Iry-Hor (or Ro; ) was a predynastic

pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian language, Egyptian: ''wikt:pr ꜥꜣ, pr ꜥꜣ''; Meroitic language, Meroitic: 𐦲𐦤𐦧, ; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') was the title of the monarch of ancient Egypt from the First Dynasty of Egypt, First Dynasty ( ...

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 ...

during the

32nd century BC The 32nd century BC was a century lasting from the year 3200 BC to 3101 BC. Events * c. 3190–3170 BC?: Reign of King Double Falcon of Lower Egypt. There is a strong possibility that he appears on the Palermo stone, although half his name is ...

. Excavations at Abydos in the 1980s and 1990s and the discovery in 2012 of an inscription of Iry-Hor in Sinai confirmed his existence. Iry-Hor is the earliest ruler of Egypt known by name and is sometimes cited as the earliest-living historical person known by name.

Name

Iry-Hor's name is written with the Horus falcon hieroglyph ( Gardiner sign G5) above a mouth hieroglyph (Gardiner D21). While the modern reading of the name is "Iry-Hor",

Flinders Petrie Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie ( – ), commonly known as simply Sir Flinders Petrie, was an English people, English Egyptology, Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and the preservation of artefacts. ...

, who discovered and excavated Iry-Hor's tomb at the end of the 19th century, read it "Ro", which was the usual reading of the mouth

hieroglyph Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs ( ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined ideographic, logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct characters. ...

at the time. Given the archaic nature of the name, the translation proved difficult and, in the absence of a better alternative, Ludwig D. Morenz proposed that the literal translation be retained, giving "Horus mouth".Ludwig D. Morenz: ''Bildbuchstaben und symbolische Zeichen'', p. 88 In the 1990s, Werner Kaiser and

Günter Dreyer Günter Dreyer (5 October 1943 – 12 March 2019) was an Egyptologist at the German Archaeological Institute. In southern Egypt, Dreyer discovered records of linen and oil deliveries which have been carbon-dated to between 3300 BCE and 3200 BCE ...

translated Iry-Hor's name as "Companion of Horus".

Identity

Controversy regarding his social status

Until 2012, the name of Iry-Hor had not been found in or next to a

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 ...

, so the identification of Iry-Hor as a king was controversial.

Toby Wilkinson Toby Alexander Howard Wilkinson, (born 1969) is an English Egyptologist and academic. After studying Egyptology at the University of Cambridge, he was Lady Wallis Budge Research Fellow in Egyptology at Christ's College, Cambridge (1993 to 199 ...

contended that Iry-Hor was ''not'' a king, but a slave of a king, translating the signs as "Property of the king".

Egyptologists This is a partial list of Egyptologists. An Egyptologist is any archaeologist, historian, linguist, or art historian who specializes in Egyptology, the scientific study of Ancient Egypt and its antiquities. Demotists are Egyptologists who speciali ...

Jürgen von Beckerath Jürgen von Beckerath (19 February 1920 – 26 June 2016) was a German Egyptology, Egyptologist. He was a prolific writer who published countless articles in journals such as '':fr:Orientalia, Orientalia'', ''Göttinger Miszellen'' (GM), ''Journa ...

and

Peter Kaplony Peter Árpád Kaplony (15 June 1933 in Budapest – 11 February 2011 in Zurich) was a Hungarian-born Swiss egyptologist. Life Kaplony, son of a Hungarian military officer, emigrated to Switzerland as a child in December 1944. He became a Swiss ...

also initially rejected the identification of Iry-Hor as a king and proposed instead that the known inscriptions refer to a private person whose name is to be read Wer-Ra, ''wr-rꜣ'' (lit. "great mouth"), i.e. reading the bird above the mouth-sign as the swallow hieroglyph G36 rather than the Horus falcon. They translated the name as "Spokesman" or "Chief". Egyptologists

Laurel Bestock Laurel Bestock is an archaeologist and Egyptologist, whose research focus is on kingship, violence, and art and architecture of ancient Egypt, Sudan, and the region of the Nile Valley. She is the Joukowsky Family Associate Professor of Archaeolo ...

and

Jochem Kahl Jochem Kahl (born 1961) is a German Egyptologist. A native of Ravensburg, Kahl studied undergraduate history and Greek at the University of Tübingen from 1983 to 1984 and then Egyptology, Classical Archeology and Pre- and Early History at Münst ...

nonetheless believed that he was indeed a real ruler. Following the excavations at Abydos and the discovery of an inscription of Iry-Hor in the Sinai in 2012, Wilkinson's hypothesis is now rejected by most Egyptologists and Iry-Hor is widely accepted as a predynastic king of Egypt.

Resolution

Dreyer's excavations of the necropolis of Abydos revealed that Iry-Hor was in fact well attested there, with over 27 objects bearing his name and that his tomb was of royal proportions.Edwin C. M. van den Brink: ''Two Pottery Jars Incised with the Name of Iry-Hor from Tomb B1 at Umm El-Ga'ab, Abydos''
available online
in : ''Zeichen aus dem Sand, Streiflichter aus Ägyptens Geschichte zu Ehren von Günter Dreyer'', Eva-Maria Engel, Vera Müller and Ulrich Hartung editors, Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, 2008, Furthermore, in 2012 an inscription mentioning Iry-Hor was discovered in the Sinai, the inscription comprising furthermore an archaic empty serekh on the right of Iry-Hor's name. The inscription mentions the city of

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Mem ...

, pushing back its foundation to before Narmer and establishing that Iry-Hor was already reigning over it. Following this discovery, most Egyptologists, including G. Dreyer and the discoverers of the inscription, Pierre Tallet and Damien Laisney, now believe that Iry-Hor was indeed a king. Continuing excavations of Iry-Hor's tomb at Abydos by Dreyer established that the tomb was of similar dimensions and layout as those of Ka and

Narmer Narmer (, may mean "painful catfish", "stinging catfish", "harsh catfish", or "fierce catfish"; ) was an ancient Egyptian king of the Early Dynastic Period, whose reign began at the end of the 4th millennium BC. He was the successor to the Prot ...

and must, therefore, have belonged to a king. This was consequently accepted by von Beckerath and Iry-Hor is now the first entry in the latest edition of von Beckerath's ''Handbook of Egyptian Pharaohs''.

''Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen''
Münchner ägyptologische Studien, Volume 49, Mainz: P. von Zabern, 1999, , pp. 9, 36–37

Reign and attestations

Iry-Hor was most likely Ka's immediate predecessor and thus would have reigned during the early

. He probably ruled from

Hierakonpolis Nekhen (, ), also known as Hierakonpolis (; , meaning City of Hawks or City of Falcons, a reference to Horus; ) was the religious and political capital of Upper Egypt at the end of prehistoric Egypt ( 3200–3100 BC) and probably also during th ...

over Abydos and the wider Thinite region and controlled Egypt at least as far north as Memphis, since the Sinai rock inscription relates a visit of Iry-Hor to this city. The Egyptologists Tallet and Damien Laisney further propose that Iry-Hor also controlled parts of the

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 ...

He was buried in the royal cemetery of

Umm el-Qa'ab Umm El Qaʻāb (sometimes romanisation, romanised Umm El Gaʻab, ) is an archaeological site located at Abydos, Egypt. Its modern name, meaning "Mother of Pots", refers to the mound made of millions of broken pieces of pots which defines the landsc ...

near Ka, Narmer and the First Dynasty kings. Iry-Hor's name appears on clay vessels from his tomb in Abydos and a clay seal with the hieroglyphs for ''r-Ḥr'' was found in

's tomb and may refer to Iry-Hor. In total, no fewer than 22 pottery jars incised with Iry-Hor's name have been found in Abydos as well as at least five ink-inscribed fragments and a cylinder seal. A similar seal was also found far to the north in the tomb Z 401 of

Zawyet el'Aryan Zawyet El Aryan () is a town in the Giza Governorate, located between Giza and Abusir. To the west of the town, just in the desert area, is a necropolis, referred to by the same name. Almost directly east across the Nile is Memphis, Egypt, Memphi ...

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 ...

.Baker, Darrell D. ''The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume I - Predynastic to the Twentieth Dynasty 3300–1069 BC'', Stacey International, , 2008, p. 156 An incision on a spindle whorl found in

during

James E. Quibell James Edward Quibell (11 November 1867 – 5 June 1935) was a British Egyptology, Egyptologist. Life Quibell was born in Newport, Shropshire. He married the Scottish artist and archaeologist Annie Abernethie Pirie Quibell, Annie Abernethie Pirie ...

and Petrie excavations there in 1900 may refer to him. Finally, the discovery of a rock inscription of Iry-Hor in the Sinai constitutes his northernmost attestation. The inscription shows the name of Iry-Hor on a boat, next to the word ''

Inebu-hedj Inebu-hedj (''White Walls'', also Inbu-Hedj, ''White fortress'') was one of 42 nomes (administrative division) in Ancient Egypt., Egypt Ancient.net, accessdate=2010-07-14

'' meaning "white walls", the ancient name of

.P. Tallet, D. Laisnay: ''Iry-Hor et Narmer au Sud-Sinaï (Ouadi 'Ameyra), un complément à la chronologie des expéditios minière égyptiene'', in: BIFAO 112 (2012), 381-395
available online
/ref>

Tomb

Iry-Hor's tomb is the oldest tomb of the Abydos necropolis B in the

. It comprises two separate underground chambers B1 () and B2 () excavated by

Petrie Petrie is a surname of Scottish origin which may refer to: People * Alexander Petrie (died 1662), Scottish minister * Alexander Petrie (architect) (c. 1842–1905), Scottish architect * Alistair Petrie (born 1970), English actor * Andrew Petrie ...

in 1899 and later by Werner Kaiser. A further chamber, now known as "B0", was uncovered during re-excavations of Iry-Hor's tomb in the 1990s. These chambers have a size similar to those found in the tombs of Ka and Narmer. No superstructure, if there ever was one, survives to this day. Chamber B1 yielded jar fragments incised with his name. Chamber B2 produced another incised jar fragment, a seal impression, several ink inscriptions and vessel fragments bearing the names of Ka and Narmer. Parts of a bed were also found onsite.

References

External links

On the predynastic dynasty 0

{{DEFAULTSORT:Iry-Hor 32nd-century BC pharaohs 2012 archaeological discoveries Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown