Abstract:
From the Thinite Age dates a score of inscriptions which can be considered 'royal lists' in the sense of sequences of at least two names of kings who reigned successively. These documents allow us to discuss about the ways of expression of kinship in the context of the early pharaonic monarchy. In fact, in the sphere of the royalty of the Archaic Period, kinship implies ancestors cult (mythical level) and genealogical relationships (political level). In this paper, we will concentrate on the first of these two aspects. We will discuss about the 'definition' and the 'aim' of the Thinite 'royal lists' and we will conclude that they are not the expression of a primitive historiography but of a sophisticated ancestors cult, centred on the figures of Horus and Khentamentiu as the gods who embody the living and the dead king respectively.