Penebui

Neithhotep
Penebui depicted on ayear tabletwith blood streaming from her head
Queen consortofEgypt
Tenure	c.3000 BC
Died	c.3000 BC

Penebui inhieroglyphs
Pe-nebui (personal name) P.nb.wj Seat of the Two Lords
Weret-hetes (royal title) Wr.t hts Great of Hetes-Scepters

Penebui(diedc.3000 BC) was an earlyEgyptianqueen and most possibly the wife of kingDjerduring the1st Dynasty.Her name was found engraved on severalivorytags.

Identity

There are at least three ivory tags showing queen Penebui. Two were found in thenecropolisof king Djer atAbydos,one (pretty damaged) atSaqqarain an anonymous tomb. The tags, calledyear tablets,show depictions of several ceremonies, such as ahuman sacrificeand the presentation of several cultic objects. The center of the engraving shows two figures of deceased queens. They are shown in shape of busts with female heads andhairstyles,resting on palatial decorated pedestals. There are fountains of blood coming out of their foreheads, symbolising the death of the women. In earlier times these blood fountains were falsely interpreted as flower ornaments or snake diadems. Both ladies names are introduced by a rare hieroglyph similar to the later sign for "excrement", the signs on the labels simply mean "to die" or "death". The former, first depicted lady can be identified as queenPenebui,this name means "seat of the two lords". Her name is also guided by the titleWeret-hetes,meaning "great one of the Hetes sceptre", identifying her as a royal spouse. The other lady on the tags must have also been a queen, but of lower rank. Her title wasMa'a-heru,meaning "she who sees Horus". Unfortunately, her name is very difficult to read, it might be written with three fish symbols.

Penebui's death seems to be recorded on the famousPalermo stonein the 4th year event window of king Djer.Wolfgang Helcksuspects that queen Penebui died violently duedecapitation,since the sign of a deceased royal lady in the year window is guided by the hieroglyph of a decapitatedlapwing.