View source for Sanakht

{{Short description|Egyptian pharaoh}}
{{Distinguish|Setnakhte}}
{{Infobox pharaoh
| name           = Sanakht
| alt_name       = [[Nebka]] ? [[Horus Sa]] ?
| image          = ReliefFragmentOfPharaohSanakht-BritishMuseum-August21-08.jpg
| image_alt      =
| caption        = Relief fragment of Sanakht in the pose of smiting an enemy. Originally from the [[Sinai Peninsula|Sinai]], now EA 691 on display at the [[British Museum]].
| role           =
| reign          = 18 years according to the [[Turin Canon]], most likely less, starting ca. 2650 BC
| dynasty        = [[Third Dynasty of Egypt|3rd Dynasty]]
| coregency      =
| predecessor    = uncertain, [[Sekhemkhet]] (most likely) or [[Khaba]], [[Djoser]], [[Khasekhemwy]]
| successor      = uncertain, [[Khaba]] (most likely) or [[Sekhemkhet]], [[Huni]], [[Qahedjet]], [[Djoser]]

| notes          =
| prenomen       =
| prenomen_hiero =
| nomen          =
| nomen_hiero    =
| horus          = Hor-Sanakht<br/>''Ḥr-S3.nḫt''<br/>''Horus the victorious protector''
| horus_hiero    = <hiero>V18-N35:M3</hiero>
| horus_prefix   = <!-- Default is <hiero>G5</hiero> -->
| nebty          =
| nebty_hiero    =
| golden         =
| golden_hiero   =

| spouse         =
| children       =
| father         = [[Khasekhemwy]] ?
| mother         = [[Nimaathap]] ?
| birth_date     =
| death_date     =
| burial         = mastaba K2 at [[Beit Khallaf]]?
| monuments      =
}}'''Sanakht''' (also read as '''Hor-Sanakht''') is the [[Horus name]] of an [[ancient Egypt]]ian king ([[pharaoh]]) of the [[Third dynasty of Egypt|Third Dynasty]] during the [[Old Kingdom of Egypt|Old Kingdom]]. His chronological position is highly uncertain (though he is more likely to have reigned towards the end of the dynasty), and it is also unclear under which [[Hellenization|Hellenized]] name the ancient historian [[Manetho]] could have listed him. Many Egyptologists connect Sanakht with the Ramesside cartouche name ''[[Nebka]]''. However, this remains disputed because no further royal title of that king has ever been found; either in contemporary source or later ones. There are two relief fragments depicting Sanakht originally from the [[Wadi Maghareh]] on the [[Sinai Peninsula]].

== Identity ==
[[File:Seal Sanakht.png|thumb|right|120px|Clay seal fragment bearing Sanakht's serekh, together with what could be a cartouche of Nebka, from mastaba K2 at [[Beit Khallaf]].]]
Sanakht's identity and position in the Third Dynasty is not entirely clear and remains the subject of debate. While Sanakht's existence is attested by seal fragments from [[mastaba]] K2 at [[Beit Khallaf]] and a [[Graffito (archaeology)|graffito]], his position as the founder of the Third Dynasty, as recorded by [[Manetho]] and the [[Turin Canon]], has been seriously undermined by recent archaeological discoveries at [[Abydos, Egypt|Abydos]]. These discoveries establish that it was likely [[Djoser]] who helped bury—and thus succeed—Khasekhemwy, rather than Sanakht. This is determined from seals bearing Djoser's name found at the entrance to the latter's tomb.<ref>Toby A. H. Wilkinson: ''Early Dynastic Egypt. Strategies, Society and Security.'' Routledge, London u. a. 1999, {{ISBN|0-415-18633-1}}, p.&nbsp;83 & 95.</ref>

Proponents of the theory that Sanakht was nonetheless the founder of the dynasty object that the presence of Djoser's seals in Khasekhemwy's tomb only shows that Djoser conducted cultural rituals in honor of this king, and does not necessarily imply that Djoser was Khasekhemwy's immediate successor.<ref>Illaria Incordino: ''The third dynasty: A historical hypothesis.'', in: ''Jean Claude Goyon, Christine Cardin: Proceedings of the Ninth International Congress of Egyptologists''. p.  965, [https://books.google.com/books?id=R-Vv8kOU9BIC&dq=The+third+dynasty%3A+A+historical+hypothesis&pg=PA965]</ref> Sanakht could then have married Queen [[Nimaethap]], with Nimaethap being the daughter of [[Khasekhemwy]] rather than his wife. Together with Sanakht, they could be the parents of Djoser. Alternatively, some have considered Sanakht to be Djoser's elder brother.

Presently, the dominant theory is that Sanakht's reign dates to the later Third Dynasty, after Djoser. Egyptologists [[Toby Wilkinson]], Stephan Seidlmayer, [[Kenneth Kitchen]] and [[Rainer Stadelmann]] equate Sanakht with "Nebka", a name appearing in Ramesside king lists. In support of this theory is a clay seal fragment on which the lower part of a [[cartouche]] appears. In this cartouche Wilkinson, Seidlmayer and Stadelmann see traces of a ''Ka''-sign, the end of the name "Nebka".<ref>Toby A. H. Wilkinson: ''Early Dynastic Egypt. Strategies, Society and Security''. Routledge, London 1999, {{ISBN|0-415-18633-1}}, p. 101 – 104.</ref><ref>Kenneth Anderson Kitchen: ''Ramesside Inscriptions, Translated and Annotated Notes and Comments'', vol. 2. Blackwell, Oxford 1999, {{ISBN|063118435X}}, p. 534 – 538.</ref> Likewise, Dietrich Wildung favors equating Nebka with Sanakht, although he questions the validity of the seal as evidence given that it is too badly damaged to read the inscription within the cartouche as "Nebka" with any certainty.<ref name=wildung>Dietrich Wildung: ''Die Rolle ägyptischer Könige im Bewusstsein ihrer Nachwelt. Band 1: Posthume Quellen über die Könige der ersten vier Dynastien'' (= ''Münchner ägyptologische Studien'', vol. 17.). Hessling, Berlin 1969, p. 54 – 58.</ref>

John D. Degreef, [[Nabil Swelim]], and [[Wolfgang Helck]] are against equating Nebka with Sanakht. They refer to the fact that the name "Nebka" is not attested on any monument nor in any document dating to before Djoser.<ref name=wildung/> Instead, Nabil Swelim identifies Nebka with the Horus name [[Khaba]].<ref name=swelim>Nabil Swelim: ''Some Problems on the History of the Third Dynasty.'', in: ''Archaeological and Historical Studies'', The Archaeological Society of Alexandria, Alexandria 1983, pp. 95, 217–220 and 224.</ref> He further identifies Sanakht with a king ''[[Mesochris]]'' mentioned by Manetho, regarding this as a [[Hellenization|Hellenized]] form of the throne name of Sanakht. He dated Sanakht's reign to between the seventh and eighth king of the Third Dynasty.<ref name=swelim/>

[[Jürgen von Beckerath]], Wolfgang Helck, Dietrich Wildung and [[Peter Kaplony]] proposed that Sanakht's Horus name is that of the shadowy ''[[Horus Sa]]'', seeing the name "Sa" as a short form of "Sanakht".<ref>Jürgen von Beckerath: ''Handbuch der Ägyptischen Königsnamen'' (= ''Münchner ägyptologische Studien''. vol. 49). von Zabern, Mainz 1999, {{ISBN|3-8053-2591-6}}, p. 49, 283 & 293.</ref> From this, Wolfgang Helck holds that Sanakht's Nisut-Biti name was [[Weneg (pharaoh)|Weneg]]. King Weneg, however, is widely held to have ruled during the Second Dynasty, and Helck's theory has been greeted with skepticism.<ref name=helck>Wolfgang Helck: ''Untersuchungen zur Thinitenzeit'' (= ''Ägyptologische Abhandlungen'', vol. 45). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1987, {{ISBN|3-447-02677-4}}, p. 20 & 21.</ref>

Sanakht's name was once read "'''Hen Nekht'''" by Egyptologists such as [[E. A. Wallis Budge|Ernest Wallis Budge]]. Today, this reading is not in use anymore; the up-to-date reading is "'''Sanakht'''" or (seldom) "'''Nakht-Sa'''".<ref name=Myers/><ref>Dietrich Wildung: ''Die Rolle ägyptischer Könige im Bewusstsein ihrer Nachwelt. Band 1: Posthume Quellen über die Könige der ersten vier Dynastien'' (= ''Münchner ägyptologische Studien'', vol. 17.). Hessling, Berlin 1969, p. 54-58.</ref>

== Reign ==
The exact duration of Sanakht's time on the throne is unknown. Unlike Djoser, few relics survive from his reign, which casts serious doubts on the traditional figure of 18 years of reign for this king, as given by both Manetho and the Turin Canon. It must be stressed that the Turin Canon and Manetho were more than one and two thousand years removed from the time of Egypt's Third Dynasty, and would be expected to contain some inaccurate or unreliable data. The Turin Canon, for instance, was transcribed on papyri that dates to the reign of the New Kingdom king, [[Ramesses II]], who ruled Egypt from 1279 to 1213 BC.
[[File:Sanakht Relief.png|thumb|left|170px|Relief of Sanakht from the [[Wadi Maghareh]].]]
Very little is known of Sanakht's activities during his reign. The presence of reliefs depicting him in the Sinai at [[Wadi Maghareh]] together with those of Djoser and [[Sekhemkhet]] suggest an important Egyptian presence there at the time of the Third Dynasty.<ref name=Incordino>Illaria Incordino: ''The third dynasty: A historical hypothesis.'', in: ''Jean Claude Goyon, Christine Cardin: Proceedings of the Ninth International Congress of Egyptologists''. p.  966</ref> Expeditions were launched to that location for the procurement of mineral resources, in particular [[turquoise]].

== Tomb ==
[[File:Hen Nekht.png|thumb|left|190px|Possible skull of Pharaoh Sanakht from mastaba K2 at Beit Khallaf.]]
The location of Sanakht's tomb is not known with certainty. It was long thought that Sanakht's tomb was the large [[mastaba]] K2 at [[Beit Khallaf]], as excavations there yielded relief fragments bearing his name. However, some Egyptologists now regard this mastaba as the burial of a high official, prince or queen rather than that of a pharaoh,<ref name=grimal>Nicolas Grimal: ''A History of Ancient Egypt''. Blackwell-Publishing, Oxford 1992, {{ISBN|0-631-19396-0}}, p. 64.</ref> while others continue to support the first hypothesis.<ref>Ilaria Incordino: ''Reign of Horus Sanakht: possible founder of the Third Dynasty''. In: Francesco Raffaele, Massimiliano Nuzzolo and Ilaria Incordino: ''Recent Discoveries and Latest Researches in Egyptology''. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2010, {{ISBN|978-3-447-06251-0}}, p. 145-155.</ref>

In the mastaba were found the skeletal remains of a man over {{height|metres=1.87}} tall. According to [[Charles S. Myers]], this stature was considerably taller than the {{cvt|1.67|m}} average of prehistoric and later Egyptians. The specimen's skull was very large and capacious. Although his [[cranial index]] was unusually broad and almost [[Brachycephaly|brachycephalic]], the proportions of his long bones were tropically adapted like those of most other ancient Egyptians; especially those from the predynastic period. His overall cranial features, however, were closer to those of dynastic period Egyptian skulls.<ref name=Myers>{{cite journal|last=Myers|first=Charles S.|title=The Bones of Hen Nekht, an Egyptian King of the Third Dynasty|journal=Man|date=1901|volume=131|pages=152–153|doi=10.2307/2839307|jstor=2839307|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1955758}}</ref>

Consequently, the mastaba has been associated with an anecdote related by Manetho in which he tells of a late Second Dynasty king, called ''Sesochris'', whom he describes as being particularly tall. The Egyptologist Wolfgang Helck proposed another hypothesis; namely, that Sanakht's tomb is an [[Gisr el-Mudir|unfinished structure]] west of the [[pyramid of Djoser]].<ref name=helck/>

While the case of Sanakht has often appeared in the medical literature as a potential case of [[pituitary disease]], no definitive consensus has existed for many years on whether it was [[acromegaly]] or [[gigantism]]. In 2017 [[palaeopathology|palaeopathologist]] Francesco M. Galassi and Egyptologist Michael E. Habicht from Zurich University's Institute of Evolutionary Medicine coordinated an international team of researchers to reassess this case. Their conclusion was that the alleged remains of Sanakht are clearly the oldest known case of gigantism in the world.<ref>Francesco M. Galassi, Maciej Henneberg, Wouter de Herder, Frank Rühli, Michael E. Habicht, "Oldest case of gigantism? Assessment of the alleged remains of Sa-Nakht, king of ancient Egypt." ''Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology''. 2017 Vol 5 (8) p. 580-581. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2213-8587(17)30171-7</ref><ref>Newsweek: Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Is World’s Oldest Case of Gigantism http://www.newsweek.com/ancient-egypt-giant-pharaoh-king-sanakht-647292</ref>

== See also ==
*[[List of Pharaohs]]
*[[List of Egyptian pyramids]]
*[[List of megalithic sites]]

== References ==
{{reflist|2}}

== External links ==
*[http://www.nemo.nu/ibisportal/0egyptintro/3egypt/index.htm Egyptian kings: Sanakht]

{{Pharaohs}}
{{authority control}}

[[Category:27th-century BC pharaohs]]
[[Category:Pharaohs of the Third Dynasty of Egypt]]
[[Category:People with gigantism]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Year of death unknown]]