Prenomen (Ancient Egypt)

The nswt-bjtj title is recorded from the time of the First Dynasty. It is conventionally paraphrased as "Dual King" or "King of Upper and Lower Egypt", but its literal interpretation would be "[He of] sedge [and] bee". The t hieroglyph (X1) is archaically read as tj, so that in Old Egyptian the transliteration of the title would be . The spelling in the Old Kingdom was initially interpreted as representing or stn (now deprecated). Kurt Sethe later proposed the interpretation of n-swtj as "belonging to the Sut-plant". The prepositional n is omitted in the spelling sw.tj. The term nswt is used in reference to the king, but not as a title placed before a royal name. A rare variant form spells nswt as nzw. In the Amarna Period, an Akkadian cuneiform transliteration of the title is recorded, as in-si-bi-ya, representing a Late Egyptian pronunciation of approximately [ɪnsəˈβiːjaʔ]. Schenkel (1986) cites a reconstruction of an older Egyptian form, based on the cuneiform, as *jinsiw-bījVt, where V is an unknown vowel. This would seem to cast doubt on the widespread reading of , because a t in this position is preserved in Coptic, and would not have been omitted in cuneiform. Schenkel and Peust (2007) have also questioned the derivation of nswt from swt "sedge", considering the swt-graph to be a borrowed sound rather than the emblem of Upper Egypt. In this case, would simply be a combination of two words meaning "king". Kahl (2008) attempts a symbolological interpretation of the "sedge" and the "bee" as representing Upper and Lower Egypt, respectively. According to Kahl, the "seal of the sprouting reed", reveals a "rather maternal and protecting function" of the king, and the "seal of the defensive bee" represents "a rather power and strength seeking character". The earliest instances of the use of bjt date back to the time period corresponding to queen Merneith's possible rule, between the reigns of Djet and Den in the mid First Dynasty. Honey was used in Ancient Egypt as food, medicine, table offering in temples and shrines and as an important trade ware. Additionally, the bee sign might have had the meaning of "wealth, affluence". This might explain as to why the bjtj crest is used when describing offices that were responsible for economic duties such as the Khetemty-bity for "seal bearer of the bjtj-king". A military interpretation, depicting the bee in reference to its sting, has also been proposed. == Use ==

of 1st dynasty). ) Three different uses for the nswt-bjtj group of signs are known. First, they represented the highest level of command, for the king himself as well for his subjects. Thus, every title of an official containing the nswt- or bjt signs gave the holder the highest executive authority. Examples of such titles are sḏꜣwtj-bjtj and sḏꜣwtj-nswt. Despite using the bjt and nswt group of signs, both titles actually mean "sealbearer of the king". However, when used separately and in mere economic contexts, the titles could have a more specific meaning, for example sḏꜣwtj-bjtj can be read as "sealbearer of the king of Lower Egypt" and sḏꜣwtj-nswt as "seal bearer of the king of Upper Egypt". A unique case seems to be the birth name of the Third Dynasty king Huni: his name contains the nswt crest beside the signs for ḥw meaning "utterance" or "appointment" or ḥwj for "smiting" or "beating". Finally, similarly to the nswt crest, the bjt crest also expressed royal authority. For example, a "seal-bearer of the bjt-king" was - alongside the direct relatives of the king - the only one allowed to touch, count and seal the personal possessions of the pharaoh. When used singly or combined with other symbols, nswt and bjt received advanced meanings in Egyptian heraldry, especially when connected with administrative and/or economic institutions. The sign group pr-nswt, for example, meaning "house of the king", represented the royal household and/or the palace of the king. Semerkhet, the seventh ruler of the First Dynasty, introduced the famous Nebty name as a complementary counterpart to the nswt-bjtj crest. Semerkhet's predecessor, Anedjib, had introduced the nbwj name as a heraldic emendation. But nbwj (meaning "the two lords") seemed to include the wrong gender. Semerkhet seemed to seek for a "female" crest and thus changed the nbwj name into the nbtj name, the crest of the "Two Ladies" (Nekhbet and Wadjet). From Semerkhet to Nynetjer (the third ruler of the Second Dynasty), the nswt-bjtj crest appeared in pair with the Nebty name. Seth-Peribsen (possibly Nynetjer's direct successor) was the first to separate the crests and use the nswt-bjtj crest alone again. He used the nbtj crest separately, too, but peculiarly, the name "Peribsen" was used in all crests. == Introduction and history ==

The final form of the title nswt-bjtj was introduced during the reign of king Horus Den, the fifth ruler of the First Dynasty, and was then adopted by all subsequent kings. At the time of the introduction of the nswt-bjtj crest both groups were already in use separately. The single sign group nsw.t was already in use under king Djer, the third king of the dynasty and maybe even under king Hor-Aha, his predecessor. The sign group bj.t appeared slightly later, during the reign of Den. An interesting background is the symbolic implementation of nswt with the White Crown of Upper Egypt and bjt with the Red Crown of Lower Egypt. The title was used in the same - male - form, even in cases when ruling pharaoh was a woman. The only instance of a feminized version is known from the reign of Cleopatra VII for whom there is attested form nsjt-n-tꜣ-šmꜥ bjtjt-n-tꜣ-mḥw that contains female versions of both nswt and bitj, as well references to Upper and Lower Egypt, and can be translated as "Queen of Upper and Lower Egypt", or - more detailedly - "Queen of the land of Upper Egypt (and) Queen of the land of Lower Egypt". == References ==