section_path: Regalia/Scepters and staves
section_name: Scepters and staves
paragraph_text: Scepters and staves
  
  Sceptres and staves were a general symbol of authority in ancient Egypt. One of the earliest royal scepters was discovered in the tomb of Khasekhemwy in Abydos. Kings were also known to carry a staff, and Anedjib is shown on stone vessels carrying a so-called mks -staff. The scepter with the longest history seems to be the heqa -sceptre, sometimes described as the shepherd's crook. The earliest examples of this piece of regalia dates to prehistoric Egypt. A scepter was found in a tomb at Abydos that dates to Naqada III.
  
  Another scepter associated with the king is the was -sceptre. This is a long staff mounted with an animal head. The earliest known depictions of the was -scepter date to the First Dynasty. The was -scepter is shown in the hands of both kings and deities.
  
  The flail later was closely related to the heqa -scepter (the crook and flail), but in early representations the king was also depicted solely with the flail, as shown in a late pre-dynastic knife handle that is now in the Metropolitan museum, and on the Narmer Macehead.