Khamure
Kho-Ra
Scarab of Khamure photographed by Flinders Petrie and now in the Petrie Museum[1][2]
Scarab of Khamure photographed by Flinders Petrie and now in the Petrie Museum[1][2]
Pharaoh
Reignunknown duration
Predecessorunknown
Successorunknown
Royal titulary
Nomen
Khamure
Ḫˁ-mw-Rˁ
nTrnfrN5N28
a		 n
n
n
Dynastyuncertain, possibly 14th dynasty

Khamure was a ruler of some part of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, possibly during the 17th century BC, and likely belonging to the 14th Dynasty.[3][4] As such he would have ruled from Avaris over the eastern Nile Delta and possibly over the Western Delta as well. His chronological position and identity are unclear.

Attestations

Khamure is one of the few attested kings of the 14th Dynasty with two scarab seals attributable to him, both of unknown provenance.[3][4] One of the two scarabs is currently housed in the Petrie Museum,[5][6] under the catalog number 11819, while the other was sold at an auction at Lotte New York Palace Hotel in December 1991.[7]

The Petrie Museum scarab is peculiar in that it has a unique and elaborate decoration on its back indicating that it was given to an official of the highest rank.[3] The scarab is inscribed with the name of Khamure preceded by the epithet Netjer Nefer, "the good god", showing that Khamure was this king's prenomen.[3] This means that Khamure is not listed in the surviving fragments of the Turin canon, a king list dating to the Ramesside period and recording the prenomina of the kings.

Identity

The archaeologists Olga Tufnell and William A. Ward argue that the name written on the scarab seal of the Petrie Museum is actually "'Ammu", possibly to be identified with 'Ammu Aahotepre, a shadowy king of the Second Intermediate Period.[5][8][9] The Egyptologists Kim Ryholt and Darrell Baker reject this reading, since Gardiner's sign N5 for the sun-disk is present on the seal.[3][4] Percy Newberry agrees that Khamure is the correct reading of the scarab.[1][2]

Although the chronological position of Khamure remains uncertain, Ryholt has proposed that he ruled in the 14th Dynasty, some time before Yaqub-Har and Yakareb. This estimation is based on a seriation of the scarabs dating to the Second Intermediate Period.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b Flinders Petrie: Scarabs and cylinders with names, illustrated by the Egyptian collection in University College, London by W. M. Flinders Petrie, British school of archaeology in Egypt and Egyptian research account, London 1917, available online copyright-free see pl. xxii, num 16.k.1
  2. ^ a b Percy E. Newberry: Scarabs an introduction to the study of Egyptian seals and signet rings, with forty-four plates and one hundred and sixteen illustrations in the text, 1906, see plate XXI, num 30, p. 150.
  3. ^ a b c d e f K.S.B. Ryholt: The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, c.1800–1550 BC, Carsten Niebuhr Institute Publications, vol. 20. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1997, excerpts available online here.
  4. ^ a b c Darrell D. Baker: The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume I - Predynastic to the Twentieth Dynasty 3300–1069 BC, Stacey International, ISBN 978-1-905299-37-9, 2008, p. 175–176
  5. ^ a b The scarab on Digital Egypt, Petrie Museum.
  6. ^ The scarab on the catalog of the Petrie Museum
  7. ^ Joyce Haynes, Yvonne Markowitz, Sue d'Auria (editor): Scarabs and Design Amulets : A Glimpse of Ancient Egypt in Miniature [Auction Catalog], NFA Classical Auctions, New York 1991, num 30, online reference.
  8. ^ Olga Tufnell: Studies on Scarab Seals Vol. 2, Aris & Phillips 1984, ISBN 978-0856681301, see seal num. 3361
  9. ^ William A. Ward: Some Personal Names of the Hyksos Period Rulers and Notes on the Epigraphy of Their Scarabs, Ugarit- Forschungen 8 (1976), p.353–369, see p. 368, num 42.
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