The Story of the Birth of the Egyptian Civilization

In 1897, archaeologists Frederick Green and James Quibble made an astonishing discovery while excavating the Temple of Horus at Nekhen, Egypt. They unearthed a 5,000-year-old stone palette that was 2 feet long. The palette featured a mace-wielding warrior. He was wearing a crown, implying that he was a king.

Green and Quibble's discovery was not an ordinary find. The doodles on the palette were not artwork. They told the story of Egypt's first Pharaoh and the country's unification. A united Egypt began a new chapter in its history, which changed human civilization forever.

The palette known as the Narmer Palette contained the earliest known hieroglyphics and gives us a vivid account of Egypt's first Pharaoh, Narmer.

As opposed to legends of Rome's Romulus and Remus and Mesopotamia's Sargon, the Narmer Palette was penned during the king's time in charge. We can say the document is one of the earliest examples of historical record keeping.

Let us learn more about Narmer and how he brought Egypt together. But before we get to Narmer's story, what was Egypt like before the rise of the Pharaohs?

Egypt before the rise of the Pharaohs.

It was along the Nile's banks that Egypt's civilization took shape. The lush river valley spawned several cities, several of which became political entities. These city-states were divided into two regions: Upper and Lower Egypt.

Upper Egypt refers to the Nile Valley's southern portion, whereas Lower Egypt refers to its north part.

Why does southern Egypt have the name "Upper" and the northern "Lower"? The Egyptian sense of direction was the polar opposite of ours.

The Nile runs from Sudan in the south through Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea in the north. Ancient Egyptians thought the river began in the north. Thus, they called the southern half of Egypt as Upper Egypt and the northern part Lower Egypt.

The Proto-dynastic period refers to Egypt's history prior to the rise of the Pharaohs. During this time, we see the first writings in hieroglyphs, the development of irrigation, and the first royal tombs.

The records of the rulers of Upper and Lower Egypt aren't very clear and are linked to gods. Scorpion I, the first king of Upper Egypt, may have been the basis for the Hollywood film The Scorpion King.

Lower Egyptian kings' records are unclear. Double Falcon and Crocodile are two notable rulers. Their exact names are unknown.

The natives of Upper Egypt worshipped Set and those of Lower Egypt worshipped Horus. Upper Egypt's monarchs donned the White Crown, known as the Hedjet. In contrast, the rulers of Lower Egypt wore the Red Crown known as the Deshret.

Around 3150 BC, Narmer became King of Upper Egypt and changed the course of his country's history. He wanted to unite the country under a single ruler.

This meant going to war.

Narmer's unification of Egypt.

In the 32nd century BC, Egypt was in a state of upheaval. Conflicts with Nubians in the south and Canaanites in modern-day Israel were common. New trade relations with Mesopotamia caused an upswing in the fortunes of Upper Egypt.

The fresh infusion of cash from international trade aided the kings of Upper Egypt in developing an army.

Narmer, the ruler of Upper Egypt, had a vision for his people. He wanted to unify both Upper and Lower Egypt into one powerful kingdom which would become an exemplary civilization. As we'll see from his future actions, his goal wasn't only conquest.

Narmer's troops marched up the Nile and defeated Lower Egypt's armies. He took over the kingdom and mercilessly crushed his enemies.

He wanted to make sure that his new subjects accept him from their hearts and not because he struck fear. To win over his new subjects, Narmer married a princess from Lower Egypt and declared her to be his rightful queen.

After declaring himself Pharaoh, he combined the Hedjet crown of Upper Egypt with the Deshret crown of Lower Egypt to produce the Pschent. Pschent was the Egyptian crown that was united and later became the Pharaonic regal symbol.

In the city of Nekhen, Narmer erected Horus, the deity of Lower Egypt, as a national god. Horus was Egypt's first official deity, and the Pharoah was to rule on his behalf.

You may wonder how do we know all this?

To do this, let's take a deeper look at the Narmer Palette and understand the information it contains.

Decoding an ancient record.

One of the most interesting facts about Narmer is that we know his name, unlike many of his predecessors, who were known as Bull, Elephant, and Scorpion. The clue of his name can be found on the palette.

The Narmer Palette depicts the king as a tall man wearing the traditional Hedjet slaying a man with a mace. You can see a rectangle on the top of the palette, directly over the king's crown.

A closer look at the rectangle reveals a catfish and a chisel. In the Egyptian language, a catfish is called "Nar," while the chisel is called "Mer." Thus, the name of king Narmer, which translates to "raging catfish."

A falcon perched on top of papyrus blossoms in the upper right corner of the palette. The bird is pulling a man using a rope hooked to his nose. The papyrus blossoms are a sign of Lower Egypt, and historians say this falcon symbolizes the god Horus.

On the opposite side of the palette, Narmer is wearing the Deshret, the Lower Egyptian crown. The new crown and the severed remains of his foes show that the conquest was a triumph. This is the first time in history that an Egyptian ruler wore both crowns.

Below Narmer, you can see a very interesting picture of two men pulling two mythical creatures with lion-like faces and snake-like necks. The interweaving of their necks symbolizes the union of Upper and Lower Egypt.

At the bottom of the tablet is a bull smashing the enemy's defenses and crushing a man. There is some debate about what it depicts, but most Egyptologists feel it is a symbolic picture of Narmer crushing his enemies.

Some historians believe the unification process of Egypt began before Narmer, but he was the one who sealed the deal.

On a stone mace known as the Narmer Macehead, Narmer documented the details of his victories.

Narmer sits on the throne, with a Horus above his head, according to the mace head. He is receiving 400,000 cattle, 1.422 million goats, and 120,000 captured men and women as war booty.

The Narmer Macehead is on display in Oxford's Ashmolean Museum. We can see the Narmer Palette at the Cairo Museum. Narmer's unification of Egypt was a defining moment in the nation's history.

A united Egypt became the granary of the ancient world, with revolutionary agricultural practices some of which are still carried out by the farmers in modern Egypt.

As the new Pharoah of united Egypt, Narmer carried out raids in Nubia and Canaan, securing Egypt's borders. Peace and prosperity followed.

Over the years, as Egypt's wealth increased, Pharaohs commissioned massive construction projects such as the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx, the Karnak Temple, the Abu Simbel temple to name a few.

Egyptian contributions to medicine, art, architecture, mathematics, and astronomy paved the way for later civilizations such as Greeks and Romans to make further progress for humanity.

We know the story of the birth of Egyptian civilization thanks to the Narmer Palette.