Wednesday, 4 June 2014

Sobekhotep or Not?


The happy crocodile god
Garbled account of some relief from somewhere: Nevine El-Aref, 'German couple will return Egyptian artefact after learning it was stolen German collectors praised by Egyptian officials for agreeing to return item stolen from Luxor last century', Al-Ahram Wednesday 4 Jun 2014.
A German couple in possession of a stolen relief smuggled out of the country last century say that they want to return the artefact to Egypt.[...] Egypt's Antiquities Minister Mohamed Ibrahim told Ahram Online that the relief had been spotted by curators at Bonn University Museum during preparations for a temporary exhibition to be held there. The items on display were selected from private collectors and the relief in question was borrowed from the German couple. The relief is 30 cm tall and 40 cm large and depicts three rows of offering holders walking forwards. Ibrahim told Ahram Online that the piece will be put on display for three months in the temporary exhibition in Bonn and will then be handed over to Egypt’s embassy in Germany before before being finally returned home. "I am very happy with the German couple's attitude, which will encourage other antiquities collectors to return any stolen objects," Ibrahim told Ahram Online, adding that the couple will be honoured in a gala ceremony at the Egyptian embassy in Germany for their appreciation of Egypt and its ancient heritage.
Super, what a shame we do not learn the names of these good folk. It's nice to hear of collectors with conscience and an awareness that these things did not just fall from the skies.

The problem with this text is that Ms El-Aref says that the relief came from: "the wall of the 13th dynasty king Sobekhotep's tomb in Luxor". According to current interpretations of the scanty evidence from scarab and stelae inscriptions, there were (at least) seven thirteenth dynasty kings with that element in their name, but the known tombs are around memphis (Dashur, South Sakkara) and at Abydos (such as the latest one to be found discovered last year.). There were a number of noblemen with the name, and thus there is another Sobekhotep tomb up-river from Luxor. I suspect that the item in question might have been found to have been another of those missing from the compromise storerooms in Sakkara, and Luxor is the journalist's misinterpretation. I expect it will emerge later what the true answer to this puzzle actually is.

UPDATE
so much for the accuracy of Egyptian (English-language) journalism, its 18th dynasty and not royal: PACHI Wednesday, 23 July 2014, 'A Piece of TT63 Sobekhotep Decoration Returns to Egypt'.


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