Ancient Egypt Dynasty by Dynasty - First Dynasty of Egypt / Dynasty I

welcome to the series ancient egypt dynasty by dynasty in the last episode we stated that most scholars believe that a man named narmer was the first king of a united egypt among the many reasons for this are that his depiction is the first of a king wearing both the white and red crowns of upper and lower egypt which symbolized his authority and legitimacy over both sections of the country this laid the foundation for the kings believed to have been his descendants to consolidate and rule over a kingdom that stretched from the mediterranean sea in the north to the deserts of nubia in what's today sudan these kings of which in this program will recognize seven belong to what egyptologists call the first dynasty of egypt or dynasty 1. [Music] ancient egyptian history can be confusing and often seems to contradict itself this is especially true the further back in time that one goes in fact just how far back in time we should go when dealing with narmer and the kings immediately after him has been the subject of debate for egyptologists for well over a century new archaeological information and analysis is constantly challenging what scholars thought they knew about egypt's earliest recorded history which often has led to revisions and dates for the reigns of various dynasties and their kings so before we begin let's make sure that we're on the same page when it comes to dates it's been extremely difficult for egyptologists of all eras and institutions to accurately date the time period that the first dynasty of egypt exerted its power and influence of the several different dates proposed by various scholars we're going to use the span of time between approximately 3050 to 2890 bc there are valid arguments for placing in either a century or two earlier or perhaps a bit later but based on my studies over the years and after speaking to a few professors of ancient history i've decided to use this time period which many scholars including from the british museum and other respected institutions tend to follow now that we're all on the same page let's begin [Music] there's little doubt that narmer was succeeded by a king whose primary name was hor aha meaning the fighting hawk or simply aha the fighter it's also generally accepted that narmer was married to a woman named neath hotep her final resting place has been identified as the burnt out ruins of a massive tomb in nakada archaeologist jacques de morgan whose team discovered the tomb in 1897 measured it to have been approximately 60 by 30 meters due to the rather massive size of such an early egyptian tomb it was initially believed to have been the final resting place of king menis the first king of a united egypt according to monito who we'll get to shortly due to several labels and seals with aha's name on them that were discovered within the tomb it's understood that its occupant must have died during his lifetime and that he probably oversaw the woman's burial though some believe that she may have been his wife the scholarly consensus is that nithotep was the mother of aha we also know that kingship in ancient egypt even so early in the country's history was usually passed down from father to son thus aha must have been the son of narmer and nithotep the fact that she was buried in nakada and not in abidos or hiracan polis indicates that she was probably from there and not the nile delta region as had been previously believed marriage to her may have strengthened narmer's bonds with the other powerful families of upper egypt which eventually may have given him enough power to subjugate lower egypt and the delta region and possibly beyond as his name has been found on pottery shards from as far away as the northern negev desert in israel since we know that luxury items from the levant were popular in pre-dynastic egypt it makes sense that a king such as narmer would have wanted to control the eastern trade in such goods however not everyone is convinced that narmer united egypt under one single banner instead it may have been aha who many egyptologists still believe was the same person as menetho's king menes as we discussed in the previous episode on dynasty zero manys is listed as the first ruler of a united egypt in the egyptia or history of egypt which was compiled by monito in the third century bc though this view is no longer accepted by most egyptologists there are still convincing arguments for it consider the fact that one of aha's royal names is men meaning established perhaps benito's menis is derived from the name men and this person may have taken the name because he established a united kingdom of egypt another reason may be due to what is probably aha's greatest and most lasting achievement the establishment of a new capital enebu hedge meaning the white walled today the city is more commonly known by its greek name memphis regardless of who first actually united egypt aha's transfer of the capital from thin east to memphis just south of modern cairo near the apex of the nile delta was a very pragmatic move remember narmer and his immediate ancestors the so called the night kings were from upper egypt lower egypt may have been the easy part but maintaining consistent control of it may have been much more difficult already during aha's reign we see evidence of increased armed conflicts and perhaps even some loss of territory and influence whereas narmer's name has shown up in numerous places even outside of egypt artifacts with aha's name such as seals and pottery shards have so far only been found in the nile valley thus to have maintained authority over lower egypt the government would have had to have moved from the royal family's strongholds of thines abados and herakin polis to a more centralized location such as memphis though during aha's time it may have been little more than a glorified white-walled fortress for the rest of egypt's ancient history memphis would continue to be one of the greatest cities not just of egypt but throughout most of antiquity aha like the rest of the kings of his dynasty had two tombs one at what became the royal cemetery at abados and another at the site of saqqara just outside of memphis the toombat abidos was the actual burial site of the king the one at saqqara was a cenotaph which was basically a ceremonial tomb that was devoid of an actual body scholars still debate the reason as to why such tombs were built but archaeologists have determined that aha and the other kings of the first dynasty were all laid to rest at the royal cemetery in abidos while their cenotaphs were all constructed at the site of saqqara ahaz in abidos is close to that of a lady named berenib which literally means sweet of heart she may have been aha's queen as her name also appears on items from nakada the site of the great tomb of his mother queen nithotep berenib though was not the mother of ahazer who was a child that he had with another one of his wives named hent their son's name was jer jair's name means horus who nurtures according to monito he reigned for 57 years and was also a physician another chronicle known as the palermo stone which was likely compiled during the 25th century bc also seems to imply a long reign unfortunately most of the palermo stone dealing with jair is damaged so the specifics of his reign are hard to come by one section though does mention a campaign to an unspecified land either in the cyanide or perhaps what was then southern canaan there also seems to have been at least one state visit to the cities of bhuto and sais in the delta region which were both sites of important temples and shrines though little may be known about the details of jair's life more is known about his death or rather what happened shortly after his death nearly 300 what archaeologists call subsidiary burials were discovered surrounding jare's tomb in abidos most of these burials seem to have been for court attendance with many of them being women there are a few who may even have been members of the royal family the belief was that these individuals would join the king and serve him in the afterlife just like they did while alive on earth all of them seemed to have died or rather were killed either by strangulation or with poison shortly after the death of their master by the time of egypt's third dynasty the practice of subsidiary burials had pretty much ended however as we'll soon see the practice was still part of the funeral rites of later first dynasty kings [Music] jair's successor was jet this is the most common form of his name that modern scholars use but occasionally you also hear zet waji and nuagi jet is a mysterious one because finding seemed to indicate that compared to his predecessors his reign was rather short scholars speculate as to exactly how short but it seems that his reign ended when his air and crown prince den was just a boy perhaps for this reason there are virtually no details about his life or major events during his reign like his predecessor jet also had two tombs one in abidos where his actual body was buried and another ceremonial one at sakhara both of these were also surrounded by a number of subsidiary burials as was just mentioned den's father and predecessor jet did not have a very long reign with den not being old enough at the time of death to assume his duties as king his mother queen mernith acted as regent until her son was of age in fact many seals with den's name inscribed on them were uncovered in marinate's massive tomb in abydos which led egyptologists to conclude that she was a woman of great stature and probably den's mother this was later confirmed when seals were found in den's tomb that read king's mother mernith compared to his predecessors a lot more is known about den and his reign this is due not just to more artifacts with his name on them being discovered in greater numbers but also that the chronicle known as the palermo stone which we mentioned earlier gives us some specific events from his reign which taking into account that he ascended the throne as a child was relatively long according to some scholars den may have officially ruled for 50 years one of the events that the palermo stone lists is a hippopotamus hunt another was instituting a national census perhaps the very first in all of history the palermo stone states a census of all the people of the north west and east the results of this census may have been the impetus for government reform or at least the expansion of the egyptian government which can be seen in the creation of new offices such as that of chancellor of lower egypt as well as the growth in burials at the elite cemetery for government officials near saqqara some of whose first dynasty era tombs put those of later pharaohs to shame den's reign is probably best known for armed conflicts with egypt's neighbors especially canaanites there's an ivory label that was discovered in abidos with the depiction of den and some hieroglyphs that translate to the first time of the smiting of the east on this rather unique label den is shown with a mace raised in one hand clubbing a person who appears to be some sort of foreign chieftain a similar looking scene from den's 14th year also appears on the palermo stone during such campaigns den is recorded to have brought back many foreign women to fill the royal harem architecture during den's reign was also quite innovative the most of what still remains comes from burial sites it's at den's tomb in abydos that we for the first time see an entrance stairway leading into a burial chamber a feature that would be copied by later pharaohs as well as private individuals for their final resting places den was followed by a king named anejib compared to his predecessor little is known about a negeb and his name has been found in only three places within egypt so far though he may have reigned along there is evidence that the central government's hold on its territories had greatly weakened and there may have even been power struggles within the royal family for example a najib's name on kingliss as well as many stone vases seem to have been contemptuously erased during the reign of his successor semarket an egypt's tomb at abydos is also the smallest and poorly constructed of all of the royal tombs which some would say is an indication of his lack of power and prestige within egypt during his reign as we just mentioned the king of egypt after anejib was semarchet who reigned at least according to the palermo stone for about nine years there are many who believe that samarket may have been a usurper because he erased the name of his predecessor from several stone vessels that were discovered in his tomb another clue supporting this is that his name seems to have been deliberately omitted from what's become known as the saqqara kinglist which was found on the walls of a tomb belonging to a high-ranking official of pharaoh ramesses ii this may imply that perhaps future generations didn't consider him to have been a legitimate ruler either that or they simply forgot about him which seems unlikely because the ancient egyptians were well known for keeping meticulous records despite this semarchette's tomb at abydos was superior in both size and quality to other royal tombs what's interesting though is that unlike other tombs from dynasty 1 there has so far not been a secondary cenotap burial discovered for summer cuts in the royal cemetery at saqqara maybe this is why he doesn't appear in the sakhara king list unlike other kings of the first dynasty there was no tomb or any other monument belonging to summerket at saqqara to remind the record keepers and scribes of nearby memphis that he existed the last king of the first dynasty may have ruled for close to three decades but again details of what transpired during that time are vague like with other kings of his dynasty many clues come from what's been left behind in tombs after grave robbers have already gone through them the seals and jars that have been uncovered within ka's tomb at abidos show that trade with the levant continued and the subsidiary burials found around it also showed that the practice was still alive in the 29th century bc how and why the first dynasty ended after ka'a is a mystery one theory is that it may have been usurped this explanation rests on two names ba and sneferka both of which have been found on a few bits of pottery where the name of ka'a is seemingly scratched out or altered to include them the theory goes that perhaps these two individuals usurp the throne for a time but for however long they may have ruled the next dynasty considered them to have been illegitimate hence the reason why they don't appear on any king list the other explanation is that there was simply a peaceful transition from the first dynasty to the second this might have occurred if ka'a didn't have any sons to pass the throne to and so perhaps the kingship of egypt simply went to another related or even separate house without any major disturbances or violence we perhaps will never know until more details about the next ruling house of egypt specifically dynasty 2 are known what is clear is that egyptian statehood crystallized with the kings of the first dynasty and helped put into motion a civilization that would endure for the next few millennia dynasty 2 is arguably the most mysterious of all of ancient egypt's ruling houses we'll take a closer look at the reigns of its rulers in the next program in this series ancient egypt dynasty by dynasty stay tuned as always thanks so much for stopping by i sincerely appreciate it i'd also like to really thank grandkick69 yap de graf pastafrola michael lewis danielle allen danny vanek linux tv robert morgan frank tim lane candace whipple brendan redman faridundarachanji share kam farhad kama and all of the channel's patrons on patreon for helping to support this and all future content check out the benefits to being a patreon member and if you'd like to join feel free to click the link in the video description you can also follow history with psy on instagram facebook and twitter as well as listen to special audio programs on the history with psy podcast thanks again and stay safe

Channel: History with Cy

Views: 190,638

Keywords: Hor-Aha, Djer, Djet, Den, Anedjib, Semerkhet, Qa'a, pharaoh, ancient Egypt, bronze age, Egyptian history, ancient history, Narmer, Neithhotep, Merneith

Id: rVfVmxXhwGc

Length: 20min 57sec (1257 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 20 2021