Siege of Naqada

The siege of Naqada is a theorized major land and naval battle between the forces of King Scorpion I and Naqada itself which had been suffering a joint offensive by Thinis and Nekhen. The conflict is thought to have occurred on Naqada's northernmost frontier, in the middle of Scorpion I's reign or about c. 3270 BC.

Siege of Naqada
Part of Unification Wars of Upper Egypt
Date c. 3270 BC[1] Location Naqada, Upper Egypt Result Thinite victory Upper Egypt unified
Belligerents
Thinis	Naqada
Commanders and leaders
Scorpion I	Taurus †

In this battle the Thinite army, personally led by Scorpion I, who were attempting to finally conquer Naqada by land and the River Nile, supposedly defeated the army of Naqada.^[2] Almost all that is known about the battle comes from a graffito of Scorpion I discovered during the Theban Desert Road Survey.^[1][3]

Background

Most of Upper Egypt became unified under rulers from Abydos during the Naqada II period (3600–3200 BCE), at the expense of rival powerful polities such as Hierakonpolis which had in the past decades declined in power and had retreated from Northern Upper Egypt.^[4]

King Scorpion I's conquest over Middle Egypt kept trade and international relations with the importations of plaques from Baset and Buto. This also shows that Scorpion's armies had penetrated the very Southern Nile Delta. It may be the conquests of Scorpion I that started the Egyptian hieroglyphic system by creating a need to keep records and vast swathes of nomes under control via secular writing from previous developments in proto-writing.^[1]

Scorpion I sought to conquer the Kingdom of Nubt (Naqada) which was now surrounded by a joint offensive from the North, being under Thinite control and from the South under Nekhen's sphere of influence.^[4]

The battle

King Scorpion I mobilised his forces along the Nile at first from Thinis.

It is believed King Scorpion I himself joined his main detachment, and marched his main army through the desert highlands, heading south-east towards Naqada suggested by the graffito discovered there.^[1] This was to avoid a blockade via the Nile or the interior surrounding the River Nile, for which to distract during the Campaign he had sent smaller forces including naval forces.

King Scorpion I may have outflanked Nubt's army in a matter of days and took Naqada.^[1] It is unknown when it occurred, before or after, but Scorpion I killed Taurus personally in single combat.^[5][6]

Further confirmation of the existence of this ruler is the interpretation of a rock drawing discovered in 2003 on the Gebel Tjauti in the desert west of Thebes. It apparently represents a successful campaign by King Scorpion I against Taurus. This battle was possibly part of the concentration of power in late prehistoric Egypt: Scorpion I, operating from Thinis, conquered Taurus's realm in the Naqada area.^[6][7]

The glyph that was drawn was a deliberate recordation of this campaign, reminiscent of later campaigns where King Scorpion I's pose is also akin to that of King Narmer's pose on the Narmer Palette 200 years later.

Aftermath

Following the successful campaign, and improved relations between Thinis and Nekhen, Scorpion I unified Upper Egypt following the defeat of Naqada's king. Nekhen's royal house had been incorporated into the House of Thinis with King Scorpion I at its head.^[1][3] The Upper Crown of Egypt would then become the symbol of a united Upper Egypt under one ruler.

Egyptologist Günter Dreyer deduced the existence of King "Taurus" from incisions on a statue of the god Min, which he interpreted as line of succession. He suspected that the grave goods, which were intended for King Scorpion I, came from the state domain goods of King "Taurus" and thus the bull symbol originated from the name of the latter.^[5][6]