Note about the Rulers

The available archeological sources don’t allow for exact dating of the periods covering the vast history of ancient Egypt. Scholars continue to debate and revise the dating of various dynasties and events based on a combination of the accounts of ancient historians (such as Manetho and Josephus) and modern archeological dating processes. Manetho (ca. 280 b.c.) was the first historian to group the ancient Egyptian rulers into Dynasties. The dates below are approximate.

Narmer

Patricia Podzorski on Narmer

Dynasty I (3150–3125 b.c.)

Often assimilated with the mythical first king Menes, Narmer is the pharaoh credited with uniting Upper and Lower Egypt. In ancient Egyptian lore, the country was originally divided in two, and after the unification all kings of Egypt were subsequently to be known as the "ruler of the two lands" or "king of Upper and Lower Egypt." The Egyptian Museum in Cairo holds the famous Narmer Palette, which contains a depiction of the unification of the country by this king.

Related exhibit piece: Calcite Vase, Inscribed with Narmer’s Name (catalog 23).