Thinis (Greek: Θίνις Thinis, Θίς This ; Egyptian: Tjenu; ; ) was the capital city of pre unification Upper Egypt. Thinis remains undiscovered but is well attested by ancient writers, including the classical historian Manetho, who cites it as the centre of the Thinite Confederacy, a tribal confederation whose leader, Menes (or Narmer), united Egypt and was its first pharaoh. Thinis began a steep decline in importance when the capital was relocated to Memphis, which was thought to be the first true and stable capital after the unification of Egypt by Menes. Thinis's location on the border of the competing Heracleopolitan and Theban dynasties of the First Intermediate Period and its proximity to certain oases of possible military importance ensured Thinis some continued significance in the Old and New Kingdoms. This was a brief respite and Thinis eventually lost its position as a regional administrative centre by the Roman period.
Due to its ancient heritage, Thinis remained a significant religious centre, housing the tomb and mummy of the regional deity. In ancient Egyptian religious cosmology, as seen (for example) in the Book of the Dead, Thinis played a role as a mythical place in heaven.
Although the precise location of Thinis is unknown, mainstream Egyptological consensus places it in the vicinity of ancient Abydos and modern Girga.
Name and location
The name Thinis (Θίνις) is derived from Manetho's use of the adjective Thinite to describe the pharaoh Menes. Although the corresponding Thinis does not appear in Greek, it is demanded by the Egyptian original and is the more popular name among Egyptologists. Also suggested is This (Θίς).
In correcting a passage of Hellanicus (b. 490 BCE), Jörgen Zoega amended
Τίνδων ὄνομα to Θὶν δὲ ᾧ ὄνομα. Maspero (1903) found that this revealed the name Thinis and also, from the same passage, a key geographic indicator: επιποταμίη (). Maspero used this additional detail to support the theory, which included among its followers Jean-François Champollion and Nestor L'Hôte, locating Thinis at modern-day Girga or a neighbouring town, possibly El-Birba. Other proposals for Thinis' location have lost favour at the expense of the Girga-Birba theory: Auguste Mariette, founder director of the Egyptian Museum, suggested Kom el-Sultan; A. Schmidt, El-Kherbeh; and Heinrich Karl Brugsch, Johannes Dümichen and others supported El-Tineh, near Berdis. Mainstream Egyptological consensus continues to locate Thinis at or near to either Girga, or El-Birba (where an inscribed statue fragment mentioning Thinis is said to have been found).
History
Pre-dynastic period
Although the archaeological site of Thinis has never been located, evidence of population concentration in the Abydos-Thinis region dates from the fourth millennium BCE. Thinis is also cited as the earliest royal burial-site in Egypt.
At an early point, the city of Abydos ceded its political rank to Thinis, and although Abydos would continue to enjoy supreme religious importance, its history and functions cannot be understood without reference to Thinis. The role of Thinis as centre of the Thinite Confederacy is taken from Manetho, although there are still Dynasty I and late Dynasty II royal tombs at Abydos, the principal regional necropolis.
Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom to Second Intermediate Period
Such importance seems to have been short-lived: certainly, the national political role of Thinis ended shortly after the unification of Egypt when Memphis became the chief religious and political centre. Nonetheless, Thinis retained its regional significance: during Dynasty V it was the probable seat of the "Overseer of Upper Egypt", an administrative official with responsibility for the Nile Valley south of the Delta, and throughout antiquity it was the eponymous capital of nome VIII of Upper Egypt and seat of its nomarch.
During the wars of the First Intermediate Period (c. 2181 – c. 2055 BCE), Ankhtifi, nomarch of Hierakonpolis, demanded recognition of his suzerainty from the "overseer of Upper Egypt" at Thinis, and although the city walls, cited in Ankhtifi's autobiography, seem to have left Ankhtifi capable of only a show of force, he appears to have purchased Thinis' neutrality with grain.