Abydos Dynasty
c. 1650 BC–c. 1600 BC
Map of Egypt during the Fifteenth, Abydos, and Sixteenth Dynasties
Capital	Abydos
Common languages	Egyptian language
Religion	Ancient Egyptian religion
Government	Absolute monarchy
Historical era	Bronze Age
• Established	c. 1650 BC
• Disestablished	c. 1600 BC
Preceded by Succeeded by Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt Fourteenth Dynasty of Egypt Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt

TheAbydos Dynasty is hypothesized to have been a short-lived localdynasty ruling over parts of Middle andUpper Egypt during theSecond Intermediate Period inAncient Egypt. The Abydos Dynasty would have been contemporaneous with theFifteenth andSixteenth Dynasties, from approximately 1650 to 1600 BC.^[1] It would have been based in or aroundAbydos and its royalnecropolis might have been located at the foot of theMountain of Anubis, a hill resembling a pyramid in the Abydene desert, close to a rock-cut tomb built for pharaohSenusret III.

The existence of an Abydos Dynasty was first proposed byDetlef Franke^[2] and later elaborated on byKim Ryholt in 1997. Ryholt observes that two attested kings of this period,Wepwawetemsaf (Wepwawet is his protection) andPantjeny (He of Thinis), bore names in connection withAbydos: Wepwawet being an important Abydene god andThinis being a prominent city, located a few miles north of Abydos. Additionally, Wepwawetemsaf, Pantjeny andSnaaib, another king of the period, are each known from singlestelae discovered in Abydos, which could be a sign that this was their seat of power.^[3] Finally, Ryholt argues that the existence of an Abydos Dynasty would explain 16 entries of the Turin canon at the end of the16th Dynasty. The Abydos Dynasty may have come into existence in the time lapse between the fall of the13th Dynasty with the conquest of Memphis by theHyksos and the southward progression of the Hyksos toThebes.^[3]

The existence of the dynasty may have been vindicated in January 2014, when the tomb (CS9) of the previously unknownpharaohSenebkay was discovered in the southern part of Abydos, an area called "Anubis Mountain" in ancient times. If Senebkay indeed belongs to the Abydos Dynasty, his tomb might signal the royal necropolis of this dynasty, adjacent to the tombs of theMiddle Kingdom rulers.^[1] Since then, excavations have revealed no less than eight anonymous royal tombs dating to the Second Intermediate Period similar in style and size to Senebkay's burial, includingTomb CS4, as well as two tombs, possibly pyramids, dating to the mid 13th-Dynasty,S9 andS10, which may belong toNeferhotep I and his brotherSobekhotep IV.^[4] In 2025, the discovery of another royal tomb at the "Anubis Mountain" was announced; this tomb was a little older than Senebkay's but much larger. However, the occupant's name had not yet been found in the heavily damaged structure, possibly due to the action of tomb robbers.^[5] The excavators linked the tomb to the early Abydos Dynasty, and believe that the tomb belongs to a predecessor to Senebkay because the tomb was built in a section of the necropolis that the researchers believe was established earlier in time.^[6]

The existence of an Abydos Dynasty is not agreed by all scholars. For example, Marcel Marėe observes that a workshop operating from Abydos and producing stelae for two kings associated with the Abydos Dynasty,Pantjeny and Wepwawetemsaf, also likely produced the stela ofRahotep of the17th Dynasty. Thus if the Abydos Dynasty did exist, this workshop would have been producing stelae for two enemy dynasties, something which he judges to be rather unlikely.^[7] It remains unclear, however, whether these two dynasties coexisted at any one time: for instance, in Ryholt's reconstruction of the Second Intermediate Period, they are separated by c. 20 years.^[3]

Countering the argument in favor of the Abydos Dynasty based on the tomb of Senebkay, Alexander Ilin-Tomich argues that certain Middle Kingdom pharaohs, such asSenusret III andSobekhotep IV, also have their tombs at Abydos, yet nobody places these kings into an Abydos-based dynasty. Instead, he wonders whether Senebkay might be a king of theTheban16th Dynasty.^[8]

If the Abydos Dynasty was indeed a dynasty, the seat of its power would probably have been either Abydos orThinis. A possiblegraffito of Wepwawetemsaf was discovered byKarl Richard Lepsius in the tomb BH2 of the12th DynastynomarchAmenemhat atBeni Hasan, about 250 km North of Abydos, inMiddle Egypt. If the attribution of this graffito is correct and if Wepwawetemsaf did belong to the Abydos Dynasty, then its territory might have extended that far north.^[3] Since the dynasty was contemporaneous with the 16th Dynasty, the territory under Abydene control could not have extended farther thanHu, 50 km south of Abydos.^[3]

The following 16 entries of theTurin canon are attributed to the Abydos Dynasty by Kim Ryholt:^[3]

Some of the above rulers may identify with the four attested kings tentatively attributable to the Abydos Dynasty, given here without regard for their (unknown) chronological order:

Pharaohs of the Abydos Dynasty

Name of king	Image	Comment
Sekhemraneferkhau Wepwawetemsaf		May belong to the late16th Dynasty[7]
Sekhemrekhutawy Pantjeny		May belong to the late 16th Dynasty[7]
Menkhaure Snaaib		May belong to the late13th Dynasty[9][10][11]
Woseribre Senebkay		Perhaps identifiable with a Woser[...]re of the Turin canon
Khuiqer		Uncertain date and period of reign, attributed byDetlef Franke to the Abydos Dynasty[12]

• Reid, Donald Malcolm (2003).Whose Pharaohs? Archaeology, Museums, and Egyptian National Identity from Napoleon to World War I. University of California Press.ISBN 9780520240698.

• Abydos Dynasty
• States and territories established in the 17th century BC
• States and territories disestablished in the 16th century BC
• Dynasties of ancient Egypt
• Abydos, Egypt
• 17th century BC in Egypt
• Pharaohs of the Abydos Dynasty
• Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt
• Sixteenth Dynasty of Egypt
• 17th-century BC establishments in Egypt
• 2nd-millennium BC disestablishments in Egypt
• 2nd millennium BC in Egypt

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