Double Falcon (also possibly Dju, Nebwy, Hrwy, and Horwy) was a ruler of

Lower Egypt Lower Egypt ( ') is the northernmost region of Egypt, which consists of the fertile Nile Delta between Upper Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, from El Aiyat, south of modern-day Cairo, and Dahshur. Historically, the Nile River split into sev ...

from

Naqada III Naqada III is the last phase of the Naqada culture of ancient Prehistoric Egypt, Egyptian prehistory, dating from approximately 3200 to 3000 BC. It is the period during which the process of state formation, which began in Naqada II, became ...

. He may have reigned during the 32nd century BC. The length of his reign is unknown.

Attestation

In 1910, Egyptologist Jean Clédat discovered the first evidence of Double Falcon's existence. Clédat was excavating the site of El Mahmoudiyah in the northeastern

Nile Delta The Nile Delta (, or simply , ) is the River delta, delta formed in Lower Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's larger deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the eas ...

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 ''

serekh In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a serekh is a rectangular enclosure representing the niched or gated façade of a palace surmounted by (usually) the Horus falcon, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. The serekh was the earliest conven ...

s'' 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 The Sinai Peninsula, or simply Sinai ( ; ; ; ), is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in Asia. It is between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, and is a land bridge between Asia and Afri ...

, 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 Upper Egypt ( ', shortened to , , locally: ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the Nile River valley south of the delta and the 30th parallel North. It thus consists of the entire Nile River valley from Cairo south to Lake N ...

, and in the Palmahim quarry in southern

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. The concentration of Double Falcon's ''serekhs'' in

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 The Southern Levant is a geographical region that corresponds approximately to present-day Israel, Palestine, and Jordan; some definitions also include southern Lebanon, southern Syria and the Sinai Peninsula. As a strictly geographical descript ...

, 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 Scorpion I () was a ruler of Upper Egypt during Naqada III. He was one of the first rulers of Ancient Egypt, and a graffito of him depicts a battle with an unidentified predynastic ruler. His tomb is known for the evidence of early examples of wi ...

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 Rafah ( ) is a city in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestine, and the capital of the Rafah Governorate. It is located south-west of Gaza City. In 2017, Rafah had a population of 171,889. Due to the Gaza war, about 1.4 million people from Gaza C ...

, located in southern

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

. 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 Neith (, a borrowing of the Demotic (Egyptian), Demotic form , also spelled Nit, Net, or Neit) was an ancient Egyptian deity, possibly of Ancient Libya, Libyan origin. She was connected with warfare, as indicated by her emblem of two crossed b ...

". 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

cosmetic palette Cosmetic palettes are archaeological Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, originally used in predynastic Egypt, predynastic ancient Egypt, Egypt to grind and apply ingredients for facial or body cosmetics. The decorative palettes of the late 4th mil ...

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.

References

{{authority control 32nd-century BC pharaohs Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown 1910 archaeological discoveries

Attestation

Name

See also

References