Narmer
Narmer is an
Egyptian pharoah who ruled in the
32nd century BC. The successor of
Serket, he is considered by some to be the founder of the Ist. Dynasty. The famous Narmer palette, discovered in
1895, shows Narmer displaying the insignia of both
Upper and
Lower Egypt, giving rise to the theory that he unified the two kingdoms. As
Menes is traditionally credited with that unification, this has caused some controversy. Some Egyptologists hold that Menes and Narmer are in fact the same person; some hold that Menes inherited an already-unified Egypt from Narmer; others hold that Narmer began the process of unification but either did not succeed or succeeded only partially, leaving it to Menes to complete.