DW | Ancient Egypt
04 – The 2nd Dynasty
Welcome to the DW World History Series. In the last episode we focused on the First Dynasty Pharaohs and revealed their burial practices. In this episode, we reveal the Second Dynasty, the vague rulers involved, and the details we have, as available through archaeological research.
4.1 – The Second Dynasty of Egypt
The Second Dynasty of Egypt, spanning from approximately 2890 to 2686 BC, emerged from the tumultuous aftermath of the First Dynasty and was characterized by internal uprisings and difficulties. The exact cause of this civil unrest remains unclear due to the confusion surrounding sources from this period, including unreliable dates of rulers. Some of the king names mentioned by Manetho lack archaeological evidence and could potentially be duplications of earlier rulers under different names.
Throughout the Second Dynasty, cultural developments and military expansion continued, particularly in Nubia. However, it appears that conflicts between Upper and Lower Egypt preoccupied many of the rulers, and the nation may have even experienced division during this time.
The first and the last of these Second Dynasty kings had tombs at Saqqara, the necropolis of Memphis. The move of the royal cemetery from Umm el-Qa’ab in Middle Egypt, where the kings of the 1st Dynasty were buried, to Saqqara represents an important change in tradition, but the scarce archaeological sources have not allowed us to understand its historical, political, and religious significance. This move was probably related with the rising importance of Memphis, even though it is not clear which was cause and which was effect.
Equally significant are the changed design of the royal tombs and the fact that the practice of retainer sacrifice was abandoned. Where the 1st Dynasty tombs were more a collection of pits cut out into the ground, the known royal tombs of the early 2nd Dynasty consisted of long corridors dug into the ground, with several narrow storage rooms to the left and right of them. At the end of these corridors lay the burial chamber. These structures were presumably covered with mudbrick superstructures.
4.2 – Pharaoh Hotepsekhemwy (c. 2890 BC)
The following list of Second Dynasty rulers is based on the archaeological record, incorporating the Turin King List and Manetho's chronology. No dates can be confirmed for these rulers.
Hotepsekhemwy (Greek Name: Boethos) resolved the conflict that ended the First Dynasty of Egypt and reigned for approximately thirty years. His name has been interpreted to mean "two powerful ones are at peace," possibly referencing the actions he took to resolve the clash between the two princes of the First Dynasty. However, this interpretation is disputed because his name appears on the entrance-way of the tomb of King Qa'a, who ruled before the alleged civil war of the princes. While details of his reign remain unclear, it seems that Hotepsekhemwy ruled during a challenging period of unrest in the country. While he managed to maintain control over his kingdom, there appears to have been little, if any, expansion, as his efforts were primarily focused on internal difficulties. The exact nature of these challenges is unknown, but they likely resolved around a conflict between Upper Egypt's control of Lower Egypt.
During the reign of Hotepsekhemwy an early form of the solar god, Netjer-akhti, meaning “the god of the horizon”, was worshiped. The name of Hotepsekhemwy’s successor, Nebra, which means “Ra (the sun) is the master”, may demonstrate the new dynasty's support of the solar god, whose cult was centered at Heliopolis, to the north east of Memphis.
The king's position in society was grounded in Egyptian views about the world. The king's duties included the support of the cults in temples, and his powers derived partly from his identification with the god Horus. In order for these concepts to work on a countrywide level, there had to exist a view of the gods that was valid throughout Egypt. Most gods had a strong connection to one specific town that in historical periods often housed their main temple. It is certain that the many associations went back to prehistoric times, and scholars assumed that almost all cults were originally local. But in the early dynastic period there existed a unified Egyptian pantheon. Some scholars argue that the unification of Egypt led to an ideological merging of local systems, while others think that already in Predynastic times the regional pantheons existed within a system that transcended political boundaries.
It is difficult, if not impossible for us to understand how ancient Egyptians perceived gods and related to them. It is clear, however, that their attitudes differed from those of believers in Abrahamic religions, not only because the Egyptian pantheon knew numerous deities rather than one god, but also because Egyptian gods were natural forces and could be terrifying characters that needed to be appeased. Families and communities had their preferred deities, and often selected those for reasons that escape us. In our study of Egyptian religion we have to remember that the abundant remains involving gods and goddesses available to us are almost exclusively from the official sphere and set up on behalf of the court. Personal religious feelings are nearly never accessible to us.
The art and texts of the early dynastic period refer to gods attested throughout Egyptian history, although it is unlikely that they had the same definition as in later times. When the evidence is clearer, we encounter Horus and Seth, connected to kingship, and the cow goddess Hathor, to fertility and women. Throughout Egyptian history, the annals report that the king visited their shrines or dedicated statues to them, and some archaeological remains of early temples exist. There must have been official ideas about their relationships and areas of competence that differed from Predynastic times, and officially sponsored gods gradually displaced local ones.
The newly established court formulated national concepts that included the temple and the divine statue. The later official Egyptian temple contained a limited set of small roofed rooms to house the divine statue, which one reached by crossing one or more courtyards, some open, others with columns that supported a roof. In Egyptian prehistory there was no uniform style of temple, however, and cults could focus on an earthen mound or a stone boulder, for example. The new form thus had to supplant existing customs.
4.3 – The Vague 2nd Dynasty Pharaohs
Raneb (c. 2850 BC) (also known as Nebra, Greek Name: Kaiechos) may have been the brother of Hotepsekhemwy. He ruled for approximately fifteen years and possibly came to power through a coup, although this is uncertain. He is the first Egyptian ruler to incorporate the name of the sun god Ra into his own name, directly linking himself to the title of the king to the gods. This practice would continue throughout Egypt's history and become a defining characteristic of the Egyptian kingship.
Images of the goddess Bastet, depicted as a cat or a woman with a cat's head, first appeared during his reign, suggesting a more peaceful and prosperous rule compared to his predecessor. However, the situation is far from certain, and evidence suggests that the country continued to experience civil unrest and rebellions.
Pharaoh Nynetjer (c. 2740 BC) (Greek Name: Binothris), like his predecessors, ruled during a challenging period in Egypt's history. There are several indications of a collapse of central authority at the end of the reign of this king. Before order was re-established under a single rule at the end of the dynasty, the country appears to have been ruled by a number of poorly attested kings several of which may have controlled only parts of the country.
Ninetjer's assumed successor is known only by his Nebti name, Weneg. This name has only been found at Saqqara, which probably means that Weneg may only have held power over the north of Egypt.
The second name mentioned after Ninetjer in the king lists, Sened, is not known through any contemporary sources at all. The oldest known sources mentioning this name are dated to the 4th Dynasty.
4.4 – Pharaoh Peribsen (c. 2740 BC)
Pharaoh Peribsen (also known as Seth-Peribsen) is considered an important ruler due to the cultural changes that occurred under his reign involving his name, which replaced the god Horus with his rival Seth. Horus the Younger, the son of the god Osiris, defeated Osiris' brother and murderer, Seth, to restore balance in Egypt.
Peribsen's adoption of Seth's name is believed to reflect a significant shift in Egypt's religious orientation during that time. However, since Peribsen's name does not occur in records of Lower Egypt, some argue that he ruled over a divided country and distanced himself from the cult of Horus for political reasons. There have also been claims that Peribsen was the first monotheist, predating Akhenaten by centuries. However, this theory has been largely discredited due to evidence of the worship of multiple gods during his reign.
Peribsen reorganized the Egyptian bureaucracy and promoted literacy and religious practices. The first complete sentence in Egyptian history, found in his tomb, states, "The golden one, he of Ombos, hath unified and handed over the two realms to his son, the king of Lower and Upper Egypt, Peribsen."
According to scholar Marc Van de Mieroop, earlier inscriptions, often found on clay seals, were brief and provided little beyond people's names and titles. The sentence discovered in Peribsen's tomb explicitly highlights how the god Seth ("he of Ombos") legitimized Peribsen's rule. As the sentence confirms that Peribsen ruled over both Upper and Lower Egypt, the claim that he adopted Seth as his patron god to distance himself from the ruler of Lower Egypt has been repeatedly challenged.
Tomb P
Peribsen was buried in the Tomb P of the royal cemetery at Umm el-Qa'ab, near Abydos. The first excavation of the tomb started in 1898 under the supervision of French archaeologist and Egyptologist Émile Amélineau. This first foray was followed by excavations in 1901 and 1902 under the supervision of British archaeologist Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie. Further exploration of the tomb was undertaken in 1928 by the Swiss Egyptologist Edouard Naville.
The tomb's construction is straightforward and, compared to the size of other royal tombs in the same area, surprisingly small. The design model was the tomb of King Djer (the third pharaoh of the First dynasty), thought to be the 'Tomb of Osiris' from the Middle Kingdom. The architecture of Peribsen's tomb is similar to the residential palace. The tomb measures 16 metres (52 ft) x 13 metres (43 ft) and comprises three independent structures nested into one another. In the center is the main burial chamber, measuring 7.3 metres (24 ft) x 2.9 metres (9.5 ft), which is made of mud bricks, reeds, and wood. On the north, east and west sides the burial chamber is surrounded by nine small storage rooms leading into one another; on the south face is a long antechamber. A passageway runs between the inner structures and the outer wall.
Excavations in 2001 and 2004 revealed that the tomb had been erected and completed in a great hurry. The building works took place in a single phase; the walls were plastered roughly; and the monument had collapsed several times over the centuries. During the Middle Kingdom, Peribsen's tomb was restored at least twice together with the tomb of Djer, which was thought to be that of Osiris.
The tomb had been extensively plundered by tomb robbers during antiquity, yet numerous stone vessels and earthen jars remained. Some of the stone vessels had copper-coated rims and are similar to the better known finds from the tomb of Khasekhemwy. Vessels from preceding rulers such as Nynetjer and Raneb were also found. Beads and bracelets made of faience and carnelian and tools made of copper were excavated. Special findings include a silver needle engraved with the name of King Hor Aha. The two stone stelae from the entrance, common to burial chambers of the First and Second Dynasties, are now on display in two different museums.
Royal Funerary Enclosure
A royal funerary enclosure made of mudbricks was found close to Peribsen's tomb. Clay seals with Peribsen's serekh name on them were located near the eastern entrance and inside a destroyed offering shrine. The findings support the view that the building was part of Peribsen's burial site. The funerary enclosure is commonly known as "Middle Fort". This was first discovered in 1904 under the supervision of Canadian archaeologist Charles Currelly and British Egyptologist Edward Ayrton.
The enclosure wall was located on the north-west side of Khasekhemwy's funerary enclosure, the "Shunet El Zebib". Peribsen's measures 108 metres (354 ft) x 55 metres (180 ft) and housed only a few cult buildings. The enclosure has three entrances: one to the east, one to the south and one to the north. A small shrine, measuring 12.3 metres (40 ft) x 9.75 metres (32.0 ft) was located at the south-east corner of the funerary enclosure. It once comprised three small chapels. No subsidiary tombs were found. The tradition of burying the family and court of the king when he died was abandoned at the time of Qa'a, one of the last rulers of the First Dynasty.
4.5 - Pharaoh Khasekhemwy (c. 2690 BC)
Khasekhemwy (Greek Name: Cheneres) was the last king of the Second Dynasty. He may have been the son of Peribsen or a rival who defeated Peribsen in battle. Khasekhemwy is normally placed as the successor of Peribsen, though some Egyptologists believe that another Pharaoh, Khasekhem, ruled between them.
Most scholars, however, believe Khasekhem and Khasekhemwy are, in fact, the same person. Khasekhem may have changed his name to Khasekhemwy after he reunited Upper and Lower Egypt after a civil war between the followers of the gods Horus and Seth. Others believe he defeated the reigning king, Peribsen, after returning to Egypt from putting down a revolt in Nubia. Either way, he ended the infighting of the Second Dynasty and reunited Egypt
Khasekhemwy, whose name can be interpreted as "The Two Powerful Ones Appear" ruled for close to 18 years. The exact date of his reign in Egyptian chronology is unclear but would fall roughly in between 2690–2670 BC.
Khasekhemwy is unique in Egyptian history as having both the symbols of Horus and Seth on his serekh. (A serekh was a royal crest that accentuated and honored the name of the pharaoh). Some scholars believe that this was an attempt to unify the two factions; but after his death, Seth was dropped from the serekh permanently.
Khasekhemwy was one of the earliest Egyptian kings known to have built statues of himself. A limestone statue, restored from fragments at Hierakonpolis was discovered by the Quibell and Green excavations in 1897-98. The king is shown enthroned wearing the White Crown, the symbol of Upper Egypt, and the close-fitting jubilee robe. His right hand is drilled for insertion of a separate object, probably a flail or sceptre, and his name is scratched on the base within the early 'palace facade' form of a cartouche. This statue, together with another in green siltstone, almost identical and also from Hierakonpolis, is the earliest surviving example of royal sculpture from Egypt. The base of the statue records a military campaign of the king against the inhabitants of the Delta, symbolized at the right front by a group of papyrus springing from the head of a bound figure being struck by a mace. The rest of the base is inscribed with the bodies of slain enemies, with the total - 47,209 - given on the front panel.
Khasekhemwy is known for initiating numerous construction projects throughout Egypt, some of which can still be seen today in Hierakonpolis and Abydos. He built a unique and large tomb at Abydos, known as (Tomb V), the last such royal tomb built in that necropolis. The trapezoidal tomb measures some 230 ft in length and is 56 ft wide at its northern end, and 33 ft wide at its southern end. This area was divided into 58 rooms.
Prior to some recent discoveries from the First Dynasty, its central burial chamber was considered the oldest masonry structure in the world, being built of quarried limestone. Here, the excavators discovered the king's scepter of gold and sard, as well as several beautifully made small stone pots with gold leaf lid coverings, apparently missed by earlier tomb robbers. In fact, Petrie detailed a number of items removed during the excavations that included flint and copper tools, vessels filled with grain and fruit, and a large quantity of seals among other smaller objects.
Khasekhemwy built a funerary cult enclosure at Abydos called the Shunet ez Zebib. Originally thought of as a fort by earlier archaeologists, the structure is one of Egypt’s oldest standing royal monuments and one of the oldest preserved mud brick buildings in the world. The two-part funerary complex, consisting of the underground tomb and the above-ground enclosure, is of great architectural importance, as it portrays the earliest stages of the evolution of the pyramid. The structure includes two concentric rectangular enclosure walls. Most of the inner wall is intact while only part of the outer wall remains. The enclosure walls stand 35-40 feet high in some places but suffers from structural instability due to the elements of nature.
The Shunet was built as a so-called funerary enclosure, a place where the deceased king was worshiped and memorialized. Such a place was called "house of the Ka" or "Ka-house" by the Egyptians and it was some kind of forerunner to the later mortuary temples known from the Old Kingdom period.
Because of the stunning architectural similarities between Shunet ez Zebib and the Pyramid complex of 3rd dynasty king Djoser, archaeologists and Egyptologists often describe the "Middle Fort" as a direct forerunner of the step pyramid complexes. The flat, stepped inner mount of the Shunet ez Zebib is even considered a "proto-pyramid".
Khasekhemwy also built the Great Enclosure, one of the oldest known stone structures in Egypt. Located at Saqqara, this structure was called the Gisr el-Mudir, which is Arabic for 'Bridge of the Chief'. The structure consists of a rectangular wall oriented north-south and measuring about 2100 x 1150 feet. The style of construction suggests an original height of around 33 feet. This pattern recurs in the larger funerary complex of Djoser's step pyramid. The walls were probably completed, but no remains of a construction have been found within the center of the complex and the monument remains somewhat of a mystery. The rectangular structure probably represents a transitional stage between the enclosures at Abydos and the Step Pyramid complex of Djoser.
While the Second Dynasty may not be as well-documented as some later periods, its significance lies in laying the foundations for the strong centralized rule, architectural marvels, cultural practices, and societal structures that characterized ancient Egypt for centuries to come.
Our next episode will focus on Khasekhemwy's son, Pharaoh Djoser, the founder of the Third Dynasty of Egypt.
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