Was King Senebkay killed in battle?

Injuries to pharaoh's bones suggest he was brutally hacked with axes while riding his horse

By Sarah Griffiths for MailOnline

The 3,650-year old skeleton of King Senebkay has revealed the pharaoh died a violent death. Senebkay lived at a time when rulers battled for power before the rise of Egypt’s New Kingdom in 1,550 BC and his skeleton shows 18 injuries caused by axes. Injuries to his skull, lower back and ankles, suggest he was attacked while on his horse and hacked at with the deadly weapon - dying from blows to the head.

The tomb of Senebkay was unearthed at the Abydos archaeological site, near the city of Sohag, Egypt last year and was identified by an inscription on the wall of this burial chamber. It was the first time that any trace of the pharaoh was found, who was only previously known about by fragments of his name on an ancient list of Egyptian rulers.

Now, archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania, who came across the tomb, have revealed how the pharaoh probably died. Injuries to the skull, as well as vertical cuts on the ankles, feet and lower back, suggest the king was killed in a battle and was aged between 35 and 49 when he died, Luxor Times Magazine reported. Josef Wegner of the university, who led the dig, said the injuries suggest that the king died a violent death.

He was a ruler of Abydos for just four and a half years, at a time when dominant families battled for control of land. The angle and direction of the lacerations show he must have been higher up than his attackers when they cut him with axes.
It is likely that the king was on horseback and blows to his back and legs caused him to fall to the ground, where his enemies brutally struck his head until he died, far from his home.

What the new pharaoh tells us about ancient Egypt

By Nicola Harrington

Last month’s discovery in South Abydos, in Egypt – of the remains of the pharaoh, Senekbay, which date to the Second Intermediate Period (c. 1750-1550 BC) – sheds new light on a complex and divided period of Egyptian history.

The collapse of the Old Kingdom, the age of the great pyramid-builders, saw the dissolution of central government and the formation of independent states. The unprepossessing tomb of a provincial king named Senebkay not only supports Danish Egyptologist Kim Ryholt’s previously dismissed theory of an Abydos Dynasty, but changes the political landscape of Egypt during the turbulent Second Intermediate Period.

Senebkay’s times and the Abydos Dynasty

Senebkay, who lived around 1650 BC, was ruler of Middle Egypt, situated between kingdoms ruled from Avaris (Tell el-Daba in the Delta) and Thebes (modern Luxor).

Prior to the discovery of the Abydos South cemetery, the only established dynasties were those of the north (the 13th and 15th dynasties, Hyksos) and south (16th). These vied for power until the Theban king Ahmose pushed south and succeeded in reunifying the country at the beginning of what is known as the New Kingdom (1550-1075 BC).

It’s worth noting here that term “dynasty” is a modern artificial academic concept – a means of grouping Egyptian rulers chronologically. It would not have been recognised in the ancient world.

Giant Sarcophagus Leads Penn Museum Team in Egypt To the Tomb of a Previously Unknown Pharaoh

Discovery Provides Evidence of a Forgotten Egyptian Dynasty from 3,600 Years Ago

PHILADELPHIA, PA, January 2014—Archaeologists working at the southern Egyptian site of Abydos have discovered the tomb of a previously unknown pharaoh: Woseribre Senebkay—and the first material proof of a forgotten Abydos Dynasty, ca. 1650–1600 BC. Working in cooperation with Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, a team from the Penn Museum, University of Pennsylvania, discovered king Senebkay's tomb close to a larger royal tomb, recently identified as belonging to a king Sobekhotep (probably Sobekhotep I, ca. 1780 BC) of the 13th Dynasty.

The discovery of pharaoh Senebkay's tomb is the culmination of work that began during the summer of 2013 when the Penn Museum team, led by Dr. Josef Wegner, Egyptian Section Associate Curator of the Penn Museum, discovered a huge 60-ton royal sarcophagus chamber at South Abydos. The sarcophagus chamber, of red quartzite quarried and transported to Abydos from Gebel Ahmar (near modern Cairo), could be dated to the late Middle Kingdom, but its owner remained unidentified. Mysteriously, the sarcophagus had been extracted from its original tomb and reused in a later tomb—but the original royal owner remained unknown when the summer season ended.

In the last few weeks of excavations, fascinating details of a series of kings' tombs and a lost dynasty at Abydos have emerged. Archaeologists now know that the giant quartzite sarcophagus chamber derives from a royal tomb built originally for a pharaoh Sobekhotep—probably Sobekhotep I, the first king of Egypt's 13th Dynasty. Fragments of that king's funerary stela were found just recently in front of his huge, badly robbed tomb. A group of later pharaohs (reigning about a century and a half later during Egypt's Second Intermediate Period) were reusing elements from Sobekhotep's tomb for building and equipping their own tombs. One of these kings (whose name is still unknown) had extracted and reused the quartzite sarcophagus chamber. Another king's tomb found just last week is that of the previously unknown pharaoh: Woseribre-Senebkay.

The tomb of Abydos dynasty king found

A name of an ancient Egyptian king who was not known before was revealed in Abydos ancient Egyptian necropolis in the Upper Egyptian town of Sohag

by Nevine El-Aref , Wednesday 15 Jan 2014

An American excavation mission from the University of Pennsylvania uncovered the name of an ancient Egyptian king from the Abydos dynasty during the second Intermediate Period (1650 BC) during routine excavations south of Abydos archaeological site.
 

(Photocredit: Nevine El-Aref)

According to a statement by the Ministry of State of Antiquities (MSA), the name of the king is Sneb-Kay. His name was found on Tuesday engraved on a wall of his tomb.

MSA Minister Mohamed Ibrahim told Ahram Online that it is a very important discovery because it shed more light on Abydos local families that ruled the nome during the Second Intermediate Period, considered one of the most critical phases of ancient Egyptian history.

Ali El-Asfar, head of the ancient Egyptian Section at the MSA, said that early excavation revealed that the tomb was built with blocks previously used in tombs of the Middle Kingdom. Remains of a wooden sarcophagus still bearing the king's skeleton were also found inside the tomb as well as a set of canopic jars.

Early studies carried out on the skeleton, which is poorly conserved, show that the king could have been 1.85 metres long, El-Asfar said.

The skeleton of Pharaoh Senebkay was originally mummified but his body was pulled apart by ancient tomb robbers.

Joseph Wagner, head of the American mission, stated that the tomb neighbours the tomb of King Subek Hotep of the 13th dynasty and the newly discovered tomb can be dated to a dynasty called Abydos mentioned by archaeologist K.Rhyholt, although the ruling tenure of the king is still a mystery. He added that the poor state of the tomb shows that Egypt was suffering bad economic conditions.

Excavations and studies are in full swing to learn more about the mysterious period.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/91651/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/The-tomb-of-Abydos-dynasty-king-found-Gallery.aspx