Mehibtawy Sekhemkare Amenemhat Sonbef (also Amenemhat Senbef) was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 13th Dynasty during the Second Intermediate Period. According to Egyptologists Kim Ryholt, Jürgen von Beckerath and Darrell Baker, he was the second king of the Dynasty, reigning from 1800 BC until 1796 BC.
Identity
There is a debate among Egyptologists on whether or not Sekhemkare Sonbef is the same king as Sekhemkare Amenemhat V, the fourth ruler of the 13th Dynasty. Indeed, Sonbef called himself “Amenemhat Sonbef”; this can be a double name. But it can also be a filiation son of Amenemhat Sonbef. Ryholt and Baker see this as evidence that Sonbef was a son of Amenemhat IV and a brother of Sekhemre Khutawy Sobekhotep, the founder of the 13th Dynasty. Thus, they see Sonbef and Amenemhat V as two different rulers, an opinion also shared by Jürgen von Beckerath. Ryholt and Baker further posit that the short reign of Nerikare separated Sonbef’s and Amenemhat’s rules. At the same time, von Beckerath believes Sekhemre Khutawy Pantjeny reigned between the two. Conversely, Detlef Franke and Stephen Quirke believe that Amenemhat V and Sonbef are the same. Franke and others regard “Amenemhat Sonbef” as a double name. Indeed, dual naming was common in Egypt, especially in the late 12th and 13th Dynasties.
Attestations
Sonbef is attested on column 7, line 6 of the Turin canon, where he appears as “Sekhemkare [Amenemhat Sonbe]f”. Although, as a king of the early 13th Dynasty, Sonbef undoubtedly reigned from Itjtawy in the Faiyum, the only contemporary attestations are from south of Thebes. These include a scarab seal of unknown provenance, a cylinder seal from the Amherst collection and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and two inscribed blocks from El-Tod where he appears under the name Sekhemkare. Two Nile records are also attributable to him, one from Askut and dated to his year 3, and the other from Semna in Nubia, dated to his year 4. A further, much-damaged record from Semna dated to a year five may also belong to him. However, the ownership of these Nile records is still in doubt, as they only bear the prenomen Sekhemkare, which Amenemhat V also acquired. The Egyptologist and archaeologist Stuart Tyson Smith, who studied the records, initially attributed them to Sonbef but later changed his opinion and attributed them to Amenemhat V.
