Scorpion I () was a ruler of

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

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 was one of the first rulers of

Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

, and a graffito of him depicts a battle with an unidentified predynastic ruler. His tomb is known for the evidence of early examples of wine consumption in Ancient Egypt.

Tombs

Scorpion is believed to have lived in

Thinis Thinis ( Greek: Θίνις ''Thinis'', Θίς ''This'' ; Egyptian: Tjenu; ; ) was the capital city of pre- unification Upper Egypt. Thinis remains undiscovered but is well attested by ancient writers, including the classical historian Manetho ...

and was presumably the first true king of Upper Egypt. To him belongs the U-j tomb found in the royal cemetery of Abydos, where Thinite kings were buried. That tomb was plundered in antiquity, but in it were found many small ivory plaques, each with a hole for tying it to something, and each marked with one or more

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. ...

-type scratched images which are thought to be names of towns, perhaps to tie the offerings and

tribute A tribute (; from Latin ''tributum'', "contribution") is wealth, often in kind, that a party gives to another as a sign of submission, allegiance or respect. Various ancient states exacted tribute from the rulers of lands which the state con ...

s to keep track of which came from which town. Two of those plaques seem to name the towns Baset and Buto, showing that Scorpion's armies had penetrated 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 ...

. It may be that the conquests of Scorpion started the Egyptian

ic system by starting a need to keep records in writing.''Secrets of Egypt'', Channel 5 TV program 2/8, "Scorpion King," 20 November 2008.

Battle depiction

In 1995, a 5,000-year-old graffito was discovered in the Theban Desert Road Survey that also bears the symbols of Scorpion and depicts his victory over another protodynastic ruler (possibly

Naqada Naqada (Egyptian Arabic: ; Coptic language: ; Ancient Greek: , Ancient Egyptian: ''Nbyt'') is a List of cities and towns in Egypt, town on the west bank of the Nile in Qena Governorate, Egypt, situated ca. 20 km north of Luxor. It include ...

's king). The defeated king or place named in the graffito was a marking also found in U-j, the name was "Bull's Head", this very likely refers to Taurus (Bull). It is believed that Scorpion I unified Upper Egypt following the defeat of Naqada's king, meaning Nekhen's royal house had submitted itself into a union with King Scorpion I in Thinis.

Evidence of wine consumption

Scorpion's tomb is known in archaeological circles for its possible evidence of ancient wine consumption. In a search of the tomb, archaeologists discovered dozens of imported ceramic jars containing a yellow residue consistent with wine, dated to around 3150 BC. Chemical residues of herbs, tree resins, and other natural substances were found in the jars. Grape seeds, skins and dried pulp were also found in the tomb.

References

32nd-century BC pharaohs Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown Naqada III {{AncientEgypt-bio-stub