PREHISTORIC EGYPT (as of approx 1900) (17)

The monuments Khesekhemui, a king, show us that he conquered the North also and slew 47,209 "Northern Enemies." The contorted attitudes of the dead Northerners were greatly admired and sketched at the time, and were reproduced on the pedestal of the king's statue found by Mr. Quibell, which is now at Oxford. It was an age of cheerful savage energy, like most times when kingdoms and peoples are in the making. About 4000 B.C. is the date of these various monuments.

Khesekhemui probably lived later than Narmer, and we may suppose that his conquest was in reality a re-conquest. He may have lived as late as the time of the IId Dynasty, whereas Narmer must be placed at the beginning of the Ist, and his conquest was probably that which first united the two kingdoms of the South and North. He is probably one of the originals of the legendary "Mena," who was regarded from the time of the XVIIIth Dynasty onwards as the founder of the kingdom, and was first made known to Europe by Herodotus, under the name of "Menas."

Narmer is therefore the last of the ancient kings of Hierakonpolis, the last of Manetho's "Spirits." We may possibly have recovered the names of one or two of the kings anterior to Narmer in the excavations at Abydos, but this is uncertain. To all intents and purposes we have only legendary knowledge of the Southern kingdom until its close, when Narmer the mighty went forth to strike down the Anu of the North, an exploit which he recorded in votive monuments at Hierakonpolis, and which was commemorated henceforward throughout Egyptian history in the yearly "Feast of the Smiting of the Anu." Then was Egypt for the first time united, and the fortress of the "White Wall," the "Good Abode" of Memphis, was built to dominate the lower country. The Ist Dynasty was founded and Egyptian history began.