Episode 6 The First Nation in History

The History of Ancient Egypt

Professor Robert Brier

Film Review

The first historical document in the world is the Narmer Palette dating from 3150 BC. It describes the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. The two kingdoms were combined when King Narmer of Upper Egypt conquered Lower Egypt

Kings from Upper Egypt wore conical white crowns, while those from Lower Egypt a smaller red crown. When the two kingdoms were combined, the king wore a composite crown.

Made of siltstone, the Narmer Palette is believed to be a cosmetic palette likely used to anoint a temple god with oil mixed with color pigments. Egyptians (male and female) wore black eyeliner to reduce glare from the sun (like modern football players).

In all paintings, the king (pharaoh) is painted as four or times as large as a commoner and nearly as large a god. Regarded as semi-divine, the pharaoh’s role to to keep divine order in the world.

The Narmer palette depicts King Narmer from southern Egypt smiting the king of northern Egypt with a mace.

The falcon on the palette represents both the god Horus and the pharaoh, believed to represent Horus on Earth. Namur’s name Na (chisel) + Mur  (fish) also appears on the pallet, as does a bull, his special symbol.

The god Horus

Narmer had a standing army, enabling Egypt to foreign nations. A fragment of stone engraved with Narmer’s name has been found in Palestine.

Narmer could also conscript subjects to dig irrigation ditches and construct stone buildings and monuments. The irrigation ditches (dug annually in anticipation of the yearly flooding of the Nile*) greatly expanded Egypt’s agricultural productivity. Thus, for the first time, Egypt had the capacity to feed a standing army.

*The yearly Ethiopian monsoon caused the Nile to rise 30 feet every July and flood neighboring fields on both banks.. At the time, the flooding was viewed as a divine event.

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/video/1492791/1492806