Merhotepre Sobekhotep (also known as Sobekhotep V; Sobekhotep VI in older studies) was an Egyptian king of the 13th Dynasty during the Second Intermediate Period. According to egyptologist Kim Ryholt, he was the thirtieth pharaoh of the Dynasty, while Darrell Baker believes instead that he was its twenty-ninth ruler. In older studies, Jürgen von Beckerath and Detlef Franke identified Merhotepre Sobekhotep with Merhotepre Ini, thereby making him Sobekhotep VI and the twenty-eighth ruler of the 13th Dynasty.
Identity of Merhotepre Sobekhotep
The identity of Merhotepre Sobekhotep is debatable because his name is missing from the Turin canon, a king list redacted in the early Ramesside period. According to Kim Ryholt, Merhotepre Sobekhotep is missing from the list because he was listed in the line below that of Sobekhotep IV. This line was lost in a lacuna of the papyrus. That this king must have ruled during the 13th Dynasty, however, is uncontested since a seated statue of the king bearing his cartouche has been found and is now located in the Cairo Museum. While Franke and von Beckerath identified Merhotepre Sobekhotep with Merhotepre Ini because they have the same prenomen, Ryholt showed in 1997 that he was listed in the lacuna below Sobekhotep IV. Furthermore, Ryholt points to the many rulers of the period who shared prenomen and were not the same person. Ryholt thus sees him as a separate ruler from Merhotepre Ini and credits him with a reign of approximately three years.
Chronological position
Merhotepre Sobekhotep’s position following the reign of Sobekhotep IV is strongly suggested by the fact that five 13th Dynasty pharaohs are attested by genealogical seals, which mention their parents. These pharaohs are known to have been Sobekhotep III, Neferhotep I and his two brothers Sihathor, and Sobekhotep IV. But two genealogical seals bear the names of the ruler’s mother as The king’s Mother, Nubhotepti and the king as Sobekhotep. However, Sobekhotep III’s mother was Jewhetibew, whereas Neferhotep I, Sihathor and Sobekhotep IV were the sons of The King’s Mother, Kemi. This means that a different king named Sobekhotep used genealogical seals in his lifetime. A further seal impression found at Tukh mentions the father of this unknown king. While it is broken and the father’s name is unreadable, “it is clear from the traces that it was neither Monthhotep [Sobekhotep III’s father] or Haankhef [Neferhotep I, Sihathor and Sobekhotep IV’s father]”. Therefore, this seal impression is likely to have been made by the paternal counterpart to the seal named Nubhotepti. Since the seal impression bears a prenomen that appears to read mr-[…]-r’, Ryholt argues that we are dealing “with a king whose nomen was Sobekhotep and whose prenomen was constructed on the form mr-X-rˁ” such as Merhotepre or Merkawre Sobekhotep.
Ryholt notes that during the 13th Dynasty, royal genealogical seals were used only during the period of the four identified kings who succeeded each other on the throne: Sobekhotep III-Neferhotep I-Sihathor-Sobekhotep IV. During the 30+ years that followed in the reigns of Khahotepre Sobekhotep, Wahibre Ibiau and Merneferre Ay, no genealogical seals are attested for these three kings. It is safe to assume that “it had thus positively gone out of use by their reigns”. Thus, Merkawre Sobekhotep would not have used it in his reign since he was the ninth successor of Sobekhotep IV. The 30-year gap also excludes the authorities of other intervening kings from the death of Sobekhotep IV and the accession of Merkawre Sobekhotep, such as Sewadjkare Hori, who ruled Egypt for five years as per the Turin King List. Therefore, king Merhotepre Sobekhotep, who is also attested by a statue from the Cairo Museum, would be the only candidate remaining to be the immediate successor of Sobekhotep IV and predecessor of Khahotepre Sobekhotep. Merhotepre Sobekhotep employed genealogical seals, and his name was lost in a lacuna at the bottom of a column of the Turin canon. The successor of Merhotepre Sobekhotep, Khahotepre Sobekhotep, whose reign is mentioned in the Turin canon, also has a prenomen similar in style since it is built on an X-htp-rˁ formula, further confirming that both reigned in close succession.
