Aha (king)

Names of aha (king)
Faience vessel fragment with the name of Aha; British Museum , London
Horus name	Hor-aha Ḥr. (W) -ˁḥ3 Horus , the fighting man
Greek Manetho variants:	Africanus : Athothis Eusebius : Athothis Eusebius, AV : Athothis or Africanus : Menes Eusebius : Menes Eusebius, AV : Menes

Aha (also Hor Aha ) was a king ( Pharaoh ) of the ancient Egyptian 1st Dynasty ( early Dynasty ) and ruled around 3000/2980 BC. Chr.

Name and identity

The way in which Ahaz's real name is designed deserves special attention : On closer inspection, it can be seen that the feet and claws of the Horus falcon reach into the Serech and therefore the Horus falcon itself holds the shield and club (see above illustration). There is therefore a lively discussion among Egyptologists about this representation of names, as a possible deeper symbolism is suspected behind it. Under Aha using the first time symbolic Nebtinamens assigned as an image pair in conjunction of the King name, which under Semerkhet turn first appears in connection to the royal titulary.

Equation with Menes

Aha is a part of the research with the legendary Menes identified . This thesis is supported by the Cairo stone , the inscription of which indicates that another ruler must have ruled for a very short time between Aha and King Djer. Since King Djer is referred to as "Iteti" on the Cairo stone, the name "Meni" would only be left for aha in this case, since "Teti" seems to be an independent ruler. - Against this point, the fact that the kairo stone should be viewed with the greatest caution with regard to the naming of cartouche names , because the mere mention of cartouche names is a serious anachronism , since this title was unknown during Ahaz's lifetime.

Ivory tablets from Aha's grave are the first to name the hieroglyphic symbol Rnpt (Renpet, "year"), represented by a bare palm panicle . The first calendar entries in Egyptian history have been handed down on Ahaz's labels. This could have provided sufficient reason for the Egyptians of later epochs to see in Aha a "founder of the annals" and thus the initiator for Egyptian historiography. - Against this is the fact that clay seals from the tomb of Queen Meritneith , the wife of King Wadji , list the names "Narmer", "Aha", "Djer" and "Wadji". The ruling class does not begin with aha, so this was not considered the first ruler of Egypt in Meritneith's time. It should also not be forgotten that the above-mentioned Renpet symbol as a symbol for "year" only acquired calendar significance at a later time, when it came to collecting administrative data for the purpose of tax collection and ancestry.

Cylindrical vessel from Saqqara with the Horus name of Aha; Kestner Museum , Hanover

In Saqqara is the mastaba p. 3357, in which fragments of vessels and ivory labels with the name of Aha were found. This mastaba is one of the oldest of its kind and Saqqara was the royal necropolis of Memphis. Since no ruler from the time before Aha appears here and Menes is referred to as the founder of Memphis, it seems obvious that only Aha can be responsible for the founding of Memphis and should therefore be identical with Menes. - Against this point speaks that the founder of a capital does not necessarily have to be buried in the local necropolis. King Chasechemui, for example ( 2nd Dynasty ) ruled in Hierakonpolis and Memphis, but was buried in Abydos .

Equation with Teti I.

A number of other researchers tend to equate King Aha with Teti I. The thesis is based on the Cairo stone , which reserves the third known cartouche name, "Iteti", for King Djer. Since Aha was the direct predecessor of Djer, some Egyptologists assign the name "Teti" to King Aha.

This did not go unchallenged. The Egyptologists Werner Kaiser and Günter Dreyer have suggested that Teti I could be identical to Queen Neithhotep . It is assumed that this queen, as an independent regent, took over the leadership of the state for her nephew, King Djer, as he was still a minor and therefore too young for the royal office. This assumption is supported by the entry of the name "Teti" in the Turin royal papyrus , according to which Teti I ruled for only 1 year and 45 days.

A clay seal fragment of the Aha with the name of the prince "Heti" next to the Serech

family

Aha may have been married to the ladies Neithhotep and Benerib , but their identities and names are very controversial in research. The names of Ahaz's sons Djer , Rechit ( Rhjt ), Heti ( Htj ) and Saiset ( Sʒjst ) appear in tombs at Naqada , Abydos ( Thinis ) and Sakkara .

Reign

Start of government

Clay seal inscriptions from the graves of Queen Meritneith and King Den from Abydos contain the oldest known king lists of rulers of the 1st Dynasty . The previous kings are all named by their Horus name. The first ruler of these lists is Narmer , immediately followed by Aha. Aha was therefore the second ruler of the 1st dynasty.

Domestic politics

A visit to the sanctuary of the goddess Neith is recorded on several tablets . This sanctuary was located in the northeast of the Nile Delta near Sais , where a permanent place of worship had already formed around this goddess. Furthermore, the first known representation of the holy Henu barque of the god Sokar is engraved on an annual tablet .

Vessel inscriptions on the tombs of Aha and Queen Neithhotep show that this queen died during the reign of Aha and that he arranged the burial. The selection of the Naqada cemetery as the resting place suggests that Neithhotep came from this province and strengthens the suggestion by some Egyptologists that she may have been Aha's mother.

Foreign policy

Ivory tablets with the name of Aha

Inscriptions on ivory tablets from Abydos suggest a war against the Nubians . One of the annual tablets explicitly names 'the beating of the Nubians'. Aha also sent several expeditions to Lebanon and Palestine . At En Besor in the southwest of present-day Israel , the ruins of a bastion that can be dated due to ceramic and ivory finds in the early first dynasty and was probably built under Aha found. Vessel fragments with typical Palestinian decorations were found in Aha's grave.

Tomb

Hor-Aha's tomb in Abydos.

The tomb of Aha is in the necropolis of the kings of the 1st dynasty in Abydos, Umm el-Qaab , no. B10-15-19. The graves are rectangular chambers in the desert floor that were supported with adobe bricks . The tombs of the 0th Dynasty had two adjacent chambers, while the tomb of Aha has three much larger ones. The reason for this strange tomb architecture was that it was difficult to erect large ceilings over the chambers at that time.

Wooden beams for these constructions often had to be imported from Palestine . A new custom was added, which became uncommon again at the end of the 1st Dynasty: Members of the royal household were buried together with the pharaoh after they had probably been killed (or committed suicide) at the royal burial . Among those buried were service personnel, short people, women and even dogs . In the case of the Aha, a total of 36 side graves were laid in three parallel rows. As a symbol of royalty, the pharaoh was also given a group of young lions .

Aha under which was royal necropolis of Saqqara founded, because there is a below it mastabaförmiges second grave was invests with dimensions of 41.60 m x 15.55 m, which in Egyptian Ellen results in a width of 80 × 30 Ellen. There were nine niches in the palace facade style on each long side and three on the narrow sides. In the north of the complex, which was enclosed by a brick wall, there was a cult area. It is a rectangular, fortress-like complex, where the funeral ceremonies presumably took place. According to Rainer Stadelmann, a miniature model district of a palace and a group of boats were found in this district . Furthermore, there were "drainage basins" in the brick-built district, which suggest a sacrificial cult.

By building a good for supplying sacrificial goods near Saqqara, Aha founded one of the settlements that were to grow together to form the city of Memphis in the course of Egyptian history .

literature

General

• Martin von Falck, Susanne Martinssen-von Falck: The great pharaohs. From the early days to the Middle Kingdom. Marix, Wiesbaden 2015, ISBN 978-3737409766 , pp. 30-37.
• Peter Kaplony : Aha. In: Wolfgang Helck (Hrsg.): Lexikon der Ägyptologie (LÄ). Volume I, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1975, ISBN 3-447-01670-1 , Sp. 94-96.
• Thomas Schneider : Lexicon of the Pharaohs . Albatros, Düsseldorf 2002, ISBN 3-491-96053-3 , pp. 44-45.
• Toby AH Wilkinson : Early Dynastic Egypt . Routledge, Taylor & Francis, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-18633-1 , pp. 70-71.

About the name

• Jürgen von Beckerath : Handbook of the Egyptian king names . German Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-422-00832-2 , pp. 46, 171.
• Peter Kaplony: Inscriptions of the early Egyptian period. Vol. III, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1963, ISBN 3-447-00052-X , pp. 10-11 (27 A-E).
• Hermann A. Schlögl : Ancient Egypt. History and culture from the early days to Cleopatra. Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-54988-8 .

Questions of detail

• Jürgen von Beckerath: Chronology of the pharaonic Egypt. In: Munich Egyptological Studies. Vol. 46, von Zabern, Mainz 1997, ISBN 3-8053-2310-7 , pp. 5-6, 16-17, 24-25, 32, 34, 39, 56, 143, 149, 160, 165-169 , 173, 175-179, 181, 187.
• Norbert Dautzenberg: Menes in the Sothis book. In: Göttinger Miscellen . No. 76, Göttingen 1984, pp. 11-16.
• Philippe Derchain: Ménès, le roi “Quelqu'un”. In: Revue d'Égyptologie. Vol. 18, 1966, pp. 31-36.
• Jochem Kahl : Buried, burned, misunderstood and forgotten: Finds from the "Menes grave" (= booklet accompanying the early part of the exhibition "The archaeological projects of the Institute for Egyptology and Coptic Studies of the Westphalian Wilhelms University of Münster" on the occasion of the 33rd Standing Conference on Egyptology from 13 July 2001 - July 15, 2001 in Münster). Munster 2001.
• Jochem Kahl: Inscriptional Evidence for the Relative Chronology of Dyn. 0-2. In: Erik Hornung, Rolf Krauss, David A. Warburton (eds.): Ancient Egyptian Chronology (= Handbook of Oriental studies. Section One. The Near and Middle East. Volume 83). Brill, Leiden / Boston 2006, ISBN 978-90-04-11385-5 , pp. 94-115 ( online ).
• Jochem Kahl, Tine Bagh, Eva-Maria Engel, Susanne Petschel: The finds from the "Menes grave" in Naqada: An interim report . In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department (MDAIK). Vol. 57, von Zabern, Mainz 2001, ISBN 3-8053-2754-4 , pp. 171-185.
• Stefan Klug: Umm el-Qaab. Follow-up examinations in the early royal cemetery 3rd / 4th Preliminary report. In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department. (MDAIK) Vol. 46, von Zabern, Mainz 1990.
• Dietrich Wildung : The role of Egyptian kings in the consciousness of their posterity part 1. In: Munich Egyptological studies. Vol. 17, Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 1969, pp. 4–21.

Web links

Commons : Aha  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Aha on Digital Egypt (English)
• The Ancient Egypt Site

Remarks

1. ↑ Term of office: 57 years.
2. ↑ ^{a b Length of} government: 27 years.
3. ↑ Term of office: 62 years.
4. ↑ Term of office: 60 years.
5. ↑ Term of office: 30 years.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Year numbers according to T. Schneider: Lexikon der Pharaonen. Düsseldorf 2002.
2. ^ Walter B. Emery: Egypt, History and Culture of the Early Period 3200–2800 BC. Chr. Fourier, Wiesbaden 1964, pp. 28-31 and 45ff.
3. ^ IES Edwards : The Cambridge Ancient History . 3rd edition, 1970, pp. 22, 23
4. ^ Jean-Philippe Lauer : Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department. (MDAIK) Volume 15, 1957, p. 52.
5. ^ Werner Kaiser: Communications of the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department. (MDAIK) Vol. 43, 1986, pp. 33-34.
6. ^ Günter Dreyer: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department. (MDAIK) Vol. 46, 1990, pp. 71-74.
7. ↑ Walter Bryan Emery: Egypt - History and Culture of the Early Period. P. 47f.
8. ^ Toby AH Wilkinson: Early Dynastic Egypt. London 1999, p. 70.
9. ^ Toby AH Wilkinson: Early Dynastic Egypt. London 1999, pp. 69-70.
10. ^ WM Flinders Petrie : The Royal tombs of the earliest dynasties: 1901. Part II (= Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund. Volume 21). Egypt Exploration Fund et al., London 1901 ( digitization ), panel X, 2; XI, 2.
11. ^ Toby AH Wilkinson: Early Dynastic Egypt. London 1999, p. 291.
12. ^ Toby AH Wilkinson: Early Dynastic Egypt. London 1999, p. 301.
13. ↑ Silke Roth: The royal mothers of ancient Egypt from the early days to the end of the 12th dynasty. Wiesbaden 2001, pp. 31-35.
14. ^ WM Flinders Petrie: The Royal tombs of the earliest dynasties: 1901. Part II. London 1901, Plate XI, 1.
15. ^ Toby AH Wilkinson: Early Dynastic Egypt. London 1999, p. 7.
16. ^ WM Flinders Petrie: The Royal tombs of the earliest dynasties: 1901. Part II. London 1901, pp. 7–8, plate LIX; For the correct assignment of the three burial chambers to Hor Aha see: Werner Kaiser: Some remarks on the early Egyptian period. In: Journal for Egyptian Language and Antiquity. No. 91, 1964, pp. 86-124, especially pp. 96-102.
17. ^ Walter B. Emery: Excavations at Saqqara, 1937–1938: Hor-aha. Government Press, Cairo 1939.
18. ↑ The boat burials in Abydos

predecessor	Office	successor
Narmer	King of Egypt 1st Dynasty (beginning)	Teti I.