Archaic or Tinite Period of Egypt

The Archaic or Tinite Period of Egypt spans from Dynasties I to Dynasty II. The I Dynasty spanned from 3050 B.C. until 2860 BC in which the most important character was Narmer. All these periods are included in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Dynasties of the Archaic or Tinite Period

Dynasty I (Nagada III C1, 2, 3) (3050-2860 BC)

Narmer is one of the most widespread royal names of the Archaic Dynastic (examples have even been found in Palestine). He has been considered the founder of the First Dynasty and originated the legendary figure of Menes.
He is associated with the beginnings of the Nagada IIIc phase. (Dynasty I). Looks like he solved the rivals problem of Hierakompolis, although how he did it is speculation. At the moment, there is no news of military victories of Abydos over Hierakompolis, (Nekhen) with which it could be said that the problem was solved peacefully, recognizing the authority of Nekhen with concessions from the king to the powerful local families. This aspect of the unification of Egypt, like many others, continues to be investigated, and will become progressively clearer with the following Dynasties.
The eight pharaohs of the First Dynasty reigned in a time of prosperity. The kings of this Dynasty begin to carry what is called titulatura or protocol traditional royal, conferred on the pharaoh at the coronation ceremony, which from the Old Kingdom onwards included five fixed titles, which introduced, either by a single name or a short phrase, variants for each pharaoh. At least three of these ritual titles were used by the pharaohs of the First Dynasty.

Titles in the First Dynasty

1. Horus name of the pharaoh, inscribed on a rectangle or serekh, image of the royal palace, with a falcon above it, symbol of royal power. It translates as the Horus X… . This title was borne by the eight pharaohs of the First Dynasty.
2. This second title is made up of the phrase n(y)swt-bity which translates as the one that belongs to the rush (swt) and the bee (bity) , the reed (or reed) being the symbol of Upper Egypt and the bee of Lower Egypt”’, whence the usual translation of the title as the king of Upper and Lower Egypt . In the original inscriptions of the First Dynasty this title is used alone, absolutely. In classical times, the title nesutbity preceded the pharaoh's main name or birth name, which was enclosed in a cartouche, which was never enclosed in the first two dynasties.
3. The third title of the protocol was that of the Two Ladies or Nebty, due to the probable reading of the groups of signs that were brought together to write it:the vulture, which represented the goddess Nekhbet of el-Kab and the cobra, tutelary divinity of Dep (Buto), both on the basket sign neb, which means lady . As both cities were, one in the north and one in the south, this title is related, like that of Nesutbity, to the northern and southern kingdoms.

The Pharaohs of the First Dynasty

To the first pharaoh, Narmer , the Manethonian tradition attributes to him from thirty to sixty years old and having disappeared carried by a hippopotamus, the foundation of Memphis and the temple of him, the first, of the god Path. He seems to have founded Crocodilopolis, the ancient Egyptian Shedet.
His successor was Aha, the combatant , known from numerous documents from Abydos, Saqqara and other places, which attribute campaigns against Nubia and Libya and relations with Byblos and Lebanon. A human sacrifice before the royal palace is known from his time. His wife was Queen Neithhotep. to which is attributed a great tomb in Nagada and the regency of her son, Teti . This was an ephemeral pharaoh, who only lasted a year and forty-five days, although sometimes Kenkénes appears, the Horus Djer of Manetho, Iti in the Stone of Palermo, whose name appears enclosed in a cartouche. Two large tombs of this pharaoh are preserved, one in Abydos and the other in Saqqara. In that of Abydos there are around 338 subsidiary tombs that are supposed to be occupied by members of the court sacrificed to accompany the king eternally, mainly women.
An ivory tablet bearing the name of Djer/ Dyer discovered in Abydos alludes to the heliacal rise of Sothis, which would show that at this time the Egyptians associated the star with the flood and the beginning of the solar calendar, adopted at the time of the Second Dynasty, a few centuries later.
The next king. Vadyi, is known as King-Serpent . He reigned about ten years and during his rule an expedition entered the eastern desert. His contemporary is Queen Merneith, attested to in numerous written documents but whose position in the 1st Dynasty or even the 2nd Dynasty is uncertain. She does not appear in the Royal Lists or in Manetho. Next to the masculine form of the name Merneith the feminine form is also found:Mer(y)tneith her, so she is considered a queen. She would be the mother of Den , exercising the regency in his name at the beginning of his reign, his tomb at Abydos was surrounded by 77 subsidiary graves, which testifies to his great importance and that he may have reigned as the only Egyptian monarch, being the first queen-king of this country, antecedent of many others.
At least two chapters are supposed to have been written in Den times from the Book of the Dead. She succeeded Miebis or Adjib and this Semerkhet . The eighth would be the Horus Ka or Kaa , with which, according to Manetho, the 1st dynasty ended, without knowing the reasons for the coming to power of the 2nd dynasty, of tiny origin, like the 1st, which included nine kings.

Dynasty II

The names and the order number of these pharaohs is uncertain, since the sources, the seal-cylinders, the ivory tablets, the Palermo Stone, the Royal Lists and the Turin Papyrus do not coincide and contradict each other from the seventh pharaoh, and only the names and order of succession of the first four are certain, who are estimated to have reigned between 2930-2890 BC. C.

The Pharaohs of the Second Dynasty

The first was Hotepsekhemuy/ Hotepsejemuy . He succeeded him Nebré or Raneb the Kalau of the Royal Lists of the New Kingdom. His name is the first royal name compounded with that of the Sun god of Heliopolis.
The third pharaoh, Nineter , is known thanks to the Stone of Palermo, he succeeded Uneg and after him the news is confused, with pharaohs like Sekhemib or Peribsen . The Serekb of the latter is under a Sethian animal, instead of the traditional Horus, which is interpreted as a political change that would force the king to leave Memphis and take refuge in the south, where he would change his name from Horus to Seth- Peribsen. His successor was Khasekhem or Jasejem, whose warlike activities are recorded and he is depicted killing prisoners from the north . His successor, Khasekhemuy / Jasejemuy, whose name means The two powers (of Horus and Seth) it suggests the reconciliation of both gods and their supporters. This Tinita Period ended with him.

Characteristics of the Tinite epoch

Apart from more or less contrasted theories, and as happens with the divisions established by historians, ancient or modern, Vercoutter recalls that the break between the archaic period and the Old Kingdom is artificial and except for the place of residence of the sovereigns, the The 3rd Dynasty succeeded the 2nd Dynasty without breaking and the new pharaoh who began this 3rd Dynasty was the grandson of Khasekhemwy .

The monarchy

At the end of the Second Dynasty, the characteristics of the pharaonic monarchy were fixed. The rites of royal coronation and its renewal (Sed party) were fixed and developed in the same way until the Ptolemaic era, including inheritance from father to son, royal title and the important role of queens.

The gods

At this time the existence of most of the divinities of the classical Egyptian Pantheon is attested, either with animal forms or represented by their symbols and also with anthropomorphic form:

The writing

The appearance of hieroglyphic writing as we know it is one of the achievements attributed to the first two Dynasties. Although a Mesopotamian origin has been sought, it is clear that from the Amratian period, around 3800 BC. C., signs of writing on vessels and true hieroglyphics are found from the end of this Amratian period, around 3500 BC. C., as the sign of the red crown that is known for a red glass with a black rim found in Nagada, developing progressively throughout the Geerzense (Nagada II). By the end of Dynasty 0 more than 30 signs were known, attested on monuments and papyri are known already during the reign of Den.
The three Egyptian scripts were Hieroglyphic, Hieratic, and Demotic.

The funeral rites

In the pottery found in the Amratian and Gerzean tombs, a decoration can be seen that is interpreted as intended to ensure the deceased's life in the Hereafter and to the protection of the divinities represented by their symbols, while writing magically maintains the person's name and its eternal permanence.

Main cities

The traditional theory that Memphis was founded around 3100 BC is admitted. C, by the first king of the I Dynasty, who unified Egypt, after having conquered the north by force, constituting a homogeneous kingdom under the authority of the city of Buto (current Tell-el-Faraín), in the northwestern end of the Delta, proven extremes, although the violent conquest does not seem to be proven at the archaeological level so far. Recent archaeological excavations qualify this simplistic interpretation based only on Partial sources, highlighting the importance of agglomerations such as Hierakonpolis (Nekhen) and Nagada (Ombos).