Nebtawyre Mentuhotep IV was the last king of the 11th Dynasty. He seems to fit into a 7-year period in the Turin Canon for which no recorded king exists.
Rock inscriptions
He is known from a few inscriptions in Wadi Hammamat that record expeditions to the Red Sea coast and quarry stone for the royal monuments. One of these inscriptions confirms the name of his mother to be Imi. It seems that he was the son of his predecessor.
Also, he is attested by the inscriptions at Wadi el-Hudi. Another relevant inscription is found in Ain Sukhna. These locations were the usual staging harbours for the expeditions to the Sinai.
Despite Mentuhotep’s obscurity (he is absent from the official Abydos king list), the inscriptions show the organization and makeup of a large expedition during his reign. The leader of an expedition to Wadi Hammamat during the second year of Mentuhotep IV’s reign was his vizier, Amenemhat, who is assumed to be the future king Amenemhat I, the first king of the 12th Dynasty, and Mentuhotep’s immediate successor.
A fragment of a slate bowl found at Lisht North was regarded for a long time to be inscribed on the outside with the official titulary of Mentuhotep IV and on the inside with that of King Amenemhat I, his successor. Since the two inscriptions are incised in a different style of writing, according to Dorothea Arnold, this indicates that Amenemhat had his name added to an older vessel that already bore the name of Mentuhotep IV. However, Peter Janosi showed that Mentuhotep IV is not mentioned in the bowl; the titulary preserved there fits better with Mentuhotep II.
End of Mentuhotep IV reign
Some Egyptologists assume that Amenemhat either usurped the throne or assumed power after Mentuhotep IV died childlessly. There is currently no archaeological or textual evidence to prove that Mentuhotep was deposed by his vizier or that he chose Amenemhat as his designated successor. Neither his mummy nor his burial place has been found.
