Early Dynastic Egypt (39 page)

Sandals

The Narmer Palette illustrates another element of royal insignia, the king’s sandals (cf. Seyfried 1984). As, quite literally, the point of contact between the king and the land over which he ruled, the royal sandals were imbued with a religious importance. They were, therefore, entrusted to a special member of the king’s entourage who would have enjoyed intimate access to the king. The sandal-bearer depicted on Narmer’s monuments follows close behind his sovereign and is labelled as ‘the servant of the ruler’. The king’s sandals also had a symbolic role in the eternal struggle between order and chaos. The king’s primary task was to crush Egypt’s (and creation’s) enemies, represented as the inhabitants of neighbouring lands. In later periods, this victory was symbolically achieved by having Egypt’s enemies depicted on the king’s footstool and on the pavement of the royal palace. Every time the king walked on the pavement or placed his feet on the footstool, the enemies would be conquered by sympathetic magic. In each case, the agent of victory was the king’s sandals. This belief finds eloquent expression on a commemorative stela erected by Khasekhem at Hierakonpolis. On it, the king is described as ‘effective sandal against the hill-countries’; in other words, a successful conqueror of the forces threatening Egypt and the cosmos.

The uraeus

The earliest depiction of the
uraeus
—the rearing cobra on the king’s brow—probably dates to the reign of Den. The scene in question is the famous ivory label which shows the king smiting an enemy captive (Spencer 1993:87, fig. 67). The king wears a long wig and the uraeus adorns his forehead. A second uraeus appears on the Wepwawet standard which precedes the king. There is some doubt about the label’s authenticity (Johnson 1990:6), but a closely comparable depiction of the king on a fragmentary label from Abydos (Petrie 1900: pls XI.8, XIV.8) tends to support a First Dynasty date. None the less, the inclusion of the uraeus in the royal insignia of this early period is remarkable. Such a feature next appears in the early Third Dynasty, on a relief of Netjerikhet from the Wadi Maghara, Sinai. The adoption of the uraeus into royal iconography seems to be another example of the innovation which characterises the reign of Den.

The symbolic function of the uraeus is clear. The serpent goddess was a potent symbol of ‘protection, power and beneficence’ (Johnson 1990:190). Attached to the ruler’s brow, the rising cobra spat fire at the king’s enemies. The uraeus thus embodied both
apotropaic
, protective power and aggressive intent towards the forces of disorder

(K.Martin 1986a). In early royal scenes, the king is often preceded by the standard of the jackal-god Wepwawet, the ‘opener of the ways’. As the trail-blazer for the king, Wepwawet may also be accompanied by a uraeus serpent, to provide added protection (Johnson 1990:53). This is the case on the ivory label of Den and on the Third Dynasty reliefs from the Sinai (Johnson 1990: figs 104–6).

Crowns and head-dresses

Perhaps the most distinctive elements of the royal regalia are the various crowns and head-dresses worn by the king on different occasions. Three crowns are attested in the Early Dynastic period: the red crown, the white crown and the combined ‘double crown’. Instead of a crown, the king might wear a cloth head-dress. Two different types figure in Early Dynastic depictions: a long head-dress
(khat)
and an early forerunner of the archetypal
nemes
head-dress.

THE RED CROWN

There is, as yet, no satisfactory explanation for the origin of the two principal crowns, the red and the white (Figures 6.2 and 6.3). Both seem to have originated in Upper Egypt, which saw the first moves towards political centralisation. A sherd from a large black- topped red-ware vessel of late Naqada I date, from the site of Naqada itself, bears a representation of the red crown in relief (Payne 1993:94, fig. 34.774; Baines 1995:149, fig. 3.1). Although the red crown is associated in historic times with Lower Egypt, it is generally assumed that it originated as the distinctive headpiece of the Predynastic rulers of Naqada. The colour red was traditionally associated with Seth, the local god of Naqada. The shape of the crown is quite distinctive, but again its symbolic meaning is unknown. The curly protuberance at the front of the crown has been linked with the bee (connected with kingship from at least the middle of the First Dynasty, through the title
nswt-bỉty,
‘he of the sedge and bee’), and also with goddess Neith, an important Lower Egyptian deity. There is an obscure passage in the Pyramid Texts of Unas which may refer to the curly part of the red crown, but it remains poorly understood.

From the period of state formation onwards, the red crown seems to have symbolised the king’s authority in the northern half of his realm. As such, it is worn by Narmer on his ceremonial palette and macehead. It has been suggested that the Scorpion macehead originally showed a figure of the king wearing the red crown to balance the figure in the white crown on the preserved portion (Cialowicz 1991). In this case, the Scorpion macehead would be the earliest example of the king wearing the red crown, pre-dating the Narmer monuments by a short time.

Figure 6.2
The red crown. Early representations of the crown later associated with Lower Egypt: (1) a red crown modelled in relief on a sherd of black-topped red ware from the Predynastic cemetery at Naqada (now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) (after Payne 1993: fig. 34, no. 774); (2) Narmer wearing the red crown, as shown on his ceremonial macehead from Hierakonpolis (after Quibell 1900: pl. XXVIB); (3) Narmer wearing the red crown, as shown

on his ceremonial palette from Hierakonpolis (after Kemp 1989:42, fig. 12); (4) a shrine to the red crown, perhaps located in the north-western Delta, shown on an ivory label of Djer from Abydos (after Emery 1961:59, fig. 20). Not to same scale.

THE WHITE CROWN

The white crown, associated in historic times with Upper Egypt, is first attested later than the red crown, but is directly associated with the ruler somewhat earlier. The earliest known depiction of the white crown is on a ceremonial incense burner from Cemetery L at Qustul in Lower Nubia (Williams 1986: pls 34, 38). Tomb L24 contained a variety of prestige objects, and in all probability belonged to a late Predynastic king of Lower Nubia, contemporary with the ruler buried in Abydos tomb U-j (Naqada IIIa2,
c
. 3150 BC). The Qustul incense burner is a remarkable object of supreme importance for the development of Egyptian royal iconography. The incised scenes around the edge of the object include the representation of a seated ruler, wearing the tall white crown. Evidence of close contacts between the rulers of Qustul and their contemporaries at Hierakonpolis may support the theory that the white crown originated at the latter site. A second, slightly later royal object from Upper Egypt bears a similar representation of a royal figure wearing the white crown. This is the Metropolitan Museum knife handle, mentioned already in connection with the flail. The king holding the flail wears the white crown. Like his counterpart on the Qustul incense burner, he is identified as the ruler by the rosette hieroglyph—also attested on the Scorpion macehead, the Narmer Palette and macehead—in front of his face. Likely to be contemporary with the Metropolitan Museum knife handle is a rock-cut inscription near Aswan which shows a ruler figure (identified as such by the fan-bearer who stands behind him: compare the presence of fan-bearers in attendance upon the king on the Scorpion and Narmer maceheads) wearing a tall, pointed head-dress, probably a schematic rendering of the white crown or a very similar item of regalia (Baines, personal communication).

The Narmer Palette indicates that the white crown was the superior of the two crowns, since the figure of the king wearing the white crown is significantly larger than the figure wearing the red crown. The superiority of the white crown may have derived from its intimate association with the royal line of Hierakonpolis, which played a decisive role in the unification of Egypt. The white crown retained this superiority throughout Egyptian history. More than simple items of regalia, the red and white crowns were imbued with magical significance and were worshipped as cult objects in their own right (see Chapter 8).

Figure 6.3
The white crown. Early representations of the crown later associated with Upper Egypt: (1) a royal figure wearing the white crown, shown on an incised, decorated incense-burner from tomb 24 in Cemetery L at Qustul, Lower Nubia (after Williams 1986: pl. 34); (2) a late Predynastic Upper Egyptian king wearing the white crown, shown on a carved ivory knife handle of unknown provenance (now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) (after Williams and Logan 1987:273, fig.

1); (3) King ‘Scorpion’ wearing the white crown, as shown on his ceremonial macehead from Hierakonpolis (after Spencer 1993:56, fig. 36); (4) Narmer wearing the white crown, as shown on his ceremonial palette from Hierakonpolis (after Kemp 1989:42, fig. 12). Not to same scale.

THE DOUBLE CROWN

The logical development of combining the red and white crowns into a double crown, symbolising the king’s rule of the Two Lands, occurred in the middle of the First Dynasty. A rock-cut inscription of Djet from the western desert apparently shows the falcon atop the king’s
serekh
wearing the double crown (Legrain 1903:221, fig. 7). If the report is accurate, this inscription would represent the earliest known occurrence of the double crown, pre-dating the more famous Abydos label of Den by a generation. The invention of the double crown is usually attributed to the latter king. Two labels of Den show the king in double crown (Petrie 1900: pls X.13—XIV.7, XI.14=XV.16). The innovation of the double crown clearly allowed artists to represent the totality of the king’s authority in a more compact form, and, as such, marks the increasing sophistication of royal iconography as the First Dynasty progressed.

THE KHAT- AND NEMES-HEAD-DRESSES

A further innovation in royal iconography seems to have occurred in the reign of Den, namely the appearance of the long head-dress (
h 3t
) (contra Eaton-Krauss 1977:26, n. 38). On the ivory label which shows the ‘first time of smiting the east(erner)’, the king wears this head-dress, its back-piece reaching half-way down his back. A fragmentary ivory label of the same king from Abydos shows Den wearing the
h 3t,
carrying a mace horizontally in one hand and a long staff vertically in the other (Petrie 1900: pls X.14, XIV.9). These are the only depictions of a king from the first two dynasties which show him wearing a head-dress.other than one of the crowns. A relief of Netjerikhet from the Wadi Maghara, Sinai, shows the king wearing a ‘kerchief which may be the
h 3t,
although the rudimentary rendering ‘does not permit positive identification’ (Eaton- Krauss 1977:26, n. 38). The significance of the
khat
-head-dress at this early period is unknown.

The seated statue of Netjerikhet from his
serdab
in the Step Pyramid complex is the earliest example of another royal head-dress, the
nemes.
This was to become the archetypal royal head-covering, surviving in representations of the ruler until the end of pharaonic civilisation. The headdress as it appears on the statue of Netjerikhet is a forerunner of the classic shape, having large and bulky front
lappet
s with pointed facings. With the appearance of the
nemes,
all the essential elements of the king’s regalia had been introduced, and the foundations of royal iconography had been firmly established.