Narmer is the name of a Egyptian king of the predynastic period which passes to be the unifier of the two kingdoms of Egypt (North and South) at the end of the {{thousand-year-old IVe}} before our era.

Very near chronologically to the King Scorpion, it was originating in Hiéraconpolis, the capital of the kingdom of the South. It would have gained a great victory against the Northern which would have led to the unification of the country.

Information on this Pharaon is primarily drawn from famous the Palette of Narmer pallet of schist, the victorious representative against people which one did not identify. He appear in it the clearly definite first hiéroglyphes, which form the name of this king ( nar-sea , “silure - chisel”). On this pallet, it is represented alternatively carrying the crown of the South (white crown of the kings of High-Egypt) and that of North (red crown of the kings of Low-Egypt or the delta).

It sometimes is compared to Ménès, the founder of, said the thinite according to Manéthon, but of recent research would tend to show that they were well two different characters .

In an article of July 2002, Bernadette Menu states that Ménès would be a kind of title, “That which establishes”, carried by the first two sovereigns of the first dynasty, Narmer and Âha.

It is possible that Narmer changed name after the unification and the installation of the Pharaonic institution by taking the title of Ménès, “the founder”. More especially as the two names were found on a seal where they are associated, but in a way which does not ensure that it is about the same person, the name of Narmer being as Horus and that of Ménès in a normal way.

Titulature

Reign

Succession and the death of the founder

Narmer/Ménès preserves despite everything the image of a sovereign who would have given to the Egypt the bases of his prosperity and his power. But one knows in fact little thing on the character. His wife, says one, would have been a cosmetician of great talent. It is claimed that his/her son Athôtis (identified with Horus Aha), was doctor and large priest. It would have succeeded his father. These is the wire which would have made build a royal palace with Memphis.

When with died of the sovereign, as the remainder, it is necessary to speak about it with the conditional one. She would have occurred at the time of a shooting party, where Ménès would have perished, hacked by an hippopotamus. It seems that this anecdote is rather a metaphor of the king, guarantor of the order, vis-a-vis the hippopotamus, symbol of paramount chaos (an infinite ocean). Ménès of Manéthon, founder of the Egyptian woman would be deceased at sixty two years.

Archaeological artefacts

• Pallet of Narmer (pallet with make-up)

• Head of bludgeon of Narmer