Weneg (pharaoh)

Weneg (or Wneg or Wadjnes or Tlas) [ [http://www.ancient-egypt.org/history/01_03/02.html 2nd Dynasty royal list (The Ancient Egypt Site)] ] was the royal Nebti name of a pharaoh during the Second dynasty of Egypt. His identity was unknown and he was assumed to have been a king who ruled Egypt between Nynetjer and Khasekhemwy for 8 years. However, recent scholarship by the German Egyptologist Jochem Kahl has established that Weneg was rather the Nebty name of the second king of the Second Dynasty: Raneb [Jochen Kahl, 'Dynasties 0-2: Hetep-sekhemwy to Netjerykhet. The Succession' in Erik Hornung, Rolf Krauss & David Warburton (editors), Ancient Egyptian Chronology (Handbook of Oriental Studies), Brill, 2006. pp.103-104]

Identification of Raneb with Weneg

During Nynetjer's reign, Raneb's name was erased several times in Documents 20, 21 and 22. [Kahl, op. cit., p.102] In an inscription which mentions the "ka"-house of Hotepsekhemwy on a stone vessel (Document 21) from Djoser's Step Pyramid, "the name Nynetjer is written over an erased name." [Kahl, op. cit., p.105] Since the red granite statue of a certain priest named Hetepdief (found in 1888) shows his service under the consecutive reigns of king Hotepsekhemwy, Raneb and Nynetjer respectively since the object bears their three names engraved on its back right shoulder [Alessandro Bongioanni & Maria Croce (ed.), The Treasures of Ancient Egypt: From the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Universe Publishing, a division of Ruzzoli Publications Inc., 2003. pp.30-31] , the erased name must be Raneb. Weneg is attested only by inscriptions on stone vessels found in the Step Pyramid [of Djoser] and in Tomb S 3014. [Jean Lauer, Pyramide IV.1 pls. V:4, 19: 105, 20: 101-103 and 106-107; IV.2, 50-53] Weneg's exact position, as well the identification of his Horus name among those known for the second dynasty kings has remained uncertain. [Wolfgang Helck in "Untersuchungen zur Thinitenzeit", Harrassowitz Verlag, 1987. p.103 had proposed to identify Weneg with an enigmatic Horus Sa who is known by the mention of his "Ka"-house in inscriptions on stone vessels from the Step Pyramid.] But as Jochem Kahl observes:: "A long-known inscription from Tomb P at Umm el-Qaab (Doc. 22) provides the key to solving some of the problems associated with Weneg. In the inscription the "nsw bjt nb.tj" name Nynetjer faces the opposite direction from the name of Ra'-neb and that of his palace (Fig. II. 2.1) Ra-neb's name is partially erased. Scrutiny of the inscription reveals that the name Nynetjer is written over Weneg. Traces of the plant sign used to write Weneg are discernible, as are the enigmatic strokes to the upper left and right of it (Fig. II 2.2) Thus Nynetjer must have been Weneg's successor, and the original inscription referred to the palace of Horus Ra'-neb and to "nsw bjt nb.tj" Weneg." [Kahl, op. cit., pp.102-103]

Consequently, Kahl concludes that the Horus name of Weneg must be king Raneb, the second ruler of the Second Dynasty of Egypt who was succeeded on the throne by Nynetjer. [Kahl, op. cit., p.103]

Senedj

According to the Egyptian kinglists, Weneg was succeeded by a certain king Senedj. At present, Senedj's identity has not been established. In contrast, Raneb's successor is known to be Nynetjer. However, it is presently not possible to equate Senedj with Nynetjer due to a lack of evidence. Werner Kaiser has suggested that Senedj was a separate ruler and the last second dynasty king to ruler over both Lower and Upper Egypt before Khasekhemwy. [Werner Kaiser, Zur Nennung von Sened und Peribsen in Sakkara B3, GM 122 (1991), pp.49-55]

References

*Toby A. H. Wilkinson, "Early Dynastic Egypt", Routledge, London/New York 1999, ISBN 0-415-18633-1, 87-88

See also

* Pharaoh
* List of Pharaohs
* Second dynasty of Egypt