Ba (pharaoh)

Ba, also known as Horus Ba, is the serekh-name of an early Egyptian or ancient Egyptian king who may have ruled at the end of the 1st Dynasty, the latter part of 2nd Dynasty or during the 3rd Dynasty. Neither the exact length of his reign nor his chronological position is known.

Name sources

The only sure name sources for a king "Ba" are a fragment of green schist, found in the underground galleries beneath the Pyramid of Djoser at Sakkara, and the ( 6th Dynasty) mastaba tomb of the high official ''Ny-Ankh-Ba''.

Identity

Very little is known about king Ba. The few archaeological evidences only assure the existence of such a ruler, but they give no further information.

In 1899 the scientist Alessandro Ricci published a drawing of a '' serekh'' with a single leg (Gardiner-sign ''D58'') as hieroglyph inside. The picture was seen in Volume No. 35 of the ''Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde'' series. According to Ricci the ''serekh'' was found in a rock inscription at Wadi Maghareh, Sinai. The Egyptologists Jaroslav Černý and Michel Baude found out, that Ricci was referring to the rock inscription of the 3rd Dynasty king Sanakht. Ricci simply had misinterpreted the signs used for Sanakht's name – an upright sign of a rope loop, the zig-zag shaped sign for water and a branch-sign below – as a single leg-symbol.

Egyptologists such as Černý and Peter Kaplony think that king Ba might be identical to the likewise sparsely attested king Horus Bird. This ruler wrote his name with the sign of a goose-like bird, but since the depiction of the bird-sign in question lacks artistic details allowing any identification, Egyptologists are disputing the correct reading and meaning of Horus Bird's name. Černý and Kaplony think that both king's names have the same transcription: "Ba". In this case Horus Ba and Horus Bird would be the same historical figure. Černý and Kaplony's theory is not commonly accepted.

In contrast, Egyptologists such as Nabil Swelim think that Horus Ba was an immediate successor of the 2nd Dynasty king Nynetjer. He points to the name form of Nynetjer in the Abydos kinglist, which begins with the same hieroglyphic sign (a ram; Gardiner-sign ''E11'') like the ''serekh'' name of Horus Ba. Swelim therefore believes that the Horus name of Ba was erroneously intermingled with the birth name of Nynetjer.Nabil Swelim: ''Some Problems on the History of the Third Dynasty - Archaeological and Historical Studies Band 7''. The Archaeological Society of Alexandria, Alexandria 1983, page 27–32, 180 & 219.

Ba's burial site is unknown.

See also

* List of pharaohs

References

External links

Francesco Raffaele: Horus SNEFERKA - Horus Bird - Horus SEKHET (?) - Horus BA

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27th-century BC pharaohs
Pharaohs of the First Dynasty of Egypt
Pharaohs of the Second Dynasty of Egypt
Pharaohs of the Third Dynasty of Egypt
3rd-millennium BC births
3rd-millennium BC deaths