The First Dynasty (3200-2980 B.C.). - Narmer Hor Aha -Djer -Djet

The First Dynasty (3200-2980 B.C.).      

Both classical sources: Herodotus, Manetho and Egyptian monuments like the tablet of Abydos and others mention the first king of the First Dynasty as Menes. The names Narmer or Aha were found separately with Menes’name on some of the contemporary monuments. If Menes is identified with Narmer, as it is more likely, then Narmer’s famous palette confirms his conquest of Lower Egypt and the union of the two kingdoms under him. He is shown, on this palette, wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt and the red crown of Lower Egypt.

                             

The Narmer palette

Cairo Museum.

                                                                 

Menes’native city was Thinis (near Abydos), which was not near enough to the centre of his new kingdom to serve as his capital. He, therefore, founded Memphis, at the junction of the two lands, to be his new capital. Historians ascribed to him also the introduction of a highly developed system of centralised government.  

After Menes, about seven other powerful kings reigned over Egypt successively. These kings are Hr-Aha, Djer, Djet, Den, Andj-ib Semerkhet and Qaa.

                      

Tombs containing the names of these kings have been found at Abydos. Their names were also given by some other monuments from both Saqqara and Abydos. From these inscriptions we know that they sent expeditions to work the mines and quarries in Sinai and Eastern desert to bring the metals and the different stones. They also conquered the Nubians, thus adding territory to the southern part of Egypt, and they carried out warlike expeditions against the Libyans.

Narmer        

King Narmer is considered to be the first king of the 1st dynasty (and/or last king of the 0 dynasty) of a unified ancient Egypt. His name as shown on his palette and on other inscriptions is composed of a chisel, thought to be read mr, above a catfish, thought to be read as n'r. King Narmer, or Catfish, appears on seal impressions from the 1st Dynasty tombs at Abydos.  Narmer’s name has also been found on pottery vessels from the site of Minshat Abu Omar in the eastern Delta.

Narmer's importance as the unifier of Lower and Upper Egypt is indicated primarily by the Palette and the Macehead which are attributed to him. His name appear on both. But his power in the region must have extended further, since Egyptian sherds inscribed with Narmer's name have also been found and in southern Palestine.

The Narmer Palette was discovered by J.E.Quibell at Hierakonpolis in 1897-98. The obverse is divided into three registers, uppermost of which gives his name in a serekh flanked by human-faced cow-goddess. The second register shows Narmer wearing the White Crown of Upper Egypt smiting an enemy. The third register shows dead, nude enemies. On the reverse the upper register showing his name-serekh is repeated. The second register shows Narmer now wearing the Red Crown of Lower Egypt, inspecting rows of nude, decapitated (headless)enemies. The third register shows a man mastering serpent-necked lions, and the fourth register shows a bull destroying a town and trampling a dead enemy.

The Narmer macehead, also discovered at Hierakonpolis, has had three interpretations: a-the mace head depicted the political marriage of Nithotep, princess of the north, with Narmer,  b- the macehead depicted celebration by Narmer of his conquest of the north, , c- the macehead as commemorating a Sed-festival of the king. Nithotep’s grave has been found at Naqada, with Narmer’s name as well as with King Aha’s name. Nithotep thus is linked with two kings as wife and mother.

Narmer Macehead

The focus of the scene is the king's figure, seen sitting robed in a long cloak enthroned under a canopy on a high base, wearing the Red Crown and holding a flail. The enclosure within which he sits can be interpreted as a shrine or temple. He is attended by minor figures of fan-bearers, guards, with long staves and an official who may be a vizier. In front of Narmer three men run a race towards him, while above them stands four men carrying standards. Facing the king is a cloaked and beardless figure, over which is a simple enclosure in which stands a cow and calf (a nome sign).The running figures may represent Muu dancers, long associated with Buto, presenting the Delta. The seated figure facing Narmer may be the chief of Buto or a princess of the Delta.

Beneath these figures are symbols of numbers. The numbers have been recently interpreted to indicate 400,000 cattle, 1,422,000 small animals, and 120,000 men (not women and children, only males.) This would have provided for a total human population of the Delta of perhaps 600,000. The macehead commemorates the completion of the conquest of Lower Egypt with the first appearance of the King of Lower Egypt.

Jar-sealings found by Petrie at Abydos associate the "mn" glyph, the gaming board, from which Menes apparently receives his name, with Narmer. Narmer was shown in a serekh and Meni was shown in an unenclosed space, like a son and heir.

Hor-Aha, the first king of the 1st Dynasty and thus Narmer’s probable successor and possibly his son by Queen Nithotep, perhaps took the second royal name of Men, which means "establisher". An ivory label from the tomb of Queen Nithotep at Naqada shows the name Hor-Aha, and the name Men, in front of it.   

The name Men may also be linked with the Egyptian name of the city of Memphis (Mn-nfr), which Menes is said to have founded. According to Manetho, Menes founded a dynasty of eight kings. Manetho gives Menes a reign of about sixty years. His principal achievement is the foundation of Memphis.

Narmer Palette

The Lower Egyptian enemy is depicted kneeling before the king. Behind the enemy are two signs that may represent the origin of the enemy. Above the enemy's head, facing the king, is a symbol of the Delta marshland (Lower Egypt), with a man's head rising from it. Out of the land, six papyrus plants are growing. A falcon, symbolic of the king, is perched on top of the papyrus plants and appears to draw the breath of life out of the nostrils of the marshland's face. The papyrus plant was used later to denote the number 1,000. Probably the scene on the Narmer palette indicates that the king subdued 6,000 enemies. Below this central scene at the bottom of the palette lie two enemies, who have probably fallen in battle.

                                                                  

Finally, there is various other evidence, some of which suggests that Narmer may have, for the most part, united Egypt, but that it was his son Aha who solidified this union and established Memphis. Other theories also suggest that Narmer and Aha were one and the same person. It is likely, with new discoveries, that we may find out more information.

Hor Aha

Some scholars believe that Aha was actually King Menes, others believe Mena was Narmer and Aha was his successor.  However, Mena was the founding king of the 1st Dynasty, and was the first king to unify Upper and Lower Egypt into one kingdom. Mena founded the city of Memphis. He was also the founder of Crocodopolis. During his time, the Egyptian army fighted against the Nubians in the south and expanded his influence as far as the First Cataract.

Aha's wife was Queen Berenib, though she was not the mother of his heir, King Djer, and his mother was probably Neithotep. His death is a mystery, for, according to legend he was attacked by wild dogs and Nile crocodiles in the Faiyum .

Djer

Horus Djer was either the second or third ruler of the 1st dynasty. His reign came after that of Narmer and Aha. Horus Djer and the following kings are largely responsible for the consolidation of the unified state of Egypt. He probably ruled for 57 years, according to Manetho. Most of the information we have on this ruler comes from ivory and wood labels found at Abydos and Saqqara. The hieroglyphs on the labels represent an early state of writing and are difficult to read.

An inscription on ivory found at Abydos with Djer's name in a serekh indicates that he visited Buto, an early capital of Egypt, and Sais, both in the Delta of Lower or northern Egypt. A wooden label from Saqqara bearing his name may refer to a ceremony connected with human sacrifice, a practice that was quickly abandoned in Egyptian culture. However, about his large tomb at Abydos (Tomb O) are 300 burials of retainers who seem to have perished at the same time as the principle internment of Djer.

Inscriptions on Ivory Recording Djer's visits to Delta Cities

From Saqqara on Wood, Possibly recording a Ceremony of Human Sacrifice

                                                

A human arm with jewlery

He made a military campaign deep into Nubia according to an inscription at Wadi Halfa. Moreover, one of his regnal years was named, "The Year of Smiting the land of the Setjet". Setjet was a word identified with Syria-Palestine, and we also believe that he sent forces into the Sinai. There is also evidence that he made excursions into Libya to the west. These are the first recorded military campaigns outside of the "Two Lands" of Egypt. His Tomb O is at Umm el-Gaab (Abydos) to the west of the tomb of Horus Aha. The tomb is subterranean, made of brick and was much more elaborate then his predecessor's tombs. In fact, it is one of the largest tombs of the First Dynasty and the complex covers an area of 70 X40 meters, including the subsidiary burials that are in rows. From the Middle Kingdom onward, Egyptians thought that his tomb held the body of Osiris, god of the dead.

From his tomb we find an arm which wore the earliest surviving royal jewelry, four gold and turquoise bracelets. His apparent wife, Her-neith, is buried at Saqqara in tomb number 3507, near the burials of many of the king's senior officials.

Djet

  

King Djet succeeded Djer as the third king of Egypt's 1st Dynasty. Djet would have probably been the son of Djer. However, there might have been a queen that ruled between Djer and Djet. Her large tomb at Abydos was thought at one time to belong to a king. More likely Meryetneith was a daughter of Djer and a consort of Djet. A fairly recent find of a clay seal at Abydos that bears her name appears to indicate that she was probably the mother of Den, Djet's successor. She may also have acted as her young son's regent upon the death of Djet. On this seal, her title was clearly given as "King's Mother". Djet probably ruled for 23 years according to Manetho. 

 Layout of Djet's tomb at Abydos

Djet's tomb at Abydos in Umm el-Ga'ab is Petrie's Tomb Z, located just west of Djer's tomb.  Emile Petrie was the first to explore this tomb. It was re-excavated by Kaiser and Dreyer in 1988. For many years, he was thought to have had a tomb at Saqqara, but later investigation ascribed that structure to a nobleman named Sekhem-kha who probably served under Djet, even though the nobleman's tomb is larger then that of the king..

It is noteworthy that there were some 174 subsidiary burials around his tomb at Abydos. Most, if not all of these were not family members as found around the tombs of latter kings, but rather retainers who had probably been put to death upon the death of Djet, in order to serve him in the afterlife. These sacrificial burials were unique to this time period in Egypt.  Later kings would take ushabtis, symbolic workers, to their graves.

Djet's stela 

Also found at his tomb was a stele, well known today, containing the early hieroglyphs of his name. This was a snake surmounted by the falcon Horus with a symbolic palace facade below the snake. Originally, there would have been a pair of this stele at the tomb entrance. Djet's simple name probably means, "Horus Serpent" or "Horus the Snake" according to this stele and other inscriptions. The limestone stele may be found today in the Louvre Museum in Paris. Djet is further attested to by a seal impression from mastaba V in Giza.

Little else is know about this king. He probably sent an expedition to the Red Sea, presumably with the aim of exploiting mines in the Easter Desert.