The"Not So New" Newly Discovered King of Egypt

Discovery News published a story today with a headline about a "newly discovered" Pharaoh of Egypt's Seventeenth Dynasty. The headline is somewhat less than accurate.

The story tells of the recent discovery of a door jamb found at Karnak bearing the name of the Pharaoh Senakhtenre. The story below the headline accurately states that there are references to Senakhtenre but that this is the first actual monument known that can be dated to his reign. Other references to him come from documents written long after his death.

Senakhtenre had the second name of Tao and was the first of the two Tao's mentioned in papyri dealing with tomb robbery in the Late New Kingdom. The second (and far better known) Tao was Sekenenre, who seems to have died in combat against the Hyksos and whose mummy is now in the Cairo Museum.