some relation in the mythology. After Isis had recovered the body of
Osiris, and the worship of the Osiris and Isis tribes had revived
again from the Semitic invasion of Set worshippers, Set again attacked
the Osiris worship, and scattered the body of Osiris into fourteen
parts in different places. This refers probably to the distribution of
parts of the body to different districts, when it was cut up in the
funeral ceremonies, according to prehistoric usage. These parts of
Osiris were kept at sixteen nomes in Egypt in historic times, six in
the Nile valley and ten in the Delta, probably the original nomes of
the country. The civil discord implied in this persecution must have
weakened the land; and then came the attack by the hawk worshippers
from the south. In the legend of Horbehudti, or Horus of Edfu, we read
that the crocodiles and hippopotami (animals of Set), attacked him,
and his servants, armed with metal weapons, smote and conquered them,
slaying 381 before the city of Edfu. Then the worshippers of Horus
allied themselves with the sun worshippers, and “Horbehudti changed his
form into that of a winged sun disc,” and “took with him Nekhebt the
goddess of the South and Uazet, the goddess of the North, in the form
of two serpents, that they might destroy their enemies in the bodily
forms of crocodiles and hippopotami.” That is to say, the Horus, Ra,
and serpent goddess tribes were all allied to attack the domination of
the Set tribe. They gradually drove them back, and “Set went forth and
cried out horribly”; he was finally struck down at _Pa-rehehu_. “Thus
did Horbehudti, together with Horus, the son of Isis, who had made his
form like unto that of Horbehudti.” That is to say, the rest of the
Horus worshippers joined the Horus-Ra party.
The final battle and expulsion of Set was at Zaru on the eastern
frontier of Egypt. This, in mythological form, seems to give the
history of the driving out of the Semitic population of the later
prehistoric age, by the dynastic race descending from Upper Egypt, at
the close of the prehistoric period. An actual result of this war,
all through later times, was the multitude of towns named Samhud, or
“United to Behudti,” marking the allies of the Horus party.
HISTORICAL SLATE PALETTES. Of the period of the conquest by the
dynastic races, which closed the prehistoric age, there is an
invaluable series of monuments carved on slate. These carved slates
are the elaborated outcome of the slate palettes used for grinding
the face paints throughout the prehistoric age. A similar elaboration
of a simple article is familiar in modern times in the snuff-box. A
plain receptacle of bone or wood was decorated, plated, made of silver
and of gold, inlaid with diamonds and painted with the costliest
miniatures, and yet--it was but a snuff-box. So the plain slip of
slate was carved into animal outlines, had animals scratched on it,
then signs in relief upon it, and at last was covered with the most
elaborate carvings, and yet--it was but a paint grinder, and had always
the pan for colour carved on it, exactly of the shape of the pans on
the painters’ palettes of that age. Every stage can be shown, from a
formless slate to an artistic scene in relief. There are many stages to
be seen in the artistic development.
A. In the prehistoric age are the scratched outlines.
B. The well-incised elephant is as early as S.D. 33-41;
and with it are those signs in low relief.
C. The high relief sign is of S.D. 60-63.
D. On the boat slate, the drawing is much more detailed than on the
boats of the Hierakonpolis tomb of S.D. 63. We can hardly
separate this from the work of the artistic new-comers, and it may
well be about S.D. 70-75.
E. The animal slate seems to be next, as the treatment of the
lion’s hair is unlike the following.
F. The four-dog slate, being a coarser but more elaborated design
of the same type, may well be next.
G. The hut slate shows for the first time the arrangement of lion’s
mane as on the ivory lions of King Zer.
H. The gazelle slate shows the same treatment more advanced.
J. The towns slate shows the wiry detail of muscles, beginning to
appear in archaic manner.
K. The bull slate has the same style carried out fully and finely.
L. The Narmer slate has a less forcible and smoother treatment of
the bull, and brings us down to touch with the historic times.
The figures can be seen in Capart’s “Primitive Art in Egypt,” where
they may be identified by these letters, corresponding to the
paragraphs above: A, B, figures 61, 62; C, 63; D, 169; E, 171-2; F,
173-4; G, 170; H, 177-80; J, 175-6; K, 181-2; L, 183-4.
RACIAL TYPES. These slate carvings not only show the art of the time,
but they present the different races and the details of their life,
more fully than we find them for many centuries later. We see six
different types of physiognomy in the early remains, and learn how
complex the racial history must be at the most remote period accessible
to us.
A. The _aquiline_ type is that of the principal prehistoric race,
closely like the Libyan on the west and the Amorite on the east.
When mixed with negro it produced the exact type of a European-Negro
mulatto. Probably equal to the Libyan. [See Heads 1 to 4 on next page.]
[Illustration: EGYPT IN THREE PERIODS OF ITS CIVILISATION
This map of Egypt shows Egypt in three of its early periods. (1)
The earliest centres of culture were at the places where parts of
Osiris were preserved in the prehistoric age, here named. (2) The
second period is shown by other centres being placed in the right
geographical order, all here numbered I to XIX, following down each
branch of the Nile. (3) The third period is when other centres were
inserted in the lists in the wrong order, here numbered 8 to 20.
These three stages of Egypt’s history are all before the monarchy.
]
[Illustration: THE EARLIEST PORTRAITS OF VARIOUS RACES IN EGYPT
Numbers 1 and 2 are the aquiline type, similar to 3, the Libyan,
and 4 the Amorite. 5 is the curly hair type, 6 the sharp-nosed
type, 7 the short-nosed type, 8 the forward beard type, 9-11 the
straight-faced type of dynastic conquerors. 12 is King Khafra of
the Pyramid age, reverting to the original type of 1 and 2.
]
B. The _sharp-nosed_ type, firstly, with the hair in a pigtail,
bringing stone vases as tribute, and sometimes dressed in long robe;
secondly, with bushy hair and armed with spear, throw-stick, mace, bow
and arrows. Probably the Arabian mountain race mixed with Libyan. See
figure 6 on this page.
C. The _curly hair_ type, with plaited beard, conquered and destroyed
by type B. Probably from North Syria, by sculptures there. See figure 5
on this page.
D. The _forward beard_ type, with close-cut hair; much like the
figures on early Naukratite vases. Probably a coast people of Libyan
connection. See figure 8 on this page.
E. The _short-nosed_ type, a variety of D, apparently belonging to the
Fayum. Fig. 7.
F. The _straight-faced_ type of the dynastic conquerors. See figures
9-11 on this page.
All of these different peoples were in continual mixture and struggle
during the few centuries before the first dynasty. Looking to the
tribal hints given by the mythology, it seems probable that:
A represents the early Osiris and Isis worshippers; B the first
dominance of Set; C the second irruption of Set; D and E the allied
Osiris and Isis worshippers of the Delta and coast who helped to
expel Set; and F the hawk Horus worshippers, who took the lead in
driving out B and C by alliance with A, D and E.
[Sidenote: Earliest Promise of Greatness]
DYNASTIC RACE. The most essential difference between the prehistoric
and the dynastic people is in their artistic capacity. The earlier
peoples, though highly skilled in mechanical detail and handling, were
yet very crude in their copying of any natural forms. But as soon as
we reach the dynastic race we find that there is an artistic sense and
power in their work, which puts even the roughest of it far above all
that had gone before. The earliest examples of their sculpture appear
to be the colossal figures of the god Min, found at Koptos. These are
of the most primitive style possible, the limbs scarcely marked off
from the trunk, and no details of form attempted. But on the side of
each there is a patch of hammer-work outlining some figures, perhaps
a copy of embroideries on a skin pouch hung at the side. These are
figures of a deer’s head and pteroceras shells on one, swordfish,
shells, and standards of the god on another, and the same objects,
together with an ostrich, elephant, hyena, and calf on the third. All
are but roughly hammered round, yet the spirit and correct forms of
the animals are of an entirely different order from anything that had
yet appeared in Egypt. The promise of all the artistic triumphs of
thousands of years to come is clearly seen in these decorations of the
rudest statues known.
[Sidenote: Mystery of Dynastic Race]
The source of this dynastic race can only be inferred. Though marked
off from the earlier inhabitants by their artistic taste, and by their
use of hieroglyphic writing, we know so very little of the early
history of any other lands near Egypt that we cannot yet trace any
link to their original source. On looking in various directions, it
seems at least clear that they do not belong to the southern tribes, to
which they have no resemblance; nor can we suppose that the Libyans,
who appear to be one with the prehistoric people, would also supply
a race so different in face and in habits. The north and Syria seem
barred by the earliest centres being at Abydos and Hierakonpolis in the
south of Egypt, from which they conquered the north.
[Illustration: THE FIRST PROMISE OF THE ARTISTIC TRIUMPHS OF EGYPT
These animal figures were wrought by hammering around on the
surface of the colossal statue of the god Min, found at Koptos, and
show the beginning of the wonderful art of Ancient Egypt. It is the
work of the earliest dynastic people, who have passed beyond the
stage of making rude scratches on walls and on pottery, and have
arrived, as the figures of the ox and the hyæna prove, at a real
conception of the methods of sculpture.
]
[Sidenote: The Way the Conquerors Came]
Lastly, no source seems open except the East, the road from which
joined the Nile at Koptos. It is there that the earliest statues have
been found, and the decoration on those comprises the swordfish and
pteroceras shell belonging to the Red Sea. Such seems to have been
the road of the dynastic race into Egypt; but the origin of that race
yet awaits research. There are undoubtedly some Babylonian elements
in their culture, and somewhere at the south end of the Red Sea lay
Punt--the “divine land” of the Egyptians. Thus we are tempted to
look to some migration from Southern Arabia, whence also may have
proceeded the kindred Sumerian culture, a few centuries later. From
this centre in Pūn, or Punt, it may have conquered and colonised Egypt,
and then later passed on up the Red Sea to the coast of the Pœni and
their later Punic colony--Phœnicia and Carthage. Such is a pleasing
co-ordination, but whether we shall ever recover the evidence to prove
or disprove it hangs upon the chance of the past and the activity of
the future.
CONQUEST OF EGYPT. The conquest of Egypt spread down from the south to
the north. The earliest centres were Abydos and Hierakonpolis. Probably
Edfu was as important, or more so; but the great Ptolemaic temple
there being still complete, the remains of the earliest kingdom are
sealed beneath its pavements. The conquest must have been a gradual
process; it is described as such in the myth, many times and in many
successive places was Set defeated and repelled. And the probability is
that tribal war of such a kind would only gradually transfer district
after district from one holder to the next. We know how in England the
conquest occupied three centuries, from the Saxon landing to the first
Saxon king of all the land. So it may well have been in Egypt.
[Sidenote: Kings Before History]
We read in Manetho of ten kings of Thinis (Abydos) who ruled for 350
years before the first dynasty of kings of all Egypt. And we know, from
the fragment of the Palermo Stone, that at least thirteen kings of
Lower Egypt were recorded before the first dynasty. It is obvious from
this, and from the probabilities of the conquest, that there were Kings
of Upper Egypt before the first dynasty; and there is no reason for not
accepting this statement of Manetho as being equally correct with his
account of the first dynasty, which we can verify. Of the actual course
of the conquest, one fragment of carved slate has preserved the record.
Seven towns are represented upon it, each attacked by one animal of
the standards of the allies. These towns may be tolerably identified
by comparing the hieroglyphics placed within them with the names known
in historic times. The upper row of four towns seem to be Mem in the
Fayum, Hipponon, Pa-rehehui, and possibly Abydos; and the lower three
towns were probably in the delta, though there are the uncertainties
of two northern similar names.
[Sidenote: Graves of Unknown Kings]
DYNASTY O. The contemporary remains that appear to belong to this age
of the Kings of Abydos (which we may call Dynasty O) are the tomb
chambers and funeral objects in the royal cemetery at Abydos. The plan
of that cemetery shows a sequence of each later tomb being placed next
to the previous tomb, and generally a receding further back into the
desert as time went on. Now, in front of the tomb of Zer, the second
king of the first dynasty, there are three large tombs alike, and four
lesser ones. As objects of Mena, the first king, were found here, the
other tombs are presumably those of six kings before the first dynasty,
by their position. The actual objects found in these tombs are all of
a more archaic style than those of Mena or any later king. The tombs
themselves are all lesser and simpler than those of Zer and later
kings. And the names of kings found here are all without the vulture
and uræus title, but with only _neb neb_, the double lordship of Egypt.
The whole of the evidence, therefore, goes to show that we have six
tombs of the Thinite kings before Menes.
The names of these earlier kings, so far as we trace them, are Ka,
Ro, Zeser, Zar, Nar, and Sma. Of these, Nar, or Narmer, has the most
important remains--part of an ebony tablet, and an alabaster jar
from his tomb, and the great slate palette, a great mace head, with
scene of a festival, and an ivory cylinder, from Hierakonpolis. The
next in importance is Zar, or the “Scorpion King,” of whom there is
a great carved mace head, and also some vases. The objects of the
carvings appear to be celebrations of the _sed_ festival; this appears
originally to have been the slaying of the king every thirty years,
making him Osiris, one with the god, while his daughter was married
to the new king. By the time of these carvings, it appears that the
king took the place of Osiris in the ceremonials, and his successor
masqueraded as the new king, and was henceforth the crown prince--the
heir to the kingdom.
[Illustration: A FESTIVAL SCENE OVER 7,000 YEARS AGO, IN THE REIGN OF
KING NARMER, 5,500 B.C.
A record of the festival of Narmer, a king of Abydos, who reigned
before the first dynasty of kings of all Egypt. It indicates that
when the festival of his own death was celebrated, in accordance
with the ancient custom of killing the king every thirty years to
make him one with Osiris the god, no fewer than 120,000 captives,
400,000 oxen, and 1,422,000 goats were offered. The numerical
system is here seen to be complete up to millions.
]
[Sidenote: Planting and Building]
There were brought to the festival of Narmer 120,000 captives, 400,000
oxen, 1,422,000 goats; and the system of numeration was as complete
before Menes as it was in any later time. The other mace head of
King Zar shows part of the festival, and also the ceremony of the
king hoeing the bank of a canal, probably at the inundation. We see
the reclamation of the land, with men busy embanking the canals, and
cultivating a palm tree in an enclosure of reeds, while they lived in
reed huts with plaited dome tops, and used boats with a very high,
upright stem. The carved slate palette of Narmer shows him grasping the
chief of the Fayum, prepared to smite him, a scene which was repeated
for five thousand years in all the Egyptian triumphs. The metal
water-pot and sandals are carried behind the king by his body servant.
On the other side of the palette is the king going to a triumphal
ceremony, preceded by the scribe, _thet_, and four men of different
types bearing the standards of the army, possibly connected with the
four territorial divisions of the army found under Ramessu II. Before
them lie ten slain enemies, with their heads cut off and put between
their legs. The carving of the detail, and particularly the muscular
anatomy of the king’s figure, is extraordinarily fine and firm, and as
true as any work of later time.
WRITTEN HISTORY. Having now dealt with the history as drawn from the
remains which have come to light, we now enter from this point on the
continuous written history, which has come down from hand to hand
without a break to our own times, during over seven thousand years.
This history was compiled by the high-priest and scribe Manetho of
Sebennytos in the Delta, and only a fragment of his work has been
preserved on its full scale; but three later writers have given
epitomes of it, and it is on their lists that we have to depend. These
are Julius Africanus (221 A.D.), Eusebius (326 A.D.), and George the
Syncellus (792 A.D.).
[Sidenote: The Men Who Handed Down the Story]
[Sidenote: An Ancient Historian and His Figures]
Unfortunately, much confusion has been caused by scholars not being
content to accept Manetho as being substantially correct in the main,
though with many small corruptions and errors. Nearly every historian
has made large and arbitrary assumptions and changes, with a view to
reducing the length of time stated. But recent discoveries seem to
prove that we must accept the lists as having been correct, however
they may have suffered in detail. A favourite supposition has been that
the dynasties named were arbitrary divisions of later times; but the
earlier lists also show such divisions as far back as the eighteenth
dynasty, and kings founding a dynasty used to copy the titles of the
founder of the previous dynasty, showing that the change was recognised
at the time.
Another idea has been that the dynasties were contemporary. But, on the
contrary, in the overlapping of the tenth and eleventh and also the
twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth dynasties, we can trace that Manetho was
very careful to cut off from one dynasty all the time which he allows
to another. As regards the general character of the whole length of
time, we can show that Manetho’s version in 271 B.C. at Sebennytos
was the same as that given to Herodotus two hundred years earlier at
Memphis. Herodotus was told that from Menes to his time were 330 kings,
and the totals of Manetho are 192 + 96 + 50 to Artaxerxes = 338, so
that, in spite of corruption in detail, the totals seem to have been
correctly maintained.
In earlier times we can compare Manetho with the fragments of the
Turin papyrus, written in the eighteenth dynasty; and here, in one of
the most disputable points--the kings of the thirteenth dynasty--the
average of eleven reigns legible in the papyrus is 6½ years, and
Manetho states sixty kings in 453 years, or 7½ years’ average. The
general character of a great number of short reigns in this age is
quite supported. Then in the eighteenth dynasty there is a rising of
Sirius in the movable calendar, in the twelfth dynasty another rising
of Sirius, and some seasonal dates, and in the sixth dynasty are two
seasonal dates. [Owing to the ignoring of leap year, the Egyptian
months shifted round the seasons in 1,460 years; hence any seasonal
date can only recur once in 1,460 years, and fixes an absolute date in
that cycle.] All of these agree with Manetho; and though the seasonal
dates are vague, they at least show that there is not an error of
several centuries in the total. In the earliest times there is the
account of the first dynasty, the names and succession of which are
verified by the sculptured lists in the nineteenth dynasty and by the
actual graves of the kings. Every accurate test that we can apply shows
the general trustworthiness of Manetho, apart from minor corruptions.
[Illustration: THE EARLIEST DETAILED SCULPTURE
This carved slate palette of King Narmer shows him grasping the
chief of the Fayum, prepared to smite him, a scene which was
repeated for five thousand years in all the Egyptian triumphs. The
sculpture shows anatomical treatment for the first time in art.
]
[Sidenote: Material for History of Early Times]
It is naturally a question what sort of material existed for an
accurate history of the early times. The fragment of annals known as
the Palermo Stone was engraved in the fifth dynasty, and it recorded
the principal events of all the years back to the beginning of the
kingdom, a thousand years before, the height of the Nile for every
year, the length of every king’s reign and of interregnum to the exact
days. With such a record of the most remote times carefully maintained
we have every reason to suppose that the high-priests and sacred
scribes had adequate information as to the general course of their
history. And we can see by the Turin papyrus how in the eighteenth
dynasty there was a full historical list of all the kings, with their
length of reigns, dynasties, and summations of numbers and years
at each of the large divisions. Thus it is proved that there were
historians at various periods who compiled and edited the history, and
so provided a solid groundwork for later writers, such as Manetho.
[Illustration: A RECORD OF EVENTS IN 4750 B.C.
A part of early annals known as the Palermo Stone. Each compartment
contains the events of one year, with the height of the Nile in
cubits stated below it. The lower right division records: “Building
of a ship 170 feet long, and of 60 ships 100 feet long. Conquest
of negroes, bringing 4,000 men, 3,000 women, and 200,000 cattle.
Building a wall of the palaces of King Sneferu. Bringing 40 ships
of cedar (from Syria).” The left division reads: “Making 35 hunting
lodges and 122 tanks for cattle. Building a ship of cedar 170 feet
long, and two other ships of 170 feet. 7th census of cattle.”
]
[Sidenote: The Witness to Early Civilisation]
The materials that we have for studying the civilisation of the early
dynasties are the royal tombs and steles, the tablets of the annals,
the sealings of officials, the inscribed stone bowls, glazed pottery,
ivory, and wood, the rock steles of Sinai, fragments of buildings of
the second dynasty and onward, the steles of private persons and their
graves.
[Sidenote: In the Kings’ Tombs]