SEQENENRE

also called Seqenenre Tao (fl. 16th century BC), king of Egypt (c. 1545 BC) who, according to tradition, faced unreasonable demands from the Hyksos, the west-Semitic conquerors who had overrun much of Egypt in the 17th century BC. As shown by a later school papyrus, Seqenenre was contemporary to the last great Hyksos king and initially probably paid him tribute as a vassal. According to the text, the Hyksos ruler provoked a quarrel by claiming that hippopotamuses at Thebes were disturbing his sleep at his Delta capital, 400 miles (644 km) away. Unfortunately, the preserved text ends with Seqenenre and his court pondering a suitable response. Nonetheless, because his son claimed a definite portion of Egypt as his own, Seqenenre probably managed to secure some independence. Seqenenre died violently: his mummy displays five terrible head woundsa crushing blow, three ax wounds, and a spear or sword thrust. Because the ax wounds were inflicted while he lay on the ground, some scholars suggest that he was assassinated as he slept. It is equally possible that his death occurred in battle. Nonetheless, the evident hasty embalming, accompanied by failure to arrange the limbs correctly, suggests that the king died under extreme circumstances.