Crocodile (king)

Names of crocodile (king)
A vessel from Tarchan with a king's name, which some research reads as King Crocodile
Horus name	Shendet Shn.dt (The) Oppressor

Crocodile is possibly the name of an Egyptian ruler ( Pharaoh ) of the predynastic period (so-called 0th Dynasty ), who lived around 3100 BC. Could have ruled. Its existence is highly controversial.

Although relatively few artefacts and written documents have survived from Krokodil himself, valuable new insights into cultural, economic and political changes were gained from his time. His exact chronological position, however, remains unclear, as does his length of government.

Origin and evidence

Clay seal of the crocodile, also interpreted as the seal of the god Sobek

The reading of the ruler's name on some objects and the interpretation of these documents as Horus Crocodile goes back to Günter Dreyer . On a clay seal from Tarchan there is a building and crocodiles around it. Günter Dreyer interprets this as the seal of the ruler crocodile and he interprets other difficult-to-read king names as king crocodile . These rulers' names were mostly interpreted as scorpions before. Dreyer points out that reading as a scorpion is impossible and assigns it to the alleged ruler of the seal and reads the characters crocodile . In the hieroglyphs he sees a crocodile in profile and a loop and reads šnj.w (“King Crocodile”). Edwin van den Brink interprets the sign in the Serech as a loop , especially in the case of the ink inscriptions, and reads it as šn.dt (“The Oppressor ”) as a variant of Crocodile's name. He also assigns a difficult-to-read royal name to this ruler, which was found in Minschat Abu Omar .

Badly damaged club pommel, presumably showing King Crocodile

Dreyer sees in King Crocodile a locally ruling anti-king who ruled in the area of ​​Tarchan. However, this interpretation of the evidence is highly problematic and was contradicted early on. The seal imprint may also be the oldest representation of the god Sobek to date , in the form of a resting crocodile on a standard and with two lotus buds or ostrich feathers sprouting from his back. The Serech-like structure with a bull's head above it and a crocodile mark inside very likely represents the city of Shedet ("The one founded by Sobek"), in which a sanctuary of Sobek was located. The majority of Egyptologists now follow this interpretation. Accordingly, there was no King Crocodile at all and the interpretation of the improperly written king names on the objects mentioned remains open for the time being.

From the so-called "treasure depot" in Hierakonpolis comes a broken scepter pommel on which a king with a red crown is enthroned in a sed festival pavilion . A heavily damaged hieroglyph can be seen directly in front of his face , which some Egyptologists interpret as a crocodile on a standard , others as a scorpion. The predecessors and successors of King Crocodile are unknown.

See also

• List of pharaohs

literature

• Barbara Adams: Ancient Hierakonpolis. Aris and Phillips, Warminster 1974, ISBN 9780856680038 .
• Toby AH Wilkinson : Early Dynastic Egypt. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-4151-8633-1 .
• Peter Kaplony : Inscriptions of the early Egyptian period: Supplement. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1966, ISBN 3-447-00052-X .
• Michael Allan Hoffman: Egypt before the pharaohs: The prehistoric foundations of Egyptian Civilization. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London 1980, ISBN 0-7100-0495-8 .
• Dietrich Wildung : Egypt in front of the pyramids - Munich excavations in Egypt. von Zabern, Mainz 1981 ISBN 3-8053-0523-0 .
• Günter Dreyer: Umm el-Qaab. Volume II. Von Zabern, Mainz 1998, ISBN 9783805324861 .
• Ludwig David Morenz: picture letters and symbolic signs. The development of the script of the high culture of ancient Egypt (= Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 205). Friborg 2004, ISBN 3-7278-1486-1 .

Web links

• Francesco Raffaele: Horus Crocodile

Individual evidence

1. ^ G. Dreyer in: Communications of the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department. (MDAIK) 38, 1982, p. 34ff.
2. ↑ Werner Kaiser & Günter Dreyer in: Communications of the German Archaeological Institute Cairo No. 38. German Archaeological Institute, Orient Department (ed.). von Zabern, Berlin 1982. pp. 232ff.
3. ^ Günter Dreyer: Horus Krokodil, a Gegenkönig of Dynasty 0 , in Renee Friedman and Barbara Adams (Eds.): The Followers of Horus, Studies dedicated to Michael Allen Hoffman, 1949–1990 , Oxford 1992, pp. 259–263
4. ^ Günter Dreyer: Umm el-Qaab II. Volume. P. 34ff.
5. ↑ Edwin van den Brink: The Nile Delta in Transition - from 4th - 3rd Millennium BC . Institute of Archeology and Arabic Studies, Tel Aviv 1992, pp. 28-35.
6. ^ Edwin van den Brink: The incised serekh signs of Dynasties 0-1 , In: Jeffrey Spencer: Aspects of Early Egypt . Bernd-Michael Paschke, London 1996. p. 147.
7. ↑ Ludwig David Morenz: picture letters and symbolic signs. Pp. 158 & 159.
8. ↑ Marco Zecchi: Sobek of Shedet, The Crocodile God in the Fayyum in the Dynastic Period , Todi 2010, ISBN 978-88-6244-115-5 , pp. 5-6
9. ^ Toby: AH Wilkinson: Early Dynastic Egypt . Pp. 56-57.
10. ↑ B. Adams: Ancient Hierakonpolis. 1974, pp. 15 - 19, fig. 2.
11. ^ Günter Dreyer: Horus Krokodil, an antagonist of the dynasty 0. In: The Followers of Horus - Studies dedicated to Michael Allen Hoffman, 1949-1990. edit. by Renee Friedman and Barbara Adams. Oxford 1992, pp. 259-263.

predecessor	Office	successor
unsure	King of Egypt 0th Dynasty	unsure