WTF is Ancient Egypt’s Early Dynastic Period?

Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt were all-powerful kings, believed to be divine intermediaries between the gods and the people. Ruling for thousands of years, it seems like they were always just there. But they had to get their start somewhere, and that was during the Early Dynastic Period.

Spanning the years c. 3050 – 2600 BCE, this era saw the first kings establish themselves as rulers of a newly unified Egypt. They formed the Egyptian government as well as administrative, bureaucratic, and economic systems. Ancient Egyptian culture developed, especially in the arts, sciences, and religion. Finally, the trappings of Egyptian kingship took shape and had a serious penchant for violence. Human sacrifices, anyone?

Before we delve into this period, a quick word about dating and dynasties.

Dividing Egyptian History

Ancient Egyptian history is divided into major periods, each of which is further divided into dynasties based on the reigns of pharaohs. The idea of dynastic groupings came from Manetho, a priest of Re from Sebennytos, who wrote a history of Egypt in the early 200s BCE.

Disclaimer!

Scholars list different date ranges for Egypt’s major periods, but they’re similar, plus or minus a few decades (or even a century). Dynasties are listed in different periods, and kings are listed in various dynasties. Even Manetho’s divisions were weird because he had ruling families spill over into more than one dynasty and seemed to have just changed dynasty numbers willy-nilly.

Surprise, surprise, scholars still can’t agree on a standardized dating system. I’m going broad strokes here to give you a bird’s eye view. I can’t reconcile an endless number of dating systems into one. It gives me a headache, and this is not the hill I choose to die on.

With that said, check out the above for my handy chart of the Early Dynastic Period, which includes Dynasties 1 and 2.

Predynastic Period into the Early Dynastic Period

We left off at the end of the Predynastic Period in a previous post, with King Narmer (maybe) unifying Lower and Upper Egypt. The jury’s still out on whether it was a one-time event or a continuous unification. Nonetheless, we’ve now got kings ruling a newly unified Egypt. During this period, the new government center moved to Memphis in the north and pretty much stayed the seat of power for much of Egyptian history.

Early Egyptian kings worked to secure the new nation’s borders, especially by conquering Nubians in the south (modern-day Sudan). They launched irrigation projects, erected architectural structures, and instituted a tax system. Yep, even the Ancient Egyptians had to pay fucking taxes.

The system of nomes, or provinces, was likely instituted at this time. For a centralized government to maintain control over such a large nation as Egypt, the land was divided into 42 nomes. Officials called nomarchs governed each province. While they each ruled their areas, all the nomarchs reported to one person – the king.

Kingship in the Early Dynastic Period

Much of what we know about early Egyptian kings comes from their tombs in the royal cemetery Umm el-Qa’ab at Abydos.¹ The kings were buried out in the desert in mud-brick subterranean tombs. There was a large room for the king’s body and his burial goods. The largest tomb from Dynasty 1 belonged to King Den. It was 8 feet deep, paved in granite, and had lots of storage rooms.

Every time a king croaked, the burial took a lot of resources. It was a big to-do with societal, cultural, and religious implications.

Human Sacrifices

In the first dynasty, smaller rooms called subsidiary burials surrounded the king’s burial chamber. A single human body in a wooden coffin and grave goods were placed in each pit. A stone stele bearing the name of the deceased marked each grave. The grave marker and burial goods indicate these folks had some level of social standing. So, who were they?

They were probably the king’s retainers, killed to accompany their master in the afterlife. Damn.

Some scholars are skeptical and question whether subsidiary burials were actually human sacrifices. Most agree, however, that Ancient Egyptians did practice retainer sacrifice. Historians also suggest that some of the retainers, notably young males, willingly gave their lives to be with their king in death. Or…they were highly encouraged to volunteer.

King Aha, whose name means “Horus the Fighter,” not only had subsidiary burials but also took lions, dogs, and dwarves with him to the afterlife.

King Djer was doing the most, with over 300 sacrifices. Overzealous, much? The practice of retainer sacrifice declined with his successor, King Djet, and died out by the end of the first dynasty. I mean, yeah – it makes sense. You’re wiping out a large part of the population, especially able-bodied young dudes, every time a king dies. It’s not very economical.

Ceremonial Enclosures

Economical, the kings were not. North of Umm el-Qa’ab, early Egyptian kings built monumental mud-brick enclosures. What they were for…we’re not sure. They’re just big structures enclosing empty space. They were likely used for a ceremonial death ritual and may have been a starting point for a funeral procession ending at the king’s tomb in Umm el-Qa’ab. Archaeologists believe they were erected, used for whatever purpose, and then taken down. They’re massive, so they were a show of the king’s power.

King Khasekhemwy’s enclosure survives today. It’s 406 x 183 feet.

Civil Unrest in the Early Dynastic Period

While the reigns of Dynasty 1’s kings were smooth sailing, Dynasty 2 had some problems. Remember that kingship was a new system, and the Egyptians hadn’t worked out all of its kinks yet. There may have been hints of a civil war or battle for kingship in the second dynasty. The following are some interesting receipts.

We start with King Ninejter, who seemed to face unrest between Upper and Lower Egypt during the middle of his reign. Two or three kings followed Ninejter, but we don’t know anything about them. This is likely due to the turmoil and chaos surrounding their reigns.

Then comes Peribsen, who shakes everything up.

Kings as Horus

Since the beginning of kingship in Egypt, rulers associated themselves with the falcon god Horus. They claimed to be divine beings and, therefore, incarnations of the god himself. The royal symbols for their names included a serekh, which was a special hieroglyph representing the façade of the royal palace. A falcon, the symbol of Horus, was always on top of the serekh.

Peribsen as Seth

When Peribsen comes onto the scene, he’s like, nah, forget Horus. I’m the incarnation of the god Seth. His royal symbol had a jackal – the symbol of Seth – on the serekh. I know this doesn’t seem like much, but it was a big fucking deal. Historians are still asking, “Why the hell did he do this?”

In Egyptian mythology, Seth is a bad guy. Like, really bad. So bad that he killed his brother Osiris to take the throne. He repeatedly tried to kill Osiris’ son, Horus, for the throne. It’s giving Lion King vibes. Anyway, he’s a trickster and the lord of chaos, so why would a king associate himself with Seth? It’s especially confusing since Egyptian kings prided themselves on controlling the forces of chaos.

Theories

It’s possible this piece of mythology about Seth vs. Osiris/Horus didn’t exist in the second dynasty. If the myth wasn’t around, he may not have intended to side with Uncle Scar, I mean Seth, in this way.

The association with Seth could be religious or personal. The cult of Seth was in Upper Egypt (which is the south of Egypt)², where Peribsen was from. It could’ve been a call to his roots.

Alternatively, it could’ve been due to a civil war or peaceful political separation. Since the cult of Seth was strictly Upper Egyptian, it may mean he didn’t rule over all of Egypt, just the south.

Peribsen was buried in Abydos and modeled his tomb after the first dynasty kings. This was a deliberate choice because Hetepsekhemwy, the first king of Dynasty 2, had broken with 300 years of tradition by moving his tomb to Saqqara. The two kings after him, Nebre and Ninetjer, were also buried there. So Peribsen is taking it back to Abydos, perhaps to establish himself as the successor of a long line of stable Dynasty 1 kings?

Khasekhemwy Brings Order to the Early Dynastic Period

Khasekhemwy was next in line and restored the kingship’s association with Horus. No more of this Seth crap.

Historians believe Khasekhemwy reunified Egypt and brought stability to the nation. Two life-sized statues of him suggest he won a war between northern and southern Egypt. Their bases depict war scenes of contorted dead bodies, identified by hieroglyphics as “47,209 northern enemies.”³ Yikes.

The statues were discovered in a shrine, which also had stone vessels depicting triumph scenes. Nekhbet, an Upper Egyptian vulture goddess, is shown on a ring with the word “rebel,” accompanied by the inscription, “the year of fighting the northern enemy.”⁴ This evidence suggests Khasekhemwy, who was from the south, reconquered northern Egypt.

What’s in a Name?

Khasekhemwy changed his name towards the end of his rule. Previously, his name was Khasekhem, which means “the powerful one appears.” He added the “wy” later, to make Khasekhemwy, or “the two powerful ones appear.” When he changed his name, the royal symbol for his name changed as well. It combined both the falcon (Horus) and the jackal (Seth) on the serekh. Now, he’s the incarnation of two gods. He’s not only Horus, but Seth as well. Take that, Peribsen.

Khasekhemwy was the last king of Dynasty 2. He reunified the nation and ushered in the golden age of Egypt, known as the Old Kingdom.

If you want a primer on the period before the Early Dynastic Period, check out the post, WTF is the Egyptian Predynastic Period? For more detailed information on this period of Egyptian history, check out the Bibliography below.

Footnotes

1. The term “pharaoh” didn’t come until much later, in the New Kingdom. ↩︎
2. The southern part of Egypt is called Upper Egypt. I know this sounds counterintuitive, but let me explain. The Nile River is the center of Egyptian civilization and the basis for geographic names. The river runs from south to north and empties into the Mediterranean Sea. As a result, the south, where the Nile begins, is called Upper Egypt. The north, where the Nile ends, is called Lower Egypt. I know it’s confusing as hell, but whenever you see these terms, remember Lower = North and Upper = South. ↩︎
3. Wilkinson, The Rise and Fall, 51. ↩︎
4. Wilkinson, The Rise and Fall, 51. ↩︎

Bibliography & Further Reading

*The following links are Amazon affiliate links, which means I earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no cost to you.

Ikram, Salima. Ancient Egypt: An Introduction. 3rd Printing. Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Riggs, Christina. Ancient Egyptian Art and Architecture: A Very Short Introduction. Very Short Introductions. Oxford University Press, 2014.

Shaw, Ian. Ancient Egypt: A Very Short Introduction. 2nd ed. Very Short Introductions. Oxford University Press, 2021.

Wilkinson, Toby. The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2013.