Ancient Egypt had two parts called Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt . Upper which was in the south, stretched for more than five hundred miles from the first cataract to the north to the beginning of the Nile delta. Lower Egypt which was in the north was the Nile delta itself. Though it was only a hundred miles long Lower Egypt is many times wider than Upper Egypt.
By about 3300 B.C., both Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt had kings. The king of Lower Egypt wore a short, boxy looking, red crown with a tall spike at the back and a curlicue at the front. The king of Upper Egypt wore something quite different, he wore a tall , white, pear shaped crown.
Most of the things we know about prehistoric Egypt is all mixed up with legends . One of the famous legends tells about King Menes who ruled Upper Egypt.
Menes is one of the archaic Egyptian kings bearing the name Scorpion. Some sources say he was the son of Narmer while others say he was Narmer. There is no tangible proof either way. At around 3100 B.C., King Menes defeated the king of Lower Egypt. After this he united both lands and called himself king of both Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt.
The legend goes on to tell you how King Menes even designed a new crown to celebrate his victory. This double crown was there for the union of the two lands. King Menes and his family formed the first ever Egyptian dynasty. A dynasty is when you have a series of rulers who all come the same family. After King Menes died his son became king, when his son died his grandson became king. It went on like that and throughout the history of ancient Egypt thirty different dynasties had ruled. The Egyptians believed that the royal family descended from the gods and had royal blood, because of this sometimes people had to marry their brother or sisters.
King Menes chose the city Memphis to be the capital of his country. Memphis is surrounded by desert and the Mediterranean Sea.
Some people believe that "Menes" of this legend may have been a real king, possibly Narmer . They also believe it wasn't King Menes who first wore the red and white crown, but a later one.
The identification of Menes with one of the archaeologically attested kings of Early Dynastic Egypt has been a matter of debate among Egyptologists for quite a long time and has not yet been resolved. Some identify Menes with Narmer (3300 - 3100 B.C.), others with his probable son, Aha and others yet still see him as a mere legendary figure. The most important document pertaining to the unification of Egypt is the Narmer Palette.
The Narmer Palette, now one of the many
exhibits at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, was discovered in 1898 by the
archaeologist James E. Quibell in the Upper Egyptian city of Nekhen
(today's Hierakonpolis), believed to be the Pre-Dynastic capital of
Upper Egypt. Quibell was excavating the royal residences of various
early Egyptian kings at Hierakonpolis in Upper Egypt when he discovered
that large ceremonial palette of King Narmer with other objects.
The palette, which has a shield-shape,
is decorated on both sides. It was once erected for display in the
temple of Horus in Nekhen. The Narmer Palette was cut out of one piece
of dark-green-coloured schist, approximately 64 cm (or 23 in.) in height
and dates to approximately 3200 B.C. It has survived intact. The palette
was a votive or gift offering by the King to his "father", the god
Amun-Ra. Not only does it hold one of the oldest known specimens of
Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, its well-preserved decoration
also shows us a chapter of Ancient Egyptian history : the unification of
Egypt. This is announced in a very clear and simple way : in the front,
the sovereign is wearing the White Crown of Upper Egypt, and in the
back, the Red Crown of Lower Egypt. Narmer would then be the first kiing
to reign over both lands.
Despite its small size, this document is
one of the most important sources informing us about Early Dynastic
Egypt. It marked an early example of a prevalent trend in Egyptian art
to glorify the king. The message is conveyed not through narrative but
through symbolic imagery and relies on some basic artistic conventions.
The Egyptians had a marvelous knack for distilling an idea to its purest
form in an abstract and powerful way.
The Narmer Palette reveals several
important social aspects about how the Egyptians lived and were
structured. It reveals the meaning of hierarchy of Egyptian life. It has
been suggested that the art, which developed during those years, which
showed the king as a distant figure, away from his subjects, was the
correct view of the ever-growing power of the king. "L'association
d'une élite s'exprime par la concentration des biens. Elle se traduit,
dans les structures mentales, par une sorte d'exaltation de la violence
qui, loin de traduire simplement des évènements réels, sublime la force
et la puissance, trahissant la constitution d'une idéologie dont se
générera l'image du pharaon" (Midant-Reynes, 1992).
The Palette also shows their value in
recording historical events - with such items of war and political power
struggles being 'newsworthy' events. It would be a mistake however, to
read the Narmer Palette as a mere tale of conquest. Through military
conquests however, Narmer was able to lay the political foundations of
the kingship which endured thereafter as long as a king wore the two
crowns. The actual finding of a palette proves that the Ancient
Egyptians had established a written form of communication, now known as
the Egyptian hieroglyphs. The palette was depicted however by Egyptian
scribes using a complex combination of ideograms and phonetic
signs.
The recto of the Narmer Palette is divided into two scenes.
Above the top scene, the king's name is written inside a serekh (ancestor of the cartouche), flanked on each side by a cow's head, in exactly the same manner as on the back.
The top scene takes up most of the recto
of the Narmer Palette. Dominating the scene is a large figure of the
king, with a ceremonial beard and wearing the White Crown (which is said
to represent Upper Egypt), as well as the symbolic bull's tail. All the
important features of the body are present : the whole eye is seen
within the profile of the face; shoulders, arms and hips are frontal
while the legs and feet are in profile. A solid and static, almost
monumental feeling is obtained by having the weight evenly divided on
both legs with one leg well in advance of the other. In his right hand
the king wields a mace, ready to smash the skull of a kneeling man
(possibly a Libyan) whom he holds by the hair with his left hand. The
name of this kneeling man (wash) written in hieroglyphs above his
head suggests that he may have been important or that it may be
referring to a group of people. Above the victim's head and in front of
Narmer's face, the falcon Horus of Nekhen - symbol of Egyptian royalty
and protector of the king - is sitting upon the plants of a personified
papyrus marshland. The papyrus blossom in early hieroglyphs stands for
the numeral one thousand - this group therefore means that the king had
captured six thousand enemies. This is frequently used to symbolise
Lower Egypt. Therefore the meaning of this part of the scene is quite
clear : the Upper Egyptian king tramples the Lower Egyptian marshlands.
As on the back, Narmer is followed by a smaller person carrying his
sandals. He is thus walking on sacred ground and is barefoot out of
respect for the gods and goddesses, in order to perform the ritual act
of execution. Narmer, in this way, may be dedicating his victim to the
gods and goddesses perhaps thanking them for their help in conquering
his foes.
Below the feet of the king, below the main scene, are two naked, fallen Deltaic enemies lie helplessly on the ground, and a representation of their walled town. They too confirm the victorious imagery repeated all over the Narmer Palette.
The front of the Narmer Palette is divided into
three levels.
Above the top level, the king's name,
"Narmer" (n'r - fish, and mr - chisel, which translates
into 'Catfish'), is written inside a serekh. This serekh
is flanked on each side by a cow's head, possibly a reference to either
the goddess Hathor or another named Bat ["it is doubtful that there was
even a goddess named Bat, although she may have been a nome deity"
(Jonathan Van Lepp, personal communication)], often represented as a
cow. If they do represent one, she would be the oldest known goddess of
Ancient Egypt. The association of Hathor, usually represented with
inwards horns, and as mother of the king is seen in most of the Egyptian
art and literature. Its disposition in the upper part of the palette
gives it a celestial character and prooves the high esteem of the
pharaoh towards her. The Narmer Palette displays the earliest known
representation of Hathor with the king.
On the left hand side of the top level,
the king, followed by a smaller figure carrying his sandals - known as
the Sandal Bearer - is represented wearing the Red Crown of Lower Egypt.
In his left hand, he holds a mace, in the other a flail, symbol of his
royalty. His name is repeated just before his face. He is preceded by
his vizir, and by a female figure called Tjet, holding a kind of sceptre
in her left hand. All the people are represented smaller than the king.
The entire procession is walking towards ten decapitated bodies -
divided in two rows of five persons each, lying on the ground, with
their disembodied heads between their legs.They represent the king's
vanquished enemies.
In the central scene, two persons tie
together the elongated necks of two feline animals, which could be
alluding to panthers, symbol of the eastern and western heavens. The two
felines are often interpreted as the two parts of the country tied
together, since they simbolise harmony and unity. It is believed that
the circular depression created by the curved necks may have used to
hold or make cosmetics on the palette - if ever it was really used to
handle cosmetics.
In the bottom scene, the Apis bull is
represented trampling a scared, naked bearded Deltaic foe. The symbolism
of this scene is made clear : the bull represents the king's masculinity
and vigorous power, while destroying his enemies with the force of a
strong bull. Some later kings would add a title such as "Victorious
Bull" to their titulary.
The dominant theme however is the
victory of the god incarnate over the forces of evil and chaos. The
king's role was that of the preserver of unity of land and to overcome
the enemies of Ma'at, goddess of Truth, Order and Justice.
The unification of Egypt was not the
work of one single man, but, like most important historical events, a
process of time and evolution - of which alliances and marriages were
part. Somewhere at the end of the Fourth Millennium B.C., the
unification of Upper Egypt became a fact. "Replacée dans cette
analyse, l'unification apparaît moins comme une conquête
que comme un phénomène d'assimilation du Nord par le Sud; mais dans ce
processus la guerre constitue l' une des composantes. Parce qu'elle est
valorisante pour le vainqueur, elle sera exaltée plus que tous les
autres ingrédients de l'unification ..." (Midant-Reynes,
1992).
The interpretation of the Narmer Palette
seems clear : Narmer is represented wearing both Egyptian crowns; he
conquers lands and overthrows the enemy. He is inspecting the victims of
his war. The Narmer Palette deals with a war, but also dramatically
indicates one of the most important events in the history of Ancient
Egypt : the unification of the two lands, the first attestation of this
event.
REFERENCES
Midant-Reynes, Béatrix, 1992. Préhistoire de
l’Égypte. Des premiers hommes aux premiers pharaons, Paris : Armand
Colin Éditeur.
