| Elephant | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pen-Abw, Pen-Abu | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Rock inscription from Qustul | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Pharaoh | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Reign | Naqada III | |||||||||||||||||||
| Predecessor | Unknown | |||||||||||||||||||
| Successor | Unknown | |||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||
| Burial | unknown | |||||||||||||||||||
| Dynasty | Predynastic Egypt | |||||||||||||||||||
Elephant (maybe read asPen-Abu;[1]fl. c. 3100 BC) is the provisional name of aPredynastic ruler inEgypt. Since the incarved rock inscriptions andivory tags showing his name are either drawn sloppily, or lacking any royal crest, the reading and thus whole existence of king "Elephant" is highly disputed.
The proposed existence of Elephant is based onGünter Dreyer's andLudwig David Morenz's essays. They are convinced that Elephant was a local king who ruled at the region ofQustul. According to Dreyer, Elephant's name appears in incised rock inscriptions at Qustul andGebel Sheikh-Suleiman, where the hieroglyphs are put inside a royalserekh. On ivory tags found atAbydos, the Elephant appears without any other royal crest. Dreyer sees a cube-shaped throne seat and a walkingelephant beneath it and readsPen-Abu ("Great one from the (throne) seat").[2] Morenz thinks alike but is highly uncertain about the reading of the name. He prefers to use the neutral provisional name "King Elephant". Alternatively, he proposes arhinoceros as a royal animal. Morenz points out that it became a remarkable fashion during theNaqada III epoch to choose dangerous and unpredictable animals (such aslions,crocodiles, elephants and rhinoceroses) for building up royal names.[3]
OtherEgyptologists, such asPeter Kaplony andToby Wilkinson, are not so sure and propose different readings. Whilst Wilkinson sees a throne seat and the hieroglyph for "border", Kaplony sees a seat and a stand full of wine jars, the sign for "praised". Kaplony also mentions that the name of a certain1st-dynastypalatinate namedHor-Sekhentydjw was also written with the wine-jar holder symbol. He believes that the name of the palatinate was created out of King Elephant's name.[4]
Elephant might have ruled during the earlyNaqada III epoch. His tomb is unknown.[5]
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