Sekhemre Wadjkhaw Sobekemsaf I was a pharaoh of Egypt during the 17th Dynasty in the Second Intermediate Period because both he and Sobekemsaf II were the predecessors of Nubkheperre Intef who was certainly a Theban 17th dynasty king.
Attestations Sekhemre Wadjkhaw Sobekemsaf I is known from several monuments, see Ryholt 1997:395 File 17:6.
Abydos Sobekemsaf I's son, similarly named Sobekemsaf after his father, is attested in Cairo Statue CG 386 from Abydos which depicts this young prince prominently standing between his father's legs in a way suggesting that he was his father's chosen successor.Ryholt, p. 272.
Cairo CG 386 | At Abydos, a red granite statue with bas-relief of King's Son Sobekemsaf from the Temple of Osiris.
Dendera At Dendera, he is known for a stela mentioning his wife, daughter and son-in-law. Sobekemsaf's chief wife was Queen Nubemhat; she and their daughter (Sobekemheb) are known from a stela of Sobekemheb's husband, a king's son Ameni, son of king's wife Haankhes.
Petrie Museum 14326 + Moscow I.1.b.32 | At [Dendera], stela of son-in-law Ameny. One fragment bought at Koptos, but the text refers to Dendera.
Wadi Hammamat Wadi Hammamat is a road from the Nile River near Koptos to Quseir on the Red Sea coast. Sobekemsaf I is attested by a series of inscriptions mentioning a mining expedition to the rock quarries at Wadi Hammamat in the Eastern Desert during his reign. One of the inscriptions is explicitly dated to his Year 7.Ryholt, Kim S.B., 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), p. 174. . . .
LD VI 23 (9) | In Wadi Hammamat, a rock inscription with the royal name of Sobekemsaf, an expedition record owned by King's Acquaintance Ini-Sobek.Ryholt, K. 1997. "Some Notes on an Inscription Dated to the Reign of Sobekemsaf Sekhemrewadjkhaw." Göttinger Miszellen. Beiträge zur ägyptologischen Diskussion 157: pp. 75–76. It also mentions other family members and officials. In situ | 2x offering scenes, 2x titulary (one dated to Year 7)
Medamud
He extensively restored and decorated the Temple of Monthu at Medamud where a fine high relief of this king making an offering before the gods has survived. A sandstone column of this king has survived into the modern era.
Cairo, Louvre, Medamud magazine | architectural elements from the temple.(JE 44945a, 44946, 44947, 44950b-d) Karnak Open Air Museum | Decorations on the interior of a Gateway of Senusret III. Madamud magazine | A donation text on the base of a colossal statue previously usurped by Sobekhotep III from an earlier king. Ryholt (1997:146) notes that Sobekemsaf I did restoration to the temple and had architraves made for a hall with the names of Sobekhotep III.Ryholt calls Sobekemsaf I for Sobekemsaf II and vice versa.
Other finds
BM EA 7876 | At Dra Abu el-Naga (?), a heart scarab with the royal name Sobekemsaf (nomen).British MuseumMiniaci, Gianluca, Susan La Niece, and Marei Hacke. “Analytical Study of the First Royal Egyptian Heart-Scarab, Attributed to a Seventeenth Dynasty King, Sobekemsaf.” Analytical Study of the First Royal Egyptian Heart-Scarab, Attributed to a Seventeenth Dynasty King, Sobekemsaf, 2014. Leiden AH 216 | At Dra Abu el-Naga (?), a canopic box (35x43x48 cm) with the royal name Sobekemsaf (nomen). Cairo JE 38030/CG 17011 | At Karnak, an obelisk found in the cachette of the great temple. Present location unknown | At Karnak, a lintel. BM EA 871 | At [Karnak], a red granite seated statue (164 cm) with a dedication to Amun, Lord of the Thrones of the Two Lands. Petrie Museum 14209 | At Karnak, a statuette. Present location unknown | At Deir el-Bahri, a block. Present location unknown | At Tod, a pedestal and block fragment. Turin Museo Egizio Supl. 12053+12054 | At Gebelein, a shrine. Aswan Museum 1364 | At Elephantine, a dyad-statue. IFAO Cairo | Provenance unknown, an obelisk.
Cairo CG 42029 (JE 37420) | At Karnak, a statuette of king striding (30 cm) in the cachette of royal statues at the great temple, of Sobekemsaf. Cairo JE 54858 | Papyrus columns and lintel with the names of Sobekhotep III and Sobekemsaf.
Non-contemporary attestations Karnak King List The Karnak King List 54 (48) mentions the prenomen Sekhemre Wadjkhau. The cartouche next to him is lost.
Theories Position within the 17th dynasty
After the Intef kings
Aidan Dodson dates Sekhemre Wadjkhaw Sobekemsaf's reign after those of Djehuti and Sekhemre-Wepmaat Intef. First, he remarks that Sobekemsaf's canopic chest is slightly larger—4.1 cm longer and 3.4 cm higher—than the canopic chests belonging to the latter two kings. He also points to the fact that the inscriptions on Sekhemre Wadjkhaw Sobekemsaf's box were "written vertically, rather than in the horizontal arrangement found on those of Djehuti and Sekhemre Wepmaet [Intef]."Aidan Dodson, The Canopic Equipment of the Kings of Egypt, Routledge Press, 1994, p. 40.
The Danish Egyptologist Kim Ryholt similarly dated Sobekemsaf I's reign after those of Sekhmre-Wepmaat Intef and Nubkheperre Intef. First, he remarked that a "king's son Antefmose" (or Intefmose) is praised by a king Sobekemsaf for his role during a festival of Sokar on statuette BM EA 13329.The statuette at the British Museum.Pascal Vernus, Le surnom au Moyen Empire: répertoire, procédés d'expression et structures de la double identité du début de la XIIe dynastie à la fin de la XVIIe dynastie, Biblical Institute Press, 1986. 16 .Ryholt, p. 170. But, according to Ryholt, "in any case the name Antefmose is basilophorous" and so the king Sobekemsaf who praised him must have been a successor" of the Intef kings, "to one of whom the name (Antefmose) refers." Furthermore, since Sekhemre Wadjkhaw Sobekemsaf I's son and presumable successor was also named Sobekemsaf rather than Intef, Ryholt concluded that this king must have ruled after the Intef kings.
Secondly, Ryholt suggested that Sobekemsaf Wadjkaw ruled after Nubkheperre Intef because while the former ruler carried out extensive restoration works at the temple of Monthu at Medamud, "there is no trace" of Nubkheperre Intef there. For Ryholt, this "may suggest that this temple was restored and put into service again only after Sekhemre Wadjkhaw Sobekemsaf reign". Consequently, Ryholt concluded that Sekhemre Wadjkhaw Sobekemsaf ruled after Nubkheperre Intef and should be numbered as Sobekemsaf II.
Before the Intef kings In 2001, Daniel Polz rediscovered Nubkheperre Intef's tomb at Dra' Abu el-Naga'. He argues that Nubkheperre Intef ruled very late in the 17th dynasty. This means that Sekhemre Wadjkhaw Sobekemsaf could not have reigned between the Intef line of kings and the final three 17th dynasty Ahmoside family of kings (Senakhtenre, Seqenenre and Kamose). From inscriptions found on a doorjamb discovered in the remains of a 17th Dynasty temple at Gebel Antef on the Luxor-Farshut road, it is known today that Nubkheperre Intef and, by implication, his brother and immediate predecessor on the throne—Sekhemre-Wepmaat Intef—were sons of one of the two Sobekemsaf kings. This king was most likely Sekhemre Shedtawy Sobekemsaf II since Sekhemre Wadjkhaw Sobekemsaf's son was also named Sobekemsaf.Ryholt, K.S.B., The Political Situation in Egypt Dring the Second Intermediate Period, c.1800-1550 BC, (Carsten Niebuhr Institute Publications), vol. 20. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1997, p. 270. Ryholt's interpretation of the lineage here has also been accepted by the British Egyptologist Aidan Dodson.Aidan Dodson, University of Bristol November 1998 book review of K.S.B. Ryholt, The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, c.1800-1550 BC (Carsten Niebuhr Institute Publications, with an Appendix by Adam Bulow-Jacobsen vol. 20. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1997, in Bibliotheca Orientalis LVII No 1/2, January–April 2000, p. 51.
Polz also accepts this view but he placed Nubkheperre Intef just prior to the three final Ahmoside kings of the 17th dynasty in his 2003 book.D. Polz & A. Seiler, Die Pyramidenanlage des Königs Nub-Chep-Re Intef in Dra' Abu el-Naga. Ein Vorbericht (Mainz: DAIKS 24, 2003). Since then, he has inserted Sekhemre-Heruhirmaat Intef as a short-lived successor of Nubkheperre before Senakhtenre but his hypothesis remains essentially the same:Daniel Polz, Der Beginn des Neuen Reiches. Zur Vorgeschichte einer Zeitenwende. Sonderschriften des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo, 31. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2007. pp. 25-34 & 50. Polz maintains that Sekemre Wadjkhaw Sobekemsaf I was the father of Sekhemre Shedtawy Sobekemsaf. Indeed, this king's son is known from the statue at Abydos to have also held the name Sobekemsaf and is designated as this king's successor on the same statue.Polz, Daniel. Der Beginn des Neuen Reiches, p. 50. Polz states that this is the most plausible reconstruction of the relationship between the two kings with the name Sobekemsaf in the 17th dynasty. Hence, Sekhemre Shedtawy Sobekemsaf would be Sobekemsaf II—Sobekemsaf I's son and successor—while Sekhemre-Wepmaat Intef and Nubkheperre Intef would be grandsons of Sekhemre Wadjkhaw Sobekemsaf I. This ultimately implies that Sekhemre Wadjkhaw Sobekemsaf ruled early in the 17th dynasty, before the Intef kings and that he must be numbered Sobekemsaf I.
Polz's hypothesis and placement of Nubkheperre Intef as one of the last kings in the Sobekemsaf-Intef family line is also supported "by the evidence of the box of Minemhat, who was governor of Coptos" in Year 3 of Nubkheperre Intef.see the Coptos Decree. This box "was part of the funerary equipment of an Hornakht (formerly known as 'Aqhor' in the past literature) who lived under Seqenenre."Winlock, Herbert. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 10 (1924) 258 with n.1 & Thomas Schneider, "The Relative Chronology of the Middle Kingdom and the Hyksos Period (Dyns. 12-17)" in Erik Hornung, Rolf Krauss & David Warburton (editors), Ancient Egyptian Chronology (Handbook of Oriental Studies), Brill, 2006. p. 187. While no one knows precisely when Hornakht died, the fact that his funerary equipment contained a box which belonged to Minemhat suggests that Nubkheperre Intef and Seqenenre Tao ruled closely in time and that their reigns should not be separated by the intrusion of various other long lived kings of the 17th dynasty such as Sekhemre Wajdkhaw Sobekemsaf I who is attested by a Year 7 inscription. As the late Middle Kingdom German Egyptologist Detlef Franke (1952–2007) succinctly wrote in a journal article which was published in 2008—a year after his death: Contrary to Ryholt, I see no place for a king Sobekemsaf who ruled after Nubkheperra Antef. Nubkheperra Antef (c.1560 BC) is the best attested (from Abydos to Edfu, e.g. BM 631, EA 1645, coffin 6652) and [the] most important of the three Antefs.Franke, Detlef. The Late Middle Kingdom (Thirteenth to Seventeenth Dynasties): The Chronological Framework, Journal of Egyptian History, Vol.1 No.2 (2008) Koninklijke Brill, p. 279. .
In addition, Polz argued that Ryholt's rejection of the evidence in Cairo Statue CG 386—which named king Sekhemre Wadjkhaw Sobekemsaf's son as another Sobekemsaf—in not giving any indication of the sequence of the known 17th dynasty Theban rulers is untenable.Polz, Der Beginn des Neuen Reiches, p. 49. While Ryholt acknowledges in his 1997 book on the Second Intermediate Period that Anthony Spalinger suggested the prince Sobekemsaf who is attested in "a statue from Abydos (Cairo CG 386)" and "has the additional title of prophet, may be identical with Sobkemsaf II Sekhemreshedtawy",Anthony Spalinger, LÄ, V, 1032. Ryholt simply writes that: