Special Sub-Topic: Egypt 1 - The Earliest Rulers Click Here To Play: Egypt 1 - The Earliest Rulers

Which of these is the odd one out?

Hippopotamus. Narmer and Menes are believed to be the same person. Some people also believe he is also the king known as Scorpion - from a mace head where the king appears with a scorpion (and a seven petaled flower) in front of his face. The name Narmer is written with the hieroglyphs 'n’r' (a catfish) and 'mr' (a chisel).

What is believed to be the great achievement of Hor-aha?

Founding the city of Memphis.. Even when the pharaohs lived at Thebes, Memphis seems to have been the administrative capital of Egypt. Near Hor-aha's tomb was the tomb of Berner-ib who was possibly his queen. Her name means sweet heart.

Approximately how many subsidiary burials were there around Djer's tomb at Abydos?

300. These were probably human sacrifices. The Egyptians abandoned human sacrifice by the start of the old kingdom (fourth dynasty, about 2575 BCE). Most kings of this period seem to have two tombs, one in Abydos and one in Saqqara. There were also about 300 burials around the Saqqara tomb.

King Djet's funerary stele is in which museum?

Louvre. It is considered to be a masterpiece of early art. It is his name in a serekh. A serekh is used like the later cartouche to enclose the king’s name. The king had several names and the Horus name was put in a serekh even after the cartouche came to be used. After his reign the historical record becomes stronger.

Who is the last ruler of dynasty one?

Qa’a. The last rulers of dynasty one before Qa’a were Den, then Anedjib and then Semerkhet. Manetho was an Egyptian who wrote a history of Egypt for the Ptolemies. They were Macedonians who, it seems, did not speak Egyptian until Cleopatra VII. Only fragments of his work quoted by later authors survive. His account of the early dynasties does not seem to tie in with what archaeologists have found. He has the name of the last ruler as Bieneches which, even allowing for the fact that he Hellenised the names, does not accord with Qa’a.

Manetho divided the rulers into dynasties. How many rulers does he say were in dynasty two?

Nine. There seem to be five (or some people say seven) kings in a period of 200 years as opposed to 302 years given by Manetho. He also said the last six kings of dynasty three ruled 157 years as opposed to the three rulers in 36 years that modern historians say. I use the term king or ruler because the king was not called pharaoh until the new kingdom.

One of the rulers of dynasty two replaced the image of Horus on the serekh which encloses his name with the 'Set animal'. Which one?

Peribsen (4th ruler).. No one knows what the Set animal is – I think it looks most like an aardvark! His original name was Sekhemib. It seems that there was still conflict between Upper and Lower Egypt symbolised by Horus and Seth and this is a result of it. His successor Khaskhemwy seems to have compromised and used both. Set is often considered as evil but he is not - the two pharaohs called Seti were named after him.

The first step pyramid (the first ever pyramid) was built for king Netjerikhet.

t. There are new kingdom graphiti about Djoser at the step pyramid but the name used by the builders was Netjerikhet. The earliest association of the names Netjerikhet and Djoser is a forged Ptolemaic inscription claiming a land grant made by Djoser. He was the second king of the third dynasty.

The sarcophagus of the third king of dynasty three Sekhemkhet was found to have been robbed.

f. Until 1951 he was almost unknown until Goneim, the chief inspector at Saqqara, found the base of a pyramid which would have been bigger than the step pyramid if it had been finished. The sarcophagus had a sliding door but when it was opened it was found that it had never been used. There are still unexplored passages under the pyramid.

Who is believed to have attempted to build the first true pyramid (although some people believe it was his successor who built it)?

Huni. The pyramid at Meydum was originally built as a step pyramid then the steps were filled in. It collapsed but is still impressive. Sekhem-kha was a first dynasty official whose tomb was so large it was mistaken for a kings. Hesepti is the name on the Abydos king list which corresponds to Semti the throne name of the first dynasty king Den. Huni was the last king of Dynasty three and Khaba was his predecessor.