Friday, June 14, 2013

Amenemhet I

The conventional wisdom on Amenemhet I is as follows:

  • He was the vizier of Mentuhotep IV (or Mentuhotep III by some reckonings).
  • He ascended to the throne after the mysterious disappearance (death?) of Mentuhotep.
  • He was assassinated just before his jubilee year.
  • His assassins were part of the palace hierarchy.
  • Some people think that his own vizier was part of the assassination plot though since the evidence is not very good this is disputed. If true it makes a nice historical symmetry: others did to Amenemhet I what he had done to others.
  • Though he seems to have set Egypt on a new course, little survives from his long reign.