| Sebkay | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sebekay, Sebekāi | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Closeup of the ivory wand showing the king's name. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pharaoh | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reign | uncertain date | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dynasty | 13th Dynasty | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sebkay (alternativelySebekay orSebekāi[1]) was anancient Egyptian king during theSecond Intermediate Period. For a long time his position created problems and he was most often placed into the13th Dynasty. However, the discovery of the tomb of a king with the nameSenebkay make it very likely that Sebkay is identical with the latter and the writing of the name Sebkay is just a misspelling of the name.[2]
Very little is known about him, since his name is attested only on a woodenbirth Tusk (wand) found atAbydos and now in theCairo Museum (CG 9433 / JE 34988).[3]
Since the discovery of the wand, severalEgyptologists have tried to identify this king with other rulers of the Second Intermediate Period.Stephen Quirke believed that “Sebkay” was a diminutive for “Sedjefakare”, which is thethrone name of Kay-Amenemhat,[4] whileJürgen von Beckerath considered the name a short form of thenomen “Sobekhotep” instead.[1]Thomas Schneider supports von Beckerath's hypothesis, specifying that the king Sobekhotep likely wasSobekhotep II.[5]
A more radical hypothesis came fromKim Ryholt, who suggested the reading "Seb's son Kay",de facto splitting the name "Seb-kay" in two different pharaohs and thus filling a gap in theTurin King List before Kay-Amenemhat. Furthermore, in this reconstruction the name of the last mentioned king should be considered apatronymic too, and must be read "Kay's son Amenemhat", thus setting a dynastic line consisting of three kings: Seb, his son Kay, and the latter's son Amenemhat. Ryholt's interpretation is considered daring and controversial by some egyptologists.[5]
In 2014, at Abydos, a team of archaeologists discovered the tomb of a previously unknown king of the Second Intermediate Period, calledSenebkay. It has been suggested that this ruler and Sebkay might be the same person.[6]
