display
Government needs bureaucracy, and that begins with names and numbers.
In order to capture both, the inhabitants of the Levant came up with the idea of developing a font more than 5000 years ago.
It was used to record crop yields, taxes and goods.
And also cities and their inhabitants.
This is now confirmed by a discovery made by Egyptologists at the University of Bonn: They found the oldest place-name sign in history.
Together with employees of the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, the scientists deciphered an inscription that was discovered in 2018 on a rock face in a side wadi of Wadi Abu Subeira east of Aswan.
It consists of four early hieroglyphs and means: "Domain of the Horus king Scorpio".
This figure on an ancient Egyptian mace could have been the Scorpion King
Source: picture alliance / akg-images /
"This ruler with the name 'Scorpio' was a prominent figure in the phase of the emergence of the first territorial state in the world," says the Egyptologist Ludwig D. Morenz from the University of Bonn.
The ruler lived around 3070 BC.
The title "Domain of the Horus King Scorpio" indicates a place name.
"This is the oldest known place-name sign in the world."
display
The distinctive shape of the circle hieroglyph shows that this described a real place.
Deciphering it was not easy.
The oldest written finds in Egypt date back to around 3200 BC.
Dated BC, but at the time of the Scorpio King the writing system was by no means developed in such a way that it could be read safely.
Characters and orthographies were not yet standardized, so that the interpretation of names in particular causes difficulties.
In general, the sources from this so-called early dynastic period are very thin.
The Nile valley was developed over a length of 800 kilometers, but was controlled from various centers.
Towards the end of the 4th millennium, the kings of Abydos, about 160 kilometers north of Luxor and Thebes, were able to fight for a supremacy.
A richly furnished chamber grave was found there in 1988 by German archaeologists.
The name on numerous plates in it is interpreted as "Scorpio", who was apparently an important ruler.
He obtained his treasures from a "plantation of the (king) scorpion".
Such could have been the "domain of the Horus king Scorpio", which says something about the dimension of his kingdom.
These royal estates were probably deliberately founded on the periphery of the empire in order to consolidate rule in these remote regions.
Tombs of pharaohs have repeatedly been discovered in Abydos in Upper Egypt
Source: picture alliance / dpa
display
As further inscriptions and pottery show, the domain was firmly integrated into the administration of the king.
The very early application of the cultural writing practice in this rather remote place is for the fourth millennium BC.
Unusual, says Morenz: "For the first time the process of inner settlement in the Nile Valley becomes more visible through writing."
Administration and writing were the means that finally came about around 2700 BC.
Led to the establishment of the Old Kingdom under the pharaohs of the 3rd Dynasty.
Official titles as well as taxes and duties are known from the time of the Scorpio King.
These duties are evidence of socio-economic dependencies and are based on control, hierarchy and a special power of the ruler as Horus god and at the same time earthly equivalent, explains Morenz.
The scientists hope to be able to better understand the process of empire building in ancient Egypt through further decipherments and discoveries on the domain near Aswan.
Finally, the first great empire in history came into being.
You can also find “World History” on Facebook.
We look forward to a like.