Some Egyptologists consider hor-Aha (or Aha or Horus Aha) the second pharaoh of Egypt’s First Dynasty. In contrast, others consider him the first one and correspond to Menes. He lived around the 31st century BC and is thought to have had a long reign.
Etymology
The commonly used name Hor-Aha is a rendering of the pharaoh’s Horus name, an element of the royal titulary associated with the god Horus, and is more fully given as Horus-Aha, meaning Horus the Fighter.
Manetho’s record Aegyptiaca (translating to History of Egypt) lists his Greek name as Athothis, or “Athotís”.
The different titular elements of a pharaoh’s name were often used in isolation, for brevity’s sake, although the choice varied according to circumstance and period. For the Early Dynastic Period, the archaeological record refers to the pharaohs by their Horus names. In contrast, the historical record, as evidenced in the Turin and Abydos king lists, uses an alternative royal titulary, the nebty-name.
Mainstream Egyptological consensus follows the findings of Flinders Petrie in reconciling the two records and connects Hor-Aha (archaeological) with the nebty-name Ity (historical).
The exact process has led to the identification of the historical Menes (a nebty-name) with Narmer (a Horus-name) evidenced in the archaeological record (both figures are credited with the unification of Egypt and as the first pharaoh of Dynasty I) as the predecessor of Hor-Aha (the second pharaoh).
Theories
There has been some controversy about Hor-Aha. Some believed him to be the same individual as the legendary Menes and that he was the one to unify all of Egypt. Others claim he was the son of Narmer, the pharaoh who unified Egypt. Narmer and Menes may have been one pharaoh with more than one name. Regardless, considerable historical evidence from the period points to Narmer as the pharaoh who first unified Egypt (see Narmer Palette) and to Hor-Aha as his son and heir.
Reign
Seal impressions discovered by Günter Dreyer in the Umm El Qa’ab from Den and Qa’a burials identify Hor-Aha as the second pharaoh of the first dynasty. His predecessor Narmer had united Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt into a single kingdom, Upper and Lower Egypt. Hor-Aha probably ascended the throne in the mid-31st century.
Interior policy
Hor-Aha seems to have conducted many religious activities. A visit to a shrine of the goddess Neith is recorded on several tablets from his reign. The sanctuary of Neith he visited was located in the northwest of the Nile Delta at Sais. Furthermore, the first known representation of the sacred Henu-barque of the god Seker was found engraved on a year tablet dating from his reign.
Vessel inscriptions, labels and sealings from the graves of Hor-Aha and Queen Neithhotep suggest that this queen died during the reign of Aha. Queen Neithhotep is plausibly Aha’s mother. He arranged for her burial in a magnificent mastaba excavated by Jacques de Morgan. The selection of the cemetery of Naqada as the resting place of Neithhotep is a strong indication that she came from this province. This, in turn, supports the view that Narmer married a member of the ancient royal line of Naqada to strengthen the domination of the Thinite kings over the region. However, in January 2016, a rock inscription demonstrated that Neithhotep was a queen regent early during the reign of Djer, Hor-Aha’s successor. Therefore, the cemetery evidence above proves that Neithhotep lived during the reign of Hor-Aha but succeeded him in Djer’s rule.
Most importantly, the oldest mastaba at the North Saqqara necropolis of Memphis dates to his reign. The mastaba belongs to an elite member of the administration who may have been a relative of Hor-Aha, as was customary at the time. This is a strong indication of the growing importance of Memphis during Aha’s reign.
Economic development
Few artefacts remain of Hor-Aha’s reign. However, the finely executed copper-axe heads, faience vessel fragments, ivory boxes and inscribed white marbles all testify to the flourishing of craftsmanship during Aha’s time in power.
Activities outside Egypt
Inscription on an ivory tablet from Abydos suggests that Hor-Aha led an expedition against the Nubians. On a year tablet, a year is explicitly called “Year of the smiting of Ta-Sety” (i.e. Nubia).
During Hor-Aha’s reign, trade with the Southern Levant seems to have declined. This may point to a gradual replacement of long-distance trade between Egypt and its eastern neighbours by more direct exploitation of the local resources by the Egyptians. Contrary to his predecessor Narmer, Hor-Aha is not attested outside the Nile Valley. Vessel fragment analysis from an Egyptian outpost at En Besor suggests that it was active during Hor-Aha’s reign. Other Egyptian settlements have been active at the time (Byblos and along the Lebanese coast). Finally, Hor-Aha’s tomb yielded vessel fragments from the Southern Levant.
Manetho
According to the Egyptian priest Manetho (who lived over 2,600 years after Hor-Aha’s reign), Aha built a palace in Memphis and was a skilled physician who wrote multiple books on anatomy.
Family
Hor-Aha’s chief wife was Benerib, whose name was “written alongside his on several pieces, in particular, from tomb B14 at Abydos, Egypt”. Tomb B14 is located directly adjacent to Hor-Aha’s sepulchre. Hor-Aha also had another wife, Khenthap, with whom he became the father of Djer. She is mentioned as Djer’s mother on the Cairo Annals Stone.
Hor-Aha’s mother is believed to be Neithhotep. She is also thought to be the wife of the late Narmer and possibly remarries one of Hor-Aha’s top three Grand Viziers by the name of Rekhit after the death of Narmer. The massive Naqada tomb Neithhotep was believed to be buried has ten inscriptions of her in it. The same tomb also has 15 inscriptions to Rekhit.
Tomb
Hor-Aha’s tomb comprises three chambers, B10, B15 and B19, shown in the inset. B14 could be the tomb of Hor-Aha’s wife, Benerib.
The tomb of Hor-Aha is located in the necropolis of the kings of the 1st Dynasty at Abydos, known as the Umm el-Qa’ab. It comprises three large chambers (designated B10, B15, and B19) directly adjacent to Narmer’s tomb. The chambers are rectangular, directly-dug into the desert floor, their walls lined with mud bricks. The tombs of Narmer and Ka had only two adjacent chambers, while the tomb of Hor-Aha comprises three substantially larger yet separated chambers. This architecture was difficult to build large ceilings above the chambers, as timber for these structures often had to be imported from Canaan.
A striking innovation of Hor-Aha’s tomb is that members of the royal household were buried with the pharaoh, the earliest known retainer sacrifice in Egypt. It is unclear if they were killed or committed suicide. Thirty-six subsidiary burials were laid out in three parallel rows northeast of Hor-Aha’s main chambers. Among those buried were servants, dwarfs, women and even dogs. Hor-Aha was given a group of young lions as a symbol of royalty.
