Seheqenre Sankhptahi

Seheqenre Sankhptahi was a pharaoh of the late 13th Dynasty, possibly the fifty-fourth^[1] or fifty-fifth^[2] king of this dynasty. He most likely reigned for a short period over the Memphite region during the mid-17th century BC, some time between 1663 BC and 1649 BC.^[2]

Seheqenre Sankhptahi
Sehekaenre Seankhptah, Se'anchptah[1]
Detail of the stele of Nebsumenu depicting pharaoh Seheqenre Sankhptahi offering ms.t oil to the god Ptah, National Archaeological Museum of Spain.
Pharaoh
Reign	unknown duration
Predecessor	unknown[1][2]
Successor	unknown[1][2]
Royal titulary Praenomen Seheqenre S.ḥḳ-n-Rˁ He whom Ra causes to rule Nomen Sankhptahi S-ˁnḫ-ptḥ-i He whom Ptah causes to live Turin canon [Sehe]qenre [S.ḥ]ḳ-n-Rˁ He whom Ra causes to rule
Father	uncertain, possibly Se...kare[2]
Dynasty	13th dynasty

Family

A stele of unknown provenance, although probably Memphite in origin,^[1] and dated on stylistic grounds to the Second Intermediate Period presents a list of members of a royal family and gives the king's son name as [?]-ptḥ-i. If this prince is the future pharaoh Seheqenre Sankhptahi as Ryholt proposes, then pharaoh Se[...]kare is his father and Minemsaes and Sit[...] are his sisters.^[2] The stele is housed in the Egyptian Museum (CG20600).

Attestions

Of Unknown Provenance, a round-topped stela dated to Year 1 of Sehekaenre Sankhiptah.^[3][4]

Pharaoh Seheqenre Sankhptahi is named and represented on the stele of royal sealer and overseer of sealers Nebsumenu. Kim Ryholt notes that it depicts Sankhptahi offering oil to the god Ptah (defaced) "He who is south of his wall" (rsy-snb=f) and to Anubis (defaced) "Lord of bandagers" (nb wtyw), both of which are epithets from the Memphite region.^[2] Ryholt concludes that Seheqenre Sankhptahi probably reigned over Memphis and thus belongs to the 13th dynasty, which had control over the region at the time. Furthermore, Ryholt suggests that Sankhptahi may himself have been born in Memphis, as indicated by his theophorous name based on Ptah, the god of the city.^[2]

Stele of Nebsumenu representing Seheqenre Sankhptahi making offerings to Ptah and Anubis.

Non-contemporary attestations

The Turin canon 8:25 contains the damaged prenomen [?]ḳ-n-Rˁ. Ryholt remarks that Seheqenre is the only king of the period whose name matches these signs and reads [S.ḥ]ḳ-n-Rˁ^[1][2]

Uncertain attestations

Ryholt points to a blue-green steatite cylinder seal of unknown provenance and bearing the golden horus name Sekhaenptah, S.ḫˁ-n-ptḥ, He whom Ptah causes to appear, as maybe belonging to Seheqenre Sankhptahi. Percy Newberry simply dates the seal to "about the end of the Middle Kingdom" without further identification of its owner. The seal is probably lost: originally in the Timmins collection housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it is now reportedly missing from the museum.^[1]

Further reading

• Meeks, Dimitri, "Une stèle de donation de la Deuxième Période intermédiaire" ENIM 2, 2009, pp. 129–154.