Seth-Peribsen was a
kingPharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. In antiquity this title began to be used for the ruler who was the religious and political leader of united ancient Egypt. This was true only during the New Kingdom, specifically during the middle of...
during the
Second dynasty of EgyptThe Second Dynasty of ancient Egypt is often combined with the First dynasty under the group title, Early Dynastic Period of Egypt. The capital at that time was Thinis.-Rulers:...
who ruled for seventeen years. He is considered to be the predecessor of
KhasekhemwyKhasekhemwy was the fifth and final king of the Second dynasty of Egypt. Little is known of Khasekhemwy, other than that he led several significant military campaigns and built several monuments, still extant, mentioning war against the Northerners...
and was buried in
Umm el-Qa'abUmm el-Qa`āb is the necropolis of the Early Dynastic kings at Abydos, in Egypt. Its modern name means Mother of Pots, as the whole area is littered with the broken pot shards of offerings made in later times .The area was a site of veneration and worship for the Ancient Egyptians, and by the time...
in
AbydosAbydos , one of the most ancient cities of Upper Egypt, is about 11 kilometres west of the Nile at latitude 26° 10' N...
, where a seal impression contains the first full sentence written in hieroglyphs.
His burial stelae (one of which is on display in the
British MuseumThe British Museum is a museum of human history and culture situated in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from...
) show a
SethIn Ancient Egyptian mythology, Set is an ancient god, who was originally the god of the desert, Storms, Darkness, and Chaos...
-creature rather than the more common
HorusHorus is one of the oldest and most significant of the deities in the Ancient Egyptian religion who was worshipped from at least the late Predynastic period through to Greco-Roman times. Different forms of Horuses are recorded in history and these are treated as distinct gods by Egyptologists...
, and this might reveal that the king did not rule over the whole area of
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
.
There is considerable academic debate as to whether Peribsen was succeeded by
Sekhemib-PerenmaatSekhemib-Perenmaat, a poorly attested pharaoh of the Egyptian second dynasty, may have been the same individual also known as Peribsen, or, more likely, was a separate king who ruled Lower Egypt at the same time that Peribsen ruled Upper Egypt. Recent archaeological evidence from Saqqara supports...
, or whether these two individuals are in fact the same person, being referred to by different names (this may well example the presence of the Seth-creature on his
SerekhIn Egyptian hieroglyphs, a serekh is a rectangular enclosure representing the niched or gated façade of a palace surmounted by the Horus falcon, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name...
).
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Seth-Peribsen was a
kingPharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. In antiquity this title began to be used for the ruler who was the religious and political leader of united ancient Egypt. This was true only during the New Kingdom, specifically during the middle of...
during the
Second dynasty of EgyptThe Second Dynasty of ancient Egypt is often combined with the First dynasty under the group title, Early Dynastic Period of Egypt. The capital at that time was Thinis.-Rulers:...
who ruled for seventeen years. He is considered to be the predecessor of
KhasekhemwyKhasekhemwy was the fifth and final king of the Second dynasty of Egypt. Little is known of Khasekhemwy, other than that he led several significant military campaigns and built several monuments, still extant, mentioning war against the Northerners...
and was buried in
Umm el-Qa'abUmm el-Qa`āb is the necropolis of the Early Dynastic kings at Abydos, in Egypt. Its modern name means Mother of Pots, as the whole area is littered with the broken pot shards of offerings made in later times .The area was a site of veneration and worship for the Ancient Egyptians, and by the time...
in
AbydosAbydos , one of the most ancient cities of Upper Egypt, is about 11 kilometres west of the Nile at latitude 26° 10' N...
, where a seal impression contains the first full sentence written in hieroglyphs.
His burial stelae (one of which is on display in the
British MuseumThe British Museum is a museum of human history and culture situated in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from...
) show a
SethIn Ancient Egyptian mythology, Set is an ancient god, who was originally the god of the desert, Storms, Darkness, and Chaos...
-creature rather than the more common
HorusHorus is one of the oldest and most significant of the deities in the Ancient Egyptian religion who was worshipped from at least the late Predynastic period through to Greco-Roman times. Different forms of Horuses are recorded in history and these are treated as distinct gods by Egyptologists...
, and this might reveal that the king did not rule over the whole area of
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
.
Seth-Peribsen and Sekhemib
There is considerable academic debate as to whether Peribsen was succeeded by
Sekhemib-PerenmaatSekhemib-Perenmaat, a poorly attested pharaoh of the Egyptian second dynasty, may have been the same individual also known as Peribsen, or, more likely, was a separate king who ruled Lower Egypt at the same time that Peribsen ruled Upper Egypt. Recent archaeological evidence from Saqqara supports...
, or whether these two individuals are in fact the same person, being referred to by different names (this may well example the presence of the Seth-creature on his
SerekhIn Egyptian hieroglyphs, a serekh is a rectangular enclosure representing the niched or gated façade of a palace surmounted by the Horus falcon, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name...
). As Jochem Kahl states in the most recent (2006) publication on Egyptian chronology:
- "It is not clear whether the next two [kings] names--Horus Sekhem-ib and Seth Per-ibsen--belonged to a single ruler or to two different kings. Peribsen certainly claimed to rule over all of Egypt, but the sources do not confirm this. Contemporaneous evidence for Seth Peribsen is restricted to UE (Upper Egypt) between Elephantine and Beit Khallaf, just north of Abydos, except for his funerary cult in association with nwsw bjt Sened at Saqqara."
In contrast, Sekhemib "is attested at Abydos and Saqqara" and seal impressions mentioning Sekhemib have been found in the tomb of Peribsen "while at Saqqara, stone vessels with Sekhemib's name were found in the Step Pyramid. Kahl notes that this does not prove that Sekhemib "exercise influence in the Memphite region, since these vessels could have been brought to Saqqara from Abydos after Sekhemib's death."
Kahl mentions three current or older theories concerning the relationship between these two kings: a) Sekhemib and Seth-Peribsen were either names borne simultaneously by a single ruler, b) Horus Sekhemib was merely the older name of Seth Peribsen or c) Horus Sekhemib buried Seth-Peribsen and was thus his successor. Due to the absence of conclusive evidence, Kahl notes that "at present there is no compelling argument favouring one alternative over the others."