Djer
Djer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Zher, Sekhty | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pharaoh | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Reign | 41 years, c. 3000 BC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Predecessor | Hor-Aha or Menes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Successor | Djet | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Consort | Umm el-Qa'ab | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dynasty | middle of the 1st Dynasty |
Djer (or Zer or Sekhty)
Name
The Abydos King List lists the third pharaoh as Iti, the Turin King List lists a damaged name, beginning with It..., while Manetho lists Kenkenês. Jürgen von Beckerath in the Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen (1999) translates the hieroglyphs of the name Djer as "Defender of Horus."[5]
Length of reign
Although the Egyptian priest Manetho, writing in the third century BC, stated that Djer ruled for 57 years, modern research by Toby Wilkinson in Royal Annals of Ancient Egypt stresses that the near-contemporary and therefore, more accurate
Reign
Djer's reign was preceded by a regency controlled by Neithhotep, possibly his mother or grandmother.
The evidence for Djer's life and reign is:[8]
- Tomb in Umm el-Qa'ab, Abydos
- Seal prints from graves 2185 and 3471 in Saqqara
- Inscriptions in graves 3503, 3506 and 3035 in Saqqara
- Seal impression and inscriptions from Helwan[9]
- Jar from Turah with the name of Djer[10]
- UC 16182 ivory tablet from Abydos,[11] subsidiary tomb 612 of the enclosure of Djer[12]
- UC 16172 copper adze with the name of Djer[13]
- Inscription of his name (of questioned authenticity, however) at Wadi Halfa, Sudan
The inscriptions, on
Manetho claimed that Athothes, who is sometimes identified as Djer, had written a treatise on anatomy that still existed in his own day, over two millennia later.[15]
Family
Djer was a son of the pharaoh Hor-Aha and his wife Khenthap.[citation needed] His grandfather was probably Narmer. Djer fathered Merneith, wife of Djet and mother of Den. Women carrying titles later associated with queens such as Great One of the Hetes-Sceptre and She who Sees/Carries Horus were buried in subsidiary tombs near the tomb of Djer in Abydos or attested in Saqqara. These women are thought to be the wives of Djer and include:
- Nakhtneith (or Nekhetneith), buried in Abydos and known from a stela.[16][17]
- Herneith, possibly a wife of Djer. Buried in Saqqara.[17]
- Seshemetka, buried in Abydos next to the king.[18] She was said to be a wife of Den in Dodson and Hilton.[17]
- Penebui, her name and title were found on an ivory label from Saqqara.[16]
- bsu, known from a label in Saqqara and several stone vessels (reading of name uncertain; name consists of three fish hieroglyphs).[16]
Tomb
Similarly to his father Hor-Aha, Djer was buried in
Several objects were found in and around the tomb of Djer:[21]
- A stela of Djer, now in the Cairo Museum, probably comes from Abydos.
- Labels mentioning the name of a palace and the name of Meritneith.
- Fragments of two vases inscribed with the name of Queen Neithhotep.
- Bracelets of a Queen were found in the wall of the tomb.
In the subsidiary tombs, excavators found objects including stelae representing several individuals, ivory objects inscribed with the name of Neithhotep, and various ivory tablets.[21]
Manetho indicates that the First Dynasty ruled from Memphis – and indeed Herneith, one of Djer's wives, was buried nearby at Saqqara.
Gallery
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Small ivory label of Djer mentioning the name of a fortress or domain of the king "Hor-Djer-ib".
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Seal impression with the serekh of Djer found in Abydos, on display at the British Museum
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Ceremonial flint knife with the Horus name of Djer inscribed on its gold handle, on display at the Royal Ontario Museum.
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Close-up view of Djer's serekh on the ceremonial flint knife of the Royal Ontario Museum.
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Label from Tomb of King Djer, Abydos
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Label from Tomb of King Djer, Abydos
See also
References
- ISBN 978-0521284271.
- ISBN 0-631-19396-0.
- ^ W. M. Flinders Petrie: The Royal Tombs of the Earliest Dynasties, 1901, Part II, London 1901, p.16-17
- ^ Salima Ikram and Aidan Dodson, The Mummy in Ancient Egypt: Equipping the Dead for Eternity, Thames & Hudson, 1998, p. 109
- ^ Beckerath, Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen (1999), 38-39, 3:H
- ^ Toby Wilkinson, Royal Annals of Ancient Egypt: The Palermo Stone and Its Associated Fragments, (Kegan Paul International), 2000. p.79
- ^ Wilkinson, Royal Annals of Ancient Egypt, p.258
- ^ King Djer page from digitalegypt.
- ^ Saad 1947: 165; Saad 1969: 82, pl. 94
- ^ Kaiser 1964: 103, fig.3
- ^ "King Djer". www.ucl.ac.uk. Retrieved March 16, 2024.
- ^ Petrie 1925: pl. II.8; XII.1
- ^ tomb 461 in Abydos, Petrie 1925: pl. III.1, IV.8
- ISBN 978-0-415-09032-2 p123 [1]
- ^ "Manetho, with an English translation by W.G. Waddell". 1940.
- ^ a b c W. Grajetzki: Ancient Egyptian Queens: a hieroglyphic dictionary
- ^ a b c Dodson and Hilton: The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, 2004
- ^ W. M. Flinders Petrie: The Royal Tombs of the Earliest Dynasties, 1901, Part II, London 1901, pl. XXVII, 96
- ^ Thomas Kühn: Die Königsgräber der 1. & 2. Dynastie in Abydos. In: Kemet. Issue 1, 2008.
- ^ a b c Baker, Darrell D. (2008). Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs Volume 1: Predynastic to the Twentieth DYnasty 3300-1069 BC. Egypt: The American University in Cairo Press. p. 93.
- ^ a b B. Porter and R.L.B. Moss. Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings, V. Upper Egypt: Sites. Oxford, 1937
Bibliography
- Toby A. H. Wilkinson, Early Dynastic Egypt, Routledge, London/New York 1999, ISBN 0-415-18633-1, 71-73
- Toby Wilkinson, Royal Annals of Ancient Egypt: The Palermo Stone and Its Associated Fragments, (Kegan Paul International), 2000.
External links
Media related to Djer at Wikimedia Commons