The Real Scorpion King

Throughout history, people have been led to believe that the inventors of the written language were thought to be the Mesopotamians. According to a documentary which premiered April 23, 2002 on the History Channel, that may not true.
Until recently the earliest recognized historical document was the Narmer Palette, and dated around 3100 B.C. It was debated that some believed that the Mesopotamians were the original inventors of the written language and therefore the creators of history. Others believed, however, that the Egyptians were to be given credit for the discovery. Though historians still are not 100% certain about who originally began writing with symbols and shapes, they're getting closer.
In 1995 Dr. John Coleman Darnell, a Yale Egyptologist together with his wife, Dr. Deborah Carnell, another Egyptologist were surveying ancient trade routes just west of the Nile in Gebel Tjauti, when they made a discovery. It was a tableau, carved in limestone which measured 18 by 20 inches. The tableau dates back to 5,250 years ago and displays what is believed to be a victorious ruler. His name is King Scorpion.

In Egypt a king is depicted by a carving of the falcon god Horus. On the tableau, followed by the symbol of the falcon, there is a figure holding a staff, a long-necked bird with a serpent in it's beak (thought to be a sign of victory over chaos). Along with all of this there is an image of a prisoner, bound. The captive has long hair and is held by a rope which is connected to a bearded man with close cropped hair who is holding a mace (a form of weapon). The scene looks as though it is a fallen ruler being led to his execution. Behind the prisoner is a carving of a bull's head on a staff (also seen of pottery in Abydos). This is thought to be the prisoners name. These images among many others found are said to be proof of the existence of the ruler King Scorpion.

Five years before the Darnell's made their discovery a group of German archeologists in 1990 found and opened a royal tomb at Abydos. Within the tomb there were ivory tags inscribed with symbols that looked to be closely related to Egyptian hieroglyphs. These tags were attached to pots and jars, which contained things from lands other than Egypt which was evidence that the civilization traded with lands like, India; Mesopotamia; and many others. When the tableau was discovered they noticed that the symbols on the tags found in the tomb were very similar to those on the tableau, if not slightly more advanced. Egyptologists believe that the tableau and the tomb could be the same ruler. Dr. Friedman and others felt that because the symbols of the falcon-scorpion were located in the lower corner of the tableau that they felt it was not in an important enough spot to be a king. In a telephone interview Deborah Darnell responded by saying, "This is one of the first, if not the first use of the Horus title and at the heart of the concept of the Egyptian king." One thing that specialists don't understand is that the language doesn't gradually appear it seems to occur "almost overnight". As if King Scorpion just woke up and said, "I want to trade." and had his advisors create a written language out of nowhere.
When the discovery of King Scorpions tomb was made it dated before the first dynasty. History had to be re-written and Scholar's established a new dynasty, "Dynasty Zero." Historians have set up a time line to show what dynasties ruled at what time. All in all there were 33 Dynasties in the history of Egypt, not including the Greco-Roman times. Though they only number 1-31, there is now the Predynastic Period, which is when Egypt is said to be in "chaos", followed by the Early Dynastic Period, otherwise know as "Dynasty Zero", which is when it is believed that King Scorpion took control of the Nomadic Tribes. Together all of the dynasties date from 3500 B.C. until 30 B.C.

Though the research has not yet been concluded, it is clear that history has been changed with one discovery. We only now need to take the time to draw final conclusions. It won't be long before they are replacing those history books in school. It's amazing to think what else there is out there to discover. Time will only tell.