Hedjet

. [Arthur Maurice Hocart, "The Life-Giving Myth", Routledge 2004, p.209]

The white crown, along with the red crown, has a long history, with each of their respective representations going back into the Predynastic Period, indicating that kingship had been the base of Egyptian society for some time. The earliest image of the Hedjet known so far is in Northern Nubia (Ta-Seti) around the Naqada II period. [ [http://www.homestead.com/wysinger/crown.html Book review of Timonthy Kendall, "Genesis of the 'Ka' and Crowns?", Thames & Hudson 2003] ] It is possible that the "White crown clan" either migrated northward and their regalia were adopted by the southern Egyptians, or the conquering upper Egyptians took the white crown as their own as they absorbed the kingdom into the new unified state, as they later did with Lower Egypt.

Nekhbet, the tutelary goddess of Nekheb (modern el Kab) near Hierakonpolis, was depicted as a woman, sometimes with the head of a vulture, wearing the White Crown. [Cherine Badawi, "Egypt", 2004, p.550] The falcon god Horus of Hierakonpolis (Egyptian: Nekhen) was generally shown wearing a White Crown. [Toby A. H. Wilkinson, "Early Dynastic Egypt", Routledge 1999, p.285] A famous depiction of the White Crown is on the Narmer Palette found at Hierakonpolis in which the king of the South wearing the "hedjet" is shown triumphing over his northern enemies. The kings of the united Egypt saw themselves as successors of Horus. Vases from the reign of Khasekhemwy show the king as Horus wearing the White Crown. [Jill Kamil, "The Ancient Egyptians: Life in the Old Kingdom", American Univ in Cairo Press 1996, p.61]

S1 shows the Hedjet, White crown as represented in the Gardiner's Sign List.

References

ee also

*Deshret
*Khepresh
*Pschent