Wadjenes (ancient Eyptian ''Wadj-nes'', which means "fresh of tongue"), also known as Wadjlas, Ougotlas and Tlas, was an early Egyptian

king King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

who may have ruled during the

2nd Dynasty The Second Dynasty of ancient Egypt (or Dynasty II, c. 2890 – c. 2686 BC) is the latter of the two dynasties of the Egyptian Archaic Period, when the seat of government was centred at Thinis. It is most known for its last ruler, ...

. Since the name form "Wadjenes" is not contemporarily attested as the name of a king, but frequently appears in

Ramesside The New Kingdom, also referred to as the Egyptian Empire, is the period in ancient Egyptian History of Ancient Egypt, history between the sixteenth century BC and the eleventh century BC, covering the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eighteenth, Ni ...

kinglists, Egyptologists to this day are trying to connect Wadjenes with contemporary

Horus Horus or Heru, Hor, Har in Ancient Egyptian, is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities who served many functions, most notably as god of kingship and the sky. He was worshipped from at least the late prehistoric Egypt until the P ...

-kings.

Name sources

The king's name "Wadjenes" is attested only in the Ramesside kinglists, where he is always presented as the immediate successor of king

Nynetjer Nynetjer (also known as Ninetjer and Banetjer) is the Horus name of the third pharaoh of the Second Dynasty of Egypt. The length of his reign is unknown. The Turin Canon suggests an improbable reign of 96 years Alan H. Gardiner: ''The Royal Canon ...

and as the predecessor of king

Senedj Senedj (also known as Sened and Sethenes) was an early Egyptian king (pharaoh), who may have ruled during the 2nd Dynasty. His historical standing remains uncertain. His name is included in the kinglists of the Ramesside era, although it is wri ...

. The same goes for the Royal Canon of Turin, where the entry for his name is damaged so only the years of rulership are preserved.Walter Bryan Emery: ''Ägypten. Geschichte und Kultur der Frühzeit.'' Fourier-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1964, , page 275. Whilst all kinglists match each other regarding the

chronological Chronology (from Latin ''chronologia'', from Ancient Greek , ''chrónos'', "time"; and , ''-logia'') is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time. Consider, for example, the use of a timeline or sequence of events. It ...

position of Wadjenes, Egyptologists are uncertain as to the origin of the name "Wadjenes". Egyptologists and

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

s such as Winfried Barta, Bernhard Grdseloff and

Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen Edwards Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen Edwards, (21 July 1909 – 24 September 1996) — known as I. E. S. Edwards— was an English Egyptologist and curator, considered to be a leading expert on the pyramids. Biography Born in London, he was the son of Edwar ...

believe that the papyrus haulm, the first symbol in Wadjenes's name, is a misinterpretation of the

hieroglyph A hieroglyph ( Greek for "sacred carvings") was a character of the ancient Egyptian writing system. Logographic scripts that are pictographic in form in a way reminiscent of ancient Egyptian are also sometimes called "hieroglyphs". In Neoplatoni ...

ic sign of a flower called ''Weneg'' (also read as ''Uneg''), which is rarely used in Egyptian writing. A king

Weneg Weneg (or, alternatively, Uneg) is the name of: * Weneg (Egyptian deity), a sky- and death deity from Egyptian religion * Weneg (pharaoh), a well attested but chronologically unfixed king of Egyptian second dynasty {{disambig ...

(also written as "Weneg-Nebti") is also contemporarily identified by black

ink Ink is a gel, sol, or solution that contains at least one colorant, such as a dye or pigment, and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing or writing with a pen, brush, reed pen, or quill. Thi ...

-inscriptions on

alabaster Alabaster is a mineral or rock that is soft, often used for carving, and is processed for plaster powder. Archaeologists and the stone processing industry use the word differently from geologists. The former use it in a wider sense that includes ...

-shards and as incised writings on

schist Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock showing pronounced schistosity. This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a low-power hand lens, oriented in such a way that the rock is easily split into thin flakes o ...

vessels originating from the underground galleries beneath the step pyramid of king

Djoser Djoser (also read as Djeser and Zoser) was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the 3rd Dynasty during the Old Kingdom, and was the founder of that epoch. He is also known by his Hellenized names Tosorthros (from Manetho) and Sesorthos (from Euseb ...

at Sakkara. It is possible that Ramesside scribes interchanged the Weneg flower with the papyrus haulm, since both signs are very similar to each other in

hieratic script Hieratic (; grc, ἱερατικά, hieratiká, priestly) is the name given to a cursive writing system used for Egyptian language, Ancient Egyptian and the principal script used to write that language from its development in the third millenniu ...

.B. Grdseloff: ''King Uneg'' in: ''Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte'', No. 44, 1944, page 279–306.Winfried Barta in: ''Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde'', No.108. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1981, , page11.Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen Edwards: ''The Cambridge Ancient History'', Vol. 1, Pt. 2: ''Early History of the Middle East'', 3rd reprint. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2006, , page 31. Besides the artefacts with the name "Weneg-Nebti", further objects made of alabaster show the personal name "Wadj-sen" in connection with the

Sed festival The Sed festival (''ḥb-sd'', conventional pronunciation ; also known as Heb Sed or Feast of the Tail) was an ancient Egyptian ceremony that celebrated the continued rule of a pharaoh. The name is taken from the name of an Egyptian wolf god, ...

. Egyptologists such as

Wolfgang Helck Hans Wolfgang Helck (16 September 1914 – 27 August 1993) was a German Egyptologist, considered one of the most important Egyptologists of the 20th century. From 1956 until his retirement in 1979 he was a professor at the University of Hamburg. H ...

think that Wadj-sen was a crown prince, since the titulary ''Wer-ma'a'' ("he who sees the greatest") was always reserved for the eldest son of a king and so it is also connected with Wadj-sen's name. However, Egyptologists such as Peter Kaplony and

Jürgen von Beckerath Jürgen von Beckerath (19 February 1920, Hanover – 26 June 2016, Schlehdorf) was a German Egyptologist. He was a prolific writer who published countless articles in journals such as '' Orientalia'', ''Göttinger Miszellen'' (GM), ''Journal of t ...

believe that Weneg-Nebti and Wadjenes are identical and that Wadjenes's Horus name was

Sekhemib-Perenmaat Sekhemib-Perenma'at (or simply Sekhemib), is the Horus name of an early Egyptian king who ruled during the 2nd Dynasty. Similar to his predecessor, successor or co-ruler Seth-Peribsen, Sekhemib is contemporarily well attested in archaeological ...

Horus Sa Horus Sa (also Horus Za, Sa and Za) was a possible early Egyptian pharaoh who may have reigned during the Second Dynasty of Egypt, Second or Third Dynasty of Egypt. His existence is disputed, as is the meaning of the artifacts that have been in ...

. The ancient Egyptian historian

Manetho Manetho (; grc-koi, Μανέθων ''Manéthōn'', ''gen''.: Μανέθωνος) is believed to have been an Egyptian priest from Sebennytos ( cop, Ϫⲉⲙⲛⲟⲩϯ, translit=Čemnouti) who lived in the Ptolemaic Kingdom in the early third ...

called Wadjenes "Tlas". This name distortion may be based on the

Coptic Coptic may refer to: Afro-Asia * Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya * Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century * Coptic alphabet ...

rewriting of the name "Wadjenes" as "Ougotlas", meaning ″fresh of tongue″.I.E.S. Edwards: ''The Cambridge ancient history'', Volume 1-3. Cambridge University Press, 1970, , page 31.

Reign

Very little is known about Wadjenes's reign. The

Turin King List The Turin King List, also known as the Turin Royal Canon, is an ancient Egyptian hieratic papyrus thought to date from the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II, now in the Museo Egizio (Egyptian Museum) in Turin. The papyrus is the most extensive list ava ...

lists Wadjenes as ruling for 54 years, whilst Manetho assigns 17 years to him. Egyptologists evaluate both lists as misinterpretations by Ramesside scribes or as an exaggeration. If Wadjenes was an independent ruler (as Richard Weill and Peter Kaplony believe) he was evidently the last to rule over a unified realm, since his name is found in both Memphite and Thinite royal chronicles. It is largely accepted by Egyptologists that the immediate successor of king Nynetjer left a divided Egypt, which was headed by two kings who ruled at the same time. The theory is based on the unusual '' serekh name'' of a king called

Peribsen Seth-Peribsen (also known as Ash-Peribsen, Peribsen and Perabsen) is the serekh, serekh name of an Early Dynastic Period of Egypt, early Egyptian monarch (pharaoh), who ruled during the Second dynasty of Egypt, Second Dynasty of Egypt (c. 2890 & ...

, who succeeded Nynetjer and who placed the crest animal of

Seth Seth,; el, Σήθ ''Sḗth''; ; "placed", "appointed") in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Mandaeism, and Sethianism, was the third son of Adam and Eve and brother of Cain and Abel, their only other child mentioned by name in the Hebrew Bible. A ...

above his name. Since the deity Seth was of Ombite origin, king Peribsen was probably of Ombite origin, too, and he definitely ruled only in

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. In ancient ...

. His name is missing from the Ramesside Memphite kinglists, because they were all written by Memphite priests and they did not accept any non-Memphite ruler as a rightful ancestor.

References

{{authority control 28th-century BC Pharaohs Pharaohs of the Second Dynasty of Egypt