The Thinite Confederacy is an
Egyptological term for a hypothesized
tribal confederation in
ancient Egypt. It is thought to have preceded the full unification of
Upper Egypt
Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend wikt:downriver, upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. ...
. The leaders of the Thinite Confederacy were most likely
tribal nobles. Based at the city of
Thinis, the Thinite Confederacy would later be incorporated into the combined state known as "
Upper and Lower Egypt".
The evidence of the "Thinite Confederacy" is mostly speculative and in part relies on
Manetho. Modern Egyptologists have a number of competing hypotheses to explain conjectured
"proto-dynastic" events that presumably led to the unification under the
First Dynasty. Many scholars today mention evidence for a "Dynasty 0" that preceded the First Dynasty I. The term "Dynasty 00" is also used for the period preceding Dynasty 0 in connection with the
Abydos Abydos may refer to:
*Abydos, a progressive metal side project of German singer Andy Kuntz
* Abydos (Hellespont), an ancient city in Mysia, Asia Minor
* Abydos (''Stargate''), name of a fictional planet in the '' Stargate'' science fiction universe ...
-
Thinis area and may correspond to a theoretical "Thinite Confederacy".
[van den Brink 1992: vi] The terms "Dynasty 0" and especially "Dynasty 00" are widely seen as playful, but are frequently used nonetheless in absence of a more agreed-upon term.
In archaeological terms, this is referred to as "
Naqada III
Naqada III is the last phase of the Naqada culture of ancient 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 highly visible, ...
".
It makes an appearance in the
PC game ''
Pharaoh
Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: '' pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until th ...
''.
References
Bibliography
*
* {{cite book, last=Maspero, first=Gaston, authorlink=Gaston Maspero, title=History of Egypt, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=taT4NjJ8VWsC, year=2003, publisher=Kessinger Publishing, isbn=978-0-7661-3501-7
External links
"Dynasty 00", by Francesco Rafaele__NOTOC__
Naqada III
Former confederations