Egyptian civilization began with the unification of Egypt under a single king, this stage called the protodynastic or pretinite period. Tradition attributes her to Narmer or Menes, who were once supposed to be the same person. Also, from a mace head from Hierakonpolis, preserved in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford (England), a Scorpion king is known. . Some authors place him and Narmer correlatively in Dynasty 0, chronologically between h. 3100 and 3050 BC C., in Nagada IIIbI. 2-IIIcI archaic archaeologically speaking, but there are much earlier elements belonging to the so-called Dynasty 00 .
Dynasty 00 , is the term used by some authors to refer to the kings, princes, rulers or important personages of the period prior to Dynasty 0; but, as in this one, it is believed that they were local chiefs of different centers, without any family relationship between them, except in some cases at the local level, for which reason this denomination is not accepted by many Egyptologists.
This Dynasty It would begin with the character buried with the Gebelein cloth preserved in Turin, the one from tomb HK 100 and others of differentiated characters. from various tombs in Nagada cemetery T as well as some characters from Abydos cemetery U or those of the ancient serekhs from tomb II in Hierakompolis cemetery.
Contemporary to this period are also considered tombs L24 from Qustul and 137.1 from Seyala in Nubia.
These are moments that are called the dark ages , epoch that begins in the Protodynastic or Recent Gerzeense characterized by:
a) Urbanization.
b) Creation or rapid evolution of social and economic institutions.
c) Cultural unification of all Egypt.
With favorable changes based on agriculture and livestock, since it is a very wet period.
It is at this Protodynastic moment when the first large human agglomerations appear in Egypt, fortified or not, such as Abydos (Tinis), Ombos (Nagada-Nubet). Copts, Nekheb (el-Kab), Nekhen (Hierakompolis), and probably Erment, Edfu, and Elephantine. In these agglomerations are the skilled craftsmen who make the traditional elements of this period and the previous one:the stone vases, the flint knives with handles decorated with animal figures, such as the one from Gebel Tarif, the one decorated with coiled snakes from University College from London, the so-called Carnavon Knife or that of the Metropolitan Museum of New York, whose human figures are the link between the representations of the painted tomb of Hierakómpolis, from c. 3350 BC C. and the scenes of the votive palettes of the end of the Early Dynastic, h. 3150 BC C., which gives them great importance. Among the predynastic knives, the most famous is that of the Gebel-el-Arak, preserved in the Louvre Museum, with the famous Lion tamer or the vertical stern boats, already attested in Egypt since the Amratian.
Predynastic palettes
As far as the Predynastic Palettes are concerned, they bear witness to the passage from the Protohistory of the final Gerzeense to the History of the archaic period. Except for Narmer's, none of these Palettes have been found in context. The three Palettes originating from Upper Egypt have been considered historical, representing, each in its own way, the conquest of the Kingdom of the north by the kingdom of the south.
Maceheads
Another characteristic object of this final period of the Protodynastic-Early Archaic Period are mace heads. In the Amratian, the frustoconical shape was a symbol of power. With the Gerzense and the progressive adoption by the south of the pear-shaped mace from the north, the symbol of power changed shape. The best known are the four found in the great deposit of the temple of Hierakompolis:the call of the King-Scorpion , Narmer's call , the royal call and that of The Bearers of Gifts .
In the so-called Narmer one seems to figure what is considered a royal festival, a jubilee, perhaps the heb-sed, or the myth of the pharaoh's enthronement, which was supposed to magically renew his powers in said ceremony.
The new realnames
A new set of possible royal names has recently been brought to light and reconstructed, on some labels and inscriptions on vessels from the U cemetery at Abydos, on certain seal impressions from Naqada II(c)d-a2, on the Tehenu Palette and the graffiti engraved on the Coptic Colossi.
Dreyer's provisional list is:
Oryx, Shell, Fish, Elephant, Bull, Stork, Canid. Cattle Head Scorpion I, Falcon I, Min Banner + Lion plant, Double Falcon, Irj-Hor, Ka, Scorpion II, Narmer.
Other local chiefs or princes or their signs (mostly from Dynasty 0, Naqada III period) are:
Nb (or R?), Hedjw (-Hor), PE + elephant, Nj-Hor. Hat-Hor, Crocodile (the Subduer), Falcon + Mer (Tarkhan, also read as P. N. Mer Djehwty ), and Qustul L2, Per-Hor.
Dinastias del Periodo Protodinastico or Pre Tinita
The 00th Dynasty
Dynasty 00 would rather correspond, according to these cited authors, to a protodynastic period, not to a line of kings or rulers of a specific place.
In fact, the first time Van den Brink used the term Dynasty 00 it referred to members of a ruling class buried in the U cemetery of Abydos Umm el Qaab who would be possibly the predecessors of the kings of Dynasty 0 .
The term Dynasty is thus used as a descriptive term indicating a period:Nagada IIC-IIIA2.
At the time of Naqada III , the ruling elite of Tinis (whose chiefs or kings are buried in the U cemetery of Abydos) re-emerges as a hegemony in Upper Egypt (Nagada begins to decline) evident in the tombs of Uj, Nagada Ill (c.3200-3150 AD).
At the end of this phase and the beginning of the next, the oldest designations and names of the ancient princes are found anonymously (i.e. in the form of only the palace facades , serekhs), incised or written in the tombs of Abydos, and also in the tombs of Abusir el Meleq and at Rafiah.
Dynasty 0 or Nagada III:3120-3050 BC
In the next period, Nagada III (Dynasty 0), vessels with serekhs, with or without the falcon on them, are already found.
Some names are Per Hor, Double Falcon, Hat Hor, Ni Hor, Scorpion (from Minshat Abu Omar, different from the U-j Tomb of Scorpion I and that of Hierakompolis of Scorpion II), Crocodile.
The serekhs are found from the Delta to Upper Nubia, but they must correspond to characters who were only local chiefs who ruled in restricted regional areas, although they shared a common form of culture.
As for the great personages (kings) of Lower Egypt, from Tarkhan (tomb 1702 Hat Hor, tombs 351, 1549, Crocodile ) and the Delta, it appears that Lower Nubia was under the rule of these two regional entities during archaic Naqada III (group A), at Seyala (cemetery 137 tomb I) and also in the south at Qustul (cemetery L tomb 24, from where the famous incense burner, incense burners or decorated censers come from) which would possibly explain that these political powers grew due to the wealth that the exploitation of Nubian gold deposits and quarries produced.
Later, in Middle Nagada III , these regional centers were most likely destroyed by the power and energy of Hierakompolis, which is expanding, as the graffiti with battle scenes of Gebel Sheikh Suleiman seem to attest (a scene that authors such as Murnane have attributed to the reign of Djer, taking into account that already at this and later times, long-distance trade is considered to be of great importance in relations with the eastern Delta and southern Palestine).
Tinite chiefs, princes or kings probably inherited the Naqada territory and accessed the Nubian trade routes.
At this time a decisive victory of Tinis/Abydos over Naqada seems attested as can be understood from the rock carvings on the Luxor-Farshut desert road.
The princes of Hierakómpolís would therefore be the only rivals of the Tinite kings, existing until the time of unification.
In the Nagada III period (End of Dynasty 0 ) the kings of Abydos (Tinis) were buried in cemetery B in which the last tombs are those of Narmer and Aha, the first kings of the First Dynasty.
The King Scorpion (II) he is considered a predecessor of Narmer, who could have belonged to the ruling family of Hierakompolis.
The name Iry Hor it is attested only at Abydos. For his part Ka it is known from Tell Ibrahim Awad, Helwan, Tarkhan, and Abydos. This Dynasty of Abydos (Iry Hor, Ka, Narmer) is actually a dynasty of kings (initially the term Dynasty 0 is attributed only to these kings of Abydos, not to other local kings of Upper or Lower Egypt).