The Thirteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty XIII) was a series of rulers from around 1802 BC until around 1649 BC, around 153 years.
According to Ryholt, the 13th Dynasty had some continuity with the preceding 12th Dynasty. With the first king, Sobekhotep I, being the son of a certain Amenemhat, Ryholt proposes Amenemhat IV of the 12th Dynasty as a possible father.
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|+13th Dynasty Monarchs of Egypt
! style="width:50px" |Portrait
! style="width:350px" | Name
! style="width:110px" |Reign!! style="width:300px" | Burial !! style="width:150px"|Consort(s)
!Lifespan!! style="width:350px" |Comments
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| Amenemhat Sobekhotep I
|c. 1802 - c. 1800 BC|| ||
|Died c. 1800 BC||The dominant hypothesis is that Amenemhat Sobekhotep I was the founder of the dynasty, in older studies Wegaf
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| Amenemhat Senebef
|c. 1800 - c. 1796 BC|| ||
|Died c. 1796 BC||Perhaps a son of Amenemhat IV and brother of Sekhemre Khutawy Sobekhotep
|c. 1792 - c. 1790 BC|| ||
|Died c. 1790 BC|| Perhaps identical with King Sehotepibre in the Turin Canon
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| Iufni
|c. 1790 - c. 1788 BC|| ||
|Died c. 1788 BC||Known only from the Turin canon
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| Ameny Amenemhat VI
|c. 1788 - c. 1785 BC|| ||
|Died c. 1785 BC||
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|100px
| Nebnuni
|c. 1785 - c. 1783 BC|| ||
|Died c. 1783 BC||
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| Sehetepibre
| c. 1783 - c. 1781 BC|| ||
|Died c. 1781 BC||
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| Sewadjkare I
| c. 1781 BC|| ||
|Died c. 1781 BC||Known only from the Turin canon
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| Nedjemibre
| c. 1781 - c. 1780 BC|| ||
|Died c. 1780 BC||Known only from the Turin canon
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|100px
| Sobekhotep II
| c. 1780 - c. 1777 BC|| ||
|Died c. 1777 BC||
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| Renseneb
| c. 1777 BC|| ||
|Died c. 1777 BC||
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|100px
| Hor
| c. 1777 - c. 1775 BC|| Dahshur ||
|Died c. 1775 BC||
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| Sekhemrekhutawy
| c. 1775 - c. 1772 BC|| ||
|Died c. 1772 BC|| Possibly a son of Hor Awybre
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| Djedkheperew
| c. 1772 - c. 1770 BC|| ||
|Died c. 1770 BC|| Possibly a brother of Sekhemrekhutawy
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|Sebkay
|c. 1770 - c. 1769 BC
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|Died c. 1769 BC
|Possibly two kings, Seb and his son Kay
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| Kay Amenemhat VII
| c. 1769 - c. 1767 BC|| ||
|Died c. 1767 BC||
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| Wegaf
| c. 1767 BC|| ||
|Died c. 1767 BC||
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| 100px
| Khendjer
| c. 1767 - c. 1759 BC|| Pyramid of Khendjer || Seneb[henas?]
|Died c. 1759 BC|| May also have borne the name Nimaatre
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| 100px
| Imyremeshaw
| c. 1759 - c. 1757 BC|| ||
|Died c. 1757 BC||
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| Intef
| c. 1757 - c. 1755 BC|| ||
|Died c. 1755 BC||
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| Seth Meribre
| c. 1755 BC|| ||
|Died c. 1755 BC||
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|100px
| Sobekhotep III
| c. 1755 - c. 1751 BC|| || Senebhenas <br /> Neni ||
|Died c. 1690 BC|| Reigned around 23 years, the longest reign of the dynasty. Last king to be attested in both Lower and Upper Egypt.
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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.
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| [...]re
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| Se[...]enre
|c. 1649 BC
| Died c. 1649 BC||Possibly the Turin canon’s preservation of the prenomen Sewahenre
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The chronological position of a number of attested rulers could not be conclusively determined due to a lack of evidence:
{| class="wikitable" align="center" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto; width: 75%"
|+13th Dynasty Monarchs of Egypt, undetermined position
!Portrait
!|Name!! |Comments
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|100px
| Neferhotep II|| Possibly the same as Mersekhemre Ined
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|100px
| Ini II|| According to von Beckerath, successor of Sewadjare Mentuhotep V and predecessor of Merkheperre
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| Senebmiu|| According to von Beckerath, successor of Se[...]kare
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|Mentuhotep V
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|100px
|Sankhptahi
|Represented on a stele offering to Ptah
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|Dedumose I ||
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|Dedumose II
|Possibly a vassal of the Hyksos
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|Montemsaf
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|100px
|Senusret IV
|Possibly ruled in the 17th dynasty
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|Nebmaatre
|Possibly ruled in the 17th dynasty
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|Sobekhotep IX
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Sobekhotep I and II
Ryholt posits a ruler named "Sobkhotep I Sekhemre Khutawy" as the first king of this dynasty. This is now the dominant hypothesis in Egyptology Dodson and Hilton similarly believe that Sekhemre Khutawy Sobekhotep predated Khaankhre Sobekhotep.
Successors
thumb|Statue of the royal sealer and high steward [[Gebu, 13th dynasty, around 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 15, was claimed to have replaced Dynasties 13 and 14 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 around 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.
Ay I was the last Egyptian ruler of the 13th Dynasty who is attested by objects in both Lower and Upper Egypt. Henceforth, his successors, from Ini on, are only attested in Upper Egypt.
Comparison of regnal lists
This dynasty is not as well-documented in surviving king lists compared to the preceding Twelfth Dynasty. The Abydos King List and Saqqara Tablet both completely ignore this dynasty. The Turin King List has the most complete surviving list of names but is in a very fragmentary condition and many names and reign lengths are now lost. The Turin King List originally had 53 names for this dynasty. Manetho's now-lost work Aegyptiaca stated that this dynasty was made up of 60 kings who ruled for 453 years. However, no names survive in any of the quotations or epitomes of Aegyptiaca. The Karnak King List does include some names for kings of this dynasty but the names are not placed in regnal order, and many names are missing from this list.
{| class="wikitable"
!Historical Pharaoh
!Karnak King List
!Turin King List
!Turin List Reign Length