The First Pharaohs: Their Lives and Afterlives

225 Pages·2021·137.006 MB·English

by  Aidan Dodson

D BY THE AUTHOR OF NEFERTITI
O
A I D A N D O D S O N
D The five centuries that followed the unifi-
S cation of Egypt around 3100 bc—the first
O
three dynasties—were crucial in the evolu-
N
tion of the Egyptian state. During this time
THE FIRST PHARAOHS
all the key elements of the civilization that
would endure for three millennia were put
in place, centered on the semi-divine king
T H E I R L I V E S A N D A F T E R L I V E S himself. The First Pharaohs: Their Lives and
Afterlives looks at what we know about the
two dozen kings (and one queen regent)
N
O who ruled Egypt during this formative era,
T
L
HI
N from the scanty evidence for the events of
A
Y
D their reigns, through to their surviving mon-
T
Aidan Dodson is honorary professor of uments. It also considers how they were
H
Egyptology in the Department of Anthro- remembered under their successors, when
E
pology and Archaeology at the University of some of the earliest kings’ names were
F
Bristol, UK, was Simpson Professor of Egyp- I attributed to allegedly ancient ideas and
R
tology at the American University in Cairo events, and the ways in which some of their
S
in 2013, and Chair of the Egypt Exploration T monuments became tourist attractions or
Society during 2011–16. Awarded his PhD by were even wholly repurposed.
P
the University of Cambridge in 1995, he was H Aidan Dodson recounts how two cen-
elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquar- A turies of modern scholarship have allowed
ies of London in 2003. He is the author of This book covers a sweep of five millennia of Egyptian R these rulers to emerge from an oblivion so
over twenty-five books, most recently a new history, beginning with the five centuries that saw the A total that some archaeologists had come
edition of Afterglow of Empire (AUC Press, creation and first maturity of the Egyptian state, and O to doubt their very existence outside the
2019), Rameses III, King of Egypt (AUC Press, ending with two centuries during which, after ages of H works of ancient chroniclers. Then, within a
2019), and Nefertiti, Queen and Pharaoh of oblivion, archaeology returned this remote era of history S decade at the end of the nineteenth century,
Egypt (AUC Press, 2020). to the world of human knowledge. archaeological discoveries revealed a whole
series of tombs and other monuments that
not only confirmed these rulers’ existence,
but also showcased the skills of Egyptian
craftsmen at the dawn of history.
Front: Painted limestone statue of Djoser; from the
Serdab of the Step Pyramid (Egyptian Museum,
Cairo, JE49158). Photograph by Nigel Fletcher-Jones.
Back: The “Scorpion” macehead, from Hierakonpolis
(Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, AN1896-1908 E.3632).
Photograph by Aidan Dodson.
The American University in Cairo Press
ISBN: 978-1-649-03093-1
Jacket design by Fatiha Bouzidi www.aucpress.com
Printed in China
9 781649 030931
Dodson_FirstPharaohs_Jacket&Case_Final.indd 1-7 13/04/2021 14:04
The FirsT Pharaohs
Their Lives and afTerLives
The FirsT Pharaohs
T h e i r L i v e s a n d afTe rLi v e s
The FirsT Pharaohs
T h e i r L i v e s a n d afTe rLi v e s
AidAn dodson
The American University in Cairo Press
Cairo New York
First published in 2021 by
The American University in Cairo Press
113 Sharia Kasr el Aini, Cairo, Egypt
One Rockefeller Plaza, 10th Floor, New York, NY 10020
www.aucpress.com
Copyright © 2021 by Aidan Dodson
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.
ISBN 978 1 649 03093 1
Names: Dodson, Aidan, 1962- author.
Title: The first pharaohs : their lives and afterlives / Aidan Dodson.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021010557 | ISBN 9781649030931 (hardback)
Subjects: LCSH: Tombs--Egypt. | Egypt--Kings and rulers. |
Egypt--History--Early Dynastic Period, ca. 3100-ca. 2686 B.C. |
Egypt--History--Third dynasty, ca. 2649-2575 B.C. | Egypt--Antiquities.
Classification: LCC DT85 .D63 2021 | DDC 932/.0120922--dc23
1 2 3 4 5 25 24 23 22 21
Designed by Sally Boylan
Printed in China
To Big Sister Anne

c
ontents
Preface ix
abbreviations and conventions xi
introduction 1
1. the first dynasty 9
2. the second dynasty 41
3. the third dynasty 63
4. Limbo 111
5. resurrection 137
aPPendices
1. chronoLogy 163
2. royaL names 167
3. dimensions of royaL tombs 171
4. the first three dynasties according
to the surviving extracts from manetho 173
notes 175
bibLiograPhy 187
sources of images 203
index 205

P
reface
T
his book marks a return to an old love: after many years of an academic center of
gravity resting in the late second and early first millennia bc, I have now shifted
back over 1,500 years to the formative phases of pharaonic civilization, which
had fascinated me in my earliest days as a young enthusiast. It also marks a shift in the
Life and Afterlife series from dealing with a single individual and a few decades, to a book
that covers not only a series of rulers, but also a span of some five centuries, embracing the
period from the unification of Egypt down to the historical and archaeological watershed
represented by the foundation of the Fourth Dynasty by King Seneferu. However, the
underlying approach remains the same: to give accessible accounts of what we know of
the lives and monuments of the protagonists, how they were remembered by their own
posterity, and how that detail has been ascertained in modern times.
In the present case, the latter two aspects comprise a significantly greater part of the
book than in earlier volumes in the series. Thus, chapter 4 follows the posthumous story
of the kings during the millennia following their demise, and brings into play the way
in which the ancient Egyptians themselves received and made use of the historical and
material culture that survived from their own remote past. One fascinating aspect is how
one of the earliest royal tombs was appropriated as that of the god Osiris, giving a whole
new purpose for the funerary landscape that had been created a millennium earlier for
the kings of the first two dynasties.
Moving forward to modern times, chapter 5 is in many ways a case study in the
way that history is written for periods at the very dawn of literacy, where there is a
dearth of contemporary standing monuments, and archaeology forms a crucial part of
the available data. This includes how the first modern Egyptologists assimilated data
that had been transmitted through the lens of material produced during later periods of
ix