Semqen

Semqen
Šamuqēnu, Sem-qen
Drawing of the scarab seal of Semqen.[1][2]
Drawing of the scarab seal of Semqen.[1][2]
Pharaoh
Heka-chasut
Reignsome time between 1649 BC and 1621 BC (Ryholt)
Predecessorfounder of the dynasty (Ryholt) or 'Aper-'Anati (von Beckerath)
Successoruncertain, 'Aper-'Anati (Ryholt) or Sakir-Har (von Beckerath)
Royal titulary
Nomen
Heka-chasut Semqen
Ḥq3-ḫ3swt-smqn
Ruler of the foreign lands, Semqen
S38qN25
Z2		 smq
n
Dynastyuncertain dynasty, most likely 15th Dynasty, otherwise 16th Dynasty

Semqen (also Šamuqēnu) was a Hyksos ruler of Lower Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period in the mid-17th century BC. According to Jürgen von Beckerath he was the third king of the 16th Dynasty and a vassal of the Hyksos kings of the 15th Dynasty.[3][4] This opinion was shared by William C. Hayes and Wolfgang Helck but recently rejected by Kim Ryholt. In his 1997 study of the Second Intermediate Period, Ryholt argues that the kings of the 16th Dynasty ruled an independent Theban realm c. 1650–1580 BC.[5] Consequently, Ryholt sees Semqen as an early Hyksos king of the 15th Dynasty, perhaps its first ruler. This analysis has convinced some Egyptologists, such as Darrell Baker and Janine Bourriau,[6][7] but not others including Stephen Quirke.[8]

  1. ^ Fraser, G.W., A catalogue of scarabs belonging to George Fraser (cat. no. 179). London, Bernard Quaritch, 1900.
  2. ^ Percy E. Newberry: Scarabs an introduction to the study of Egyptian seals and signet rings, with forty-four plates and one hundred and sixteen illustrations in the text, 1906, see plate XXIII, num 10 and page 152.
  3. ^ Jürgen von Beckerath: Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen, Münchner ägyptologische Studien, Heft 49, Mainz : P. von Zabern, 1999, ISBN 3-8053-2591-6, available online see p. 120–121.
  4. ^ William C. Hayes, The Cambridge Ancient History (Fascicle): 6: Egypt: From the Death of Ammenemes III to Seqenenre II, CUP Archive, 1962 p 19
  5. ^ K.S.B. Ryholt: The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, c.1800–1550 BC, Carsten Niebuhr Institute Publications, vol. 20. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1997, excerpts available online here.
  6. ^ Darrell D. Baker: The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume I - Predynastic to the Twentieth Dynasty 3300–1069 BC, Stacey International, ISBN 978-1-905299-37-9, 2008, p. 378
  7. ^ Janine Bourriau, Ian Shaw (editor): The Oxford history of ancient Egypt, chapter The Second Intermediate Period, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2003, ISBN 0-19-280458-8, [1]
  8. ^ Stephen Quirke, Marcel Maree (editor): The Second Intermediate Period Thirteenth - Seventeenth Dynasties, Current Research, Future Prospects, Leuven 2011, Paris — Walpole, MA. ISBN 978-9042922280, p. 56, n. 6