EarlyDynastic1

His achievement, famously depicted on the Narmer palette (at left), was the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. It is generally believed that he marched north from his base at Nekhen (Hierakonopolis), and conquered Nile Delta, previously an independent kingdom centred on Pe, sometime between 3100 and 2950 BC.  

Having unified these two kingdoms by force, he then faced the far harder task of synthesising them into one kingdom for good, which he did by employing an ideology of dual kingship, which stressed his unique relationship with the gods of both Upper and Lower Egypt (but particularly the sky-god Horus), which gave him the power to ensure that the floods would come and to protect the country from external invasion. These are the same ideas expressed in the mace-head of King Scorpion (perhaps his grandfather). Another mace-head survives from Nar-mer's reign, depicting Nar-mer enjoying some sort of festival – as with the Narmer palette, it is unclear what exactly this was meant to signify or to whom it was meant to signify it. Both depictions, however, show continuity with earlier objects, making it clear that much of Nar-mer's royal ideology was rooted in the pre-existing ideologies of Upper and Lower Egypt. Likewise, pottery remains show that the trade and interaction with the Levant, in Nar-mer's reign was not a new phenomenon, but a continuation of earlier interactions, and therefore, presumably, his expansive foreign policy elsewhere (which apparently included expeditions against the Libyans), was not wholly new, either. In many ways, then, Nar-mer may not have seemed exceptionally revolutionary in his own time. Yet the united kingdom which he founded was to survive for three thousand years. 

The capital of that kingdom was to be the city of Memphis, located under modern Cairo, at the very base of the Delta – in between Lower and Upper Egypt, and the perfect place whence to administer both. Whether its establishment as the royal city came in the reign of Nar-mer, or one of his successors, is unclear. Significantly, Nar-mer's tomb is at Abydos, far to the south. For several reigns thereafter tombs seem to have been prepared for the kings at both Abydos and Saqqara (It is unclear which were the "real" tombs), while central administrative functions continued to attach to the city of Thinis, opposite Abydos, and  to Nekhen, even further south. None of which precludes Memphis having played a role also.

According to one late source (Manetho), Nar-mer was killed by a hippopotamus, during a hunt – hippopotami symbolised the forces of disorder and evil, so, especially in this early period, it was the king's job to hunt them (For later kings, the lion-hunt came to have similar significance). Whether this story represents such a hunt gone wrong, or symbolises the disorder the Egyptians feared would be unleashed by a king's death is unclear (like so much else).

He married Net-hetep, about whom there has been much speculation, particularly as she is buried at Naqada, rather than Abydos. 

• 1) Aha, Second King of Upper & Lower Egypt (see below)

Horus Aha Teti (“Horus the Fighter”), Second King of Upper & Lower Egypt. He was fairly surely the son of Nar-mer, but some theories equate him, rather than Nar-mer, with Meni, in which case Aha might have been the first to unite Egypt. This would make the Nar-mer palette, which seems to attribute that deed to Nar-mer, difficult to explain, and it also necessitates the postulation of some ephemeral kings to get the various king lists to line up. Nevertheless, it remains entirely possible.

Assuming Aha was a distinct individual, however, rather little is known of him. A major source for his reign, and those of his immediate successors are “year labels” – inscriptions on pots, intended to date them by events, e.g. “Year of succeeding to the throne of Upper & Lower Egypt.” There is an obvious problem with taking these as indicating true events – in order to be used for dating purposes, the names of the years must have been chosen at the beginning of the year. In that case, a year label referring, for example, to Aha's war with the Nubians of the south must be referring to a prospective campaign rather than an actual one. Since the labels were put on pots and other items throughout Egypt, it seems somewhat unlikely that the kings would advertise a real prospective campaign – that would be an embarrassing reminder if they lost the campaign. Therefore, it has been doubted whether the labels have much connection at all to events of this period. Such questions limit our ability to construct a historical narrative for this early period. On the other hand, this argument means that the year labels are excellent evidence of what King Aha wanted his subjects to know about his deeds – they are, in effect, proto-propaganda. In this regard it is significant that one of the labels refers to the construction of a temple for Neith, one of Lower Egypt's patron goddesses – this suggests a real effort to incorporate, rather than subjugate, Lower Egypt. From his reign, also, royal art changes: the king ceases to be depicted in the form of an animal, and foreign Mesopotamian motifs disappear. Henceforth the king is definitively human - a giant among men, and local. The outside world increasingly became a frightening place, hostile to Egypt, against which the king was the only defence.

We don't even know where Aha was buried – like the later kings of the First Dynasty, Aha erected a cenotaph in his name before a tomb at Abydos, but seems to have built a larger tomb at Saqqara (opposite the city of Memphis). From his reign, tombs include subsidiary burials for high officials and servants (In at least some cases buried alive). He married Khenut-hepu.

• 1) Djer, Third King of Upper & Lower Egypt (see below)

41 years: Horus Djer Iti (“Horus Endures, The Sovereign”), Third King of Upper & Lower Egypt. There was, apparently, a brief interregnal period before he took the throne, into which some would slot an ephemeral extra king, allowing Meni to be equated with Aha. The period is two months at most, however, and it makes more sense, really, to assume that the preparations for a royal coronation took a little while. Of his long reign, a great many events are recorded on year labels and the Palermo stone (a record apparently compiled largely from said labels). Most of these events refer to the performance of rituals, census-taking, and the consecration of statues – these were the royal activities which these early kings wished to advertise. Notably absent is any reference to doing things for the people, even for the nobility. These early kings seem, then, to have devoted a great deal of time to showing that they served the gods, while apparently feeling no need to demonstrate (beyond that?) that they were beneficial for their subjects. 

There seem to have been intensive interaction with the Sinai during his reign – one of his year labels refers to warfare in the northeast, and turquoise from the Sinai is found in tombs associated with his reign. Very recently, a turquoise mine inscribed with his name has come to light in Sinai (and has since been defaced by iconoclastic Bedouin). The central question, as yet unanswered, is whether this interaction represents warfare, or trade presented to a domestic audience as warfare (if there was even a difference at this early period). 

He probably married Her-net. His tomb at Abydos was later identified with that of the god Osiris, and became a site of pilgrimage.

•  1) Djet, Fourth King of Upper & Lower Egypt (see below) 

Horus Djet/Wadj Ita (“Horus is Eternal/Flourishes”), Fourth King of Upper & Lower Egypt. There is evidence from his reign for expeditions (again, military, economic, or both?) in valleys in the eastern desert. These expeditions may have been destined for mines in the desert, or even for the Red Sea and trade further afield. 

He married Meret-Net, who served as regent at the beginning of her son's reign, controlling a treasury and building a tomb at Abydos equal to those of the kings.

• 1) Den, Fifth King of Upper & Lower Egypt (see below)

32 years: Horus Den/Dewen Khaseti/Semti (“Horus the Dam-builder/Spreads, the Two Regions/Deserts”), Fifth King of Upper & Lower Egypt. He made several expeditions into the Sinai, whether military or peaceful is unclear, but there certainly seems to have been an emphasis on the idea of the king as subjugator of foreigners in his reign. He also founded several royal estates in the Delta region. 

It may have been Den who combined the crown of Lower Egypt with that of Upper Egypt, symbolising that the two kingships were not just united in his person, but were a single office. At the same time, he seems also to have to combine the two royal titles, nesu and biti, calling himself the nesu-biti. This would, henceforth, be the usual name for the Egyptian king.

He married Seret-Hor.

• 1) Anedj-ib, Sixth King of Upper & Lower Egypt (see below)

10 years: Horus Anedj-ib Meri-bia-pen (“Horus is Secure of Heart, Beloved of this Bronze”), Sixth King of Upper & Lower Egypt. It is clear from the space allotted to him on the annals of the Palermo Stone, and from the small scale of his tomb at Abydos that he had only a short reign. This makes it problematic that one of the acts recorded for his reign is the celebration of a sed festival, a “jubilee,” which in later times was only celebrated after thirty years on the throne. Perhaps that tradition was not yet established in his time. He married Batireset / Batirites / Teftireset.

• 1) Semer-khet, Seventh King of Upper & Lower Egypt (see below).

8.5 years: Horus Semer-khet Iri-netjer (“Horus is Companion of the body, Companion of the god”), Seventh King of Upper & Lower Egypt. He was the first king to adopt the second name of the royal titulary: the Two Ladies name, which followed the reign name, and was surmounted by an image of the cobra goddess, Wadjet and the vulture goddess, Nekhbet, protectresses of the kings of Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt, respectively. This new title, then, seems to be yet another example of the melding of Lower Egyptian and Upper Egyptian institutions in the person of the king. 

His tomb, like those of his predecessors and successors, includes a number of subsidiaries, housing people equipped with tools for serving him in the next world. In the case of Semer-khet, these are pretty clearly covered by the main tomb, suggesting that the people within were killed at the King's death, in order to serve him in the afterlife. The degree to which this was true of the burials of other kings of this period is highly debated.

• 1) Qaa, Eighth King of Upper & Lower Egypt (see below)

Horus Qaa Qebeh (“Horus is the Arm, Purifies”), Eighth King of Upper & Lower Egypt. Qaa is traditionally the final king of the First Dynasty. This tradition, and the general division of Egyptian history into dynasties, derives from the very late Egyptian historian Manetho (c.300 BC), who wrote in Greek and is only known from quotations and epitomes in later works (some of which were hostile to him). He is an invaluable source, but the sheer distance in time between him and the events he was discussing, and the corruption of his text which has naturally resulted from generations of copying mean that he is not always reliable. He invented the devision of the Egyptian kings into dynasties, marking a change of dynasty whenever he considered there to have been a substantial change – not always a genealogical break. In the case of the end of the First dynasty, however, it is not particularly clear what else this break might have been – the archaeological record does not suggest any major discontinuity. Alternatively, it may be that there was no break, and that the first kings of the second dynasty were the children of Qaa?