Horus BA has been considered another one of those
local Lower Egyptian predecessors of Hotepsekhemwy, maybe mistaking
his name with the possible name of "Bird" (Kaplony in MDAIK
20, 1965, p.3 proposes Ba as the reading of that bird sign in a serekh).
For a "Horus Bird" possibly after Qa'a and Sneferka, cf. Sneferka.
Nabil Swelim (1983) and, more recently, Jochem Kahl (1994) have proposed a different chronological position for Ba, respectively in the early and in the late III rd Dynasty). Here I consider Ba as a possible Third Dynasty ruler or, alternatively, the Horus name of one of the ephemeral Memphite rulers of middle Second Dynasty (Wneg, Sened, Nwbnefer, Neferkasokar) known to us only by their Nebty-Nswtbity names. The site was originally the early Second Dynasty kings
royal necropolis (tombs A, B - Hotepsekhemwy
and Ninetjer): this would argue also in favour
of the possibility that the mentioned individuals were priests charged
with duties of the cult of earlier kings buried in the area. South of
tombs A and B a new one, tomb C
(reused by the 18th dynasty priest of Aton Meryre) has been cleared early
in 2002 by a Dutch mission (van Walsem, Raven). *The first occurrance of the standing ram hieroglyph (Gardiner E10/11, Khnwm / Ba) seems to be that on the Narmer baboon in Berlin (Staatl. Mus., 22607: Kahl, 1994, Quelle 125, bibl. p. 472-473), after which it appears rather frequently especially since late 1st Dynasty and mid-2nd Dynasty (under Qa'a / Sneferka; under Za and especially Ninetjer (Khnwmenjj, Khnwmhotep): cf. Lacau-Lauer, PD V, 3ff., 31ff., 47, 39). [F. Raffaele] |
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