Narmer Unifies Egypt
Egypt was unified under a single ruler around 3100 BC, and the Narmer Palette is the object on which the claim rests. It was found at Hierakonpolis in 1898 in a temple deposit — a shield-shaped slab of siltstone about sixty-four centimetres high, carved in relief on both faces, and far too large and fine to have been used for grinding cosmetics as smaller palettes were. One face shows a king in the white crown of Upper Egypt raising a mace over a kneeling captive, with a falcon holding a rope through the nose of a papyrus-headed figure standing for the Delta. The other shows him in the red crown of Lower Egypt inspecting two rows of decapitated bodies, and two long-necked beasts whose necks intertwine to form the central depression. His name is written at the top of both faces in a serekh, with the catfish and chisel signs. It has been read since the day it was found as the record of the conquest of the north by the south. The reading has been questioned for as long. The smiting pose is a formula that recurs on Egyptian monuments for three thousand years, and unification was almost certainly a process across generations rather than a single victory — Narmer may be commemorating something already largely done, or claiming something not yet complete. Whether he is the Menes of the later king lists is disputed and probably true. His tomb at Abydos is modest by later standards, and objects with his name have been found in southern Canaan.
- Year: 3100 BCE
- Category: Political
