Ancient Egypt

Currently Playing: NEW | Ancient Rock Art of Egypt’s KING SCORPION Discovered

Many of you will have seen the movie, The Scorpion King, starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, but not many will know a great deal about the historical figure this Hollywood character is based on. King Scorpion was a ruler in what Egyptologists call the Protodynastic Period of Upper Egypt, sometime between 5,500 and 5,200 years ago, an elusive figure to history but fragments of his memory survive, and continue to be found. In fact, experts believe there were two King Scorpions in Egypt’s Pre or Proto-Dynastic Period, and it's Scorpion 1st who I'm referring to in this video. A new book has been released by professor Dr. Ludwig Morenz and researcher Mohamed Abdelhay Abu Bakr and it shows how early Egyptian rulers used art, symbolism and the landscape itself to legitimise their authority. In this video I'll give you a brief overview of the facsinating discoveries, with some links below for further information. All images have been taken from the below sources, as well as Google Earth and Google Images for educational purposes only. Please subscribe to Ancient Architects, Like the video, and please leave a comment below. Thank you. Buy the new book by Dr. Morenz at https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/books/detail/-/art/ludwig-d-morenz-kultur-und-macht-im-vorpharaonischen-aegypten/hnum/12407242 Video Contents: 0:00 Introduction 0:27 The Scorpion King 1:01 Two King Scorpions 1:43 The Eastern Desert of Aswan 2:08 New Rock Art Finds 3:17 Egypt's Territorial Markers 3:37 The Association with Dangerous Animals 4:42 Scorpion Deity Association 5:18 Violence in Rock Art 5:53 Ritual and Religious Scenes 6:11 New Technology 6:44 Future Work 7:01 Concluding Remarks Sources: University of Bonn Press Release: https://www.uni-bonn.de/de/neues/155-2025 Arkeonews: https://arkeonews.net/king-scorpions-legacy-violence-divinity-and-the-rise-of-the-worlds-first-territorial-state/ Archaeology Magazine: https://archaeologymag.com/2025/08/egyptian-rock-art-reveals-early-kingship/ Maps and Diagrams of Pre-Dynastic Egypt: https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Joukowsky_Institute/courses/historyofegyptone14/files/27147317.pdf Picture of the Scorpion Macehead: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/278664920_The_Desertification_of_the_Egyptian_Sahara_during_the_Holocene_the_Last_10000_years_and_Its_Influence_on_the_Rise_of_Egyptian_Civilization Picture of Scorpion I: https://www.nemo.nu/ibisportal/0egyptintro/2aegypt/index.htm King Scorpion article from 2020: https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/scorpion-king-s-domain-oldest-place-name-sign-world-0014630 Hieroglyphs of Umm el-Qa'ab: Hieroglyphs of ca. 3200 BCE on bone tags from Umm el- Qa-ab, Abydos The Palaeolithic rock art in Wadi Abu Subeira, Egypt: Landscape, archaeology, threats and conservation: https://per-storemyr.net/2012/05/01/the-palaeolithic-rock-art-in-wadi-abu-subeira-egypt-landscape-archaeology-threats-and-conservation/ #AncientEgypt #Egypt #Archaeology