tekhenu

Tekhenu is a term that appears in ancient Egyptian texts and in modern Egyptological scholarship, where it has multiple related but distinct senses. In the best-attested usage, Tehenu (also transliterated tekhenu or teḫenu) refers to the Libyan lands and peoples lying to the west of Egypt. The exact geographic scope is debated, but many scholars connect Tehenu to the Libyan coast and hinterland known to the Egyptians as Tehenew. In inscriptions from various periods, the Tehenu are described as frontier peoples, sometimes as adversaries and other times as trading partners or neighbors in the broader western sphere of Egyptian interaction.

Transliteration is uncertain because hieroglyphic writing records consonants more reliably than vowels. As a result, Tehenu appears in scholarly literature under several forms, including Tehenu, Tekhenu, and teḫenu. In some sources, the term is used more narrowly to denote a specific Libyan region, while in others it functions as a generic label for Libyan groups encountered by ancient Egypt.

In modern usage, Tehenu is encountered in encyclopedias, dictionaries of ancient Egyptian terms, and academic discussions of Egypt–Libya contacts. It is not a modern country or ethnicity, but a historical designation used by ancient Egyptians and by later scholars to describe western lands and their inhabitants during periods of contact with Egypt.

Because transliteration conventions differ and primary texts are fragmentary, the precise identification of Tehenu and its relation to later Libyan identities remains a topic of ongoing research and scholarly debate.