Aha! Or is it King Menes?
King Catfish, Also Called Narmer
This Is The “Adam” Of The Bible
Manetho and Herodotus are the "best" historical sources for the tradition that Menes was the unifier and first King of a unified Egypt. Manetho lived in Sebennytos in the Delta during the Ptolemaic period. He was a priest, perhaps chief priest, of Ra, and served as a consultant to the early Ptolemaic rulers on the cult of Serapis.
Using perhaps source materials such as the annals now called the Palermo Stone and the Turin Canon, Manetho recorded a list of the Kings of ancient Egypt from pre-dynastic times through to the Persian conquest.
The Palermo stone, inscribed on both sides of a black basalt slab, dates from the Fifth Dynasty and records names of the kings of the 1-5th Dynasties. The first three dynasties consist almost exclusively of events that give the years their names.
The King-list on this stone mentions several pre-dynastic kings as well as the name of Narmer, Menes, and Aha. The King-list at Abydos in the temple of Seti I also includes the name of Menes. But is Menes also Narmer, or is Menes, Aha, that is, a second, or nisw bity name, for either of these kings? Was Menes a name at all, or was Menes a title? Confusions about names and corresponding identities by the way may have to do with the fact that later king lists show the nbty names, while those on monuments usually list the Horus names.
We know of Narmer by his famous palette, macehead, and by jar seals. It should be noted herein that fragments of clay jar seals from Abydos, alternating Narmer and the word or name mn, suggests that mn was a leading person and possibly successor to Narmer.
We know the name of Hor-Aha, or Aha, the Fighter or Fighting Hawk, by his name sign appearing in a serekh on a potsherd, now in the British Museum, and by an ivory label from the tomb at Naqada of Nithotep (possibly his mother and the wife of King Narmer). This label also shows the nbty name Mn in front of the serekh. The reading of the hieroglyphic sign of mn on several ivory tablets belonging to King Aha, and on a plate fragment, has prompted speculation that Aha is Menes. Some scholars however do not accept that mn equates with Menes. Some speculate the mn to mean merely a "someone", i.e. designating any person on whose behalf ritual ceremonies were undertaken.
This second name Mn which could means "established," could be the origin of the name Menes by Manetho and still later by Herodotus, but this is by no means certain.
A label found at Abydos, where he had at least one tomb constructed, shows the Horus name of Aha, with sacred barks, a shrine of Nit, and possibly some indication of the name Memphis. A wooden label from Abydos indicates he had to subdue rebels in Nubia, and another label indicates he built a temple to Neith or Nit in the Delta at Sais. One of these labels may show a ceremony called "Receiving the South and the North" over an unidentified object, possibly first representation of the binding together of lotus and papyrus stalks which later came to represent both halves of Egypt. If Aha was the successor to Narmer, that is, the first king to begin his reign over a fully unified Egypt, it may make sense that he would establish a new capital and undertake such a ceremony as may have been represented.
The first line on the Palermo stone is determined by hieroglyphs for "king", some shown wearing the red crown and some the double, that is both white and red, crowns.
So for the reign of Aha, who may be Menes, the Annals record this:
Year X + 1: The Year of …. In which took place the Festival of the Birth of Anubis. (Anubis the “Jackal” is the symbol for Knowing Good and Evil because their keen sense of smell) Genesis Chapter 3
Year X + 2: The Year of …. In which took place…..Bull.
Year X + 3: The Year of ….. in which took place the Festival of the Birth of….
Year X + 7 (?) + 1: The Year of the Following of Horus in which took place the Festival of the Birth of Anubis.
Year X + 7 (?) + 2: The last civil year of the reign of the King, of which he reigned the first six months and seven days.
King Menes is traditionally believed to have begun Egyptian history. But according to the Turin Canon and Manetho, there were historical events which preceded Menes, such as a series of semi-divine rulers who filled the gap between the reign of gods and of the emergence of Menes. The Palermo stone mentions these "followers of Horus." It is also thought that perhaps the Followers of Horus referred to a royal progress through the cities of Upper and Lower Egypt so that the King could visit his domain. (Sons Of God) Genesis 6
Manetho wrote this about King Menes: "After the dead and the demigods comes the 1st Dynasty, with 8 kings of whom Menes was the first. He was an excellent leader. In what follows are recorded the rulers from all of the ruling houses in succession.
Menes of Thinis, whom Herodotus calls Men, and his 7 descendants. [Thinis, or This, was apparently a city or town near Abydos and the point of origin for the first dynasties.]
Menes, we are told ruled for about 62 years, led the army across the frontier and won great glory. He was killed by a hippopotamus."
Herodotus was a Greek historian who traveled in Egypt and recorded his own observations as well as the stories that he was told by priests and other Egyptians.
Herodotus wrote that Menes was the first king of Egypt and dammed up the Nile near what was to become Memphis, in order to reclaim land on which he then founded the city.
Certainly, about the time of Aha, Memphis did become the administrative center of government. Although it is believed that Aha built his grave at Abydos, his name has been found inscribed on material from cemeteries in the Memphite region, at Tura, Tarkhan and Helwan. Under his reign, tombs were built at Saqqara, which have been attributed to high-ranking government officials and nobles.
The tomb of Aha was a complex of three large brick-lined chambers number B10/15/19 roofed over with wood. To the east were a set of graves whose young male occupants were apparently sacrificed at the time of burial. The monumental part of this tomb lay to the northeast where a large rectangular enclosure of brick, with corner bastions and towers was erected.
King Aha’s grave was built of several separate chambers, in three stages. It shows traces of large wooden shrines in three chambers, and 33 subsidiary burials containing the remains of young males aged 20-25 years old. Seven young lions also were buried nearby one of those graves.
As more work is done at both Abydos and Saqqara, new evidence may come to light which will help fill in some of the gaps surrounding the mystery of who Menes may in fact have been.
Sources:
· http://www.geocities.com/~amenhotep/glossary/tc/0211_0327.html (source for the hieroglyphics graphic)
· Berossos and Manetho, by Verbrugghe and Wickersham
· Ancient Egyptian Science Vol.1 by Marshall Clagett
· Ancient Egyptian Kingship ed. by David O’Connor & David Silverman
· Egypt Before the Pharoahs by Michael Hoffman
· Oxford History of Ancient Egypt ed. By Ian Shaw
· Prehistory of Egypt by Beatrix Midant-Reynes
· Monarchs of the Nile by Aidan Dodson
· Chronicle of the Pharaohs by Peter Clayton
· Early Dynastic Egypt by Toby Wilkinson
Narmer's importance as the probable unifier of Lower and Upper Egypt is indicated primarily by the Palette and the Macehead which are attributed to him. His name-rebus 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 around 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 bovines. 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 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.
Narmer may have considered Buto as the central capital of the Delta he had just conquered. On his palette is a hieroglyphic group that could be read as Ta Mehu, the later name for the Delta region. Since Narmer is shown with the Red Crown he was thus the first to ascribe this Crown to the entire Delta and thus Lower Egypt. He may have transferred the Red Crown from Nubt/Naqada to represent the entirety of Lower Egypt.
The Narmer macehead, also discovered at Hierakonpolis, has had three interpretations. Petrie's theory, also held by later scholars, was that the mace head depicted the political marriage of Nithotep The Book of Isaiah 34:14, describing the desolation of Edom, is the only occurrence of Lilith in the Hebrew Bible:, princess of the north, with Narmer. Other scholars feel the macehead depicts a celebration by Narmer of his conquest of the north, while still others regard 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
Most recently, new studies of the images on the macehead put forth the theory that the scenes are not primarily commemorative but are simply pictorial versions of year-names. The focus of the scene is the king's figure, seen sitting robed in a long cloak enthroned under a canopy on a high dais, 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, bodyguards, with long quarterstaves and an official who may be either vizier or heir-apparent. 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 whom 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 a welcome to the new lord of the Delta. The seated figure facing Narmer may be the chief of Buto rather than 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 then commemorates the completion of the conquest of Lower Egypt, not with a royal dynastic marriage etc, but perhaps, with the first Appearance of the King of Lower Egypt, by an actual census of the Delta people, similar to and a precursor of the census taken by William the Conqueror after he won England.
Some scholars speculate that Menes and Narmer may be the same person. Menes is the Greek form of the name of the legendary first human king of Egypt as given by Manetho, the historian living in Hellenistic times who constructed one form of King Lists.
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 "established", thus being the origin of the name Menes.
Evidence indicating all this is an ivory label from the tomb of Queen Nithotep at Naqada. It shows the name Hor-Aha, and the name Men, in front of it.
Sources: The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, Egypt Before the Pharaohs by Michael Rice, Journal of the ARCE, 1990, Narmer: First King of Upper and Lower Egypt, a Reconsideration of His Palette and Macehead, Abstract by Frank Yurco, published in JSSEA #XXV, and Early Egypt: Rise of Civilisation in the Nile Valley by A.J. Spencer
