Engraved limestone gate unearthed in Karnak temple complex on Luxor's east bank bears name of King Ahmose's previously unknown great-grandfather
Posted on 03/05/2012 6:42:09 PM PST by SunkenCiv
During routine excavations on the northern side of the Amun-Re Temple in Luxor's famous Karnak temple complex, a team from the French-Egyptian Centre for the Study of the Karnak Temples this week unearthed a gate that they say has led to a significant breakthrough in archaeologists' understanding of Egypt's enigmatic 17th Dynasty. It was this dynasty that launched the military campaign that eventually succeeded in ridding Egypt of the tribe of invaders known as the "Hyksos."
The gate, carved out of limestone, is engraved with the name of a king called "Sen-Nakht-En-Re." Mansour Boreik, general supervisor of monuments in Luxor, told Ahram Online that this king's name was previously mentioned twice - during the Rameside period and during the reign of King Ahmose, the latter of whom is traditionally given credit for expelling the Hyksos from Egypt.
Boreik went on to note that, despite these earlier references to Sen-Nakht-En-Re, archaeologists had believed him to be an imaginary king, since no monuments had ever been found bearing his name. The recent discovery of the pharaoh's name on the gate in Karnak, however, strongly suggests that the king was, in fact, once a ruler of ancient Egypt.
In addition to Sen-Nakht-En-Re's cartouche, the gate is also engraved with hieroglyphic writing, according to which the king had the gate built from limestone blocks transported from Tora (modern Helwan, south of Cairo), which had been under Hykos rule at the time.
(Excerpt) Read more at english.ahram.org.eg ...
Engraved limestone gate unearthed in Karnak temple complex on Luxor's east bank bears name of King Ahmose's previously unknown great-grandfather
Ancient Egyptian Royalty Wielded Serious Weapons
Owen Jarus, LiveScience Contributor
Date: 21 July 2011 Time: 12:29 PM ET
http://www.livescience.com/15170-ancient-egyptian-royalty-wielded-weapons.html
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2752639/posts
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This seems so strange to me. Just because evidence hadn't yet been found doesn't mean he didn't exist.
Very interesting. Thank you for the post. By the way Johnny Carson would be proud of this discovery at Karnak.
Me too. I don't see the Egyptians just making up imaginary kings. And just how many imaginary Egyptian kings are there?
D**m, you beat me to it.
WOW!
Thanks for posting this!
Fascinating!
And could they *see* their imaginary kings??? ;’)
Quirke’s book on the list of pharaohs includes only those names actually found on monuments, although he discusses some of the ephemeral kings. It’s little known, for example, that Khufu (of Great Pyramid fame) was succeeded by his son Djedjefre, who started his own pyramid a few miles north, at Abu Roash. Djedjefre apparently died young, and was succeeded by his own son, who was then supplanted by Khafre, builder of the second of the big pyramids at Giza. One of the granddaughters of Khufu had a pretty nice burial chamber of her own in the largely unmapped catacombs underlying the Giza plateau. In the carving she seems to have had no body image problems or self-esteem shortfalls.
The king lists which gave us the entire dynastic structure were compiled (and possibly invented, at least in part) by Manetho, an Egyptian who lived late in the New Kingdom era (the division into three “kingdoms”, grouping dynasties into three eras, with some grouped in “intermediate periods”, is a modern convention). His list survives in three slightly later variant and (overlapping) fragmentary forms.
Manetho gives the dynasties in sequential order, whereas it is known that a number of these dynasties (including 17) ran concurrent with others.
Egypt did *not* spend its entire history as one undivided state with a single ruler and capital, with beginnings 5000 years ago. A fair assessment yields the view that Egypt’s history consists of continual breakup, struggle, and reunification after periods of years or even generations and sometimes centuries. Even when there were no upstarts in this or that region, there were schisms in the ruling families, and those often resulted in the end of a dynasty.
The temple of Seti “the Great”, which was completed by his better-known son, Ramses II “the Great”, has a wall showing many generations of unbroken kingship back to Menes; a fair number of the kings in that list — including Menes himself — don’t appear on any other monuments anywhere. Ramses II, who was descended from his father (rather than female-line kingship) had lots of wives, lots of kids, and it’s not entirely unlikely that he’s the ancestor of 100s of millions of people today, including most of the population of modern Egypt.
May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your jockey shorts.
Extremely interesting. Thanks for pinging me to that.
The Pharoah of the Exodus could well be Thutmoses IV who would be a couple generations after the Pharaoh discussed in this article.
“it’s not entirely unlikely that he’s the ancestor of 100s of millions of people today, including most of the population of modern Egypt.”
Since they now think they have the mummy of Ramses identified and might be able to get DNA from it, how cool would it be for modern Egyptians to have a plaque on their wall certifying a relationship to their great,great, great, great,great, great, great, etc.
“it’s not entirely unlikely that he’s the ancestor of 100s of millions of people today, including most of the population of modern Egypt.”
Since they now think they have the mummy of Ramses identified and might be able to get DNA from it, how cool would it be for modern Egyptians to have a plaque on their wall certifying a relationship to their great,great, great, great,great, great, great, etc.
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