Hudjefa is an ancient Egyptian word meaning "missing" or "erased". It was used by the royal scribes of the Ramesside era during the

Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt The Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XIX), also known as the Ramessid dynasty, is classified as the second Dynasty of the Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom period, lasting from 1292 BC to 1189 BC. The 19th Dynasty and the 20th Dynasty fur ...

, when the scribes compiled king lists such as the Abydos King List, the royal table of Sakkara and the Royal Canon of Turin when the name of a deceased

pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: ''pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the an ...

was unreadable, damaged, or completely erased. In the 19th century it was thought by Egyptologists and historians to be the name of a king, because the scribes had placed the word ''hudjefa'' inside a royal

cartouche In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an oval with a line at one end tangent to it, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. The first examples of the cartouche are associated with pharaohs at the end of the Third Dynasty, but the fea ...

. But as knowledge about Ancient Egyptian phrasing and grammars advanced, scholars realized its true meaning. The scribes used the word ''hudjefa'' as a

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

replacing an illegible name of a king. They encircled it with a royal cartouche to mark it as a king's name, but following generations of scribes erroneously took it as the actual birth name of the to-be listed king. The Abydos King List presents the cartouche name ''Sedjes'' as the follower of king

Sekhemkhet Sekhemkhet (also read as Sechemchet) was an ancient Egyptian king (pharaoh) of the 3rd Dynasty during the Old Kingdom. His reign is thought to have been from about 2648 BC until 2640 BC. He is also known under his later traditioned birth name D ...

, which is interesting, since ''sedjes'' simply means "omitted" or "missing". Thus, the cartouche No.18 actually presents no real name, but an "erased" note, just like the ''hudjefa'' notes. Known examples for missing kings are

Hudjefa I Hudjefa (Ancient Egyptian for "erased" or "missing") is the pseudonym for a 2nd Dynasty pharaoh as reported on the Turin canon, a list of kings written during the reign of Ramses II. Hudjefa is now understood to mean that the name of the king wa ...

Sedjes Sedjes is an ancient Egyptian cartouche "name" for a king (pharaoh), who is said to have ruled during the 3rd Dynasty ( Old Kingdom period). The lexeme appears only once, in the Abydos King List, as cartouche No.18. It is presented as if it wer ...

and

Hudjefa II Khaba (also read as Hor-Khaba) was a pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, active during the 3rd Dynasty of the Old Kingdom period. The exact time during which Khaba ruled is unknown but may have been around 2670 BC,Thomas Schneider: ''Lexikon der Pha ...

.Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen Edwards: ''The Cambridge Ancient History'' Vol. 1, Pt. 2: ''Early history of the Middle East'', 3rd volume (Reprint). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2006, {{ISBN, 0-521-07791-5, page 35.Jürgen von Beckerath: ''Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen''.

Deutscher Kunstverlag The Deutscher Kunstverlag (DKV) is an educational publishing house with offices in Berlin and Munich. The publisher specializes in books about art, cultural history, architecture, and historic preservation. History Deutscher Kunstverlag was fo ...

, München/Berlin 1984, page 49.

References

Egyptian words and phrases

See also

References