Khaneferre Sobekhotep IV was one of the more powerful Egyptian kings of the 13th Dynasty (c. 1803 BC to c. 1649 BC) who reigned for at least eight years. His brothers, Neferhotep I and Sihathor, were his predecessors on the throne, the latter having ruled as coregent for a few months.
Sobekhotep states on a stela found in the Amun temple at Karnak that he was born in Thebes. The king is believed to have reigned for around ten years. He is known for a relatively high number of monuments, including stelae, statues, many seals and other minor objects. There are attestations for building works at Abydos and Karnak.
Family
Sobekhotep was the son of the ‘god’s father’ Haankhef and the ‘king’s mother’ Kemi. His grandfather was the soldier of the town’s regiment Nehy. His grandmother was called Senebtysy. Sobekhotep might have had several wives, only one of which is known for sure, the “king’s wife” Tjan. Several children are known. These are Amenhotep and Nebetiunet, both with Tjan as a mother. There are three further king’s sons: Sobekhotep Miu, Sobekhotep Djadja and Haankhef Iykhernofret. Their mother is not recorded in extant sources.
Royal court
The royal court is also well known from sources contemporaneous with Neferhotep I, providing evidence that Sobekhotep IV continued the politics of his brother in the administration. The Vizier was Neferkare Iymeru. The treasurer was Senebi, and the high steward a certain Nebankh.
Royal activities
A stela of the king found at Karnak reports donations to the Amun-Ra temple. A pair of door jambs with the king’s name was found at Karnak, attesting some building work. There is also a restoration inscription on a statue of King Mentuhotep II, also coming from Karnak. From Abydos are known several inscribed blocks attesting some building activities at the local temple. The vizier Neferkare Iymeru reports on one of his statues found at Karnak (Paris, Louvre A 125) that he built a canal and a house for millions of years for the king. The statue of the vizier was found at Karnak and might indicate that these buildings were erected there.
Year 6 is an expedition to the amethyst mines at Wadi el-Hudi in southernmost Egypt. The expedition is attested via four stelae set up at Wadi el-Hudi.[6] From the Wadi Hammamat comes a stela dated to the ninth regnal year of the king.
He was perhaps buried at Abydos, where a vast tomb (compare: S10) named a pharaoh Sobekhotep was found by Josef W. Wegner of the University of Pennsylvania just next to the funerary complex of Senusret III of the 12th Dynasty. Although initially attributed to pharaoh Sekhemre Khutawy Sobekhotep I, the burial style suggests a tomb date under Sobekhotep IV.
Sobekhotep IV’s rule over a divided Egypt
While Sobekhotep IV was one of the most potent 13th dynasty rulers, his control over Memphis, Middle Egypt and Thebes are well attested by historical records. It is believed that he did not rule over a united Egypt. According to the egyptologist Kim Ryholt, the 14th Dynasty was already in control of the eastern Nile Delta at the time.
Alternatively, N. Moeller and G. Marouard argue that the eastern Delta was ruled by the 15th Dynasty Hyksos king Khyan at the time of Sobekhotep IV. Their argument, presented in a recently published article, relies on discovering an important early 12th dynasty (Middle Kingdom) administrative building in Tell Edfu, Upper Egypt. It was continuously used from the early Second Intermediate Period until it fell out of use during the 17th Dynasty when a large silo court sealed its remains. Fieldwork by Egyptologists in 2010 and 2011 into the remains of the former 12th Dynasty building, which was still in use at the time of the 13th Dynasty, led to the discovery of a sizeable adjoining hall. It contained 41 sealings showing the cartouche of the Hyksos ruler Khyan and nine sealings naming the 13th dynasty king Sobekhotep IV. As Moeller, Marouard and Ayers write: “These finds come from a secure and sealed archaeological context and open up new questions about the cultural and chronological evolution of the late Middle Kingdom and early Second Intermediate Period.” They conclude, first, that Khyan was one of the earlier Hyksos kings and may not have been succeeded by Apophis—who was the second last king of the Hyksos kings. And second, the 15th (Hyksos) Dynasty was already in existence by the mid-13th Dynasty period since Khyan controlled a part of northern Egypt at the same time as Sobekhotep IV ruled the rest of Egypt as a pharaoh of the 13th Dynasty.
However, Robert Porter questioned this analysis and its conclusions and argued that Khyan ruled much later than Sobekhotep IV. Porter notes that the seals of a pharaoh were used even long after his death but also wonders whether Sobekhotep IV reigned much later and whether the early Thirteenth Dynasty was much longer than previously thought. In Ryholt’s chronology of the Second Intermediate Period, Khyan and Sobekhotep IV are separated by c. 100 years. Nicolas Grimal obtains a similar figure. Alexander Ilin-Tomich looked closely at the pottery associated with the finds of seal impressions. He drew parallels to Elephantine, where one of the pottery forms of the discovery appears in a relatively late Second Intermediate Period context. Ilin-Tomich concludes that there is no reason to believe that Khyan and Sobekhotep IV reigned simultaneously. The level at which the seal impressions were found is later than Sobekhotep IV.
Regardless of the theory, either the 14th or 15th dynasty already controlled the Delta by the time of Sobekhotep IV.
