Scorpion I

Scorpion I held power in Upper Egypt around 3300 BC, during the Naqada III period that preceded the unification of the kingdoms. He stands among the first named rulers of what would become Ancient Egypt. A graffito depicts him locked in conflict with another predynastic ruler whose identity remains lost. His tomb, excavated centuries later, yielded jars that count among the earliest evidence of wine consumption along the Nile — a fragment of luxury preserved in clay and resin, outlasting the man and the war.