A LIGHT SHINING IN THE DARKNESS
KEMET
- The Missing Link -
A FINAL SOLUTION
Let us begin by configuring a cohesive perspective of the landscape. EGYPT, we know, gets its name from Hut-Ka-Ptah. KEMET, some argue, from the fertile soil of the Nile valley of Upper Egypt and the delta region of Lower Egypt.
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I certainly do not know when the land was divided into Upper and Lower Egypt. But obviously it was so before the unification of the two lands by Menes. It is purely habit that we tend to say Menes built or established Memphis, but the truth is that he didn't. Memphis gets its name from the Greek corruption of Men-Nefer (that which was "Established In Beauty," the pyramid built by Pepi I, a king who lived about 840 years later). Instead, Menes built The Residence that came to be known as the White Walls, in which the temple of Ptah was constructed. We know it now as the first nome of Lower Egypt. But before Menes came along, Khem was the first nome of Lower Egypt.
The Greeks, it is said, also had a second name for Men-Nefer --- Per-Km.t ("The House In The Land Of Khem") --- which is now the second nome of lower Egypt. In Laying The 24" Rule, I brought to your attention a place called Pet En Khem (the "Heaven Of Khem"), and told you it was at some time another name for Heliopolis (nome 13 of L.E.). Now, concerning Heliopolis, research indicated that before the end of the 5th dynasty, it was not yet an independent nome (a temple for Ra still remained to be built), but a part of the 14th, which was the fortress Tharu. If Heliopolis was connected to Tharu, while at the same time being a part of Khem, then Tharu was also a part of Khem. Thus, we see that, before the unification, Khem comprised an area that included the 1st, 2nd, 10th, 13th, and 14th nomes of Lower Egypt. These nomes (FIG 1) can be said to constitute Kemet proper.
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Now, let's fast forward to the the F.I.P.. The post-prophetic propaganda of Neferty provides my first texual record of the word Kemet: "Foes have appeared in the east, Aamu have entered Kemet. We have no [border] fortress, for the foreigners now hold it.".
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The Aamu have taken control of Tharu in the 14th nome of L.E.. In the dissolution of the legitimate government that followed, the Herakleopolitans emerge as a new power. According to the Teachings Of Merykare, the Herakleon (20th) nome of U.E. had managed to establish a defense perimeter between Kem-Wer and Letopolis. Kety admonished his son:
"Unite Medenit to its [ ]. Take possession of its adjacent territory as far as Kem-Wer. For behold, it is a lifeline against the foreigners. Its walls are a defense, its soldiers are numerous, and the serfs within it adept at carrying weapons, as are the free citizens within it. As for the region of Djedsut (Memphis), it totals 10,000 men, both serfs and free citizens exempt from taxation. Officials have been in it ever since it was the Residence. Well established are its borders, and mighty are its garrisons.... Behold it is a gateway to the Delta, and they have formed a protection as far as Neni-nesut."
By the time the Thebans of the 11th Dyn ascended as the rulers of The 2 Lands, the Herakleopolitans had managed to extend their sphere of influence to the 8th nome of U.E. (i.e., Abydos, the land that produced the oldest evidence of the god Iah. They had controlled land from cities of Min/Khem in the Delta to a city of Min/Khem in U.E.). Intef I/II captured Abydos then penetrated further northward until he took the city of Hathor (nome 10), which became the new boundary between Upper & Lower Egypt (FIG 2).
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TO BE CONTINUED ....
