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1st Dynasty Kings - Part II |
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Den
| Den (or Dewen) was the fourth Egyptian king of the First dynasty. Annals mention battles against Bedouin tribes in the Sinai during his reign. He was the first to use the title King of Upper and Lower Egypt and the first to wear the double crown. The floor of his tomb in Umm el-Qa'ab at Abydos is made of red granite, the first time in Egypt this hard stone was used as a building material. | | Anedjib | Anedjib , As the fifth ruler of the First Dynasty, Anedjib is poorly known and fairly obscure from the monumental records. His name Anedjib (or Enezib, Andjyeb) means "The Man with the Bold Heart".
Anedjib's predecessor and presumed father, Den, enjoyed a long reign of 30+ years, implying that his successor Anedjib was elderly when he assumed power. Contemporary records suggest that he ruled Egypt during a time of political instability and dynastic conflict between Lower and Upper Egypt. Anedjib himself is thought to have originated from an area of the Upper Egyptian city of Abydos known as This since he is recorded as a Thinite king on the Saqqara King List from the tomb of Thunery. Anedjib was forced to put down several uprisings in Lower Egypt. Numerous stone vases bearing his royal name had their inscriptions erased under Semerkhet his successor which suggests that Semerkhet deposed Anedjib.
Anedjib's tomb, Tomb 10, at Umm el-Qa'ab in Abydos affirms the impression of the crisis filled nature of his short reign. It is considered to be "one of the worst built and smallest among the Abydos royal tombs, His burial chamber was built entirely of wood rather than stone, and was of poor construction quality while "the surrounding 64 graves of retainers were also of low standard."
| Semerkhet
| Semerkhet was the sixth king of Ancient Egypt's First Dynasty who ruled around 2950 BC. Although little is known of his reign, Semerkhet seems to have had a difficult time as king judging by the records of Manetho.
Manetho states that there were numerous disasters in Semerkhet's reign but he alleges that this was due to the fact Semerkhet was an usurper to the throne. Semerkhet deliberately scrubbed Anedjib's name from numerous artifacts, but Semerket's own name was later omitted from the Saqqara King List. He did, however, manage to build a much larger royal tomb than Anedjib despite his short 9 year reign. Semerkhet is only known otherwise from one or two contemporary artifacts and, more importantly, in the Palermo Stone Annals.
| | Qa'a | Qa'a (also Qáa) was the last king of the First dynasty of Egypt. He had a fairly large tomb in Abydos which measures 98.5 X 75.5 feet or 30 X 23 meters. Manetho gives him a reign of 26 years in his Epitome which is supported by the large size of this ruler's burial site at Abydos. A seal impression bearing Hotepsekhemwy's name was found near the entrance of the tomb of Qa'a (Tomb Q) by the German Archaeological Institute in the mid-1990s.
This discovery has been viewed as evidence that Qáa was buried—and therefore succeeded—by Hotepsekhemwy as Manetho states. The tomb of one of Qa'a's state officials at Saqqara—a certain noblemen named Merka—contained a stela with many titles. There is a second sed festival attested. This fact plus the high quality of a number of royal stelas depicting the king implies that Qa'a's reign was a fairly stable and prosperous period of time. |
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