij .

Sened's name can also be found in all known Ramesside king lists such as the King List of Abydos , the King List of Saqqara and the King Papyrus Turin. He is presented there unanimously as the successor to the name " Wadjenes ".

The ruler is also mentioned in the medical papyrus P. Berlin 3038 as the mythical previous owner of the “vessel book”. This statement is not historically verifiable, presumably it was only intended to underpin the credibility of certain, traditional treatment methods.

From the 26th Dynasty , a small native bronze - statuette in the shape of a kneeling king who sacrifices an imaginary deity (see figure). The figurine wears the white crown of the south and holds an incense burner in her hands. She also wears a strap with the Sened's cartridge name engraved on the back.

Archaeologist Peter Munro reports on the discovery of a clay seal, the inscription of which is said to contain the cartouche name Nefer-Senedj-Ra . Munro interprets this as the name version of Sened. However, since this find has not yet been published, further investigations are not possible.

identity

Sened's Horus name is unknown. Jürgen von Beckerath , and Hermann A. Schlögl suspect that Sened was identical to King Peribsen. IES Edwards , Dietrich Wildung , Wolfgang Helck and Toby Wilkinson, however, see Sened and Peribsen as two separate rulers. In their opinion, the false door inscription of the Scheri suggests that Sened donated a statue or a shrine to his predecessor or opposing king Peribsen . They also refer to clay seals of King Sechemib-Perenmaat , which were found in the entrance area of ​​Peribsen's grave and indicate that Sechemib had his predecessor Peribsen buried.

dig

Toby Wilkinson suspects Sened's grave in Saqqara, which he justifies with the location of Scheris Mastaba, since priests of the dead in ancient Egypt were generally buried not far from their place of work. He regards the galleries in the western massif of the Djoser complex in Saqqara as a possible final resting place of the Sened.

literature

• Jürgen von Beckerath : Handbook of the Egyptian king names . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin, ISBN 3-422-00832-2
• IES Edwards (ed.): Early history of the middle east (= The Cambridge ancient history. Vol. 1-2). 2 volumes = 3 parts. 3rd edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1970, ISBN 0-521-07791-5 .
• Wolfgang Helck , Eberhard Otto: Lexicon of Egyptology. Volume 5. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1984, ISBN 3447024895 .
• Jochem Kahl : Inscriptional Evidence for the Relative Chronology of Dyn. 0-2. 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. 94-115 ( online ).
• Werner Kaiser : On the mention of Sened and Peribsen in Saqqara. In: Göttinger Miszellen (GM) Vol. 122 , Ägyptologisches Seminar der Universität Göttingen, Göttingen 1991, ISSN  0344-385X .
• F. Tiradritti: Luigi Vassalli and the Archaeological Season at Western Thebes (1862-3) . In: M. Marée: The Second Intermediate Period (Thirteenth-Seventeens Dynasties), Current Research, Future Prospects. Leuven, Paris / Walpole MA 2010, ISBN 978-90-429-2228-0 .
• Wolfgang Helck : Investigations on the Thinite Age (= Ägyptologische Abhandlungen. (ÄA) Vol. 45). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1987, ISBN 3-447-02677-4 .
• William Gillian Waddell: Manetho (= The Loeb Classical Library. Vol. 350). Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.) 2004 (Reprint), ISBN 0-674-99385-3 .
• Dietrich Wildung : The role of Egyptian kings in the consciousness of their posterity (= Munich Egyptological studies. Vol. 17). Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 1969.
• Toby Wilkinson: Early Dynastic Egypt - Strategy, Society and Security . Routledge, London / New York 1999, ISBN 0-415-18633-1 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Alan H. Gardiner: The Royal Canon of Turin . Griffith Institute of Oxford, Oxford (UK) 1997, ISBN 0-900416-48-3 , p. 15 & Table I.
2. ^ William Gillian Waddell: Manetho. Cambridge (Mass.) 2004, pp. 37-41.
3. ^ To: Eduard Meyer : Aegyptische Chronologie (= philosophical and historical treatises of the Royal Academy of Sciences. 1904, 1, ZDB -ID 955708-8 ). Publishing house of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Berlin 1904, plate I., cartouche no.7.
4. ↑ see Dietrich Wildung: The role of Egyptian kings in the consciousness of their posterity. Munich / Berlin 1969, p. 45, plate IV.
5. ↑ ^{a b c d} Dietrich Wildung: The role of Egyptian kings in the consciousness of their posterity. Munich / Berlin 1969, pp. 44-47.
6. ↑ Auguste Mariette: Les mastabas de l'Ancien Empire. Paris 1885, pp. 92-94.
7. ↑ Werner Kaiser: On the naming of Sened and Peribsen in Saqqara. Göttingen 1991, pp. 49-55.
8. ^ Wolfgang Helck, Eberhard Otto: Lexikon der Ägyptologie. Wiesbaden 1984, p. 487.
9. ↑ ^{a b} Wolfgang Helck: Investigations on the thinite age. Wiesbaden 1987, pp. 103-106.
10. ^ Peter Munro: Nefer-Senedj-Ra. In: Orientalia. Volume 57, 1988, p. 330.
11. ^ Hermann A. Schlögl : The Old Egypt (= Beck'sche series 2305 CH Beck Knowledge ). Beck, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-406-48005-5 , pp. 77 & 78.
12. ^ ^{A b} Toby AH Wilkinson: Early Dynastic Egypt. Routledge, London et al. 2001, ISBN 0-415-26011-6 , pp. 88-89.

predecessor	Office	successor
Wadjenes	King of Egypt 2nd Dynasty	Peribs ? Neferkare I. ?