Semerchet

Name of Semerchet
Ivory label with the name of Horus of Semerchet.
Horus name	Semerchet Smrẖt Companion of the godhood
Sideline	Iri-nebti Irj-nbtj guardian of the two mistresses / The guardian of the two mistresses
Proper name	Iri-netjer / Semsu Jrj-nṯr / Smsw
Royal Papyrus Turin (No. II./18)	Semsem Smsm Elder (of Horus)
List of kings of Abydos (Seti I)	Semsu Smsw
Greek Manetho variants: in Eratosthenes :	Africanus : Semempses Eusebius : Semempses Eusebius, AV : Mempses Sempsos

Semerchet (actually Hor-semer-chet ) was the seventh ancient Egyptian king ( pharaoh ) of the 1st dynasty ( early dynasty ), who according to Thomas Schneider around 2890/70 or according to Jürgen von Beckerath from around 2861 to 2853 BC. Ruled. While the ancient historian Manetho attributes the regent 18 years, the Turin royal papyrus even reports 72 years. The Egyptology assessed both numbers far as exaggerations or misinterpretation of the original sources. Evaluations of the inscription on the annals stone of the 5th dynasty allow an assumption of 8 or 8½ years of reign, since Semerchet's entire rule is preserved there.

For Egyptology, questions and discussions about Semerchet's name and his family position have arisen, since evaluation and interpretation of both are problematic. Despite his short reign, questions about the course of rule also arose, as numerous political and religious changes have been handed down for Semerchet. Later sources report that a catastrophe occurred under his rule .

Name and identity

Alabaster vase of Semerchet, presenting his throne name.

Representation in the list of kings of Abydos

Semerchet's personal name , similar to King Den , received various readings over time. The reason for this may have been a hieroglyphic symbol, which represents a man wrapped in a robe and holding a stick in his hands. The corresponding consonantic "Iri-netjer" was confused with the similar designation smsw or smsm in later readings and led to the entry "Semsem" in the Royal Papyrus Turin .

Semerchet's titulatures could point to his pre-accession career, possibly as a priest . Semerkhet also changed the from its predecessor Anedjib newly introduced Nebuinamen ( "The two men") in the Nebtinamen ( "The Two Ladies"). However, the reasons for this are not yet clear. He is the first king of whom a side name can be directly traced. Semerchet was referring to both the crown goddess Nechbet from Nechen and the snake goddess Wadjet from Buto , both of whom were considered to be the "shielding deities of the king". At that time, the side name attached to the throne name only existed as an epithet . The side name was therefore not a separate part of the later minor and major royal statutes. Only in the further course of the Old Kingdom did the name connection split into the two well-known individual titles.

Nothing specific is known about the Semerchet family. The Kairostein names a lady named Batiires as the mother of Semerchet, who was probably the wife of King Anedjib . Peter Kaplony , however, identifies Batiires with a person known from a tombstone that was found next to King Den's tomb. Accordingly, Batiires would be the wife of Den and Den the father of Semerchet. Schlögl also considers it likely that Qaa was a son of Anedjib. Michael Rice , however, admits that Qaa may have been a son of Semerchet.

Reign

Ivory label with the side name; British Museum , London .

Name of Horus of Semerchet on a fragment of a vessel

Jean-Philippe Lauer , Walter Bryan Emery , Wolfgang Helck , and Michael Rice expressed concerns about Semerchet's reign as the legitimate successor of Anedjib, as some stone vessels were found in Semerchet's Abydos tomb that originally contained Anedjib's name, but Semerchet had his name overwritten. The assumptions were supported by the lack of graves of high officials and priests of Semerchet in Sakkara . The names of all other rulers since King Aha are inscribed there in official graves.

Toby Wilkinson denies the " usurper theses", since the names of kings Den , Anedjib, Semerchet and Qaa are engraved on the stone vessels of the Djoser pyramid and from the tomb of King Qaa . At least from the point of view of Semerchet's successors, there was a normal ranking. In addition, Semerchet did not only have anedjib's vessels overwritten. The name scratches by Qaa do not go beyond the usual dimensions and are largely limited to the anniversary vessels. The phenomenon of the deletion of previous names also runs across the entire early dynasties .

IES Edwards and Winifried Needler also point out that there were also vessels in his grave that come from the original possessions of Queen Meritneith and King Den and that Semerchet had signed over. The fact that no official graves have survived from Semerchet's reign is probably due to the fact that, according to contemporary and later sources, Semerchet only ruled for a few years. The so far only documented official Henuka had apparently outlived his master and was also active under Qaa, as Henuka's name is mentioned on the annual tablets of both kings. Unrolled seals from Aydos prove at least one Sedfest of the ruler.

An inscription on the unwinding of the seal proves the existence of a royal economic domain of Semerchet. The older research (most recently Hermann A. Schlögl ) translated the associated name with Horus is the shielded one of the godhood (Hor-djeser-chet). Eva-Maria Engel , on the other hand, reads this designation as Horus who judges the community of gods (Hor-wep-chet), whereby Horus was the first of that community of gods (chet) . In addition, the inscription Hut-Ipti is known, which perhaps indicates a household system belonging to the wife of Semerchets, since the Egyptian word "Ipet" means harem palace . The tax collection that takes place every two years in connection with the escort of Horus is noted on two annual tablets . The uniquely celebrated Sokar festival and a cult festival for the ancestral deity The Great White emerge from other entries .

In the epitoms of the Manethonic Aegyptiaca it is reported that "a great disaster" ( Africanus ) or "many events and a very great misfortune" ( Eusebius ) is said to have occurred during the reign of Semerchet . The Armenian version of Eusebius contains the entry about a "great pestilence " with regard to Semerchet's term of office . Contemporary sources, on the other hand, do not mention any of the events mentioned in the Aegyptiaca. The chronicle, which was partially destroyed on the Cairo stone , briefly lists the most important events during Semerchet's eight-year reign:

year	Events
Coronation year	Appearance of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt . Unification of the two countries .
1 year	Escort of Horus. Destruction of Upper and Lower Egypt.
2 years	Appearance of the King of Upper Egypt. Birth (creation of the statues ) of Seschat and Sed (the Egyptians represented the deity Sed in canid form; he was probably the namesake of the Sedfest ).
3rd year	Escort of Horus ... (rest destroyed).
4th year	Appearance of the King of Upper Egypt. Birth of ... (remainder destroyed; probably a statue made again).
5th year	Escort of Horus ... (rest destroyed).
6th year	Appearance of the King of Upper Egypt ... (remainder destroyed).
7th year	Escort of Horus ... (rest destroyed).
8th year	Appearance of the King of Upper Egypt. Birth of ... (remainder destroyed; probably a statue made again).

In the list of kings of Saqqara from the tomb of the priest Tjuneroy ( 19th dynasty ) only the kings Anedjib and Qaa from the 1st dynasty are listed. They are listed there under their (slightly distorted here) birth or nebtine names. All other rulers of this time, however, including Semerchet, are left out. Walter Bryan Emery, for example, sees the reason for this in the fact that Anedjib and Qaa are the only kings whose sovereignty was recognized by Lower Egypt . With that they were confirmed as rulers of Memphis . The Saqqara list corresponds purely to Memphite traditions. The King List of Abydos and the King List of Karnak, on the other hand, reflect Thinite traditions and therefore list all rulers of the 1st Dynasty.

tomb

Plan of the grave.

Grave stele of Semerchet

The tomb "U" in Umm el-Qaab (near Abydos ) is considered to be Semerchets burial place. Eva-Maria Engel refers in this context to the very small number of only 17 seals found there, in contrast to the tombs of other kings. When Flinders Petrie uncovered the grave in 1899, instead of a brick staircase, as is known from the tombs of Den and Anedjib, he discovered a four-meter-wide ramp leading down into the king's chamber with a gradient of 12 degrees to the outer wall of the tomb, which was about ten meters started east of the grave complex. Within the tomb, the ramp had irregular gradations that continued very steeply into the king's chamber. Some of the side graves were still unplastered. These circumstances suggest that there was great time pressure during the construction work, which is probably why the elaborate staircase was not built and a ramp was chosen. At the time of the excavations, the ramp was soaked to a depth of almost one meter with aromatic oil, the smell of which penetrated the entire grave complex.

In addition to its dimensions of 29.2 mx 20.8 m, the complex has a simple structure, which, according to Flinders Petrie, represents a new development: The 67  side graves of his entourage are now spatially attached directly to the royal chamber and form a uniformly designed chamber with it Grave complex. Walter Bryan Emery pointed out this significant change because, in his opinion, the upper grave structure probably included the entire tomb. Toby Wilkinson concluded from this that the closest servants and relatives were buried together with the king, which is why he sees this as the first demonstrable evidence of a planned self-sacrifice by members of the royal family. In addition, Wilkinson suspects that Semerchet could have attempted to use the new architecture of the tomb complex to demonstrate his power over the life and death of his subjects in a literal interpretation. The tradition that the closest servants and relatives had to follow their ruler to their death ended with the burial of Qaas, the last king of the first dynasty. Since his successor Hetepsechemui , side burials are no longer documented.

In the upper area of ​​the ramp, in particular, there were wood and mat remains as well as basket prints and mostly completely preserved clay pots. Research therefore suspects that the grave of Semerchet was opened and restorations were carried out during the Middle Kingdom because of the Osiris cult . In the grave rooms is also found containers of ceramic and stone, and Krug seal. Furthermore, numerous inlays and furniture fragments (e.g. feet), decorated box parts, copper fittings, tools and jewelry. In the vicinity of the grave complex, archaeologists discovered a grave stele made of black granite that originally stood at the entrance to the grave together with another stele. The king's name of Horus is engraved on its front. Fragments of ten or eleven vessels that came from Retjenu were also discovered in the grave . Semerchet's plan for a building called “Hor-ib-netjeru” emerges from an annual tablet that was found in the tomb of Qaa and was attached to a Beschat-schemat oil vessel. This was perhaps an extension for the grave goods.

The grave steles of the dancing and court dwarf Nefer come from other side graves .

literature

• Jürgen von Beckerath : Handbook of the Egyptian king names (= Munich Egyptological studies. Volume 20). Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich and others 1984, ISBN 3-422-00832-2 .
• Jürgen von Beckerath: Chronology of the pharaonic Egypt. The timing of Egyptian history from prehistoric times to 332 BC BC (= Munich Egyptological Studies. Volume 46). von Zabern, Mainz 1997, ISBN 3-8053-2310-7 .
• IES Edwards (Ed.): Early history of the Middle East (= The Cambridge ancient History. Volume 1, Part 2). 3rd edition, 8th printing, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 2006, ISBN 0-521-07791-5 .
• Walter B. Emery : Egypt. Early history and culture 3200–2800 BC Chr. Fourier Verlag, Wiesbaden 1964 (also: Routledge, London et al. 1999, ISBN 0-415-18633-1 ).
• Eva-Maria Engel: The Domain of Semerkhet . In: Stan Hendrickx (Ed.): Egypt at its origins. Studies in memory of Barbara Adams . Proceedings of the international conference "Origin of the State, Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt", Kraków, August 28th - September 1st, 2002 (= Orientalia Lovaniensia analecta. Volume 138). Peeters et al., Leuven et al. 2004, ISBN 90-429-1469-6 , pp. 705-710.
• Johannes von Gumpach: Two chronological treatises: “About the Apiskreis” by R. Lepsius , and “Mémoire où se trouve restitué pour la première fois le Calendrier lunisolaire chaldéo-Macedonia dans lequel sont datées trois observations planétaires citées par Ptolémée” par Th. Henri Martin, critically appreciated. Bangel & Schmitt, Heidelberg 1854.
• Zahi Hawass (Ed.): Egyptology at the Dawn of the twenty-first Century. Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Egyptologists, Cairo 2000. Volume 2: History, Religion. 2nd print, American University in Cairo Press, Cairo 2003, ISBN 977-424-714-0 .
• Wolfgang Helck : Investigations on the thinite period (= Egyptological treatises. Volume 45). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1987, ISBN 3-447-02677-4 .
• 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 ).
• Thomas Schneider : Lexicon of the Pharaohs. Albatros, Düsseldorf 2002, ISBN 3-491-96053-3 .
• Hermann A. Schlögl : Ancient Egypt. History and culture from the early days to Cleopatra. Beck, Munich 2006. ISBN 3-406-54988-8 .
• Toby AH Wilkinson : Early Dynastic Egypt. Strategies, Society and Security. Routledge, London et al. 1999, ISBN 0-415-18633-1 .

Web links

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

• Digital Egypt: tomb of Semerchet (English)
• The Ancient Egypt Site (English)
• [1] (PDF)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Hermann Schlögl: The ancient Egypt. 2008, pp. 71-72.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Nicolas Grimal : A history of Ancient Egypt. Blackwell, Oxford et al. 1992, ISBN 0-631-17472-9 , pp. 53-54.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} I. ES Edwards: Early history of the Middle East. 2006, p. 28.
4. ^ Zahi Hawass (Ed.): Egyptology at the Dawn of the twenty-first Century. Volume 2. 2nd printing. 2003, p. 169 .
5. ^ Rainer Hannig : Large Concise Dictionary Egyptian - German. (2800-950 BC). The language of the pharaohs (= Hannig-Lexica. Vol. 1 = Cultural history of the ancient world . Vol. 64). Marburg Edition, 4th revised edition. von Zabern, Mainz 2006, ISBN 3-8053-1771-9 , p. 768.
6. ^ Zahi Hawass (Ed.): Egyptology at the Dawn of the twenty-first Century. Volume 2. 2nd printing. 2003, p. 171.
7. ↑ Johannes von Gumpach: Two chronological treatises. 1854, p. 20.
8. ↑ Thomas Schneider: Lexicon of the Pharaohs. Albatros, Düsseldorf 2002, ISBN 3-491-96053-3 , pp. 261, 314.
9. ↑ Jürgen von Beckerath: Chronology of the Pharaonic Egypt. 1997, pp. 26, 39, 166-169, 173, 176, 178, 187 (under Semempses).
10. ↑ Wolfgang Helck: Investigations on the thinite age. 1987, p. 124.
11. ^ IES Edwards: Early history of the Middle East. 2006, p. 36.
12. ^ Peter Kaplony : Semerchet. In: Wolfgang Helck, Eberhard Otto : Lexicon of Egyptology. Volume 5: Building a pyramid - stone vessels. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1984, ISBN 3-447-02489-5 , Sp. 841, note 1.
13. ↑ Michael Rice: Who's who in ancient Egypt. Routledge, London et al. 1999, ISBN 0-415-15448-0 , p. 179.
14. ^ Walter B. Emery: Egypt. 1999, pp. 94-95.
15. ↑ Wolfgang Helck: Investigations on the thinite age. 1987, pp. 101-102, 116-117, 124, 162, 193.
16. ↑ Michael Rice: Egypt's making. The origins of ancient Egypt 5000-2000 BC. Routledge, London et al. 1990, ISBN 0-415-05092-8 , p. 127.
17. ^ ^{A b} Toby AH Wilkinson: Early Dynastic Egypt. 1999, p. 79.
18. ↑ David O'Connor: The ownership of elite-tombs at Saqqara in the Ist dynasty. In: Khaled Daoud et al. (Ed.): Studies in honor of Ali Radwan (= Annales du Service des Antiquités de l'Egypte. Supplément 34, 2). Volume 2. Conseil Suprème des Antiquités de l'Égypte, Cairo 2005, ISBN 977-305-826-3 , pp. 223-230; Walter B. Emery: Egypt. 1999, p. 95.
19. ^ W. Helck: History of ancient Egypt (= Handbook of Oriental Studies. Department 1: The Near and Middle East. Volume 1: Egyptology. Part 3). Brill, Leiden et al. 1968, p. 34; with reference to Bernhard Grdseloff: Notes d'épigraphie archaïque. In: Annales du service des antiquités de l'Égypte. Vol. 44, 1944, ISSN  1687-1510 , pp. 279-306, here pp. 284ff.
20. ^ Toby AH Wilkinson: Early Dynastic Egypt. 1999. p. 80; William Matthew Flinders Petrie , Francis Llewellyn Griffith : The royal tombs of the first dynasty: 1900. Part 1 (= Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund. Volume 18, ISSN  0307-5109 ). The Egypt Exploration Fund, London 1900, pp. 23, 43; Panel XII, 1, XVII, 26 (Semerchet); Plate XVII, 28 (Qaa), digitized .
21. ↑ Eva-Maria Engel: Das Sedfest des Semerchet , in: Miscellanea in honorem Wolfhart Westendorf , (Göttinger Miszellen, Supplements No. 3), Göttingen 2008, pp. 11-14.
22. ^ Eva-Maria Engel: The Domain of Semerkhet. 2004, pp. 706-708.
23. ^ Toby AH Wilkinson: Early Dynastic Egypt. 1999, p. 124.
24. ^ William Gillian Waddell: Manetho (= The Loeb classical library. Vol. 350). Heinemann et al., London 1940, pp. 65-69 (Reprinted edition. Harvard University. Press et al., Cambridge MA 2004, ISBN 0-674-99385-3 ).
25. ^ Walter B. Emery: Egypt. 1999, p. 19.
26. ^ Dieter Arnold: Lexicon of Egyptian architecture. Patmos, Düsseldorf / Zurich 2000, ISBN 3-491-96001-0 , p. 11.
27. ^ Eva-Maria Engel: The Domain of Semerkhet. 2004, pp. 705-706.
28. ↑ ^{a b} [http://www.dainst.de/download/JB2006_07_Kairo.pdf Excavation reports of the DAI from 2006, p. 103] (link not available)
29. ^ Ian Shaw (Ed.): The Oxford history of ancient Egypt. New edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford et al. 2003, ISBN 0-19-280458-8 , p. 69.
30. ^ ^{A b} Walter B. Emery: Egypt. 1999, p. 95ff.
31. ^ ^{A b} Toby AH Wilkinson: Early Dynastic Egypt. 1999, p. 237.
32. ^ ^{A b c} Toby AH Wilkinson: Early Dynastic Egypt. 1999, p. 80.
33. ↑ Gunter Dreyer , Andreas Effland, Ute Effland, Eva-Maria Angel, Rita Hartmann, Ulrich Hartung, Claudia Lacher, Vera Müller, Alexander Pokorny: Excavations in the tomb of Semerkhet. In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department. Vol. 62, 2006, ISSN  0342-1279 , pp. 95-96.
34. ^ Toby AH Wilkinson: Early Dynastic Egypt. 1999, p. 60.
35. ^ Toby AH Wilkinson: Early Dynastic Egypt. 1999, pp. 79-80.
36. ^ William R. Dawson: Pygmies and dwarfs in ancient Egypt. In: Journal of Egyptian Archeology. No. 24, 1938 edition, ISSN  0075-4234 , pp. 185-189.

predecessor	Office	successor
Anedjib	King of Egypt 1st Dynasty	Qaa

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on April 5, 2010 .