Menes

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Name of Menes
Proper name	Meni Mn.j
Royal Papyrus Turin (No. II./10)	Meni Mn.j (with determinative / ideogram for a man's name)
Royal Papyrus Turin (No. II./11)	Meni Mn.j (with a name ideogram for a king representing the Horus falcon)
List of kings of Abydos (Seti I) (No. 1)	Meni Mn.j
Greek for Manetho, Latin for Eusebius	Menes mine
Cartouche of Menes from the list of kings of Seti I in Abydos

Menes (ancient Greek Μῖνα), who was an ancient Egyptian king ( pharaoh ) around 3000 BC. According to the later tradition of the supposed unification of the empire, it is usually mentioned as the founder of the 1st dynasty in the early dynastic period . The assessment as the "first unifier" is unhistorical, as his predecessors saw themselves as rulers of Upper and Lower Egypt during the festival of unification .

There is also evidence of a repeated unification of the empire among some of Menes' successors. Since the first stable connections are only attested at the end of the 2nd dynasty , Egyptology does not see Menes as the final unifier. For example, the Egyptologists Wolfgang Helck and Jochem Kahl refer in connection with the annual royal annals first introduced under Menes to the mythologically intended role of him as the “first unifier”.

Problem

In late Egyptian sources , King Menes is portrayed more as a mythical figure than as a real ruler. The name "Meni" only appears around twelve hundred years after his presumed reign, which is why Egyptologists are faced with the problem of being able to research and record a historical Menes. For Egyptology the question arises whether Menes can be identified with any of the early dynastic kings or whether it is not more of a fictional legendary figure . The ancient histories of Herodotus and Manetho are not really helpful either, as they were only published in the fifth and third centuries BC. Were written. While Herodotus reported more from hearsay in his own words, Manetho used ancient Egyptian sources.

In the royal list of Seti I in Abydos and in the Turin Royal Papyrus, the cartouche names "Meni", " Teti ", "Iteti" ( Djer ) and "Itiu" ( Wadji ) appear at the very beginning of the royal lists of names . These are the - probably strongly distorted - maiden names of the first four early dynastic rulers of Egypt. In particular, the assignment of these first four names to the early, contemporary kings is very problematic for Egyptology, since the king names were actually only passed down as Horus names during the lifetime of these rulers in their epoch .

Another problem for Egyptology is that Menes was celebrated by the Egyptians of the New Kingdom and the late period as “the first king”, although finds from around 3400 BC. BC prove that both crowns of Egypt were in use long before Menes. Menes is always handed down as the founder of the epoch of the early dynastic period as well as the Old Kingdom and is considered to be the central "figure of tradition" alongside Mentuhotep II and Ahmose I.

supporting documents

Menes (left) next to Mentuhotep II and Ahmose I in the Ramesseum , west wall, 19th dynasty

The first evidence of the name "Menes" goes back to the time of Queen Hatshepsut in the 18th dynasty . A scarab seal shows the name "Meni" ( Mnj ) in the ring on its embossed underside , including the names of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III.

His name appears in the list of kings of Abydos from the time of Seti I , where he officially introduces the list of kings as the first cartouche name. In Turin Royal Papyrus "Meni" appears twice in a row on: once as a deified ancestor, then as the name of a deceased ruler. Strangely enough, Menes does not appear in the royal list of Saqqara in the tomb of the priest Tjuloy. Menes even appears, along with other pharaohs, in demotic, historical novels of the Greco-Roman times, which proves his reputation up to this time.

Historical lore

According to Herodotus and Manetho, the city of Memphis ( Egyptian Men-nefer , "place of good"; original name Inebu-hedj , "White Wall") was founded under Menes after the Nile was split and an artificial island was created . Manetho the adds, Menes was by ross-faceted river monster ( Hippo ) perished . He is said to have led a military expedition abroad to Manetho and won there.

Menes ruled after Manetho for 62 years (so Africanus ), 60 years ( Eusebius ) or 30 years ( Armenian version of Eusebius).

Equations with contemporary rulers

To this day, Egyptologists and historians find it difficult to identify Menes with one of the early dynastic rulers. The reason for this is the fact that the Egyptian rulers from the predynastics to the middle of the 1st dynasty are always named on clay seals , ivory plaques , stone vessels and reliefs only by their Horus name .

In the royal lists, however, they appear with their maiden name, which has been written in a cartouche since the 4th dynasty. This fact raises the question for many scholars, where from z. For example, Ramessid scribes obtained the cartouche names for the first four rulers when drawing up their lists of kings, although at that time only the name of Horus was recorded in inscriptions in public documents.

In the past, attempts have often been made to identify Menes with early dynastic rulers, especially the kings Narmer and Hor Aha moved into the focus of research. Egyptologists such as William Matthew Flinders Petrie , Walter Bryan Emery and Wolfgang Helck tried in publications to compare the theses that speak for or against Narmer or Aha as historical models of Menes. The researchers focused particularly on the hieroglyph Mn , which appears under both rulers on clay seals and ivory tablets. For a long time most Egyptologists have seen the hieroglyph Mn as a personal name, which is why it is most likely a prince's name due to the epigraphic position on seals and plaques.

Equation with Narmer

Portrait of Narmer

Narmer is depicted on palettes with the white crown of the south ( Ta-seti ) and the red crown of the north . In his day, Egypt seems to have been united. - Against this argument speaks the fact that Narmer had only successfully completed a military offensive against Lower Egypt, of course he was presented as the victor with the royal insignia of his defeated opponent. But that does not mean that he must have already been the generally accepted sole ruler of Egypt.

On a scepter pommel from Hierakonpolis , Narmer is shown celebrating the Sed festival . Before him, the divine is reput - shrine built. Some Egyptologists such as Percy E. Newberry see the representation of a goddess or the princess Neithotep in the "Reput cult image" , which led them to interpret this scene as a wedding ceremony . - Werner Kaiser and Günter Dreyer referred in this context to the fact that it is not a goddess, but a ritual portrait .

Equation with aha

Horus name of aha

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.

One of the oldest written representations of the hieroglyph is on an ivory tablet from the tomb of Aha near Abydos (mn) engraved directly opposite the royal Serech des Aha. It is located within a triple decorative frame, together with a predecessor form of the next name .

Ivory tablets from Ahaz'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.

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.

Trivia

The claim that Pharaoh Menes died as a result of a wasp sting, both in specialist literature on hornets and wasps , as well as in publications on the subject of insect sting allergies and on the Internet, is ultimately based on a deliberate joke in a specialist book and does not correspond to the facts.

literature

• Norbert Dautzenberg: Menes in the Sothis book. In: Göttinger Miszellen [GM] 76, Ägyptologisches Seminar der Universität Göttingen, Göttingen 1984, pp. 11-16.
• Wolfgang Helck : Was there a King Menes? In: Journal of the German Oriental Society (ZDMG) 103 . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1953, pp. 354-359.
• Thomas C. Heagy: Who Was Menes? In: Archéo-Nile. (Revue de la société pour l'étude des cultures prépharaoniques de la vallée du Nil) No. 24, January 2014, Paris, pp. 59–92 ( full text as PDF file ).
• Wolfgang Helck: Economic history of ancient Egypt in the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC Chr. Brill, Leiden 1975, ISBN 90-04-04269-5 , pp. 21-32.
• Wolfgang Helck: Investigations into the thinite age. (= Ägyptologische Abhandlungen Volume 45) Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1987, ISBN 3-447-02677-4 , p. 124.
• Jochem Kahl : Buried, burned, misunderstood and forgotten: Finds from the "Menes grave" . (= Accompanying booklet to 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 Egyptology Conference from July 13, 2001 to July 15, 2001 in Münster ). Munster 2001.
• Jochem Kahl, Tine Bagh, Eva-Maria Engel, Susanne Petschel: The finds from the "Menes grave" in Naqada: An interim report . In: Communications of the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department (MDAIK) No. 57, 2001, ISBN 3-8053-2754-4 , pp. 171–185.
• Jochem Kahl: A hitherto neglected example of rendering characters from the "Menes grave" in Naqada harmless . In: Studies on Ancient Egyptian Culture (SAK) 28 . Buske, Hamburg 2000, pp. 125-129. ( PDF on Propylaeum-Dok )
• Peter Kaplony: Inscriptions of the early Egyptian period. Volume III. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1963, ISBN 3-447-00052-X , pp. 10-11 (27 A-E).
• Robert Kuhn: Legend or Historical Reality? On the question of the existence of King Menes. In: Kemet issue 4/2010 - Myths and Legends. Kemet-Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISSN  0943-5972 , pp. 12-16.
• Siegfried Morenz : Traditions around Menes. Contributions to the historical method in Egyptology. In: Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprach und Altertumskunde No. 99, 1973, X – XVI
• Thomas Schneider : Lexicon of the Pharaohs. Albatros, Düsseldorf 2002, ISBN 3-491-96053-3 , pp. 153-154.
• Jürgen von Beckerath : Chronology of Pharaonic Egypt (= 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.
• Jürgen von Beckerath: Handbook of the Egyptian king names. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-422-00832-2 , pp. 46 and 171.
• Dietrich Wildung : The role of Egyptian kings in the consciousness of their posterity. Part 1. In: Munich Egyptological Studies. No. 17, Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1969, pp. 4–21.
• James P. Allen: Menes the Memphite. In: Göttinger Miscellen No. 126, Ägyptologisches Seminar der Universität Göttingen, Göttingen 1992, pp. 19–22
• Walter Bryan Emery : Egypt, History and Culture of the Early Period 3200-2800 BC Chr. Fourier, Wiesbaden 1964, ISBN 3-921695-39-2 , pp. 28–31 and 45 ff.
• Barry J. Kemp: Ancient Egypt - anatomy of a civilization . Routledge, London 2006, ISBN 0-415-23550-2 .
• Toby AH Wilkinson: Early Dynastic Egypt. Routledge, London et al. 1999, ISBN 0-415-18633-1 .

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. ↑ Representation in the Ramesseum, west wall.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Thomas Schneider: Lexicon of the Pharaohs . P. 153.
2. ↑ Erik Hornung , Elisabeth Staehelin: Scarabs and other seal amulets from Basel collections. von Zabern, Mainz, 1976, ISBN 3-8053-0296-7 , pp. 44-45.
3. ↑ Barry J. Kemp: Ancient Egypt - anatomy of a civilization . P. 91.
4. ↑ Kim Ryholt: Egyptian Historical Literature from the Greco-Roman Period. In: Martin Fitzenreiter (Ed.): The event, historiography between incident and finding , London 2009, ISBN 978-1-906137-13-7 , pp. 231-238.
5. ↑ Walter B. Emery: Egypt, History and Culture of the Early Period 3200-2800 BC Chr. P. 275.
6. ↑ Walter B. Emery: Egypt, History and Culture of the Early Period 3200-2800 BC Chr. P. 29.
7. ↑ Walter B. Emery: Egypt, History and Culture of the Early Period 3200-2800 BC Chr. Pp. 30-32.
8. ↑ ^{a b} Walter Bryan Emery: Egypt, History and Culture of the Early Period 3200-2800 BC Chr. P. 31.
9. ↑ Wolfgang Decker, Frank Förster: Annotated Bibliography on Sport in Ancient Egypt, Vol. 2 1978-2000 together with supplements from earlier years and including the sport of neighboring cultures . Weidmann, Hildesheim 2002, ISBN 3-615-10013-1 , pp. 72-73.
10. ↑ Ulrich R. Müller: Insect bite allergy: clinic, diagnostics u. Therapy. Fischer, Stuttgart / New York (NY) 1988, ISBN 3-437-11158-2 , introduction. P. 1 and 2.
11. ↑ Dr. med. Immo Grimm: diagnosis and treatment of insect venom allergy . From: vespa-crabro.de , accessed on August 20, 2013.

predecessor	Office	successor
unsure	Pharaoh of Egypt 1st Dynasty	unsure