History of Research

The formation of the Egyptian state, in the past often referred to as “the unification process”, has already been a topic of great debate for a long time (see most recently Köhler 2010; Wilkinson 2010). Until the end of the 19th century, the only information available was the mention by the 3rd-century bce priest Manethon about Menes as the first king of Egypt. The period before the Dynastic Era remained at that time entirely unknown. This changed drastically during the last years of the 19th century, with the discovery of the Predynastic Naqada culture (Petrie & Quibell 1896) and the royal tombs of the 1st dynasty at Abydos – Umm el-Qaab by Emile Amélineau between 1895 and 1898 (Amélineau 1899a, 1899b, 1902, 1904) and their renewed excavation in 1900 and 1901 by W. M. F. Petrie (1900, 1901, 1902). Of utmost importance was the discovery of the Narmer palette (Fig. 1.16.1) at Hierakonpolis in 1898 (Quibell 1898). On this famous object (Cairo JdE 32169), the king is depicted twice, wearing respectively the white and the red crown. Wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt, he is shown in the classical attitude of “smiting the enemy”: dominating a prisoner. On the other side of the palette, Narmer wears the red crown when he is part of a procession heading towards two rows of decapitated prisoners. At the time of its discovery, and for many years to come, the Narmer palette was considered conclusive evidence for the unification of Egypt during his reign, when Upper Egypt would have conquered Lower Egypt. However, this would imply an “African” origin of Egyptian culture, which seemed illogical to a number of scholars who, almost by definition, accepted that the roots of Egypt had to be sought in the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East.