By the end of the Naqada period, a few powerful kingdoms in Upper Egypt were growing at the expense of their neighbors. Around c. 3000 BC, the whole country, from the First Cataract to the sea, came under one ruler. Egyptians later remembered this as the joining of the Two Lands.
Key idea
The Narmer Palette
The palette is a shield-shaped slab of dark stone about 64 cm tall, of the kind used for grinding eye paint but far too large and fine for daily use. It was found in 1897–98 in a temple deposit at Hierakonpolis and is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. On one side Narmer, in the tall White Crown, raises a mace over a kneeling enemy. On the other he wears the Red Crown and walks in procession toward rows of beheaded foes. His name is written at the top in a serekh, a palace façade: a catfish (nꜥr) and a chisel (mr).
Why it works
Who was Menes?
Later Egyptians and Manetho named the first king Menes. No contemporary monument names Menes clearly. Many scholars think Menes was Narmer; others think he was Narmer's successor, Aha. Before Narmer came a series of rulers archaeologists call "Dynasty 0", buried at Abydos, who already controlled much of the country.
Worked example: Evidence for a process
- Southern rulers' goods and styles were already in the north before Narmer.
- So southern influence, trade and perhaps control grew over several generations.
- Narmer may have completed, or simply proclaimed, a union that was long under way.
Answer: Unification was gradual; Narmer stands near its end.
Common mistake