[Post on EEF by Michael Tilgner on April 27, 2000 ("Earliest historical document found?"),
reproduced below, slightly edited.]
In an article about the origins of the Egyptian writing system (GEO
Epoche, nr. 3, April, 2000) the German Egyptologist Prof. Dreyer, now director
of the Deutsches
Archaeologisches Institut Kairo, is cited with (yet) another important find:
an annual label with an inscription of Narmer, which is said to be a
little bit older than the famous Narmer palette, about 3100 BC (pp.
126-127). A photo of this label you may find below.
The label was found in the debris of the Abydos plateau. The scene
is interpreted ("translated") as "The Pharaoh smites the people of the
Papyrus country (= of the Delta)". According to Dreyer the find shows
that this scene is not a symbolic one, but referring to a historical
event. Thus the Narmer palette (for a drawing/photograph, see
URL1,
URL2)
is illustrating "just another" event in
the lengthy process leading to the unification of the country.
The
label itself is termed as "the oldest historical inscription of
mankind"!
Michael Tilgner
mtilgner@knuut.de
Source of photograph: German magazine "GEO Epoche", nr. 3, April, 2000, p. 126