Ancient Egypt Before the Dynasties: The First Civilizations
Egyptians from the days of the New Kingdom mentioned on their monuments the name of a king called Menes as their first king, and they also mentioned it to Herodotus and Manetho in his history, and the Egyptians also wrote his name on their jars in his honor, but we have not found such a name on the monuments of the first kings, but we have not found such a name on them.
All we can offer is that it may have been another name for the king known to us as (Narmer), for whom some important monuments were found in Hierakonpolis (north of Edfu) and Abydos, the most famous of which is his famous painting, which is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Almost all historians now agree that Narmer is the first king of the first dynasty, and that Menes is just another name that we have not found so far. We see on both sides of his painting two scenes that differ in detail but agree in purpose, which is to record the victory of this king over his enemies at the top of the painting - on both sides - we see his name: Narmer, written inside a rectangle representing the facade of the palace, and to the right and left of the name is a drawing of the head of the goddess Hathor with a human face and the ears and horns of a cow.
On one of the two faces, which is the back, we see the king standing with the crown of the south on his head, holding a kneeling enemy in front of him, and in his right hand he raised his fighting funnel to hit his head with it.
In front of the king, we see the god Horus in the form of a falcon holding a rope with which he is dragging the head of his enemy, topped by six sticks of papyrus, each of which represents the number of a thousand, meaning that Horus made him capture six thousand of his enemies. Behind Narmer walks one of his followers with a vase in his right hand and the king's shoes in his left.
At the bottom of the painting, we see two of his enemies with his name above each of them.
We must note that the scenes on the head of the Scorpion King's Macehead, which also records his victory in a war against the people of the Delta and the inhabitants of the desert, and he wears the crown of Upper Egypt only, so perhaps Narmer, who completed what others started from the effort and subdued the Delta completely, was the first of the kings of Upper Egypt to be crowned king of the Delta as well.
The drawings on his battle funnel, which was also found in Hierakonpolis, show scenes of the celebration of his coronation as king of the Delta, where we see him wearing the crown of the north and sitting on the throne, lined up behind him by senior officials, the Rakhma, the goddess of Cap, flying over his head to protect him, and the flag bearers of the four gods stood in front of him, and we also read the numbers of the hundreds of thousands of cattle and goats he captured, as well as the captive people.
Other traces of this king were found when the tombs of Abydos were excavated in the late 19th century, and this raises an important point in Egyptian history. The tomb of Narmer is not the only tomb in Abydos, but there are other tombs of the kings of the First Dynasty and some kings of the Second Dynasty, which proves to us that the family from which Narmer originated took a capital near that place, and that the old capital, Nekhen, (north of Edfu) became a religious capital only.
The new capital near Abydos, called Thinis, was the first Egyptian capital in its new era, and it remained throughout the days of the First and Second Dynasties as the capital of the country and the official residence of the kings, although the kings of these two dynasties resided from time to time in the north, in a city that was called . The White Castle, which they later attributed to King Menes, was later called Manf by the Egyptians.
Whether this northern city was actually established during the reign of Menes or during the reign of one of his successors, and whether it is true that Menes diverted the Nile to create this new capital or whether it was just a matter of digging a canal or a small irrigation project, the choice of location was of great importance.
The choice of location was of great importance for the governance of the north and south, as the natural place for the capital of Egypt must be close to the place where the delta meets Upper Egypt, which is the location of the most important capitals of Egypt in all ages from the era of Menes until now.
Since Amelineau and Petrie excavated Abydos in 1895 and found in its tombs many important monuments bearing the names of the kings of the First Dynasty, it was believed until 1921 that the tombs of these kings were there.
But then it happened that archaeologists found the names of some of these kings also in tombs in Tarkhan and Saqqara, and then the Department of Antiquities since 1930 began to dig regularly in the marine area of Saqqara and W.C. Firth found some tombs, and then W.B. Emery took over (W.B. Emery). Emery) From 1935 until the outbreak of World War II, he found a number of First Dynasty tombs there, and found the names of all the kings of the dynasty starting from Hor-Aha, except for his tombs Djet, Qa'a, and Semerkhet, as well as the tombs of some senior officials such as Hemaka.
Neither Amelineau nor Petrie found anything in Abydos that proves that the kings of the First Dynasty were really buried in those tombs, and it also turned out that Saqqara tombs are larger and more luxurious than Abydos tombs, so in which area were these kings buried if the Saqqara tombs were really built for these kings and not for their ministers who resided in the new capital in the north?
Many archaeologists, led by W.B.Emery, wanted to see the Saqqara tombs as the true burial places of these kings and that the Abydos tombs were only mausoleums or some kind of memorial tombs in the cemetery of the capital of their region where they grew up.
W.B.Emery resumed his excavations in 1953 and found two royal tombs, one with many objects from the reign of King Djet and the other with objects from the reign of King Qa'a, both of which were much larger than their respective tombs in Abydos.
W.B.Emery's excavations continued until 1955 and provided us with many relics of the First Dynasty, shed much light on the history of that era and its civilizations, and clarified many mysteries, but despite all this, W.B.Emery did not find, either in his excavations before 1939 or between 1953 and 1955, any conclusive evidence that the kings of the First Dynasty were buried in Saqqara.
Narmer was the first king of this dynasty, and his tomb was found in Abydos, and his most important relics came from the temple of Nekhen in Hierakonpolis, then he was followed by King Hor- Aha, (meaning the warrior), a tomb was found for him in Abydos and traces of his name in another larger tomb in Saqqara and we see on his monuments many references to wars against the Libyans and Nubians, and to religious ceremonies, especially those related to his coronation ceremony, and also indicate the construction of some temples for goddesses, especially for the goddess Net, whose clinic was based in the city of Saa al-Hajar in the western Delta, and his wife called him Neithhotep, and she may have been from that city.
After Aha came another king, Djer, whose monuments are characterized by many artistic advances, and for some reason the ancient Egyptians in the following ages believed that his tomb in Abydos was the tomb of the idol Osiris and were pilgrimages and offerings to him until Amelineau's excavations in 1895 revealed its true nature.
It appears that Djer was no less than his predecessor Hor-Aha in his war activity, as in 1949 his name was found written on the rocks of Jebel Sheikh Suleiman near Wadi Halfa, recording there his victory over the Nubians, and this indicates the interest of the kings of the First Dynasty in securing Egypt's southern borders and opening the area south of the first cataract for trade with Sudan.
During the reign of his successor, King Djet, we see that the policy of commercial expansion and perhaps also the exploitation of mines did not decrease, and that these kings were interested in the desert routes and securing trade in them, as the name of this king was found written on the rocks of one of those routes that connected Edfu and the Red Sea and remained used in all ages, whether for trade or obtaining some of the minerals of that region, especially gold.
Egypt had reached quite a bit of progress during the reign of King Djet, and if we examine the remnants of his era, we see that many of them have reached such perfection that they are masterpieces of art, such as his painting, which is now in the Louvre Museum. His tomb was found in Abydos and another in Saqqara, and the tomb found in Nazlet Al Batran near the pyramids of Giza, in which his name appeared written on some of its artifacts, may have been one of his family members or senior employees.
The fifth king, King Den, we have learned a lot about him, not only from his tombs or those of his contemporaries, but also from the Palermo Stone. We also know that he fought the Bedouins in eastern Egypt, and we also see some details of his celebration of a festival called the Feast of the Dam, or the Thirtieth Festival, which played a major role in the lives of Egyptian kings and the doctrine of royal divinity.
It appears that this custom was known and followed in Egypt as early as before the dynastic era, and reached its final stage, which is the renewal of the right to remain in power before the expiration of the thirty-year period, and this is done in a ceremony according to special decrees in which the leader proves his strength, and builds for this occasion some special buildings and erects temples or structures for some idols.
The kings of Egypt from the first dynasty until the last days of its civilization remained faithful to this tradition and we often see reference to it, and we see some of its rituals, on the walls of temples in all eras, even what was built in the days of the Romans. The most important monuments from the reign of the king, (Den), are the tomb, Hemaka.
He was succeeded on the throne by his son Anedjib, whose Palermo Stone has preserved for us a great deal about the events of his time, including his wars and his celebration of the dam festival, and then ordered him to conduct a comprehensive census in the country, which was repeated every two years.
We also know from Palermo Stone and other monuments quite a bit about Semerkhet, and the most important thing related to the name of this king is the beginning of disputes and usurpation of the throne among the members of the royal house, which was a reason for the near end of the rule of this family.
The last king of this dynasty is King Qa'a. He also found traces of him in the tomb of Abydos, as well as in a large tomb in Saqqara, where his name was written on many of the remaining contents, and these traces provide us with a large number of names of his employees and the jobs they held, and from these jobs we know quite a bit about the organization of the country's administration in that era, as some of these employees were supervising irrigation, tax collection or record-keeping.
Who Was Narmer and Why Is He Important?
Egyptians from the days of the New Kingdom mentioned on their monuments the name of a king called Menes as their first king, and they also mentioned it to Herodotus and Manetho in his history, and the Egyptians also wrote his name on their jars in his honor, but we have not found such a name on the monuments of the first kings, but we have not found such a name on them.
Is Narmer the Same as Menes?
All we can offer is that it may have been another name for the king known to us as (Narmer), for whom some important monuments were found in Hierakonpolis (north of Edfu) and Abydos, the most famous of which is his famous painting, which is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
 |
| The Narmer Palette |
The Narmer Palette: A Record of Victory and Unity
Almost all historians now agree that Narmer is the first king of the first dynasty, and that Menes is just another name that we have not found so far. We see on both sides of his painting two scenes that differ in detail but agree in purpose, which is to record the victory of this king over his enemies at the top of the painting - on both sides - we see his name: Narmer, written inside a rectangle representing the facade of the palace, and to the right and left of the name is a drawing of the head of the goddess Hathor with a human face and the ears and horns of a cow.
Symbols and Scenes on the Narmer Palette
On one of the two faces, which is the back, we see the king standing with the crown of the south on his head, holding a kneeling enemy in front of him, and in his right hand he raised his fighting funnel to hit his head with it.
In front of the king, we see the god Horus in the form of a falcon holding a rope with which he is dragging the head of his enemy, topped by six sticks of papyrus, each of which represents the number of a thousand, meaning that Horus made him capture six thousand of his enemies. Behind Narmer walks one of his followers with a vase in his right hand and the king's shoes in his left.
At the bottom of the painting, we see two of his enemies with his name above each of them.
.webp "The-Narmer-Palette-Drawing-(front)") |
| The Narmer Palette - Drawing (front) |
The other face is different, as the center part is occupied by two animals with long necks that have turned around each other, leaving a circle between them, and both animals have grabbed a follower to pull him away from the other.
In the lower part of the painting, a bull - which also represents the king - smashes a fortress with its horns, and a person representing the owners of the fortress lies at the feet of the bull. The upper third of the painting is filled with another scene in which Narmer, wearing the crown of the north, is walking behind the official we see on the reverse side, and a second official is walking in front of him, preceded by four followers carrying the flags of four gods, and in front of these flags there are five rows with two decapitated bodies in each row.
There is no doubt that the scenes on this painting record Narmer's victory in the war, and also record his celebration of that victory with the crown of the north on his head. Although his name is written at the top of this face, the artist wanted to emphasize to us again that the one wearing the crown of the north is none other than Narmer, so he wrote his name again in front of his face.
In the lower part of the painting, a bull - which also represents the king - smashes a fortress with its horns, and a person representing the owners of the fortress lies at the feet of the bull. The upper third of the painting is filled with another scene in which Narmer, wearing the crown of the north, is walking behind the official we see on the reverse side, and a second official is walking in front of him, preceded by four followers carrying the flags of four gods, and in front of these flags there are five rows with two decapitated bodies in each row.
There is no doubt that the scenes on this painting record Narmer's victory in the war, and also record his celebration of that victory with the crown of the north on his head. Although his name is written at the top of this face, the artist wanted to emphasize to us again that the one wearing the crown of the north is none other than Narmer, so he wrote his name again in front of his face.
.webp "The-Narmer-Palette-Drawing-(back)") |
| The Narmer Palette - Drawing (back) |
Narmer’s Unification of Egypt: Myth or Fact?
We must note that the scenes on the head of the Scorpion King's Macehead, which also records his victory in a war against the people of the Delta and the inhabitants of the desert, and he wears the crown of Upper Egypt only, so perhaps Narmer, who completed what others started from the effort and subdued the Delta completely, was the first of the kings of Upper Egypt to be crowned king of the Delta as well.
The drawings on his battle funnel, which was also found in Hierakonpolis, show scenes of the celebration of his coronation as king of the Delta, where we see him wearing the crown of the north and sitting on the throne, lined up behind him by senior officials, the Rakhma, the goddess of Cap, flying over his head to protect him, and the flag bearers of the four gods stood in front of him, and we also read the numbers of the hundreds of thousands of cattle and goats he captured, as well as the captive people.
Other traces of this king were found when the tombs of Abydos were excavated in the late 19th century, and this raises an important point in Egyptian history. The tomb of Narmer is not the only tomb in Abydos, but there are other tombs of the kings of the First Dynasty and some kings of the Second Dynasty, which proves to us that the family from which Narmer originated took a capital near that place, and that the old capital, Nekhen, (north of Edfu) became a religious capital only.
 |
| the assumed grave of Narmer in Umm el-Ka'ab. |
Where Was the First Capital of Egypt?
The new capital near Abydos, called Thinis, was the first Egyptian capital in its new era, and it remained throughout the days of the First and Second Dynasties as the capital of the country and the official residence of the kings, although the kings of these two dynasties resided from time to time in the north, in a city that was called . The White Castle, which they later attributed to King Menes, was later called Manf by the Egyptians.
Whether this northern city was actually established during the reign of Menes or during the reign of one of his successors, and whether it is true that Menes diverted the Nile to create this new capital or whether it was just a matter of digging a canal or a small irrigation project, the choice of location was of great importance.
The choice of location was of great importance for the governance of the north and south, as the natural place for the capital of Egypt must be close to the place where the delta meets Upper Egypt, which is the location of the most important capitals of Egypt in all ages from the era of Menes until now.
Since Amelineau and Petrie excavated Abydos in 1895 and found in its tombs many important monuments bearing the names of the kings of the First Dynasty, it was believed until 1921 that the tombs of these kings were there.
But then it happened that archaeologists found the names of some of these kings also in tombs in Tarkhan and Saqqara, and then the Department of Antiquities since 1930 began to dig regularly in the marine area of Saqqara and W.C. Firth found some tombs, and then W.B. Emery took over (W.B. Emery). Emery) From 1935 until the outbreak of World War II, he found a number of First Dynasty tombs there, and found the names of all the kings of the dynasty starting from Hor-Aha, except for his tombs Djet, Qa'a, and Semerkhet, as well as the tombs of some senior officials such as Hemaka.
Was Narmer Buried in Abydos or Saqqara?
Neither Amelineau nor Petrie found anything in Abydos that proves that the kings of the First Dynasty were really buried in those tombs, and it also turned out that Saqqara tombs are larger and more luxurious than Abydos tombs, so in which area were these kings buried if the Saqqara tombs were really built for these kings and not for their ministers who resided in the new capital in the north?
Many archaeologists, led by W.B.Emery, wanted to see the Saqqara tombs as the true burial places of these kings and that the Abydos tombs were only mausoleums or some kind of memorial tombs in the cemetery of the capital of their region where they grew up.
W.B.Emery resumed his excavations in 1953 and found two royal tombs, one with many objects from the reign of King Djet and the other with objects from the reign of King Qa'a, both of which were much larger than their respective tombs in Abydos.
W.B.Emery's excavations continued until 1955 and provided us with many relics of the First Dynasty, shed much light on the history of that era and its civilizations, and clarified many mysteries, but despite all this, W.B.Emery did not find, either in his excavations before 1939 or between 1953 and 1955, any conclusive evidence that the kings of the First Dynasty were buried in Saqqara.
Kings After Narmer: Aha, Djer, and Others
Narmer was the first king of this dynasty, and his tomb was found in Abydos, and his most important relics came from the temple of Nekhen in Hierakonpolis, then he was followed by King Hor- Aha, (meaning the warrior), a tomb was found for him in Abydos and traces of his name in another larger tomb in Saqqara and we see on his monuments many references to wars against the Libyans and Nubians, and to religious ceremonies, especially those related to his coronation ceremony, and also indicate the construction of some temples for goddesses, especially for the goddess Net, whose clinic was based in the city of Saa al-Hajar in the western Delta, and his wife called him Neithhotep, and she may have been from that city.
After Aha came another king, Djer, whose monuments are characterized by many artistic advances, and for some reason the ancient Egyptians in the following ages believed that his tomb in Abydos was the tomb of the idol Osiris and were pilgrimages and offerings to him until Amelineau's excavations in 1895 revealed its true nature.
Military Campaigns and Foreign Trade in Early Dynasties
It appears that Djer was no less than his predecessor Hor-Aha in his war activity, as in 1949 his name was found written on the rocks of Jebel Sheikh Suleiman near Wadi Halfa, recording there his victory over the Nubians, and this indicates the interest of the kings of the First Dynasty in securing Egypt's southern borders and opening the area south of the first cataract for trade with Sudan.
During the reign of his successor, King Djet, we see that the policy of commercial expansion and perhaps also the exploitation of mines did not decrease, and that these kings were interested in the desert routes and securing trade in them, as the name of this king was found written on the rocks of one of those routes that connected Edfu and the Red Sea and remained used in all ages, whether for trade or obtaining some of the minerals of that region, especially gold.
Egypt had reached quite a bit of progress during the reign of King Djet, and if we examine the remnants of his era, we see that many of them have reached such perfection that they are masterpieces of art, such as his painting, which is now in the Louvre Museum. His tomb was found in Abydos and another in Saqqara, and the tomb found in Nazlet Al Batran near the pyramids of Giza, in which his name appeared written on some of its artifacts, may have been one of his family members or senior employees.
Religious Ceremonies and the Sed Festival
The fifth king, King Den, we have learned a lot about him, not only from his tombs or those of his contemporaries, but also from the Palermo Stone. We also know that he fought the Bedouins in eastern Egypt, and we also see some details of his celebration of a festival called the Feast of the Dam, or the Thirtieth Festival, which played a major role in the lives of Egyptian kings and the doctrine of royal divinity.
 |
| from Den's tomb in Abydos |
It appears that this custom was known and followed in Egypt as early as before the dynastic era, and reached its final stage, which is the renewal of the right to remain in power before the expiration of the thirty-year period, and this is done in a ceremony according to special decrees in which the leader proves his strength, and builds for this occasion some special buildings and erects temples or structures for some idols.
The kings of Egypt from the first dynasty until the last days of its civilization remained faithful to this tradition and we often see reference to it, and we see some of its rituals, on the walls of temples in all eras, even what was built in the days of the Romans. The most important monuments from the reign of the king, (Den), are the tomb, Hemaka.
He was succeeded on the throne by his son Anedjib, whose Palermo Stone has preserved for us a great deal about the events of his time, including his wars and his celebration of the dam festival, and then ordered him to conduct a comprehensive census in the country, which was repeated every two years.
Internal Conflicts and the End of the First Dynasty
We also know from Palermo Stone and other monuments quite a bit about Semerkhet, and the most important thing related to the name of this king is the beginning of disputes and usurpation of the throne among the members of the royal house, which was a reason for the near end of the rule of this family.
How Early Kings Organized the Egyptian State
The last king of this dynasty is King Qa'a. He also found traces of him in the tomb of Abydos, as well as in a large tomb in Saqqara, where his name was written on many of the remaining contents, and these traces provide us with a large number of names of his employees and the jobs they held, and from these jobs we know quite a bit about the organization of the country's administration in that era, as some of these employees were supervising irrigation, tax collection or record-keeping.
Written by H. Moses
All rights reserved ©Mythology and History
All rights reserved ©Mythology and History
References
- SETHE, K. (1905). Beitraege zur aeltesten Geschichte Aegyptens (Untersuchungen III). Leipzig.
- WEILL, R. (1908). La IIe et IIIe dynasties. Paris.
- QUIBELL, J.E. (1900–1902). Hierakonpolis, 2 Vols. ––––– (1947). Archaic Mastabas. Cairo.
- SAAD, Z.Y. (1947). Royal Excavations at Saqqara and Helwan (1941–1945). Cairo.
- WILKINSON, Toby. (1999). Early Dynastic Egypt. Routledge, London/New York. ISBN: 0-415-18633-1, pp. 74–75.
- Manetho (1940). Manetho, translated by W.G. Wadell. Cambridge University Press.
