Menwadjre Sihathor was an ephemeral ruler of the 13th Dynasty during the late Middle Kingdom. According to Egyptologist Kim Ryholt, he died in 1733 BC, while Detlef Franke dates his short reign to 1694 BC. Sihathor may never have enjoyed an independent authority, possibly only ruling for a few months as coregent with his brother Neferhotep I. His tomb is likely to be the unfinished one between the burials of his brothers S9 and S10 in Abydos.
Attestations
According to the latest reading of the Turin canon by Ryholt, Sihathor is recorded there on column 7, line 26 (Gardiner col. 6, line 26). This pharaoh is attested on two statues from the Hekaib sanctuary in Elephantine as a “king’s son”, an honorary title referring to his brother Neferhotep I being king. Two rock inscriptions from Philae and Sehel Island mention Sihathor as a brother to Neferhotep I. According to Ryholt and Stephen Quirke, Sihathor is also attested as a king on a steatite cylinder seal, now in the Petrie Museum (UC1157), and a bead of unknown provenance, now in the Brooklyn Museum. A few further seals mentioning a king’s son Sihathor are known, but Ryholt concludes that they may correspond to another Sihathor. Finally, Vivian Davies points to the existence of a statue of Sihathor made after his death and where he is only given the title of “king’s son”.
Family of Sihathor
The family of Sihathor is known thanks to the rock inscriptions of Philae and Sehel made by his brother Neferhotep I. Sihathor’s father is thus known to be Haankhef, his mother was Kemi, and his brothers were Neferhotep I and Sobekhotep IV, the latter of whom eventually succeeded him on the throne.
Tomb of Sihathor
The Egyptologist and archaeologist Josef W. Wegner of the University of Pennsylvania have led excavations of the tomb and funerary complex of Senusret III in Abydos and the surrounding necropolis. This cemetery comprises royal tombs dating to the Second Intermediate Period and from the earlier late Middle Kingdom. Two large tombs, in particular, S9 and S10, are now believed to belong to Sihathor’s pharaoh brothers, Neferhotep I and Sobekhotep IV. By extension, S9 is likely to belong to Neferhotep I. Indeed, evidence gathered from the neighbouring tombs reveals that a king, Sobekhotep, was buried in S10, who must be Sobekhotep IV, given the size of the burial, its general datation and location in Abydos.
These attributions are crucial for locating Sihathor’s tomb, as Wegner has found an unfinished royal burial at the immediate north-east of S10, east of S9. The burial seems to have been abandoned at the death of its intended owner, its massive granite sarcophagus reused later, during the chaotic Second Intermediate Period. According to him, its position strongly suggests that it was intended for Neferhotep’s chosen heir Sihathor.
