Sekhemhet (2631-2623)

  Sekhemhet (2631-2623)

Sekhemkhet Quick Facts 

Chronology

 Dynasty: 3rd
Predecessor: Horus Djoser  
 Successor: Horus Khaba
Reign: 2631 - 2623 BCFamily
Mother: Batirites
Wife: Djeseretnebti (?)

Horus Sekhemkhet was the successor of Horus Netjerikhet who is mainly known from a relief in the Sinai and from his unfinished funerary complex at Saqqara.

Biography of Horus Sekhemkhe

According to the Turin Canon, Djoser's immediate successor, Horus Sekhemkhet, identified by his personal name Djoser-Ti, ruled for only six years. The human remains found in the South Tomb of Sekhemkhet’s funerary complex at Saqqara belonged to a two year old child and are thus very unlikely to have belonged to Sekhemkhet himself.
It is also not clear if Sekhemkhet and his predecessor, Djoser were related. According to the Cairo fragment of the Royal Annals, Sekhemkhet's mother was named Batirites, but there are no known sources that mention her in relationship to Djoser. The choice of a Horus Name with the same pattern as that of his predecessor may perhaps indicate some relationship between the two kings.
A relief in the Wadi Maghara in the Sinai showing Sekhemkhet slaying a foe is sometimes seen as proof that Sekhemkhet was an adult during his reign. Such stereotyped representation, however, should be seen for what they are: conform to the canonic way of representing a king, regardless of his actual physical state, age or even sex.
Sekhemkhet's funerary monument, the Buried Pyramid built to the south-west of Netjerikhet’s, was never finished, which may corroborate the short reign credited to Sekhemkhet by the Turin King-list. If it would have been finished, however, it would have been an even more magnificent building than Djoser’s.
When this monument was discovered, its sarcophagus was found sealed and empty. It does not appear to have been used, hinting perhaps at an untimely death for this king.

Titulary of Horus Sekhemkhet

Horus Name

1. Hr sxm X.tHorus, powerful of body

Kinglists

2. ttiTeti
3. Dsr ttiDjoser Teti
4. Dsr tjDjoserti
5. Dsr ttiDjoser Teti
6. ittiIteti

Manetho
Africanus: Tyreis, Tyris
Eusebius has not recorded the name of this king and has only mentioned that the remaing kings of the dynasty achieved nothing worthy of mention.
Alternative names in modern-day literature

• Horus-Sekhemkhet, Djoser-Teti, Sékhemkhet, Horus Sekhemkhet, Sechemchet, Horus Sechemchet, Horus-Sechemchet

• Sekhemkhet Funerary Complex

  Location
  Sekhemkhet started his pyramid complex at Saqqara to the north-west of that of his predecessor, Djoser, and to the east of the so-called Great Enclosure, possibly a part of a funerary complex dated towards the end of the 2nd Dynasty, a couple of generations before Sekhemkhet.
  Sekhemkhet had a short reign, which might explain why his funerary monument was left unfinished. Had it been completed, it would have been slightly larger than Djoser’s.
  The name of Netjerikhet’s brilliant architect, Imhotep, is mentioned on the north enclosure wall. It is therefor very likely that Sekhemkhet’s funerary monument was designed by Imhotep as well. 
  
  Structure
  Because it was not completed, the structure of the complex of Sekhemkhet is a lot more simple than Djoser’s Complex and most of the fake buildings that are found in Djoser’s monument, are missing in Sekhemkhet’s.
  There was a surrounding wall, with a palace façade motif, a central Step Pyramid with a fairly simple substructure and to the south of it, a South Tomb. Some remaining structures hint that the design of this complex appears to have been changed while it was being built.
  

  
  
  Source: Lehner, Complete Pyramids, p. 94-95. 
  
  Enclosure wall
  An enclosure wall was begun to surround the complex. The parts that were finished and still remain today demonstrate that it would have been similar to the wall around Djoser's complex. It was panelled and had extending bastions. It was, however, thinner than Djoser's and the blocks were somewhat larger.
  Despite the fact that work on this complex was abandoned at a very early stage, the enclosure wall shows that during the work, it had been extended both to the South and the North.
  
  
  

  The enclosure wall of Sekhemkhet's funerary complex as left unfinished.
  A mortuary temple or a Heb-Sed court have not been discovered (yet). It is possible that the building of these structures had not yet started when Sekhemkhet died.
  
  South Tomb
  As was the case with the pyramid, the South tomb was never finished either. The only part that was discovered were its foundations, part of a destroyed mastaba and a rudimentary substructure.
  The entrance is located at the West side. At the end of it a simple widening contained a wooden sarcophagus, stone vases and some jewellery, all dated to the 3rd Dynasty.
  The sarcophagus contained the remains of a two year old boy, making it very unlikely that they are the remains of Sekhemkhet himself.
  
  Step Pyramid
  Sekhemkhet's pyramid was intended as a step-pyramid. In the construction of the pyramid, the same technique was used as for Djoser's: accretions leaning inwards by 15°, with sloping courses of relatively small stone blocks were laid at right angles to the incline.
  As a result of the pyramid not being finished, the outer casing never appears to have been added. Had it been finished, the pyramid would have risen in 7 steps to a height of 70 metres, thus surpassing Djoser's. Probably due to the short reign of Sekhemkhet, it was abandoned at a very early stage and it never rose above the surface of its rectangular enclosure. In its present state, all that is left are a few courses of core masonry, nowhere higher than 7 metres above ground level.
  
  
  
  Source: Lehner, Complete Pyramids, p. 94.

  
  The substructure of the pyramid wasn't as complex as Djoser's. A subterranean set of 132 galleries or magazines built in U-shape around the North, East and West side of the  pyramid was never finished.
  The entrance to the substructure is located to its north, but outside of the actual pyramid. A descending entrance corridor leads to the burial chamber, past three sets of blockings which appeared intact. A wide vertical shaft enters the ceiling of this passage, rising through the rock and the core of the pyramid. This shaft was probably used to lower blocks into the passage when the tomb needed to be sealed.
  
  

  

  The entrance to the sub-structure of the Step Pyramid, as it is today. 

  The roughly rectangular burial chamber of the pyramid, located directly under the centre of the monument, measured 8.9 by 5.22 by 4.55 metres and was left unfinished. Corridors led to different but again unfinished galleries, that may have been intended to be "apartments" as was the case in Djoser 's pyramid.
  
  

   

  A glimpse of the burial chamber reveals its unfinished state. The white, rectangular block almost in the centre is Sekhemkhet's sarcophagus.
  Source: Lehner, Complete Pyramids, p. 94.
  

  An alabaster sarcophagus discovered in the burial chamber is unique in that it was made of a single piece of stone with a sliding door at one end. On top of it lay some decomposed plant material, originally believed to be a funerary wreath, but analysis has shown that it was bark and wood.
  Although it was closed and sealed with mortar when it was found, the sarcophagus was empty. Because it was sealed and because the descending passage was still blocked when it was cleared by archaeologists, it is unlikely that this tomb had been violated by tomb-robbers.
  The question what happened to Sekhemkhet's body and why it never appears to have been placed inside the sarcophagus has never been answered.
  
  
  
  
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