Image: Ceremonial mace-head of King Scorpion

Description: Mace-head of King Scorpion. Ceremonial mace-heads are oversized versions of the small stone weapons that were typical grave goods during the Predynastic Period. Their size and decoration suggest that they had ritual significance, rather than a practical function. By about 3100 BC, mace-heads had become symbols of the Egyptian elite. Their surfaces were carved with complex imagery associated with the foundation of the Egyptian state, particularly the new institution of kingship. The scenes on the surviving fragments of this mace-head depict King Scorpion (named after the scorpion symbol to the right of his face) performing the ceremonial opening of an irrigation canal. Attended by fan-bearers, the king wears the White Crown of Upper Egypt and a ceremonial bull's tail. Standing before him, a man holding a basket, and another carrying a broom, wait to collect the earth removed by the king's hoe. King Scorpion may have been the immediate predecessor of King Narmer. He would therefore belong to the group of rulers preceding the kings of the historic 1st Dynasty. From the 'Main Deposit', Hierakonpolis, Late Predynastic - Early Dynastic (about 3100-3000 BC). Egyptian Research Account excavations. (Ashmolean)
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