Sekhemib

His Horus name, Sekhemib, means roughly "powerful of heart" or "strong of will". Sekhemib was the first pharaoh to add an epithet to the name inside the serekh: Perenmaat, a word formed with Maat, the goddess and principle of truth, justice and world order. He used the short name and the extended name at the same time. Wolfgang Helck and Herman te Velde think that the extended name arose when Egypt was split and was meant to stress peace and order.

No later document mentions Sekhemib. His name is known from clay seal impressions found at the entrance of Peribsen's tomb at Abydos and at Elephantine, and from inscriptions on vessels of alabaster and breccia. Many of these vessels were found in the underground galleries beneath the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, where vessels of earlier pharaohs had been stored, probably to preserve them. Their inscriptions speak of the "tribute of the desert nomads".

Walter Bryan Emery, Kathryn Bard and, before them, Flinders Petrie suggested that Sekhemib and Peribsen were one and the same pharaoh who used two different names. Hermann Schlögl, Wolfgang Helck, Peter Kaplony and Jochem Kahl disagree. Sekhemib's seals were found only at the entrance of Peribsen's tomb, and no inscription names the two together. In the same way, Hotepsekhemwy's seals at the tomb of Qa'a show only that the new pharaoh buried his predecessor. Toby Wilkinson and Helck note that the two names share similar syllables and that their vessel inscriptions are alike in style, so the two rulers were perhaps closely related.

The finds show Sekhemib only in Upper Egypt, between Ombos and Elephantine, just like Peribsen. If the country was divided after Nynetjer, he ruled the southern half, while pharaohs known from the later lists, such as Senedj, may have ruled in the north. Helck identified Sekhemib with Wadjenes of the Ramesside lists, and Dietrich Wildung with Weneg, a ruler known from vessel inscriptions, but neither identification is generally accepted.

Seals name several of his officials, among them Nebhotep, Inykhnum and Maapermin. Inykhnum may have continued to serve under Djoser and Sanakht in the Third Dynasty. Tombs of officials from the time between Nynetjer and Khasekhemwy, such as those of Ruaben and Nefer-Setekh, show no signs of civil war or economic collapse. Whatever the political situation, the administration went on working.

Sekhemib's tomb has not been identified. If he was the same person as Peribsen, he lies in Tomb P at Abydos. Otherwise his tomb may be at Saqqara, where the vessels with his name were found. It may also have been plundered so thoroughly in antiquity that it can no longer be recognised.

Sekhemib is a good example of how much remains uncertain about the Second Dynasty. A pharaoh with a well-attested name, known officials and an epithet that speaks of Maat, he is nevertheless missing from all later king lists, and even his identity is still open. The name he chose points to the same concern as Hotepsekhemwy's "the two powers are at peace": order and reconciliation in a troubled time.