3100-2850 BC - Protodynastic - Dynasties I-III
As the result of one of the battles between the forces of the South and North, which was fought probably near Anu (later, Heliopolis), the King of the South gained the victory, and he was henceforth able to call himself "King of the South, King of the North." Who this mighty " Uniter of the Two Lands" really was is not known, but the tradition which was current at Abydos, and presumably throughout Egypt, in the thirteenth century before Christ, stated that he was called Mena ; this tradition was also accepted in the time of the Greek historians, for they all agree in saying that the first King of Egypt was called Menes.
The King List, tradition says, was compiled in the third century before Christ for Ptolemy II Philadelphus, one of the greatest benefactors and patrons of the great Library at Alexandria. Ptolemy II, it seems, was most anxious to include in this library a history of Egypt, and he commanded Manetho, a priest of Sebennytus called, to compile one. In his History of Egypt, Manetho gave a list of the kings of Egypt, which he divided into three parts, each containing several groups of kings which he called " dynasties," but it is not quite clear what he meant by the word " dynasty."
His History is lost, but four copies of his King-List are preserved in the works of later writers. The oldest of these is that which is said to have been written by Julius Africanus, in the third century of our era, and is preserved in the Chronicle of Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea (born AD 264, and died about 34o). In this work Eusebius also gives a copy of the List of Manetho made by himself, but the copy of Julius Africanus agrees better with the results derived from the monuments which we now have than that of Eusebius.
The dynasties of Manetho's King-List that represent the "Archaic Period" are the first three. According to this, the kings of the First Dynasty were eight in number and reigned 263 years; those of the Second Dynasty were nine in number and reigned 302 years; and those of the Third Dynasty were nine in number and reigned 214 years. The First and Second Dynasties reigned at This (Abydos), and the Third Dynasty at Memphis. Manetho states cautiously of the successors of the Second Dynasty certain things that are evidently legendary. This most be the natural result of a want of monumental evidence, and a consequent dependence on tradition.
Of the length and of the events of the reign of Narmer nothing is known, but it is certain that he was one of the earliest kings of the first dynasty, and that the centre of his authority was at Abydos, the capital of the Thinite nome in Upper Egypt. Many of his successors were buried here, and Edfu, the center of the power of the Horus kings, was abandoned by them in favor of a more northern capital. With the reigns of Aha and Narmer begins the first part of the Dynastic Period of Egyptian History, to which the name of Archaic Period has, for convenience' sake, been given. The monuments of this period have revealed the names of several kings, but whether the list of them thus supplied is complete is uncertain. The King-Lists drawn up by Egyptian scribes under the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties only give selections of royal names, and they contain proofs that those who compiled them possessed less knowledge of the kings of the Archaic Period than, thanks to the discovery of the royal tombs at Abydos, is available today.
Under the second and third dynasties the balance of power in Egypt shifted to the North, and Memphis, the founding of which was ascribed by Greek tradition to Mena, or Menes, gradually came to be regarded as the capital of the whole country. Some development in the worship of sacred animals must have taken place under this dynasty, for Manetho says that in the reign of Kaiechos, a king of the second dynasty, the Bull Apis in I Memphis and the Bull Mnevis in Heliopolis and the Goat of - Mendes were appointed to be gods. Aelian, another writer, states that the worship of Apis was founded by Menes, but the monuments afford no proof of this.
With the Third Dynasty, Egypt entered into the five centuries of high culture known as the Pyramid Age. The age is associated with Chancellor Imhotep, the adviser, administrator, and architect of Pharaoh Djoser [Khetneter, whose personal name was Tcheser]. Imhotep is famed as the inventor of building in dressed stone. His architectural genius lay in his use of durable, fine-quality limestone to imitate the brick, wood, and reed structures that have since disappeared. He built the pharaoh's funerary complex, including his tomb, the Step Pyramid, at Saqqarah. Djoser was a mighty king, as his monuments testify. As King of the North he built a tomb in the form of an oblong stone pyramid at Sakkarah, the necropolis of Memphis, and he called it by his Horus name Khetneter. This pyramid consists of six steps, hence the name "Step Pyramid," by which it is commonly known, and is nearly 200 feet high. The length of its sides at the base are : north and south 352 feet, east and west 396 feet. Its internal arrangement is peculiar to itself.
At the end of the Archaic Period the Egyptians possessed metal weapons and tools, they were able to make really good though small bas-reliefs, they worked the copper mines and could smelt ore, they quarried granite, and used it in buildings, they were skilful workers in limestone, wood, ivory, and gold, they made pots and other vessels in very hard stones, e.g. porphyry and diorite, and the Step Pyramid shows that their knowledge of architecture was considerable. Between the beginning of the first dynasty and the end of the third they also developed the art of writing in the true sense of the word.
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