Discovery of a Lost Pharaoh

Josef Wegner discusses his recent excavation of the tomb of previously-unknown ancient Egyptian pharaoh, Woseribre Senebkay at South Abydos. This discovery by Wegner and his team from the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Philadelphia) in cooperation with Egypt's Ministry of State for Antiquities provides the first material confirmation of a forgotten "Abydos Dynasty" (ca. 1650--1600 BCE). Its location near the newly-identified tomb of a Dynasty 13 King Sobekhotep suggests that South Abydos was the site of a significant royal necropolis from late Middle Kingdom through Second Intermediate Period times, with more new discoveries yet to come.