Genealogy of Ankhefensekhmet

Genealogy of Ankhefensekhmet
Material	Limestone
Size	90 cm (35 in) x 45 cm (18 in)
Writing	Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs
Created	8th century BCE
Discovered	Memphis
Present location	Egyptian Museum of Berlin
Identification	23673

The Genealogy of Ankhefensekhmet or Genealogy of the Memphite priestly elite (Berlin 23673) is an ancient Egyptian relief – sometimes referred to as a stela – normally identified as having been made during the 8th century BCE, under the reign of pharaoh Shoshenq V of the late 22nd Dynasty.^[1] A surviving block is kept at the Egyptian Museum of Berlin. The relief was issued by a priest called Ankhefensekhmet with the purpose of illustrating his own genealogy. The relief traces back Ankhefensekhmet's sequence of ancestors up to 64 generations before, with the earliest individual, Ptahemheb, identified by Ritner as being from the time of Nebhepetre (Mentuhotep II) of the 11th Dynasty and alternatively identified by Borchart as being from the time of Nebkaure Khety of the 10th Dynasty.^[2] On 25 occasions the genealogy also names the pharaoh or king who was ruling at the time.

Many of Ankhefensekhmet's ancestors bore the title of "Chief of master-craftsmen", more commonly referred as "High Priest of Ptah". Robert K. Ritner suggested that the mention of pharaohs of the Hyksos period (Apepi (3/5), the otherwise unknown Sharek (3/6) and Aaqen (3/12)) should reflect the continuity of the sequence of ancestors, rather than an acceptance of the Hyksos rule by the indigenous people of Egypt; in fact, the name Aaqen, which means "Valiant ass", looks like an intentional misspelling of "Strong of valour".^[2] Still earlier, Alan Gardiner also suggested that Aaqen may be a mocking name for Aaqenenre ("Great and strong is Ra"), which is one of Apepi's throne names.^[3]