Djer

Name of Djer
Grave stele of Djer; Egyptian Museum , Cairo
Horus name	Hor-djer Ḥr. (W) -ḏr [j] Defender of Horus
Proper name	Iteti Jttj The ruler has come
Royal Papyrus Turin (No. II./14)	Itet Jtt (with the name ideogram for a king who represents the Horus falcon)
List of Kings of Abydos (Seti I) (No.3)	Itet Jtt ruler
Greek Manetho variants:	Africanus : Kenkenes Eusebius : Kenkenes Eusebius, AV : Cencenes

Djer (also Hor-djer ) is the Horus name of an ancient Egyptian king ( pharaoh ) of the 1st dynasty ( early dynastic period ), who lived around 2980/60 BC. Ruled. During his long reign he introduced many innovations.

Name and identity

Proper name Iteti in the Abydos list.

On the Cairo stone , next to the name of Horus Djer, there is another name that may have been an early form of the later gold name : “Ni-nebu” ( The Golden ). Similar to Ninetjer from the 2nd dynasty , the Egyptologists are very uncertain about the assignment of the name in its function, since the gold name was only introduced as a title under Djoser ( 3rd dynasty ).

The kairo stone also names the ruler's possible proper name , which is rendered as “Iteti” and is in a cartouche . However, this is an anachronism , as the spelling of the king's name in cartouches was only introduced under Pharaoh Huni towards the end of the 3rd dynasty.

Origin and family

Djer's mother may have been a lady named Chenethapi . So far, however, your name only appears on the famous Cairo stone and there is no contemporary evidence of it. Djer was apparently married to a princess named Herneith , and possibly to a lady named Penebui . Whose death is on a years tablets of ivory mentioned. Queen Meritneith and Pharaoh Wadji , among others, are considered possible descendants of Djer .

supporting documents

Slate fragment K-5089 with the Horus names of the kings Wadji and Djer

Ivory tablets with the inscription "The domain 'Heart of Horus Djer' is flourishing".

Rock carvings of the Djer were found on the 2nd cataract on the Nile (today in the Khartoum National Museum ). His name also appears in Wadi Halfa , as evidenced by expeditions to Nubia . Other finds from his time are known from Abydos and Saqqara . In 2012, an inscription with the name of Djer was discovered on the southern Sinai Peninsula .

Reign

Djer ruled a long time; Egyptology assumes 54 years. This is evident from the records and reconstructions of the Cairo and Palermo Stone . Nine years have been preserved on the Cairo fragment No. 1 (C1 / K1 = Cairo stone), ten more on the Palermo stone. The entries show that under Djer the tradition was introduced to celebrate the Escort of Horus every two years . Djer founded the royal domain of Semer-netjeru ("the most excellent of the gods") and the new royal residence Hor-sixentj-dju ("Horus towers over the mountains"). The residence was administered by the high official Amka . Djer also commissioned several expeditions to the Sinai . There was also a rock inscription with his name on it. In his grave (and that of his daughter Meritneith ) there were pieces of jewelry made of turquoise , which traditionally comes from Sinai.

A calendar entry shows Djer's death date of 7th Peret III . The reign of his successor Wadji began on the 22nd of Peret IV. Since otherwise the reigns of two kings would be 365 days in the event of a change of government within the calendar year, the reasons for the difference of 45 days remain unclear. In the pyramid texts of the Old Kingdom , an embalming period of 70 days is mentioned, which, however, could not be adhered to for mummification with only 45 days of reigning time difference. Siegfried Schott therefore assumes an interregnum of 1 year, 1 month and 15 days. In addition, the question remains whether the ancient Egyptian calendar with the associated change year was already in use or whether the dates refer to the 365-day Sothis calendar .

The grave

Flint knife blade with gilded handle from Djers grave

Seal imprint with the name of Djer

Ivory tablets by Djer with sopdet as " year opener ".

The king Djer grave is located in Umm el-Qa'ab at Abydos under the name Tomb O . It has 318 secondary burials for followers and was considered the tomb of the god of the dead Osiris in later dynasties . It consists of a burial chamber measuring 12 × 13 m, making it the largest burial chamber of the 1st Dynasty. About 1.5 km north of the royal tombs of Abydos, a ritual area from this era was excavated, which was probably part of the grave as a cult complex.

As with Menes , two graves were previously assigned to Djer: the above-mentioned grave O in Abydos and grave no. 3471 in Saqqara . However, especially in the last few years, research has tended to see the burial grounds of high officials in Saqqara. A stele of Djer was found in the burial area. It is the earliest grave stele of this type to date . A special find is a flint stone knife with a gold-plated handle on which the name of Djer is engraved. In the last century a basalt plastic was discovered (which is known under the name "Osiris bed"). The sculpture was first dated to the 25th / 26th, later to the 13th dynasty , around a thousand years after the death of King Djer. It can be seen today in Cairo in the Egyptian Museum .

In addition, archaeologists found the so-called sacrificial plaque of Djer in Djer's grave, which shows how a prisoner is ritually killed. In a register below, several totems are presented to the - apparently deceased - king : a ladder to heaven , a cult statue in the shape of a mummy , a nar catfish, a pelican statuette and a royal spear. In the third register, more totems are handed over, followed by the message that two princesses have died. Their names are indeed registered, but so illegible that there has been heated controversy within Egyptology.

In addition, the oldest iconographic representation of Sopdet as the “goddess of the year” is preserved on a plaque found in the grave complex, which in the case of Djer rests with the annual hieroglyph above the Achet - determinative . The illustration led Egyptologists to believe that an annual calendar was introduced under Djer at the latest. Richard Anthony Parker thinks it is possible that a Sirius- based Sothis calendar has been in use for some time. Christian Leitz therefore suspects that the ancient Egyptian administrative calendar was first used two centuries later with Sopdet as the beginning of the year goddess based on an older calendar system.

While examining the tomb in 1901, Flinders Petrie discovered the arm of a mummy , with bracelets made of gold and semi-precious stones; he suspected that an ancient grave robber was caught by surprise and hid his prey in a crevice. The jewelry is now in the Cairo Museum, while the mummy remains have unfortunately remained unexplored and have now been lost.

literature

• Jürgen von Beckerath : Handbook of the Egyptian king names. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-422-00832-2
• Günter Dreyer : A seal of the early royal necropolis of Abydos . In: MDAIK No. 43, 1987, pp. 33-43.
• 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. 37-42.
• Henri Gauthier: Annals of the Old Kingdom. Volume I, Cairo 1915.
• Wolfgang Helck : Investigations into the thinite age. In: Ägyptologische Abhandlungen. (ÄA) Vol. 45, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1987, ISBN 3-447-02677-4 .
• Dilwyn Jones: An Index of ancient Egyptian titles, epithets and phrases of the Old Kingdom. Archaeopress, Oxford 2000, ISBN 1-84171-069-5 .
• 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 ).
• Werner Kaiser : To the royal tombs of the 1st dynasty in Umm el-Qaab. In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department. (MDAIK) No. 37, von Zabern, Mainz 1981, pp. 247-254.
• Werner Kaiser: On the seal with the early king names of Umm el-Qaab. In: MDAIK No. 43, 1987, pp. 115-119.
• Peter Kaplony : Inscriptions of the early Egyptian period . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1963.
• Peter Kaplony: Djer. In: Lexicon of Egyptology. Vol. I, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1975, ISBN 3-447-01670-1 .
• Thomas Schneider : Lexicon of the Pharaohs. Albatros, Düsseldorf 2002, ISBN 3-491-96053-3 .
• Rainer Stadelmann : The Egyptian pyramids. From brick construction to the wonder of the world (= cultural history of the ancient world . Volume 30). 2nd, revised and expanded edition. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1991, ISBN 3-8053-1142-7 .

Web links

Commons : Djer  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Djer on Digital Egypt
• The Ancient Egypt Site
• Djer with Francesco Raffaele (Italian)

Remarks

1. ↑ The proper name, as it is introduced from the 4th dynasty with "Sa Ra", does not yet exist at this time, which is why the transfer to proper name (Pharaoh) is basically problematic. The formulation proper name is based on Jürgen von Beckerath : Handbuch der Ägyptischen Könignames.
2. ↑ according to an inscription on the Cairo stone
3. ^ Translation according to the Ägyptologie editors
4. ↑ Term of office: 31 years.
5. ↑ ^{a b Length of} government: 39 years.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wolfgang Helck: Investigations on the thinite age. P. 115.
2. ↑ Year numbers according to Schneider: Lexicon of the Pharaohs.
3. ↑ Wolfgang Helck: The name of the last king of the 3rd dynasty and the city of Ehnas. In: Studies on Ancient Egyptian Culture. No. 4, Buske, Hamburg 1976, ISSN  0340-2215 , pp. 125-128.
4. ^ ^{A b} Toby AH Wilkinson: Early Dynastic Egypt. Pp. 71-73.
5. ↑ Walter Bryan Emery : Egypt, History and Culture of the Early Period, 3200-2800 BC. Chr. Pp. 53-58.
6. ↑ Wolfgang Helck: Investigations on the Thinite Age (= Ägyptologische Abhandlungen . Vol. 45). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1987, ISBN 3-447-02677-4 , pp. 119 & 154.
7. ↑ ^{a b c d} Nicolas Grimal : A History of Ancient Egypt. Pp. 50-53.
8. ↑ Peter Kaplony: New fragments from Tomb Z at Abydos. In: MDAIK vol. 56, edition 2000; P. 10
9. ↑ Pierre Tallet: Une inscription du roi Djer au Sud-Sinaï: la première phrase écrite en hiéroglyphes? In: Abgadeyat. Volume 8, 2013, pp. 121-126 ( online ).
10. ↑ Wolfgang Helck: Investigations on the thinite age. P. 124.
11. ^ Dieter Arnold, Nigel Strudwick, Sabine H. Gardiner: The Encyclopaedia of Ancient Egypt Architecture. P. 71.
12. ^ Dilwyn Jones: An Index of Ancient Egyptian Titles, Epithets and Phrases of the Old Kingdom. Vol. 2, No. 2209.
13. ^ Toby AH Wilkinson: Early Dynastic Egypt. Pp. 124 & 146 ff.
14. ↑ P. Talle, D. Laisnay: Iry-Hor et Narmer au Sud-Sinaï (Ouadi 'Ameyra), un complément à la chronologie des expéditios minière égyptiene. In: Bulletin de l'Institut français d'archéologie Orientale. (BIFAO) 112, 2012, pp. 387-389, fig. 11.
15. ↑ The 22nd Peret IV results in a normal year; in a leap year it would be 21/22. Schemu I .
16. ↑ 7. Peret III to 22. Peret IV; in a leap year results up to the 21./22. Schemu I 74 or 75 days of difference.
17. ^ Siegfried Schott: Ancient Egyptian festival dates. P. 54.
18. ↑ Thomas Kühn: The royal tombs of the 1st and 2nd dynasties in Abydos. In: Kemet. Issue 1, 2008.
19. ^ Toby AH Wilkinson: Early Dynastic Egypt . Pp. 11-12.
20. ^ Toby AH Wilkinson: Early Dynastic Egypt . P. 72 ff.
21. ↑ Cairo, Journal d'Entrée number, Egyptian Museum. (JdE) 32090; A. Leahy: The Osiris 'Bed' Reconsidered. In: Orientalia. 46, 1977, pp. 424-434.
22. ^ Toby AH Wilkinson: Early Dynastic Egypt . P. 266 & 267ff.

predecessor	Office	successor
Teti I.	King of Egypt 1st Dynasty	Wadji