Sixteenth Dynasty of Egypt

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Template:Short description Template:Infobox Former Country

Template:Egyptian Dynasty list The Sixteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty XVI)[1] was a dynasty of pharaohs that ruled the Theban region in Upper Egypt[2] for 70 years.[3]

This dynasty, together with the 15th and 17th dynasties, are often combined under the group title, Second Intermediate Period (c. 1650–1550 BC), a period that saw the division of Upper and Lower Egypt between the pharaohs at Thebes and the Hyksos kings of the 15th Dynasty based at Avaris.

Identification

Of the two chief versions of Manetho's Aegyptiaca, the Sixteenth Dynasty is described by the more reliable[4] Africanus (supported by Syncellus)[5] as "shepherd [hyksos] kings", but by Eusebius as Theban.[4]

Ryholt (1997), followed by Bourriau (2003), in reconstructing the Turin canon, interpreted a list of Thebes-based kings to constitute Manetho's Sixteenth Dynasty, although this is one of Ryholt's "most debatable and far-reaching" conclusions.[4] For this reason other scholars do not follow Ryholt and see only insufficient evidence for the interpretation of the Sixteenth Dynasty as Theban.[6]

History

The continuing war against 15th Dynasty dominated the short-lived 16th Dynasty. The armies of the 15th Dynasty, winning town after town from their southern enemies, continually encroached on the 16th Dynasty territory, eventually threatening and then conquering Thebes itself. In his study of the Second Intermediate Period, the Egyptologist Kim Ryholt has suggested that Dedumose I sued for a truce in the latter years of the dynasty,[3] but one of his predecessors, Nebiryraw I, may have been more successful and seems to have enjoyed a period of peace in his reign.[3]

Famine, which had plagued Upper Egypt during the late 13th Dynasty and the 14th Dynasty, also blighted the 16th Dynasty, most evidently during and after the reign of Neferhotep III.[3]

Kings

Various chronological orderings and lists of kings have been proposed by scholars for this dynasty. These lists fall broadly in two categories: those assuming that the 16th Dynasty comprised vassals of the Hyksos, as advocated by Jürgen von Beckerath and Wolfgang Helck; and those assuming that the 16th Dynasty was an independent Theban kingdom, as recently proposed by Kim Ryholt.

As vassals of the Hyksos

The traditional list of rulers of the 16th Dynasty regroups kings believed to be vassals of the Hyksos, some of which have semitic names such as Semqen and Anat-her. The list of kings differs from scholar to scholar and it is here given as per Jürgen von Beckerath's Dynasty XV/XVI in his Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen.[7] Wolfgang Helck, who also believes that the 16th Dynasty was an Hyksos vassal state, proposed a slightly different list of kings.[8] Many of the rulers listed here in the 16th Dynasty under the hypothesis that they were vassals of the Hyksos are put in the 14th Dynasty in the hypothesis that the 16th Dynasty was an independent Theban kingdom. The chronological ordering is largely uncertain.

Dynasty XV/XVI as vassals of the Hyksos[7]
Name of king Dates Comments
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Possibly a prince of the 15th Dynasty or a Canaanite chieftain contemporary with the 12th Dynasty
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". May belong to the early 15th Dynasty
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". May belong to the early 15th Dynasty
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". May belong to the early 15th Dynasty
Apepi
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
May be identical with the Hyksos ruler Apepi
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". May belong to the early 14th Dynasty
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". May belong to the late 14th Dynasty
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". May belong to the 17th Dynasty
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Possibly the same person as 'Ammu
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Kingship contested
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Kingship contested
[...]kare
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
[...]kare
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
[...]kare
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". May belong to the 15th Dynasty, only attested in later sources
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Most likely belongs to the 14th Dynasty
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Possibly Qareh, may belong to the 14th Dynasty
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Likely to be Sheneh rather than Shenes; may belong to the 14th Dynasty
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
'A[...]
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Hibe
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Aped
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Uncertain reading
Hapi
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Meni[...]
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".

As an independent Theban Kingdom

In his 1997 study of the Second Intermediate Period, the Danish Egyptologist Kim Ryholt argues that the 16th Dynasty was an independent Theban kingdom. From Ryholt's reconstruction of the Turin canon, 15 kings can be associated to the dynasty, several of whom are attested by contemporary sources.[2] While most likely rulers based in Thebes itself, some may have been local rulers from other important Upper Egyptian towns, including Abydos, El Kab and Edfu.[2] By the reign of Nebiriau I, the realm controlled by the 16th Dynasty extended at least as far north as Hu and south to Edfu.[3][9] Not listed in the Turin canon (after Ryholt) is Wepwawetemsaf, who left a stele at Abydos and was likely a local kinglet of the Abydos Dynasty.[2]

Ryholt gives the list of kings of the 16th Dynasty as shown in the table below.[10] Others, such as Helck, Vandersleyen, Bennett combine some of these rulers with the Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt.[11] The list of rulers is given here as per Kim Ryholt and is supposedly in chronological order:

Dynasty XVI as an independent Theban kingdom[12]
Name of king Image Dates Comments
Unknown
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
1649–1648 BC
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Name lost in a lacuna of the Turin canon
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". File:Block Djehuti by Khruner.jpg
1648–1645 BC
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". File:Stele Sekhemre Seusertawy by Khruner.png
1645–1629 BC
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". File:Stele JE 59635 by Khruner.png
1629–1628 BC
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". File:Sphinx Seankhenre by Khruner.jpg
1628–1627 BC
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". File:Sewadjenra Scarab Petrie.png
1627–1601 BC
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". File:Statuette Harpocrates Mariette.jpg
1601 BC
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". File:Axehead Semenenre by Khruner.jpg
1601–1600 BC
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". File:Dagger Bebiankh by Khruner.jpg
1600–1588 BC
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". File:Fragment Sobekemsaf Petrie.jpg
1588 BC
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Unknown
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
1588–1582 BC
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Five kings lost in a lacuna of the Turin canon

Additional kings are classified as belonging to this dynasty per Kim Ryholt but their chronological position is uncertain. They may correspond to the last five lost kings on the Turin canon:[13]

Dynasty XVI as an independent Theban kingdom (uncertain order)
Name of king Image Dates Comments
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". File:Djedhotepre Dedumose stele.png May have tried to sue the Hyksos for peace
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". File:Djedneferre Dedumose.png
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". File:DjedankhraScarabPetrie.png
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". File:Mentuhotep VI.jpg
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". File:Senusret IV.png Left a colossal statue of himself in Karnak[14]

References

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  1. Kuhrt 1995: 118
  2. a b c d Bourriau 2003: 191
  3. a b c d e Ryholt 1997: 305
  4. a b c Bourriau 2003: 179
  5. Cory 1876
  6. see for example, Quirke, in Maree: The Second Intermediate Period (Thirteenth - Seventeenth Dynasties, Current Research, Future Prospects, Leuven 2011, Paris — Walpole, MA. Template:ISBN, p. 56, n. 6
  7. a b Jürgen von Beckerath: Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen, Münchner ägyptologische Studien, Heft 49, Mainz : P. von Zabern, 1999, Template:ISBN
  8. Wolfgang Helck, Eberhard Otto, Wolfhart Westendorf, Stele - Zypresse: Volume 6 of Lexikon der Ägyptologie, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 1986, Page 1383
  9. Darrell D. Baker: The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume I - Predynastic to the Twentieth Dynasty 3300–1069 BC, Stacey International, Template:ISBN, 2008, pp. 256-257
  10. Kings of the Second Intermediate Period 16th dynasty (after Ryholt 1997)
  11. Chris Bennet, A Genealogical Chronology of the Seventeenth Dynasty, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 39 (2002), pp. 123-155
  12. Kim Ryholt: The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, c. 1800 - 1550 BC, Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, Template:ISBN, 1997.
  13. Kim Ryholt's 16th dynasty on Digital Egypt for Universities
  14. Georges Legrain: Statues et statuettes de rois et de particuliers, in Catalogue général des antiquités égyptiennes du Musée du Caire, Le Caire, 1906. I, 171 pp., 79 pls, available copyright-free online, published in 1906, see p. 18 and p. 109

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Bibliography

  • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
Preceded byTemplate:S-bef/check Dynasty of Egypt
1649–1582 BC Template:S-ttl/check
Template:S-aft/check Succeeded by