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| Anedjib | ||||||||
| ab. 2935 B.C. till ab. 2925 B.C. | ||||||||
| 7. Pharaoh of the 1. Dynasty | ||||||||
Pharaonic names:
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RecordsAnedjib, also Adjib, Hor-Adjib, Hor-Anedjob or Enezib, is the Horus-name of a king of the 1st Dynasty of Egypt. Despite that he is known under many name, as most of the early pharaohs, he is pretty well documented. Manetho, the priest who compiled milenia later the dynasty list, called him "Miebidos" and credited him with a rulership of 26 years. The canon of Turin gave him 74 years. Most Egyptologists think of both records as an exxageration and estimate the length of his rulership rather in the range of 8 to 10 years.He is well documented. His name appears on vessels of his time, earthen jar seals and ivory tags. Most objects bearing his name and titles origin from Abydos and Sakkara.
Family and court>Even his family isn't fully investigated, it is likely, that he was a son of his predecessor Den. More evidence hints, he was married to a woman named Betrest, but that is an indirect conclusion since she is named as mother of Adjib's successor Semerkhet. There isn't any firmer evidence yet, not titualry with her name, that would give us an impression of her actual standing (could have been a mistress for all we know).We assume, he had a number of sons and daughter, by all means, the pill wasn't invented back then and he had, like all pharaohs, probably several wives and mistresses. But none of their names was preserved over the times with the exception of Serkhet, who became his successor.
An extension of titularyWhile already his sucessors were kings of lower and upper egypt, Anedjib deemed it necessary to add a new part to his titulary, which appears to be a complement to his Neswy-name and consisting of two Falcon-signs on a short standard. Two falcons, as in two horus', means basically "two lords" or rather a double kingdomship. Which was actually nearer to the situation, I think.Most scholars think, this new addition served to legitimze his rulership. However, on a behavioral level, and my readers know, it'S what I look for, this doesn't make too much sense. Adjib's legitimation stemmed from his descendecy from his father. That documented his claim to be king much more than the claim of a double rulership, which technically was the same kind of rulership, his father, grandfather and so on, all had claimed and held. So, unless there was a new tendency in the society of his time, that aimed to split up the rulership over the united kingdom of Egypt. The focus was not on "king" but on "two", otherwise this addition makes not the faintest sense. So my guess is, part of the population were up to split again in lower and upper egypt. The new title is thought often as a symbolic of Horus and Seth, but lets be real here. If your main god was once Seth, who onfortunately got already a donkey head onder the rulership of the earlier kings, you would consider rather as occupiers, would it make you happy to see, not your old main god has lost his own identity entirely and is just a mere copy, a shadow of the same shape as your occupiers main god? I don'T think so. And I don't think, the people of the time would have seen this as a "uniting" effort. This short standard, in it's social meaning, it was a war standard, threatening those, who may considered to break off front he kingdom. The need to invent such a standard gives us a little glimpse on things already boiling under the surface.
Buildings, objects and TechnologyAfter the rush forward, Egyptian technology has made in the two generations before, things seemed to slow down under Anedjib. We know, he laid foundation to the royal fortress Hor nebw-khet ("Horus, the gold of the divine community") and the royal residence Hor seba-khet ("Horus, the star of the divine community"). The names indicate the focus on the horus-cult.Noticeable is also an unusually big number of cult statues made for the king. Not less than six objects were found, showing the king standing in full royal insignia. Which either documents his troubles with being king over all parts of Egypt or a serious bout of paranoia. Serious bouts of paranoia in ancient rulers would often result in unmakred mass graves and archaeologists haven't found any of those dating from Andjib's era in Egypt. So chances are, his troubles were real. Stone vessels show, that Adjib allegedly underwent a first and even a second hedjeb. A hedjeb was kind of a throne jubilee in which the king also had to prove, he was still physically and mentally fit to rule. The first would have been after 30 years of rulership, the second after ten years more. However, it appears as if all those vessels were actually removed from his predecessor's, Den's, tomb. Now, Egpytologists assume, that Adjib just stole those vessels from Den's tomb. Which proves, that Egyptologists are a bunch of suspicious people without a lot of criminal talent. See it that way: You are king of a country, the produces like 80 or 90 percent of all cool stone vessels in the know world. You have not hundreds of skilled workers at your disposal but thousands and you have the best makers of even the highest demand stone vessels right next to you and those guys do what the whole day, all year long? Right, they make stone vessels. So why on Earth would you break in into your fathers tomb, get the priesthood all riled up if that story would pop up, risk, someone could recognize the vessel (a lot of people of Anedjib's court lived already on Den's court) and risk a riot on religious reasons (because you and your ancestors just had re-invented the concept of god-kings which included the sacrosanctity of their tombs as well), if you just could get a new set of vessels with your name and date of faked hedjebs so much cheaper and with so much less trouble? And who the heck would buy in such a fraud anyway? There was a big part of the population alive when Anedjib became king. They remembered and they would have remembered it wasn't 30 or 40 years ago, but not even 10 years at all. So, I don't doubt, those vessels were from Den's tomb. I don't doubt the name was changed. What I doubt is, that Anedjib did it or that it was done on his orders. Anedjib, or Adjib, could win nothing, only lose by such a stunt. So either it was done to discredit him or it was done much later when it was politically opportune to refer to a long ruling mystical pharaoh from the past. Don't forget, that latest during the second dynasty, the pharaohs of the first had become legendary god-like shadows from the past, with not too many mere human aspects at all. Superstition helps was the recipe to rule in most later dynastys of the old kingdom.
The TombAdjib's tomb, tomb X, is the smallest of all royal tombs in the area, much smaller than any of the burial complexes of his predecessors. It also lacks any sign of technological progress in terms of architecture, design, statics or art. If anything, it was a step back.Around the tomb, 64 subsidary burials were located. We can assume, that most of the inhabitants of those graves didn't commit suicide, this was traditional human sacrifce. While the results of the body excavation for tomb X remains inconclusive, mostly because the bodies were gone long time ago and there was no examination possible, it appears, that in the subsidary burials of his ancestors, most of the victims were strangled. some also died from blunt force trauma to the head, consistent with the use of the always popular Egyptian war mace. However, the number of 64 subsidary tombs doesn't indicate, Adjib was more modest than his forefathers. If at all, he was even less modest, seeing his new fortress and the new residence as much as the claim, he made with the double falcon standard. Thus, tomb X at Umm el-Quaab doesn't indicate modesty, it indicates lack of possibility. Putting it all together, the standard, the lack of new shapes in vessels, the lack of any sign of technological progress and this tomb, we see a society, split by politics and therefore unable to progress on other areas. | ||||||||
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