Djer | |
---|---|
Pharaoh | |
Reign | 41 years, ca. 3000 BC |
Predecessor | Hor-Aha |
Successor | Djet |
Consort | Nakhtneith, Herneith, Seshemetka, Penebui |
Children | Merneith, Djet ? |
Father | Hor-Aha |
Mother | Khenthap |
Burial | Tomb O, Umm el-Qa'ab |
Djer is considered the third pharaoh of the First Dynasty of ancient Egypt in current Egyptology. He lived around the mid-thirty-first century BC and reigned for c. 40 years. A mummified forearm of Djer or his wife was discovered by Flinders Petrie, but was discarded by Emile Brugsch.
The Abydos King List lists the third pharaoh as Iti, the Turin Canon lists a damaged name, beginning with It..., while Manetho lists Uenéphes.
While the Egyptian priest Manetho, writing in the third century BC, stated that Djer ruled for 57 years, modern research by Toby Wilkinson in Royal Annals of Ancient Egypt stresses that the near-contemporary and therefore, more accurate Palermo Stone ascribes Djer a reign of "41 complete and partial years." Wilkinson notes that years 1-10 of Djer's reign are preserved in register II of the Palermo Stone, while the middle years of this pharaoh's reign are recorded in register II of Cairo stone fragment C1.
The evidence for Djer's life and reign is:
The inscriptions, on ivory and wood, are in a very early form of hieroglyphs, hindering complete translation, but a label at Saqqarah may depict the First Dynasty practice of human sacrifice. An ivory tablet from Abydos mentions that Djer visited Buto and Sais in the Nile Delta. One of his regnal years on the Cairo Stone was named "Year of smiting the land of Setjet", which often is speculated to be Sinai or beyond.
Manetho claimed that Athothes, who is sometimes identified as Djer, had written a treatise on anatomy that still existed in his own day, over two millennia later.