Merytawy Penamun was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh whose datation is extremely uncertain.

Identification

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Penamun does not appear on any king list and his damaged cartouche was only found on a stone block from Kom Abu Billo (ancient Terenuthis) in the western Nile Delta.[1][3]

According to Jürgen von Beckerath, Penamun should have been a local Delta ruler during the 25th Dynasty (744–656 BC) who adopted the royal titulary; von Beckerath argues that he put his praenomen and nomen within the same cartouche, and that the lost portion on it could have contained the hieroglyph for "Re" (N5 in Gardiner's sign list) i.e. the standard suffix for pharaonic praenomina, thus becoming a Merytawyre.[2][4]

Basing on orthographic grounds, Kenneth Kitchen rather opts for a later dating for Penamun, believing that he should have ruled during the Persian period (started with the 27th Dynasty, 525–404 BC) or perhaps even later.[3]

References

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  1. ^ a b Naville, Édouard (1890). "Mound of the Jew and the city of Onias", Seventh memoir of the Egyptian Exploration Fund, London, pl. 20, n. 13
  2. ^ a b von Beckerath, Jürgen (1999). Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen (Münchner ägyptologische Studien, 49). Mainz: Philip von Zabern. ISBN 3-8053-2591-6., pp. 212-13
  3. ^ a b Kitchen, Kenneth A. (1996). The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (1100–650 BC). Warminster: Aris & Phillips Limited. p. 608. ISBN 0-85668-298-5., § 79
  4. ^ Schneider, Thomas (1994). Lexikon der Pharaonen. Zürich: Artemis & Winkler. p. 328. ISBN 3-7608-1102-7., p. 190