Narmer is the pharaoh depicted on the Narmer Palette, the ceremonial stone often interpreted as commemorating the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. The palette shows his name in hieroglyphs and presents him wearing both regions' royal crowns.
On one side, Narmer wears the White Crown of Upper Egypt; on the other, he wears the Red Crown of Lower Egypt. This imagery helped make him a leading candidate for the first king of a unified Egypt and the founder of the First Dynasty. The palette was discovered at Hierakonpolis, also known as Nekhen, during excavations in 1897–1898.
The interpretation is not entirely settled. Some scholars view the scenes as a record of a real conquest, while others see them as symbolic royal imagery or a commemoration of an earlier process of unification. The later historian Manetho named the first pharaoh Menes, traditionally identified with Narmer, although some Egyptologists have proposed Hor-Aha instead. Those debates do not change the direct answer: the ruler named on the artifact is Narmer.