Double Falcon

Double Falcon (also possibly Dju and Nebwy) was a ruler of Lower Egypt from Naqada III. He may have reigned during the 32nd century BC. The length of his reign is unknown.

Attestation

In 1910, Egyptologist M. J. Clédat discovered the first evidence of Double Falcon's existence. Clédat was excavating the site of el-Mehemdiah in the northeastern Nile Delta when a peasant brought him a jar and some incised fragments that he had uncovered during the planting of a palm-grove in nearby el-Beda. Investigating the site, Clédat soon discovered four '' serekhs'' of Double Falcon.Kaiser-Dreyer, in: Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo. (MDAIK) 38 (1982), Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Orient-Abteilung, p. 9.

The next attestation of Double Falcon was discovered in 1912 during excavations by Hermann Junker on the site of Tura, where a tomb yielded a complete jar bearing a ''serekh'' topped by two falcons.

More recently, ''serekhs'' of Double Falcon have been found in the Sinai Peninsula,Günter Dreyer, ''Ein Gefäss mit Ritzmarke des Narmer'', in: MDAIK 55, (1999), pp. 1–6 in Tell Ibrahim Awad in the eastern Delta,E. C. M. van den Brink, ''Pottery-incised Serekh-Signs of Dynasties 0–1, Part II: Fragments and Additional Complete Vessels'', in: Archéo-Nil 11, 2001 in Adaima and Abydos in Upper Egypt, and in the Palmahim quarry in southern Israel.

The concentration of Double Falcon's ''serekhs'' in Lower Egypt and the north-western Sinai indicates that his rule may have been limited to these regions. Nonetheless, the wider geographic presence of his ''serekhs'', notably in Upper Egypt and the Southern Levant, suggests that the long-distance authority of the Naqada III kings had already commenced towards the end of the period, be it through trading or warfare.

If the inscriptions on the ''recto'' side of the Libyan Palette are indeed royal names, Double Falcon may be listed alongside either Scorpion I or Scorpion II in the second row of inscribed symbols.

Name

The ''serekh'' of Double Falcon is unique in its layout and composition. Firstly, it is the only ''serekh'' topped by two Horus falcons, facing each other. Secondly, the ''serekh'' does not have a name compartment, being filled by the vertical lines which usually represent the niched facade of a palace. The ''serekh'' also lacks the horizontal line that delimits the palace facade from the name of the ruler above. Finally, each falcon stands on its own peak. So-called "anonymous ''serekhs''" have been found somewhat frequently all over Upper and Lower Egypt, some even finding provenance in Rafah, located in southern Palestine. Many were discovered in the tombs of Abydos, namely in the tombs U-s and U-t. In addition to the original Double Falcon ''serekh'', M. J. Clédat also found a number of other similarly styled ''serekhs'' from artifacts at el-Beda, one of which he postulated represented a name of a queen, "Ka- Neith". As for Double Falcon, a ''pharaoh'', Clédat and fellow Egyptologists Günter Dreyer and Edwin van den Brink suspect that a deeper symbolism explains these peculiarities. The two falcons could represent Lower Egypt and the Sinai, as it seems that Double Falcon reigned over both regions. Dreyer believes that the falcons stand on a representation of the "mountain sign" N26 of Gardiner's sign list: and reads the name as ''Dju'' (''ḏw''), so that the name of the king is represented by a pair of falcons on mountains above a plain ''serekh''. In contrast, Alejandro Jiménez Serrano reads the name as ''Nebwy'' (''nb.wy''), "the two lords", and sees a similarity with a much earlier palette on display in the Barbier-Mueller Museum of Geneva.Jiménez-Serrano, 2000, pp. 123-124 ''apud'' Edwin van den Brink: ''The Pottery-Incised Serekh-Signs of Dynasties 0-1. Part II: Fragments and Additional Complete Vessels'', in: Archéo Nil 11, 2002, p. 33.

See also

* List of pharaohs

References

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32nd-century BC Pharaohs
Year of birth unknown
Year of death unknown
1910 archaeological discoveries