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Lot Essay
This Serekh is found on jars dated to either "Horizon A," before King Iry-Hor (or Horus-Ro), or "Horizon B," contemporary with King Ka (or Zekhen). For a similar Serekh dated to "Horizon A" see no. 11 in Kaiser and Dreyer, "Umm el-Qaab, Nachuntersuchungen im früzeitlichen Königsfriedhof 2. Vorbericht" in Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Abteilung Kairo. For a similar Serekh from "Horizon B," although with a concave top, see no. 44 in Kaiser and Dreyer, op. cit. Serekhs of Narmer are depicted both with and without a similar concave top, see nos. 35-43 in Kaiser and Dreyer, op. cit. The attestation of this Serekh both before and after those of Iry-Hor implies that the king of the present example flourished longer.
This Serekh belongs to the period of the consolidation of early Egyptian kingdoms leading up to the 1st Dynasty, which has been categorized as Naqada III and labeled "Dynasty 0." The situation of contemporaneous rulers is understandable in light of scholarship that Dynasty 0 "comprised not a single ruling line but numerous local rulers of the incipient city states only a few of whose names have come down to us" (p. 44 in Kemp, Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization).
This Serekh belongs to the period of the consolidation of early Egyptian kingdoms leading up to the 1st Dynasty, which has been categorized as Naqada III and labeled "Dynasty 0." The situation of contemporaneous rulers is understandable in light of scholarship that Dynasty 0 "comprised not a single ruling line but numerous local rulers of the incipient city states only a few of whose names have come down to us" (p. 44 in Kemp, Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization).