Very little is known about king Ba. The few
archaeological evidences only assure the existence of such a ruler, but they give no further information. In 1899 the scientist Alessandro Ricci published a drawing of a
serekh with a single leg (Gardiner-sign
D58) as
hieroglyph inside. The picture was seen in Volume No. 35 of the
Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde series. According to Ricci the
serekh was found in a rock inscription at
Wadi Maghareh,
Sinai. The Egyptologists
Jaroslav Černý and
Michel Baude found out, that Ricci was referring to the rock inscription of the 3rd Dynasty king
Sanakht. Ricci simply had misinterpreted the signs used for Sanakht's name – an upright sign of a rope loop, the zig-zag shaped sign for water and a branch-sign below – as a single leg-symbol. Egyptologists such as Černý and
Peter Kaplony think that king Ba might be identical to the likewise sparsely attested king
Horus Bird. This ruler wrote his name with the sign of a goose-like bird, but since the depiction of the bird-sign in question lacks artistic details allowing any identification, Egyptologists are disputing the correct reading and meaning of Horus Bird's name. Černý and Kaplony think that both king's names have the same transcription: "Ba". In this case Horus Ba and Horus Bird would be the same historical figure. Černý and Kaplony's theory is not commonly accepted. In contrast, Egyptologists such as
Nabil Swelim think that Horus Ba was an immediate successor of the 2nd Dynasty king
Nynetjer. He points to the name form of Nynetjer in the
Abydos kinglist, which begins with the same hieroglyphic sign (a
ram; Gardiner-sign
E11) like the
serekh name of Horus Ba. Swelim therefore believes that the Horus name of Ba was erroneously intermingled with the birth name of Nynetjer. Ba's burial site is unknown. ==See also==