Kim Ryholt

Kim Ryholt

Kim Steven Bardrum Ryholt (born 1970) is an professor of Egyptology at the University of Copenhagen and a specialist on Egyptian history and literature. He is director of the research center "Canon and Identity Formation in the Earliest Literate Societies" (cif.tors.ku.dk) under the University of Copenhagen Programme of Excellence (since 2008) and Curator of the Papyrus Carlsberg Collection (pcarlsberg.ku.dk) and director of the associated publication (since 1999).

One of his most significant publications is a 1997 book titled The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period c. 1800-1550 B.C. by Museum Tuscalanum Press. (ISBN 87-7289-421-0) Aidan Dodson, a prominent English Egyptologist, calls Ryholt's book "fundamental" for an understanding of the Second Intermediate Period in his Bi Or LVII, January–April 2000, p. 48 Review of Ryholt's aforementioned 463-page book because it reviews the political history of this period and contains an updated—and more accurate—reconstruction of the Turin Canon since the 1959 publication of Alan Gardiner's Royal Canon of Egypt. It also contains an extensive catalogue of all the known monuments, inscriptions and seals for the kings of this period.

Ryholt's study makes note of numerous recent archaeological finds including the discovery of a new Hyksos king named Sakir-Har, the find of a door jamb at Gebel Antef in the mid-1990s which establishes that Sekhemre Shedtawy Sobekemsaf (Sobekemsaf II here) was the father of the 17th Dynasty Theban kings Antef VI and Antef VII as well as a fresh discussion of Ahmose's Unwetterstele document. It also strongly argues that the Sixteenth dynasty of Egypt was made up of poorly attested Theban kings such as Nebiriau I, Nebiriau II, Seuserenre Bebiankh and Sekhemre Shedwast who are documented in the last surviving page of the Turin Canon rather than minor Hyksos vassal kings in Lower Egypt, as is generally believed. Among the most significant discussions is Ryholt's evidence that Sekhemre Khutawy rather than Ugaf was the first king of Egypt's 13th Dynasty (see Appendix A of his book) and a discussion of the foreign origins of the Semitic 13th Dynasty king named Khendjer—whose reign lasted a minimum of 4 years and 3 months based on dated workmen's control notes found on stone blocks from his unfinished pyramid complex. (Ryholt: p. 193) Khendjer's name, which means 'boar', is a foreign Semitic name that suggests he was the first recognised foreign (i.e. of non-Egyptian origin) Pharaoh of Egypt.

The most controversial conclusion concerns the identity and dating of 14th Dynasty. Ryholt - like Manfred Bietak - argues that it was a forerunner of the 15th Dynasty, but differs in regarding it as contemporary with the 13th Dynasty from the latter's founding around 1800 BC until its collapse in c. 1650/1648 BC. This is contested in review of the book by Daphna Ben Tor and James/Susan Allen. He has since shown that Sheshi, one of the best attested kings of the 14th Dynasty, was contemporary with the early 13th Dynasty on the basis of an archaeological deposit where a seal-impression of this king was found together with impressions of two Egyptian kings, and recently seal-impressions of the Hyksos king Khayan have been found in another archaeological deposit together with impressions of the Egyptian king Sobekhotep IV at Tell Edfu which also favors the early dating of the 14th Dynasty.

He is also the author of books and articles about Demotic papyri and literature.