[10] Egyptologists Jürgen von Beckerath and Peter Kaplony also initially rejected the identification of Iry-Hor as a king and proposed instead that the known inscriptions refer to a private person whose name is to be read Wer-Ra, wr-rꜣ (lit.

[11] Egyptologists Flinders Petrie,[2] Laurel Bestock[8] and Jochem Kahl[12] nonetheless believed that he was indeed a real ruler.

[1][13][14] Dreyer's excavations of the necropolis of Abydos revealed that Iry-Hor was in fact well attested there, with over 27 objects bearing his name and that his tomb was of royal proportions.

[1] The inscription mentions the city of Memphis, pushing back its foundation to before Narmer and establishing that Iry-Hor was already reigning over it.

Following this discovery, most Egyptologists, including G. Dreyer and the discoverers of the inscription, Pierre Tallet and Damien Laisney, now believe that Iry-Hor was indeed a king.

He probably ruled from Hierakonpolis over Abydos and the wider Thinite region and controlled Egypt at least as far north as Memphis, since the Sinai rock inscription relates a visit of Iry-Hor to this city.

[1][18] The Egyptologists Tallet and Damien Laisney further propose that Iry-Hor also controlled parts of the Nile Delta.

In total, no fewer than 22 pottery jars incised with Iry-Hor's name have been found in Abydos as well as at least five ink-inscribed fragments and a cylinder seal.