Gemenefkhonsbak
Gemenefkhonsbak was an ancient Egyptian ruler ("king") of Tanis during the 25th Dynasty.
Gemenefkhonsbak | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Gem(e)nefkhons(u)bak | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Drawing by Flinders Petrie of a seal reading Shepeskare.[2] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
King of Tanis | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Reign | c. 700 – c. 680 BCE[3] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Predecessor | Osorkon IV (not directly) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Successor | Sehetepibenre Pedubast? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Biography
Little is known of him. According to Kenneth Kitchen, he ruled Tanis from around 700 to c. 680 BCE[3] some time after the fall of the last Tanite pharaoh of the 22nd Dynasty, Osorkon IV, which occurred shortly after 716 BCE. Like many of the Nile Delta governors, he proclaimed himself king, adopting a royal titulary.[6]
His successor as ruler of Tanis could have been Sehetepibenre Pedubast.[6]
Attestations
Few monuments bearing his name were found. The better known among these is a hieratic stele from Heliopolis and now in the Museo Egizio of Turin; on this stele, this king is depicted while spearing a foreigner who lies before Osiris.[5] According to Miroslav Verner, a scaraboid seal of unknown origin reading Shepeskare, which Flinders Petrie attributed to pharaoh Shepseskare of the 5th Dynasty at the beginning of the 20th century, may instead belong to Gemenefkhonsbak.[7]
References
- Flinders Petrie: A History of Egypt, Volume I, 1902, p. 74 fig. 43, available online copyright-free
- Flinders Petrie: A History of Egypt, Volume I, 1902, p. 74 fig. 43, available online copyright-free
- Kenneth Kitchen, The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (1100–650 BC), 1996, Aris & Phillips Limited, Warminster, ISBN 0-85668-298-5, table 23B, although these dates are uncertain.
- Jürgen von Beckerath, Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen (= Münchner ägyptologische Studien, vol 46), Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 1999. ISBN 3-8053-2310-7, pp. 212–13
- Serge Sauneron (1962), "Une stèle «égarée» du roi Gemnefkhonsoubak", Chronique d'Égipte 37, pp. 291−92
- Kitchen, op. cit. § 357
- Miroslav Verner (2000), Who was Shepseskara, and when did he reign?, in: Miroslav Bárta, Jaromír Krejčí (editors), Abusir and Saqqara in the Year 2000, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Oriental Institute, Prague, ISBN 80-85425-39-4, p. 582, available online Archived 2011-02-01 at the Wayback Machine.