by
Damien F. Mackey
Once again, there is no real “absence of data” when we recognise the documents
of the Middle Kingdom as being wholly relevant to the Old Kingdom.
As preparatory reading, see e.g. my articles:
Egypt’s Old and Middle Kingdoms Far Closer in Time than Conventionally Thought
(4) Egypt's Old and Middle Kingdoms far closer in time than conventionally thought | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
Sphinx of Giza and Egypt’s so-called ‘Middle’ Kingdom
(4) Sphinx of Giza and Egypt’s so-called 'Middle' Kingdom | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
Missing old Egyptian tombs and temples
(4) Missing old Egyptian tombs and temples | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
Marco Zecchi wrote in (2010):
Sobek of Shedet. The Crocodile God in the Fayyum in the Dynastic Period
(4) Sobek of Shedet. The Crocodile God in the Fayyum in the Dynastic Period | Marco Zecchi - Academia.edu
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Old Kingdom
Unfortunately, nothing of Shedet from the Old Kingdom has survived. We have no idea of its temple in this period and we do not even possess many documents regarding Sobek of Shedet and it must be stressed that none of these come from the Fayyum. Yet, it was in this period that the crocodile of Shedet was given the first opportunity to appear as a powerful god amongst the other deities of the Egyptian pantheon. It is plausible that the fortune of Sobek was somehow linked to the fortune of his region. And indeed, despite this lack of evidence, the assertion that the Fayyum played a very marginal role in the Old Kingdom is extremely questionable .
Mackey’s comment: When the Egyptian Old Kingdom is properly connected to the Middle Kingdom, as it needs to be, then there will be found to have been no lack of Sobek data at Shedet.
Two articles, both published in 1997, one in English by Andrzej Cwiek and one in Italian by Patrizia Piacentini , reflect an increasing interest in the region before the Middle Kingdom, when the Fayyum depression and its main town became of paramount importance in the politics of the reigning kings. Recent geoarchaeological survey and the results of field scanning methods have suggested that in the early dynastic period and in the Old Kingdom the lake level was at about 15m or 20m above sea level , and, as a consequence, the Fayyum must have been characterised by the presence of a huge extension of water. A great portion of the Fayyum depression was submerged and what remained above water was probably marshlands. Very likely, the most suitable areas for human occupation, apart from the territory around Shedet, at + 23m, were the area north of the lake and the eastern entrance to the region.
Nevertheless, the potential agricultural and, above all, mineral resources of the region suggest that it was neither scarcely inhabited nor unimportant and indeed, besides Shedet, there were a few other centres of human activity.
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The construction of a pyramid on the desert edge, about 9 kilometres from Seila village in the eastern Fayyum, on the hills called Gebel el-Rus, may be explained through a comparison with the other so-called Minor Step Pyramids of the Old Kingdom . Following Günter Dreyer and Werner Kaiser , one can assert that the geographical distribution of the Minor Step Pyramids and their topographical relations with towns and religious centres is particularly important for the understanding of these monuments, which, with the possible exception of the pyramid of Seila erected most likely by king Snefru, were built close to important provincial towns.
As Cwiek has remarked , however, the hypothesis that the Seila pyramid was erected in order to mark the western border of the country is hardly sustainable. Given that the Minor Step Pyramids were also symbols of royal power and of the presence of the reigning king in the Egyptian provinces, it is very likely that the Fayyum region itself had a certain appeal for Snefru.
Mackey’s comment: But Snefru (or Snofru) was, according to my articles, the same as the Middle Kingdom’s Amenemes [Amenemhet], during which time devotion to the Crocodile god soared.
In the proximity of the pyramid, a stela with Snefru’s titulary, a mud brick chapel, a statue of the king and an altar were found , suggesting that this was an active cult centre. Whatever was the function of this pyramid, it is plausible to state that it was also the focus of an administrative centre. The priests who had to perform the necessary rituals might have come from Meidum, 11 kilometres away, but might have lived in the proximity of Seila. Moreover, a necropolis dating from the Third to the Sixth Dynasties was discovered by Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt in 1900 at Fag el-Gamus, close to the pyramid. Two statues in limestone published by Ludwig Borchardt and found during illegal explorations near the village of Seila might come from the same necropolis . It is not known if Snefru can be regarded as the first Egyptian king to start the colonisation of the Fayyum . Nevertheless, there is no doubt that, according to the available data, his reign represents a significant step in the development of the region.
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The most ancient document connecting Sobek’s name with the main town of the Fayyum, Shedet, dates back to the Fourth Dynasty and comes from Dahshur. It is a false-door from the tomb of the vizier Ka-nefer, who, amongst many others, carried the title of Hm-ntr sbk Sdt, ‘hem-priest of Sobek of Shedet’ (doc. 1).
Another important man to be bestowed with the same title was the homonymous Ka-nefer of the Fourth or Fifth Dynasty, who was buried at Giza and who was also imy-r wpt, xrp aH and smr (doc. 2).
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Mackey’s comment: With the Fourth and Fifth dynasties now merged into one, the Vizier Ka-Nefer can simply be reduced to just the one high official.
It should be stressed, however, that the two [sic] Ka-nefer were influential people connected with Memphis. What cannot be ascertained with certainty is whether Sobek’s cult was so important as to have its own clergy in this locality, or, most likely, whether in the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties the priesthood of Sobek in the Fayyum was not very strong or locally organised and, therefore, it was not independent, but directly controlled by high-ranking dignitaries who gravitated around the city of Memphis. Nevertheless, in the Old Kingdom Sobek of the Fayyum was surely already regarded as a prominent deity of the Egyptian pantheon. Not only had he religious personnel who took care of his image, but he also started to be represented on the walls of the royal temples of the Fifth Dynasty and also sporadically quoted in the ‘Pyramid Texts’. ….
The temple of Niuserra is innovative from the point of view of iconography, as, for the first time after the above-mentioned seal of the Second Dynasty with the crocodile-headed Horus, it clearly shows Sobek of Shedet through a common combination of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic elements, an iconography that would become, together with his pure animal aspect, Sobek’s standardised depiction.
On a limestone relief, the god is shown as a crocodile-headed man in a striding pose; he wears a striated wig, a broad collar and the typical short skirt and holds was-staff and ankh-sing (doc. 5)60. The crocodile god appears also in the temple of Pepy II , but with no geographical indication. Here, some gods stride in four rows, one of which is lead [sic] by Sobek himself, once again in the guise of a crocodile-headed man, followed by Wadjet, Sokar, Hathor, Khonsu and Hekau.
Mackey’s comment: Niuserra [Neuserre] and Pepi II, I have also amalgamated with the Middle Kingdom as, respectively, Amenemes and Sesostris.
The ‘Pyramid Texts’ offer a new perspective with which to regard Sobek’s personality in the Old Kingdom. Here the god is quoted in seven spells. In Spell 301 the crocodile god is associated for the first time with the wrrt-crown, as the rising sun receives this crown from ‘the great and mighty foreigners who preside over Libya’ and from ‘Sobek lord of Bakhu’ (nb bAhw) (Pyr. §456) .
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It seems particularly significant that in the only spell in which the god is associated with a town, a ‘civic space’, this town is Shedet. This might be interpreted as an indication that Shedet, amongst all others, was considered as his specific and original cult-centre. In Spell 582, the king, identified with a few deities, declares that he ‘governs as Sobek who is in Shedet (sbk imy Sdt) and Anubis in Takhib. Pepy will call for a thousand and the populace will come to him bowing’ (Pyr. §§ 1564b) (doc. 6). In another spell , we read: ‘My father has inherited from Horus as Horus in Seal-ring, Seth in the Ennead, Sobek in [Shedet]. Let arms beat, let drumming go down!’.
In Spell 275 the sovereign is once again identified with the crocodile-god of the Fayyum: the king ‘Unis will open the double doors, Unis will attain the limit of the horizon, Unis having laid the msdt-garment there on the ground, and Unis will become the Great One who is in Shedet (wr imy Sdt)’ (Pyr. § 416) . Despite the possibility that the toponym Sdt has been chosen merely because of a pun with the noun msdt, it is however evident that the regal function coincides with that of the crocodile-god of the Fayyum. The die is cast: in the Middle Kingdom, it was Sobek of Shedet who, before any other Sobek worshipped in Egypt, was to be connected with the royal function….
Mackey’s comment: Once again, the ruler Unis [Unas] is likely just another version of the Middle Kingdom’s Sesostris.
One of the striking characteristics of the religion of the Fayyum before the Twelfth Dynasty is the complete lack of documents, with the exception of Horus’ name, on the presence of other deities. It is hardly believable that the crocodile-god dominated the Fayyum religious world in a way that did not permit his coexistence with other forms of veneration. Perhaps, other gods were already living in the Fayyum, even though we cannot know the extent of their inluence within the region.
Nevertheless, it is impossible not to note this absence of data, which most likely is the result of archaeological accidents.
Mackey’s comment: Once again, there is no real “absence of data” when we recognise the documents of the Middle Kingdom as being wholly relevant to the Old Kingdom.
But it is also possible that some Egyptian gods were at last able to claim a cult within the region only from the Middle Kingdom onwards, when they started to be theologically interwoven with Sobek’s personality and functions.
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At the end of the Sixth Dynasty, the god disappears from Egyptian sources, to appear again at the beginning of the Twelfth Dynasty. ….
Mackey’s comment: There is actually no ‘disappearance’.
The Sixth Dynasty and the Twelfth Dynasty is/are one and the same.
Chapter II
THE MIDDLE KINGDOM
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The beginning of the Twelfth Dynasty
Even though the ‘Cofin Texts’ are an important source on Sobek, here the god still remains prevalently a crocodile-deity, deeply immersed in his own natural habitat. With the end of the Old Kingdom, Sobek of Shedet seems to vanish, despite the fact he had reached a quite solid position amongst the Egyptian gods. After the Sixth Dynasty, the first document, mentioning the god and dated with certainty, goes back to the reign of Amenemhat II. Indeed, it is difficult to glimpse Sobek of Shedet at the beginning of the Twelfth Dynasty, despite the fact this very dynasty was a decisive moment in the history of the Fayyum.
Mackey’s comment: That is because the Twelfth Dynasty has been over-complicated by Egyptologists not recognising the need for a radical fusion of multiple names, Amenemes and Sesostris.
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The earliest level of recognisable work in the area was in the approach, or pro-temenos, of the temple, where a bed of broken pottery of the Twelfth Dynasty and clean sand was led, most likely for the road to the temple.
Buildings were on both sides of the road, evidently to keep the access to the temple clear. But, probably in the III or IV century, red-brick houses were built there, and ‘soon after that, the rubbish mounds were piled up, and in the V and VI century overflowed and filled up the entrance to the then deserted temple’ .
Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing the conditions and dimensions of the temple at the beginning of the Twelfth Dynasty. We do not even know whether it stood in the same place as the temple of the Old Kingdom, or whether the latter was completely destroyed or simply enlarged and embellished by the following kings. At any rate, the interest of the new dynasty for the Fayyum and the house of Sobek began with Amenemhat I .
Mackey’s comment: This accords with the enormous veneration by Sobek of Amenemes [Amenemhat] III, an alter ego of Amenemhat I.
Contrary to what has been claimed, it cannot be demonstrated that Amenemhat I initiated the construction of a new temple at Shedet. As a matter of fact, the assertion that this king was the founder of the temple of the Twelfth Dynasty is based on Golénischeff’s erroneous attribution of an inscription on a granite column, which, as shown by Habachi , belonged instead to Amenemhat III.
Mackey’s comment: Another indication to me that Amenemes I was the same ruler as III.
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Sobekneferu, the beauty of Sobek Shedety
The temple of Renenutet at Medinet Madi is the only place [?] where the name of Amenemhat IV is associated to Sobek-Horus of Shedet. This king does not seem to have worked in any other site of the Fayyum and, most significantly, he never occurs in the Hawara complex .
After Amenemhat IV’s reign, the crown passed to queen Sobekneferu. The reasons of her accession remain unclear.
Mackey’s comment: The “reasons” are, according to my various Moses articles, that the Twelfth Dynasty died out, terminating in the brief reign of a female.
The hypothesis that she was wife or sister, or half-sister, of Amenemhat IV is not actually based on any contemporary source , where she is never referred to as king’s wife or sister . On the contrary, the fact that she contrived to proclaim herself king and that, during her reign, she used Amenemhat III’s memory for politic and religious aims seem to indicate that she was related to this king and it is very likely that she was one of his daughters. But, as in the case of princess Neferuptah, we do not know the name of her mother.
Family connections and loyalties to her deceased alleged father seem to be the key to events and behaviour of this female king. The activities and interests of her reign are turned towards the Fayyum region. Sobek of Shedet had taken, as of right, a position at the centre of Amenemhat III’s policy. And during Sobekneferu’s reign, there was no deity who was able to oppose his supremacy.
Even through her names, which were innovative, she showed a predilection for the crocodile god, and, specifically, for that of the Fayyum. She was the first Egyptian ruler to have a theophoric name composed with that of Sobek, even though this was given to her at birth. But when, for whatever reasons, she obtained the crown, she chose for herself also a prenomen composed with that of the same god . ….
Mackey’s comment: She may not, however, have been “the first Egyptian ruler to have a theophoric name composed with that of Sobek …”, since the Thirteenth Dynasty’s Sobekhoteps might also have to be factored in to the Twelfth Dynasty, with Sobekhotep IV bearing a prenomen, Nefer-ka-re, that we find also amongst various of my alter egos for Sesostris, such as Pepi so-called II.
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