Wepwawetemsaf

Wepwawetemsaf
Apuatemsaf, Oupouaout, Upwautemsaf, Wepwawemsaf
Stele of Wepwawetemsaf, drawing made in 1913 by Wallis Budge
Pharaoh
Reign	Uncertain, 17th century BCE (possibly the Abydos Dynasty, the late 13th Dynasty or the late 16th Dynasty.)
Royal titulary

Sekhemraneferkhau Wepwawetemsaf was an Egyptian pharaoh during the Second Intermediate Period. According to the Egyptologists Kim Ryholt and Darrell Baker, he was a king of the Abydos Dynasty, although they leave his position within this dynasty undetermined. Alternatively, the egyptologist Jürgen von Beckerath sees Wepwawetemsaf as a king of the late 13th Dynasty, while Marcel Marée proposes that he was a king of the late 16th Dynasty.

The only contemporaneous attestation of Wepwawetemsaf's reign is a limestone stele "of exceptionally crude quality" discovered in Abydos and now in the British Museum (EA 969). The stele shows the king before the god "Wepwawet, lord of Abydos" and is generally described as of poor worksmanship. The stela was produced by a workshop operating in Abydos. Other stelae produced by this workshop belong to king Rahotep and king Pantjeny. The egyptologist Marcel Marée therefore concludes that these three kings reigned quite close in time. He believes that the stela of Pantjeny was made by a different artist, while the stelae of Rahotep and Wepwawetemsaf were carved by the same man. He argues that Wepwawetemsaf reigned directly after king Rahotep. He does not assign single kings to specific dynasties, but comes to the conclusion that these kings belong to the late 16th or very early 17th Dynasty,

Another possible attestation of this king is a graffito discovered in tomb no. 2 at Beni Hasan belonging to the 12th Dynasty nomarch Amenemhat and located about 250 km north of Abydos, in Middle Egypt. The graffito has been tentatively read by Beckerath as "Sekhemreneferkhau" but this remains uncertain as the original is now lost.