Mummy's Wrap

In the dig season of 1897/1898, James Quibell and Frederick Green excavated what is known as the Main Deposit at Hierakonpolis, or Nekhen to the ancient Egyptians, in Upper Egypt. This was the main center for an early Horus cult. It was a difficult excavation and, despite Quibell being trained under William Flinders Petrie, the excavation was poorly conducted. Regardless of the difficulties, some of the best artifacts dating to the Predynastic (or Protodynastic) period came from this excavation, though their exact provenance has been lost due to poor excavation techniques. Of the three famous artifacts came from the Main Deposit, the Narmer Palette, the Narmer Macehead, and the Scorpion Macehead, this article will focus on King Scorpion as depicted on the Scorpion Macehead (Shaw, Ian; The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, pg. 60).

King Scorpion is known mainly from the macehead bearing his ideograms, a scorpion and a seven-petaled flower associated with kingship. He is also known by a number of labeled wine jars found in an Abydos tomb, many of which contained wine infused with medicinal herbs. Who this early pharaoh was can only be determined through analyzing the artwork in which he is portrayed and artifacts associated with his life and death (Shaw, Ian; The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, pg. 60).

The Scorpion Macehead depicts King Scorpion as just that, a king. He wears the white bulbous crown of Upper Egypt and holds in his hand a hoe. This could be representative of a ceremony of furrowing fields, or the construction of a dam. This ceremony is one of peace and prosperity, showing the King participating in activities to benefit his country and his people. Surrounding the King are jubilating dancers, courtiers seeing to the King’s needs, and people making offerings to the living Horus, their king. Above the King are standards. These standards are often understood to be territories under the King’s command, possibly territories the King conquered. These standards show the power and control King Scorpion had over his people and his enemies (http://www.ancient-egypt.org). As these scenes are depicted on a macehead, the stone cap to the club-like mace, the essence of war is portrayed through the very medium through which the peaceful scene is depicted.

Unfortunately, the macehead is severely damaged. Only the above scene survives. It is possible more of the story was inscribed on the rest of the macehead, but those scenes have long been lost. They have been speculated upon, some people theorizing that King Scorpion is depicted wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt not far from where he is depicted wearing the crown of Upper Egypt. These theories, however, may never be upheld by physical evidence (http://www.ancient-egypt.org).

Abydos, known as one of the most ancient cities in Egypt, is the site of the royal necropolis for the earliest kings of Egypt, even stretching into the Predynastic (or Protodynastic) periods. One such tomb, excavated in 1988, contained a number of artifacts that have been attributed to King Scorpion. The tomb was heavily damaged by ancient looters, but the jars of ancient wine and their labels were relatively untouched. The labels appear to sport the earliest of hieroglyphs. Many of these labels bore the hieroglyph of the scorpion and the flower, connecting them to King Scorpion (http://www.touregypt.net). They date to around the 31st century BC, approximately 150 years before Aha, otherwise known as Menes, who is the supposed first pharaoh of ancient Egypt, according to Herodotus and Manetho (http://touregypt.net). Furthermore, the wine and the jars were not native to Egypt, but were probably imported from Palestine. This shows the power of King Scorpion, as he was in contact with peoples far from his country. It also shows his wealth as he could afford to have such a large quantity of wine (400 jars) imported for his tomb (Shaw, Ian; The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, pg. 60).

It can be theorized, then, from the artifacts associated with King Scorpion, that he was a great ruler. He was lord over many territories, either by force or by law. He was seen as a great warrior, but also a just leader. It appears that King Scorpion set the precedence for all the future pharaohs, as they were depicted as the same type of ruler as King Scorpion, whether they were good warriors, just leaders, or not.

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Tags: abydos, aha, herodotus, King Scorpion, mace head, macehead, manetho, menes, scorpion, scorpion mace head, scorpion macehead, upper egypt

This entry was posted by Page Strong on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at 10:30 and is filed under King Scorpion, Pharaoh. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.