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| Wepwawetemsaf | |
|---|---|
| Apuatemsaf, Oupouaout, Upwautemsaf, Wepwawemsaf | |
![Stele of Wepwawetemsaf, drawing made in 1913 by Wallis Budge[1]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWepwawetemsaf.png) Stele of Wepwawetemsaf, drawing made in 1913 byWallis Budge[1] | |
| Pharaoh | |
| Reign | Uncertain, 17th century BCE |
| Dynasty | possibly theAbydos Dynasty, the late13th Dynasty[2] or the late16th Dynasty.[3] |
Sekhemraneferkhau Wepwawetemsaf was anEgyptianpharaoh during theSecond Intermediate Period.
According to the EgyptologistsKim Ryholt and Darrell Baker, he was a king of theAbydos Dynasty, although they leave his position within this dynasty undetermined.[4][5] Alternatively, the EgyptologistJürgen von Beckerath sees Wepwawetemsaf as a king of the late13th Dynasty, while Marcel Marée proposes that he was a king of the late16th Dynasty.[3][6]
The only contemporaneous attestation of Wepwawetemsaf's reign is alimestonestele "of exceptionally crude quality"[5]: 163 discovered inAbydos and now in theBritish Museum (EA 969).[7][8] The stele shows the king before the god "Wepwawet, lord of Abydos" and is generally described as of poor workmanship.[4] The stele was produced by a workshop operating in Abydos. Other steles produced by this workshop belong to kingRahotep and kingPantjeny. The Egyptologist Marcel Marée therefore concludes that these three kings reigned quite close in time. He believes that the stele of Pantjeny was made by a different artist, while the steles of Rahotep and Wepwawetemsaf were carved by the same man. He argues that Wepwawetemsaf reigned directly after king Rahotep. He does not assign single kings to specific dynasties, but comes to the conclusion that these kings belong to the late 16th or very early 17th Dynasty.[3]
Another possible attestation of this king is agraffito discovered in tomb no. 2 atBeni Hasan belonging to the12th DynastynomarchAmenemhat and located about 250 km north of Abydos, inMiddle Egypt. The graffito has been tentatively read by Beckerath as "Sekhemreneferkhau" but this remains uncertain as the original is now lost.[4][5][9]
In his study of the Second Intermediate Period, Kim Ryholt elaborates on the idea originally proposed byDetlef Franke that following the collapse of the 13th Dynasty with the conquest ofMemphis by theHyksos, an independent kingdom centered on Abydos arose in Middle Egypt.[11] TheAbydos Dynasty thus designates a group of local kinglets reigning for a short time in central Egypt. Ryholt notes that Wepwawetemsaf is only attested in central Egypt and that his name comprises thetheophoric reference to the Abydene god Wepwawet. Thus he concludes that Wepwawetemsaf most likely ruled from Abydos and belongs to the Abydos Dynasty.[5] This conclusion is shared by Darrell Baker but not by Beckerath, who places Wepwawetemsaf in the late 13th Dynasty.[6]
The Egyptologist Marcel Marée also rejects Ryholt's hypothesis and instead holds that Wepwawetemsaf is a king of the late 16th Dynasty. Indeed, Marée notes that the workshop which produced Wepwawetemsaf's stele is also responsible for the production of the steles of Pantjeny and Rahotep, the latter most often assigned to the early17th Dynasty. Marée therefore concludes that Rahotep, Pantjeny and Wepwawetemsaf reigned quite close in time. This reasoning also precludes the existence of an Abydos Dynasty c. 1650 BC.[3]
