Narmer
Narmer (Ancient Egyptian - "Striker") was an Egyptian pharaoh who ruled
in the 32nd century BC. Thought to be the successor to the pre-dynastic
Serket, he is considered by some to be the founder of the First dynasty.
It is thought by many archaeologists that Serket is actually identical
with Narmer.
Narmer's name is represented phonetically by the hieroglyphic symbol for
a catfish (n'r) and that of a chisel (mr). Other modern variants of his
name include "Narmeru" or "Merunar", but convention uses "Narmer". Like
other First Dynasty Kings, his name is a single word ("The Striker")
and may be shorthand for "Horus is the Striker".
Narmer's Palette
The southern king Narmer (perhaps the legendary Menes) wins a victory
over the northern king which is immortalized by Narmer's Palette. The
famous Narmer Palette, discovered in 1898 in Hierakonpolis, shows Narmer
displaying the insignia of both Upper and Lower Egypt, giving rise to
the theory that he unified the two kingdoms. Traditionally, Menes is
credited with that unification, and he is listed as being the first
pharaoh in Manetho's list of kings, so this find has caused some
controversy.
Some Egyptologists hold that Menes and Narmer are in fact the same
person; some hold that Menes is the same person with Horus Akha (aka.
Hor-Aha) and he inherited an already-unified Egypt from Narmer; others
hold that Narmer began the process of unification but either did not
succeed or succeeded only partially, leaving it to Menes to complete.
Another equally plausible theory is that Narmer was an immediate
successor to the king who did manage to unify Egypt (perhaps the King
Scorpion whose name was found on a macehead also discovered in
Hierakonpolis), and adopted symbols of unification that had already been
in use perhaps for a generation. It should be noted that while there is
extensive physical evidence of there being a pharaoh named Narmer, so
far there is no evidence other than Manetho's list and from legend for a
pharaoh called Menes. The King Lists recently found in Den's and Qa'a's
tombs both list Narmer as the founder of their dynasty.
His wife is thought to have been Neithhotep A, a princess of northern
Egypt. Inscriptions bearing her name were found in tombs belonging to
Narmer's immediate successors Hor-Aha and Djer, implying either that she
was the mother or wife of Hor-Aha.
His tomb is thought to have been comprised of two joined chambers (B17 and B18) found in the Umm el-Qa'ab region of Abydos.
During the summer of 1994, excavators from the Nahal Tillah expedition
in southern Israel discovered an incised ceramic shard with the serekh
sign of Narmer, the same individual whose ceremonial slate palette was
found by James E. Quibell in Upper Egypt. The inscription was found on a
large circular platform, possibly the foundations of a storage silo on
the Halif Terrace. Dated to ca. 3000 BC, mineralogical studies of the
shard conclude that it is a fragment of a wine jar which was imported
from the Nile valley to Israel some 5000 years ago.
The name Narmer has been found all over Egypt including the local
vicinities of Tarkhan to the South of Memphis, the Helwan cemeteries
excavated by Zaki Y. Saad, immediately to the East and in the
subterranean eastern shaft of Djoser's Step pyramid complex at Saqqara.
Obviously he was remembered with some reverence in the area. Perhaps
when the earliest site of the Capital is finally located (possibly to
the North West) we will be in a much better position to evaluate
Narmer's role with Memphis or Inbw hdj as it was then known.
Writing was fairly widespread during this period and although hundred of
wooden and ivory labels have been found engraved with hieroglyphs
little is known of the individual signs, for example ; the serech of Aha
above is thought to feature mud brick paneling (early Palace facade)
topped by an unknown structure with a curved roof. From a modern point
of view this might seem to refer to the royal aviaries of Aha, where the
mace or fighting stick substitutes for a perch and the arched
hieroglyph a "pigeon hole" for the Pelegrine falcon to enter.
The arched hieroglyph however is more likely to be derived from the
earlier roof shape which makes up the national shrine of lower Egypt
which is partly seen on the 'macehead of King Scorpion'. Something quite
similar in design to the Aha hieroglyph (a protected enclosure for a
female) is also seen on the macehead of Narmer. The shape is also to be
seen in the plant like form below.
The Mace Head of King Scorpion
The ritual mace head of 'Scorpion' is one of the rare artifacts to have
survived from this king's reign, and is one of the oldest Egyptian works
of art. It is a rounded piece of limestone, shaped like the head of a
mace of 25 cm. high. Its dimensions and the fact that it is decorated
both show that it was intended as a ritual artifact and not as a real
mace head. The mace head was found by archaeologists Quibell and Green
during their expedition of 1897/98 in the main deposit at Hierakonpolis.
This main deposit also contained other artifacts from the Pre-dynastic
and Early Dynastic Periods, among them a long narrow vase also showing
the name of king 'Scorpion', as well as, perhaps, the Narmer Palette. It
is now on display at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
Note the Scorpion near the King.
No one is quite sure who united Egypt.
Information about the first dynasty is very sketchy.
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