| Khendjer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Khenzer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Upper part of a statue of Khendjer from his pyramid complex.Cairo Egyptian Museum, JE 53368 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pharaoh | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reign | Five years starting in 1764, 1756 or 1718 BC | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Predecessor | Wegaf (most likely[1]) orKhaankhre Sobekhotep | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Successor | Imyremeshaw | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Consort | Sonb[henas] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Burial | Saqqara South,Pyramid of Khendjer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dynasty | Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Userkare Khendjer was a minor king of the earlyThirteenth Dynasty of Egypt during theMiddle Kingdom.[2] Khendjer possibly reigned for four to five years, archaeological attestations show that he was on the throne for at least three or four years three months and five days. Khendjer had a smallpyramid built for himself in Saqqara and it is therefore likely that his capital was inMemphis.
The highest attested date for Khendjer's reign isYear 5 IV Akhet day 15 (season of the Inundation). Kim Ryholt notes that two dated control notes on stone blocks from his unfinished pyramid complex give him a minimum reign of3 or 4 years 3 months and 5 days.[3] The aforementioned control notes are dated toYear 1 I Akhet day 10 andYear 5 IV Akhet day 15 of his reign.[4] In these control notes, the names of three officials involved in building the pyramid are also identified. They are theInterior Overseer of the Inner Palace, Senebtyfy {jmj-rꜣ ꜥẖnwtj (n) kꜣp snb.tj⸗fj}, theInterior Overseer Ameny {jmj-rꜣ ꜥẖnwtj jmnjj} and the Interior Overseer, Craftsman, Shebenu {jmj-rꜣ ꜥẖnwtj; ḫrp ḥmww šbnw}.[5] The latter is also attested by other sources.[6]
AtSaqqara South, thePyramid of Khendjer may have been completed as it was found with apyramidion during excavations by G. Jequier.[7] There was found a fragment of acanopic jar, which offers a partial name for his queen,Seneb ... "which may be restored as Sonb[henas]."[8] There are also some notes and marks of people working at the pyramid.[9]
AtAbydos, astela, belonging to a Controller of the PhyleAmenyseneb, record a building project by the king at the Temple ofOsiris.[10][11][12] On this stela the name Khendjer also appear along with the prenomen Nimaatre. Some have speculated that Khendjer had a second prenomen.[13] However, it was also the prenomen ofAmenemhat III. Amenyseneb is also associated by another stela withvizierAnkhu.[14] See also a double-sided stela of Amenyseneb.[15]
Another stela once inLiverpool (destroyed inWorld War II), provides the name of the king's son "Khedjer". He might be a son of the king.[16] Other objects with his name, according to the list provided by Ryholt, include threecylinder-seals fromAthribis, a tile found nearel-Lisht,scarabseals and an axe blade.
TheTurin King List column 7:20 mentions "Dual King Userkare Khendjer, x years ...".[17] In this list Khendjer is betweenSekhemre Khutawy Sobekhotep (7:19) andImyremeshaw (7:21).
The name Khendjer is poorly attested in Egyptian.[18] Khendjer "has been interpreted as a foreign namehnzr and equated with the Semitic personal nameh(n)zr, [for] "boar" according to the Danish EgyptologistKim Ryholt.[1] He notes that this identification is confirmed by the fact that the nameh(n)zr is written ashzr in a variant spelling of this king's name on a seal from this king's reign.[19] Ryholt states that the word 'boar' is:
Khendjer could be, according to this theory, the earliest knownSemitic king of a native Egyptian dynasty. Khendjer'sprenomen or throne name,Userkare, translates as "The Soul of Re is Powerful."[20]
The exact chronological position of Khendjer in the Thirteenth Dynasty is not known for certain owing to uncertainties affecting earlier kings of the dynasty.
Egyptologist Darrell Baker makes him the twenty-first king of the dynasty, Ryholt sees him as the twenty-second king and Jürgen von Beckerath places him as the seventeenth pharaoh of the dynasty. Furthermore, the identity of his predecessor is still debated: Baker and Ryholt believe it wasWegaf, but that pharaoh is confused withKhaankhre Sobekhotep, so that it is not known which one of the two founded the Thirteenth Dynasty and which one was Khendjer's predecessor.[1][2]
Several absolute dates have been proposed for his reign, depending on the scholar: 1764—1759 BC as proposed by Ryholt and Baker,[1] 1756—1751 BC as reported by Redford,[21] and 1718—1712 BC as per Schneider.[22]
Media related toKhendjer at Wikimedia Commons
| Preceded by | Pharaoh of Egypt Thirteenth Dynasty | Succeeded by |
