Unification
3050 BC
Egypt is unified by Menes, also
known as Narmer, a local ruler of Thebes.
The unification is celebrated in symbols
in Egyptian Art throughout the next 3000 years. For example
the sedge and
the bee. The sedge is the
symbol of Upper Egypt and the bee is the symbol of Lower
Egypt. This example is taken from the Kings List in the
Mortuary Temple of Seti I, constructed 1500 years after
Menes.
From the same New
Kingdom period, the Gold Mask of Tutankhamun shows Tutankhamun wearing a cloth headress with a golden
vulture, the Goddess Nekhbet of Upper Egypt, and a golden
cobra goddess of Lower Egypt.
Another familiar symbol of
unification is the wearing of the two crowns of Egypt:
the dome shaped crown of Upper Egypt and the sloping cone
shape of the crown of Lower Egypt.
All of these symbols were still used by the last Pharaoh of Egypt,
Cleopatra, 3000 years after unification.
Prior to unification, local rulers were in power. Then a strong leader
in the Nile Delta consolidated the local groups into Lower Egypt, and
Menes, also known as Narmer, consolidated the local groups in
Upper Egypt. These two rulers then contested who would control all the
length of the Nile.
The events of the conflicts that
resulted in Unification are shown on the Narmer
Palette in the Cairo Museum. Narmer/Menes is shown
wearing the crown of Upper Egypt as he fights the enemy and
wearing both the crowns after he has conquered the Papyrus
People of the North.
The people of Narmer and the Papyrus People were not primitive
tribes, the local kingdoms of Egypt were highly civilized
prior to unification.
They herded cattle and raised grain
and other crops. They traded with others along the Nile
and some of the tribes in the surrounding deserts. They
manufactured pottery, cloth and baskets. And they had
complex religious practices that involved the
construction of structures devoted to them.
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Egypt's Historic
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| Muslim | | Roman
| Greek | Late |
New
| Middle | Old
| Dynastic | Unification
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