Illustrative model — an approximation, not a scan of the original object.
c. 3150 – 3050 BCE
Scorpion Macehead
Late Predynastic (Naqada III).
- Material
- Limestone
- Findspot
- Temple area, Hierakonpolis (Nekhen)
- Discovery
- Found by Quibell and Green during the 1897–99 excavations.
- Held by
- Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
- Inventory number
- AN1896-1908 E.3632
A large ceremonial macehead, partly preserved. It shows a king wearing the White Crown holding a hoe, beside a scorpion and rosette sign.
The scene is sometimes interpreted as a canal-opening or foundation ritual, but this reading is not certain.
Certainty: Debated
The identity of the king called "Scorpion" and his place in the sequence of rulers before Narmer are unresolved.
- Toby A. H. Wilkinson (1999) “Early Dynastic Egypt” Routledge
- Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford “Scorpion Macehead, AN1896-1908 E.3632”