Egyptologist Kim Ryholt (1997:190) argues that the 13th Dynasty lasted from 1803-1649 BC, lasting some 154 years. According to Ryholt, the 13th Dynasty had some continuity with the preceding 12th Dynasty. With the first pharaoh,
Sobekhotep I, being the son of a certain Amenemhat, Ryholt proposes Amenemhat IV of the
12th Dynasty as a possible father. Following these kings, the remaining rulers of the 13th Dynasty are only attested by finds from Upper Egypt. This may indicate the abandonment of the old capital
Itjtawy in favor of
Thebes. This analysis is rejected by Ryholt and Baker however, who note that the stele of
Seheqenre Sankhptahi, reigning toward the end of the dynasty, strongly suggests that he reigned over Memphis. The stele is of unknown provenance. Dodson and Hilton similarly believe that Sekhemre Khutawy Sobekhotep predated Khaankhre Sobekhotep.
Successors , 13th dynasty, c. 1700 BC from the temple of Amun in Karnak. After allowing discipline at the southern forts to deteriorate, the government eventually withdrew its garrisons and, not long afterward, the forts were reoccupied by the rising
Nubian state of
Kush. In the north, Lower Egypt was overrun by the
Hyksos, a Semitic people from across the Sinai. An independent line of kings created Dynasty XIV that arose in the western Delta during later Dynasty XIII. According to
Manetho, into this unstable mix came invaders from the east called the
Hyksos who seized Egypt "without striking a blow; and having overpowered the rulers of the land, they then burned our cities ruthlessly, razed to the ground the temples of gods..." Their regime, called
Dynasty XV, was claimed to have replaced Dynasties XIII and XIV in most of the country. However, recent archaeological finds at
Edfu could indicate that the Hyksos 15th dynasty was already in existence at least by the mid-13th dynasty reign of king
Sobekhotep IV. In a recently published paper in
Egypt and the Levant, Nadine Moeller, Gregory Marouard and N. Ayers discuss the discovery of an important early 12th dynasty Middle Kingdom administrative building in the eastern
Tell Edfu area of Upper Egypt which was in continual use into the early Second Intermediate Period until the 17th dynasty, when its remains were sealed up by a large silo court. Fieldwork by Egyptologists in 2010 and 2011 into the remains of the former 12th dynasty building which was also used in the 13th dynasty led to the discovery of a large adjoining hall which proved to contain 41 sealings showing the cartouche of the Hyksos ruler
Khyan together with 9 sealings naming the 13th dynasty king Sobekhotep IV. The preserved contexts of these seals shows that Sobekhotep IV and Khyan were most likely contemporaries of one another. This could mean that the 13th dynasty did not control all of Egypt when Sobekhotep IV acceded to power, and that there was a significant overlap between the 13th and 15th dynasties since Sobekhotep IV was only a mid-13th dynasty ruler; although one of its most powerful kings. Therefore, Manetho's statement that the Hyksos 15th dynasty violently replaced the 13th dynasty could be a piece of later Egyptian propaganda. Rather, the 13th dynasty's authority must have been collapsing throughout Egypt in its final decades and the Hyksos state in the Delta region simply took over Memphis and ended the 13th dynasty's kingdom. However, this analysis and the conclusions drawn from it are rejected by Egyptologist Robert Porter, who argues that Khyan ruled much later than Sobekhotep IV (a gap of c. 100 years exists between the two in conventional chronologies) and that the seals of a pharaoh were used long after his death. Thus the seals of Sobekhotep IV might not indicate that he was a contemporary of Khyan.
Merneferre Ay was the last Egyptian ruler of the 13th Dynasty who is attested by objects in both Lower and Upper Egypt. Henceforth, his successors, from
Merhotepre Ini on, are only attested in Upper Egypt. == Comparison of regnal lists ==