Nebka I (Pharaonic Survival)

Nebka I the Tall
Nebka I the Tall
	Pharaoh of Egypt
Reign	25 December 2685 - 29 December 2669
Predecessor	Djoserteti I
Successor	Teti II
Born	April 10, 2743 B.C. ; Tjenu, Egypt
Died	December 29, 2669 B.C. (aged 74)
Spouse	Khenthap III
Issue	Teti II
Full name
	Horus Name: Sanakht; Nebty Name: Sekhemwy; Golden Horus Name: Nebka; Praenomen: Sanakht; Nomen: Nebka
House	Khasekhemwy
Dynasty	Djoserian Dynasty
Father	Khasekhemwy
Mother	Nimaathap
Religion	Kemetism

Nebka I (also known as Sanakht, read as Hor-Sanakht) is the Horus name of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the Third Dynasty during the Old Kingdom. His chronological position is highly uncertain (though he is more likely to have reigned towards the end of the dynasty), and it is also unclear under which Hellenized name the ancient historian Manetho could have listed him. There are two relief fragments depicting Sanakht originally from the Khetuenmefkat on the Biau Peninsula.

Reign[]

Very little is known of Nebka's activities during his reign. The presence of reliefs depicting him in the Biau at Khetuenmefkat together with those of Djoser and Djoserteti suggest an important Egyptian presence there at the time of the Third Dynasty. Expeditions were launched to that location for the procurement of mineral resources, in particular turquoise. He was the king mentioned in a story recorded on the Westcar Papyrus which dates to the Seventeenth Dynasty, but which was likely first written during the late Middle Kingdom period, possibly at the end of the Twelfth Dynasty. There, a king Nebka is cited in the story known as “Nebka and the crocodile”, which pertains to adultery and the typical sort of punishment for that during the Old Kingdom. The story throws a positive light on the personality of king Nebka, who is depicted as a strict but lawful judge. He punishes mischief and unethical behavior, in this case punishing the betrayal of an unfaithful wife with the death penalty. The passage involving Nebka starts after a magician, Ubaoner, throws a commoner who had an affair with Ubaoner's wife to a crocodile, who swallows him for seven days:

During these seven days Ubaoner is received by pharaoh Nebka for an important audience. After the audience Ubaoner invites Nebka to visit his house with the words: “May thy majesty proceed and see the wonder that has happened in the time of thy majesty [... text damaged ...] a commoner.” Nebka and Ubaoner walk to the lake where Ubaoner orders the crocodile to come out of the water and to release the commoner. When king Nebka sees that he says: “This crocodile is dangerous!” But Ubaoner bends down and touches the crocodile and immediately it becomes a figurine of wax again. Then Ubaoner gives a report to Nebka about the affairs. Nebka tells the crocodile: “Take away what is yours!” and the animal grabs the commoner and then disappears. The wife of Ubaoner is brought to Nebka too, and the pharaoh sentences her to death. She is brought to a place east of the palace and burnt alive. Her ash is thrown into the Nile.

Tomb[]

The location of Sanakht's tomb is not known with certainty. It was long thought that Sanakht's tomb was the large mastaba K2 at Khauef, as excavations there yielded relief fragments bearing his name. However, some Egyptologists now regard this mastaba as the burial of a high official, prince or queen rather than that of a pharaoh, while others continue to support the first hypothesis.

In the mastaba were found the skeletal remains of a man over 1.87 m (6 ft 1+1⁄2 in) tall. According to Charles S. Myers, this stature was considerably taller than the 1.67 m (5 ft 6 in) average of prehistoric and later Egyptians. The specimen's skull was very large and capacious. Although his cranial index was unusually broad and almost brachycephalic, the proportions of his long bones were tropically adapted like those of most other ancient Egyptians; especially those from the predynastic period. His overall cranial features, however, were closer to those of dynastic period Egyptian skulls.

Consequently, the mastaba has been associated with an anecdote related by Manetho in which he tells of a late Second Dynasty king, called Sesochris, who he describes as being particularly tall. The Egyptologist Wolfgang Helck proposed another hypothesis; namely, that Sanakht's tomb is an unfinished structure west of the pyramid of Djoser.

While the case of Sanakht has often appeared in the medical literature as a potential case of pituitary disease, no definitive consensus has existed for many years on whether it was acromegaly or gigantism. In 2017 palaeopathologist Francesco M. Galassi and Egyptologist Michael E. Habicht from Zurich University's Institute of Evolutionary Medicine coordinated an international team of researchers to reassess this case. Their conclusion was that the alleged remains of Sanakht are clearly the oldest known case of gigantism in the world.