"While debate continues around much if not all of the early dynastic kings of Egypt, one caught my eye: Sanakht, a pharaoh of the Old Kingdom era who has yet to receive a solid placement within the line of kings. This paper will present a new assessment of his name, "
Sekhem scepter, Shen ring, New Name of Sanakht(e)
Bound within a serekh carved into stone at the Sinai locations of Serabit al Khadim and Wadi Maghara (img. 1), the hieroglyphs read as : V7-N35-M3 ( ), which is literally 'Shen-n-khet'
It is therefore admissible the correct rendering of the name is 'Shenkhet'.
And so we come full circle to Shenkhet. It is my opinion more can be drawn from this king's name from both the prefix and suffix. In terms of the prefix, the highly suggested s-n theme uproots the 's' function momentarily, and I do so with contextual inquiry. There is logic in this since the 's' can mean 'healthy, strong, protected', and as a folded cloth/linen it makes archaic sense of the pictograph in how clothes form a better barrier of protection than does nudity in the wild (perhaps even bandaging after the fact, i.e. healing v. health). In the phrase anx wDA snb (live, be prosperous, be healthy) 12, the 's(h)n' is revealed as the root in snb, and as 'shen' is the early form of the cartouche, where it means 'protection, barrier, circuit, something around something, cover (n.)', or that which is within is kept safe, sacred, secret, thus 'keeper of', and of which would imbue health/strength, and so I think the s(h)-n combo is what evolved into the cartouche by the time of Sneferu (he's was supposedly the first to utilize it.) In essence the cartouche is the ambient personification of the king. The individualized 's' is therefore an internal confirmation of the whole, blending seamlessly with the full term of shen. It also makes sense how the inner shen of the serekh came to replace the serekh itself, but without usurping the meaning. Indeed the serekh is an explicit pictograph of the temple environs, within which the pharaoh resided and was kept 'safe', and just as clothing provides a protective barrier, .. do walls of stone or mud-brick. Thus both of these forms of royal nomenclature evoke the idea of fortification, where the serekh was a tangible reference and the shen an abstract one. - - -
cf eggshell/shield/mother's hut etc./!hxaro/Bat carried handheld rattle -> Chinese abacus etc.
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