Weneg (pharaoh)

Weneg
Weneg-Nebty, Uneg
Alabaster fragment with the throne name Nisut-bitj-Nebty-Weneg.
Pharaoh
Reign	length of reign unknown (2nd Dynasty; around 2740 B.C.)
Predecessor	unknown
Successor	unknown
Royal titulary

Weneg (or Uneg), also known as Weneg-Nebty, is the throne name of an early Egyptian king, who ruled during the second dynasty. Although his chronological position is clear to Egyptologists, it is unclear for how long King Weneg ruled. It is also unclear as to which of the archaeologically identified Horus-kings corresponds to Weneg.

The name ‘Weneg’ is generally accepted to be a nebti- or throne name, introduced by the crest of the "Two Ladies" (the goddesses Nekhbet and Wadjet) and the sedge-and-bee-crest. Weneg's name appears in black ink inscriptions on alabaster fragments and in inscriptions on schist-vessels. Seventeen vessels bearing his name have been preserved; eleven of them were found in the underground galleries beneath the step pyramid of king Djoser at Sakkara. Egyptologists such as Wolfgang Helck and Francesco Tiradritti point out that all the inscriptions are made in the place of existing inscriptions, which means that the names that were originally placed on the vessels were completely different.

The symbol that was used to write Weneg's name is the object of significant dispute between egyptologists to this day. The so-called "weneg flower" is rarely used in Egyptian writing. Mysteriously, the weneg flower is often guided by six vertical "strokes", three of them on each side of the flower bud. The meaning of these strokes is unknown. After Weneg's death, his heraldic flower was not used again until king Teti (6th dynasty), when it was used in his pyramid texts to name a “Weneg” as a sky and death deity which was addressed with "Son of Ra" and "follower of the deceased king". So it seems that the weneg flower was somehow connected with the Egyptian sun and death cult. But the true meaning of the flower as a king's name remains unknown.