The iconography associated with the unification of Egypt includes scenes of conflict and the harsh punishment of enemies. At least one of the little figures who appear to be engaged in hand-to-hand combats in the painting in Tomb 100 at Hierakonpolis seems to be wielding the type of mace or club which, at one time, was believed by some scholars to show that ship-borne foreign invaders from the east had entered the Valley and imposed their rule on the tribes already living there. The invaders were thought to be those associated with the Falcon clan, and as support of the invasion theory, the evidence of the war-maces was advanced. It is significant that at the time when the Naqada II culture begins to predominate in the Valley the traditional flat, circular, disc-shaped macehead which was the effective end of the Egyptian club and which is particularly associated with Naqada I, was replaced by a pear-shaped mace, the form which was current in Sumerian and Elamite lands at the same period.
Egyptian conservatism retained the disc-shaped mace as part of the royal regalia but the pear-shaped mace, a much more efficient weapon, became standard issue in the armies of the king. The king himself is invariably shown smiting his foes with the pear-shaped mace and, as these foes are frequently represented as being ‘Asiatics’, from whom the weapon was borrowed, there is a certain irony in the representations of this demonstration of the King’s power.
The flat Naqada I stone disc, pierced through the centre with a short neck was, when mounted on a stick or handle, quite a well balanced, slashing weapon; the pear-shaped macehead is a formidable ‘bashing’ club. The generous distribution of scenes depicting its use in temples and palaces, abroad as much as in Egypt itself, was a powerful promotional campaign for the king’s military prowess and an argument for Egypt’s enemies to pursue pacific and deferential policies. In Egypt itself the royal propagandists were even more diligent and the picture of the king smiting his enemies was a popular one throughout the Dual Kingdom’s history.
There is a third type of macehead found in Egypt, though with much less frequency than either the disc-or pear-shaped varieties. This is a mace which combines the disc with a massive, solid shape, carved from soft stone and decorated with animal forms. The most significant example is, once again, from Hierakonpolis; it consists of a piece of steatite (or chlorite) carved in the round, centrally pierced and fitted with a copper rod.6 Both the style of carving and the material are atypical of Egypt but very characteristic of the carving of late-fourth-millennium Mesopotamia and, particularly, of Elam. Carved chlorite vessels and decorative and votive pieces are amongst the most typical products of Sumer’s near neighbours on both sides of the Arabian Gulf in the late fourth/early third millennia.
A little later it is possible to see the fusion of the pear-shaped mace and the composite one in the large carved, pictographic maces associated with King Scorpion and King Narmer. The making of such monumental maces seems to have ceased after the latter’s reign. In the case of Scorpion the king is accompanied by his high officers who carry a number of standards on
(b)
(a)
Figure 5.2 Whilst the suggestion of any large-scale invasion or armed incursion into late predynastic Egypt by bands from Western Asia is generally discounted, it is nonetheless to be noted that (a) the characteristic disc-shaped Egyptian macehead of Naqada I times was abruptly replaced by (b) a bulbous, pear-shaped mace, borne by the rulers of Hierakonpolis in late predynastic times, which continued to form part of the royal regalia thereafter. A pear-shaped macehead (c) was recovered from Tarut, a site in eastern Saudi Arabia, dating to early in the Third Millennium.
(c)
Sources: (a), (b) author; (c) The National Museum, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Which are displayed symbols or icons later identified with the particular districts into which Egypt was divided. Two of these are Set animals, the hound which identified the god, showing that at this time the Set tribes of the south were already supporters of the royal clan; others represent falcons, a jackal, the thunderbolt of Min, and one possibly representing the mountains. It is significant perhaps that more standards are shown supporting Scorpion than is the case with the slightly later Narmer palette, on which only four standards are displayed.
Before the splendid figure of the king, who wears the high White Crown of Upper Egypt, are two most important ideograms. The first is a Scorpion which is considered by most authorities to represent the king’s name. It is uncertain how it would have been pronounced; on the evidence of later times perhaps Selkh, Sekhen, or something like it. The second is a rosette or star, which is only used to identify the kings at this period. In Sumer a rosette or star indicated a divinity; perhaps in this scene the hand of an immigrant Sumerian scribe or craftsman can be detected.
It is not known where Scorpion’s capital was located though the probability is that it was Hierakonpolis.7 At the time of the unification the two great predynastic centres of Hierakonpolis and Naqada seem to decline in power, at least to the extent that they cease to be royal capitals, though not otherwise in prestige. They still retain their powerful quality as the residences of the two great gods, Horus the Falcon and Set the Hound — or whatever was the nature of the animal sacred to him, whilst some indeed have seen a composite, mythical animal. In any event, the canine inspiration for the animal seems hardly to be in dispute.
World History
