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Ancient Egypt Magazine Issue Five - January / February 2001
Special
Report: “Scorpion” plaque might From Claudia Haj Ali in Cairo
A
mysterious ivory plaque depicting a scorpion with a hoe held firmly in its
pincers, might give some clues to Egypt’s earliest history. “It is likely
that the scorpion symbolises the name of King Scorpion II,” says the German
archaeologist Guenther Dreyer. Who, however, this King Scorpion really was, is
unknown to the Head of the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo, for the
moment, at least. “The
king in the form of an animal, hacking at the city walls with a hoe, indicates a
conquered city.” Dreyer makes reference to ancient records: so-called Narmer
Palette, (ca. 3000 BCE), and the Tjehenu fragment on which a lion is depicted
with a hoe in its paw. Here, the hoe is associated with the signs for
“building” “making progress” and “foundation”. For
20 years Guenther Dreyer has been digging in Abydos, an early dynastic site in
Upper Egypt which lies about one and a half hours drive north of Luxor. “The
symbol is a significant indication of the existence of Scorpion, about whom the
archaeologists have only little knowledge.”The English archaeologist Flinders
Petrie discovered the ivory plaque about 100 years ago. “The piece could have
been broken from a wooden chest,” surmises Dreyer. Where does the grave of
this unknown king lie? “Under a great heap of rubble and sand, that must be
removed bit by bit and completely sieved through,” is what Dreyer believes. He
is confident that hidden deep in the grave there are more revelations to come
about the life and work of this mysterious monarch.
Legend
has it that the head of the god Osiris was buried in the early pharaonic
necropolis of Abydos. Here, the mystical resurrection of the god also took
place. The cemetery stretches over an area of 1.5 square kilometres. At the dawn
of Egyptian history, “Abdju”, Abydos, was the burial place of great kings.
This regal necropolis became the most important religious centre in the Middle
Kingdom. Dreyer
holds in his hand a plan of the cemetery with the graves of the predecessors
and successors of Scorpion II marked on it. Two are missing: “The white areas
on the map are the possible locations of the graves of the missing King,
Scorpion II, with another of the Dynasty II, Sechem-Ib.” Because it might give
clues to Egypt’s earliest history, Guenther Dreyer has dedicated himself to
finding the grave of King Scorpion by Easter. Dreyer’s
discoveries have raised questions about the historical timeline. For “his”
kings, the classical chronology of the pharaohs needed to be extended to include
a Dynasty 0 (zero) postulated by some Egyptologists. Dreyer has also discovered
around 200 neighbouring graves containing the remains of skeletons, all proved
to be under the age of 25. Are these the bodies of sacrificed tomb
builders, courtiers, children and pregnant women intended to serve the king in
the afterlife? That is another mystery, whose answer is perhaps lying in the
grave of King Scorpion.
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More
than 300 clay tablets with a variety of images on them have already been
discovered by Dreyer. There are scorpions with trees, scorpions with plants,
stylised birds, dogs and fish and various other decorative plant-forms; and
also, recurring regular grooved marks similar to a recording list. Over 5,200
years ago in Egypt there was already a civil service that registered and
labelled even simple grave goods. “On some of the tablets are the first images
of prisoner representations, military campaigns and victory celebrations,”
recounts Dreyer.
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