Sometimes you will see two names used to refer to the same god, goddess or noble person—such as the cobra goddess Edjo (Wadjet). Because Egyptian writing did not use vowels, we do not know how they pronounced their words and guesses have to be made. Thus, many ancient Egyptian words or names have three or more forms (including at least one Greek form) that are more or less accepted.
For example, Thutmose is also called Tuthmosis; Taweret is also Tueris; Sesostris is also Senwos-ret; Khufu is also Cheops; Khafre is also Chep-hren—and there are
Many more.
During the Badarian era, perhaps about 100,000 people lived in what was to be Egypt. This increased to 250,000 people during the Amratian Period. With more people to feed, better organization was necessary. Egypt always faced the danger of a low or high Nile (see page 7). When disaster struck, it took discipline, cooperation, and strong leadership to quickly restore food production and distribution.
Villages gradually banded together into confederations under strong chieftains. These regional alliances became the permanent administrative districts of dynastic Egypt. Egyptologists call these districts names, and their leaders, namarchs.
During the late Gerzean era, important people such as nomarchs were buried in increasingly large, complex, rectangular mud-brick structures. Ordinary people were still buried in simple pits in the sand.
There is controversy among Egyptologists about what this two-tier burial system means. Sir Flinders Petrie (1852-1942), father of scientific archaeology, thought it meant that a “dynastic race” had invaded Egypt from the Near East or Nubia, taken over, and introduced writing and other cultural advances. Other scholars believe the social divisions were a natural part of cultural trends already in motion.
The later Gerzean Period saw increased political activity. The population continued to grow rapidly. Since there are no written records, little is known about how the nomes finally joined up, forming two distinct cultures in Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt: the Delta culture and the Naqada culture. By 3400 B. C.E. Egypt ended up with two kingdoms.
The Ta-Mehu culture in Lower Egypt’s Delta had its capital at Pe (later Buto). Its king wore a red crown (known as deshret). Its patroness was the cobra goddess Edjo (Wadjet) and its symbols were the papyrus and the bee. While there is no evidence that the ancient Egyptians called this the Red Land, modern scholars have referred to it that way.
The Ta-Shomu culture in the long, narrow gorge of Upper Egypt had its capital at Nekhen (later Hierkonpolis). Its king wore a tall,
Conical white crown (known as hedjet). Its patroness was the vulture goddess Nekhbet and its symbols were the lotus and the sedge (a kind of marsh grass). This culture has come to be known as the White Land.
There were struggles for dominance among factions within each of the two lands, and between Ta-Mehu and Ta-Shomu. An ambitious local chieftain arose in Ta-Shomu, and united its districts under his rule. He then did the same in Ta-Mehu.
To piece together the story of Egypt’s unification, archaeologists have made many guesses based on a small number of objects: large commemorative palettes (shield-shaped stones) and ceremonial mace heads (hammer-like weapons) carved with scenes depicting political events.
The chieftain who united the two lands (in about 3100 to 3150 B. C.E.) is traditionally called Narmer. His triumphs are depicted on the Palette of Narmer, now in the Cairo Museum. On one side, Narmer wears the white crown as he slays his foes; on the other side he wears the red crown. After Narmer, Egyptian kings wore the combined double crown (known as sekhemty), and adopted names and titles that symbolized their dominion over the two lands.
No one knows who taught the inhabitants of the Nile valley to write. It might have been refugees from Mesopotamia. Mesopotamian cuneiform (wedge-shaped) writing, scratched into slabs of damp clay, bears little relation to Egyptian writing. But the idea of expressing ideas using symbols could have planted a seed. Hieroglyphics, Egyptian picture-writing, emerged during the late Predynatsic Period, and hieroglyphs are found in a tomb that has been dated to 3250 b. c.e.
World History
