_The Royal Tombs at Abydos: Reconstruction of the First and Second
Dynasties: The Ten Temples at Abydos: The statuette of Khûfûi: Pottery
and Pottery Marks: The Expedition of the University of California._
Some interesting explorations have been conducted in Egypt by the
Exploration Fund during the four years 1900-04, under the guidance of
Prof. W. M. Flinders Petrie, whose enthusiasm and patience for the work
in this field seem to increase with the years of labour. In the winter
of 1899-1900, Professor Petrie and his zealous helpers began their
investigation of the royal tombs of the first dynasty at Abydos.
Commenting on this undertaking, Professor Petrie writes:
It might have seemed a fruitless and thankless task to work at Abydos
after it had been ransacked by Mariette, and had been for the last four
years in the hands of the Mission Amélineau. My only reason was that
the extreme importance of results from there led to a wish to ascertain
everything possible about the early royal tombs after they were done
with by others, and to search even for fragments of the pottery. To work
at Abydos had been my aim for years past; but it was only after it
was abandoned by the Mission Amélineau that at last, on my fourth
application for it, I was permitted to rescue for historical study the
results that are here shown.
Nothing is more disheartening than being obliged to gather results out
of the fraction left behind by past plunderers. In these royal tombs
there had been not only the plundering of the precious metals and the
larger valuables by the wreckers of early ages; there was after that the
systematic destruction of monuments by the vile fanaticism of the Kopts,
which crushed everything beautiful and everything noble that mere greed
had spared; and worst of all, for history, came the active search in the
last four years for everything that could have a value in the eyes of
purchasers, or be sold for profit regardless of its source; a search in
which whatever was not removed was deliberately and avowedly destroyed
in order to enhance the intended profits of European speculators. The
results are therefore only the remains which have escaped the lust
of gold, the fury of fanaticism, and the greed of speculators in this
ransacked spot.
A rich harvest of history has come from the site which was said to be
exhausted; and in place of the disordered confusion of names without any
historical connection, which was all that was known from the _Mission
Amélineau_, we now have the complete sequence of kings from the middle
of the dynasty before Mena to probably the close of the second dynasty,
and we can trace in detail the fluctuations of art throughout these
reigns. *
At the time when Professor Maspero brought his history of Egypt to a
close, the earliest known historical ruler of Egypt was King Mena or
Menés.**
* The Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty, Parts I.-II.
(Eighteenth and Twenty-first Memoirs of the Egypt
Exploration Fund), London, 1900-1902.
** See Volume I., page 322, et seq.
Mena is the first king on the fragmentary list of Manetho, and the
general accuracy of Manetho was supported by the accounts of Herodotus
and other ancient writers. For several centuries these accounts were
accepted as the basis of authentic history. With the rise of the science
of Egyptology, however, search began to be made for some corroboration
of the actual existence of Mena, and this was found in the inscriptions
of a temple wall at Abydos, which places Mena at the head of the first
dynasty; and, allowing for differences of language, the records of
Manetho relating to the earlier dynasty were established. Mena was
therefore accepted as the first king of the first dynasty up to the very
end of the nineteenth century.
As a result of Professor Petrie s recent investigations, however, he
has been enabled to carry back the line of the early kings for three or
four generations.
The royal tombs at Abydos lie closely together in a compact group on a
site raised slightly above the level of the surrounding plain, so that
the tombs could never be flooded. Each of the royal tombs is a large
square pit, lined with brickwork. Close around it, on its own level,
or higher up, there are generally small chambers in rows, in which were
buried the domestics of the king. Each reign adopted some variety in the
mode of burial, but they all follow the type of the prehistoric burials,
more or less developed. The plain square pit, like those in which the
predynastic people were buried, is here the essential of the tomb. It
is surrounded in the earlier examples of Zer or Zet by small chambers
opening from it. By Merneit these chambers were built separately around
it. By Den an entrance passage was added, and by Qa the entrance was
turned to the north. At this stage we are left within reach of the early
passage-mastabas and pyramids. Substituting a stone lining and roof for
bricks and wood, and placing the small tombs of domestics farther away,
we reach the type of the mas-taba-pyramid of Snofrui, and so lead on to
the pyramid series of the Old Kingdom.
[Illustration: 361.jpg PLAN OF THE ROYAL TOMBS AS ABYDOS]
The careful manner with which all details of a burial were supervised
under the first dynasty enables the modern Egyptologist, by a skilful
piecing together of evidence, to reconstruct an almost perfect picture
of the life of Egypt at the dawn of civilisation. One of our most
valuable sources of information is due to the fact that, in building the
walls of the royal tombs, there were deposited in certain parts within
the walls objects now technically known as _deposits_. We do not know
whether, in selecting these objects, the ancient Egyptian had regard
to what he considered their intrinsic value, or whether, as was most
probable, it was some religious motive that prompted his action. Often
the objects thus deposited come under the designation of pottery,
although the vases were sometimes shaped of stone and not of clay.
Within such vases all kinds of objects were preserved. The jar or vase
was closed with a lump of clay, either flat or conical, and the clay was
impressed, while wet, with a seal.
A detailed and elaborate examination of the relative positions of the
tombs, their dimensions, and the objects found in them, compared with
the various fragments of historical records of the early dynasties,
enables us to reconstruct the exact order of these ancient rulers. This
sequence is:
[Illustration: 362.jpg TABLE OF ANCIENT RULERS]*
* Ka and Zeser were possibly brothers of Mena.
Following the dating tentatively computed by Professor Petrie, the dates
of some of these kings are:
[Illustration: 363a.jpg TABLE OF CHRONOLOGY OF EARLY KINGS]
Thus we have reconstructed the list of Thinite kings before Mena so
far as the facts allow, and perhaps so far as we are ever likely to
ascertain them.
The facts about the second dynasty, the kings after Qa, must now be
studied. In the tomb of Perabsen it was found that there were
buried with him vases of three other kings, which are therefore his
predecessors. Their names are Hotepahaui, Raneb, and Neteren; and it
is certain that Raneb preceded Neteren, as the latter had defaced and
re-used a vase of the former. As on statue No. 1, Cairo Museum, these
three names are in the above order, and, as the succession of two of
them is now proved, it is only reasonable to accept them in this order.
From all the available facts it seems that we ought to restore the
dynasty thus:
[Illustration: 363b.jpg TABLE OF KINGS]
The oldest tomb that we can definitely assign is that marked B 7, the
tomb of King Ka. This is a pit with sloping sides; the thickness of the
brick walls is that of the length of one brick, and the soft footing of
the wall and pressure of sand behind it has overthrown the longer sides.
[Illustration: 364.jpg ENLARGED PLAN OF FIRST DYNASTY TOMBS]
The broken pottery mixed with the sand, which filled it, largely
consisted of cylinder jars, like the later prehistoric form; and these
had many inscriptions on them, written in ink with a brush, most of
which showed the name of Ka in the usual panelled frame. There can
therefore be no doubt of the attribution of this tomb.
The tomb B 9 is perhaps that of King Zeser, who seems to have been a
successor of Ka. It is of the same construction as that of Ka. The tomb
B 10 appears to be the oldest of the great tombs, by its easternmost
position; and the objects of Narmer point to this as his tomb. In both
the thickness and the batter of the walls there is a care shown in
proportioning the strength of the ends and the sides. The tomb B 15
is probably that of King Sma. Its walls are not quite so thick, being
fifty inches at the end. The post-holes in the floor suggest that there
were five on the long side, and one in the middle of each end, as in the
tomb of Narmer. But along the sides are holes for roofing beams near the
top of the wall. These roof beams do not at all accord with the posts;
and this proves that, here at least, the posts were for backing a wooden
chamber inside the brick chamber. If this be the case here, it was
probably also true in Narmers tomb; and hence these brick tombs were
only the protective shell around a wooden chamber which contained the
burial. This same system is known in the first dynasty tombs, and we see
here the source of the chambered tombs of Zer and Zet. Before the age
of Mena, the space around the wood chamber was used for dropping in
offerings between the framing posts; and then, after Mena, separate
brick chambers were made around the wooden chamber in order to hold more
offerings.*
*This chamber was burnt; and is apparently that mentioned by
M. Amélineau, Fouilles, in extenso, 1899, page 107.
The tomb B 19, which contained the best tablet of Aha-Mena, is probably
his tomb; for the tomb with his vases at Naqada is more probably that of
his queen Neithotep. As both the tombs B 17 and 18 to the north of this
contained objects of Mena, it is probable that they were the tombs of
some members of his family.
The great cemetery of the domestics of this age is the triple row of
tombs to the east of the royal tombs; in all the thirty-four tombs here,
no name was found beside that of Aha on the jar sealings, and the two
tombs, B 6 and B 14, seen to be probably of the same age. In B 14 were
found only objects of Aha, and three of them were inscribed with the
name of Bener-eb, probably the name of a wife or a daughter of Mena,
which is not found in any other tomb.*
* Professor Petries arguments, although home out by the
evidence that he produces, have from time to time been
criticised. M. Naville, for example, endeavours to prove
that the buildings in the desert are not literally tombs,
but rather temples for the cult of their Ka; and that there
ought not to be kings anterior to Mena, particularly at
Abydos: Narmer is really Boethos, the first king of the
second dynasty. According to M. Naville, Boethos, Usaphis,
and Miebidos are the only kings as yet identified of the
early time. M. Naville also suggests that Ka-Sekhem and Ka-
Sekhemui are two names for one king.
[Illustration: 366.jpg EBONY TABLET OF KING AHA-MENA]
From the time of Mena has come down to us an ebony tablet, as shown in
the illustration. This is the most complete of the inscriptions of this
king, and was found in two portions in the tombs marked B 18 and B 19.
The signs upon the tablet are most interesting. On the top line, after
the cartouche of Aha-Mena, there are two sacred boats, probably of
Sokaris, and a shrine and temenos of Nit. In the line below is seen a
man making an offering, and behind him is a bull running over undulating
ground into a net stretched between two poles, while at the end,
standing upon a shrine, is a bird, which appears to be the ibis of Thot.
A third line shows three boats upon a canal or river, passing between
certain places, and it has been reasonably conjectured that the other
signs in this line indicate these places as being Biu, a district of
Memphis; Pa She (or the dwelling of the lake), the capital of the
Fayum; and the Canal of Mer, or Bahr Yusef. So far this tablet
contains picture signs, but the fourth line gives a continued series of
hieroglyphics, and is the oldest line of such characters yet discovered.
Mr. F. LI. Griffiths translates these characters as who takes the
throne of Horus.
In the north-west corner of the tomb, a stairway of bricks was roughly
inserted in later times in order to give access to the shrine of Osiris.
That this is not an original feature is manifest: the walls are burnt
red by the burning of the tomb, while the stairs are built of black
mud brick with fresh mud mortar smeared over the reddened wall. It is
notable that the burning of these tombs took place before their re-use
in the eighteenth dynasty; as is also seen by the re-built doorway of
the tomb of Den, which is of large black bricks over smaller red burnt
bricks. It is therefore quite beside the mark to attribute this burning
to the Kopts.
The tomb of King Zer has an important secondary history as the site of
the shrine of Osiris, established in the eighteenth dynasty (for none of
the pottery offered there is earlier than that of Amenhôthes III.), and
visited with offerings from that time until the twenty-sixth dynasty,
when additional sculptures were placed here.
[Illustration: 368.jpg TOMB OF ZER, 4700 B.C.]
Afterwards it was despoiled by the Kopts in erasing the worship of
Osiris. It is the early state of the place as the tomb of King Zer that
we have to study here, and not its later history.
The tomb chamber has been built of wood; and the brick cells around
it were built subsequently against the wooden chamber, as their rough,
unplastered ends show; moreover, the cast of the grain of the wood can
be seen on the mud mortar adhering to the bricks. There are also long,
shallow grooves in the floor, a wide one near the west wall, three
narrow ones parallel to that, and a short cross groove, all probably the
places of beams which supported the wooden chamber. Besides these there
was till recently a great mass of carbonised wood along the north side
of the floor. This was probably part of the flooring of the tomb, which,
beneath the woodwork, was covered with a layer of bricks, which lay
on clean sand. But all the middle of the tomb had been cleared to the
native marl for building the Osiris shrine, of which some fragments of
sculpture in hard limestone are now all that remain.
A strange feature here is that of the red recesses, such as were also
found in the tomb of Zet. The large ones are on the west wall, and in
the second cell on the north wall. No meaning can yet be assigned to
these, except as spirit-entrances to the cells of offerings, like the
false doors in tombs of the Old Kingdom.
In spite of the plundering of the tombs in various ages, the work of the
Egypt Exploration Fund was so thorough that not a few gold objects
have been found in the course of recent excavations. By far the most
important discovery of recent years was that of some jewelry in the tomb
of King Zer. The story of this find is so entertaining, and illustrates
so admirably the method of the modern scientific explorer, that we give
the account of it in Professor Petries own words:
While my workmen were clearing the tomb, they noticed among the rubbish
which they were moving a piece of the arm of a mummy in its wrappings.
It lay in a broken hole in the north wall of the tomb. The party of four
who found it looked into the end of the wrappings and saw a large gold
bead, the rosette in the second bracelet. They did not yield to the
natural wish to search further or to remove it; but laid the arm down
where _they_ found it until Mr. Mace should come and verify it. Nothing
but obtaining the complete confidence of the workmen, and paying them
for all they find, could ever make them deal with valuables in this
careful manner. On seeing it, Mr. Mace told them to bring it to our huts
intact, and I received it quite undisturbed. In the evening the most
intelligent of the party was summoned as a witness of the opening of
the wrappings, so that there should be no suspicion that I had not dealt
fairly with the men. I then cut open the linen bandages, and found,
to our great surprise, the four bracelets of gold and jewelry. The
verification of the exact order of threading occupied an hour or two,
working with a magnifier, my wife and Mr. Mace assisting. When recorded,
the gold was put in the scales and weighed against sovereigns before
the workman, who saw everything. Rather more than the value of gold was
given to the men, and thus we ensured their good-will and honesty for
the future.
The hawk bracelet consists of thirteen gold and fourteen turquoise
plaques in the form of the façade with the hawk, which usually encloses
the _ka_ name of the king. The gold hawks have been cast in a mould
with two faces, and the junction line has been carefully removed and
burnished. The gold was worked by chisel and burnishing; no grinding or
file marks are visible. In the second bracelet, with the rosette, two
groups of beads are united at the sides by bands of gold wire and thick
hair. The fastening of the bracelet was by a loop and button. This
button is a hollow ball of gold with a shank of gold wire fastened in
it. The third bracelet is formed of three similar groups, one larger,
and the other smaller on either side. The middle of each group consists
of three beads of dark purple lazuli. The fastening of this bracelet
was by a loop and button. The fourth bracelet is fashioned of hour-glass
beads.
In this extraordinary group of the oldest jewelry known, we see
unlimited variety and fertility of design. Excepting the plain gold
balls, there is not a single bead in any one bracelet which would be
interchangeable with those in another bracelet. Each is of independent
design, fresh and free from all convention or copying.
The tomb of Zet consists of a large chamber twenty feet wide and thirty
feet long, with smaller chambers around it at its level, the whole
bounded by a thick brick wall, which rises seven and a half feet to the
roof, and then three and a half feet more to the top of the retaining
wall. Outside of this on the north is a line of small tombs about five
feet deep, and on the south a triple line of tombs of the same depth.
And apparently of the same system and same age is the mass of tombs
marked W, which are parallel to the tomb of Zet. Later there appears to
have been built the long line of tombs, placed askew, in order not to
interfere with those which have been mentioned, and then this skew line
gave the di-rection to the next tomb, that of Merneit, and later on to
that of Azab. The private graves around the royal tomb are all built of
mud brick, with a coat of mud plaster over it, and the floor is of sand,
usually also coated over with mud.
[Illustration: 372.jpg TOMB OF ZET, CIRCA 4700 B.C.]
The first question about these great tombs is how they were covered
over. Some have said that such spaces could not be roofed, and at first
sight it would seem almost impossible. But the actual beams found yet
remaining in the tombs are as long as the widths of the tombs, and
therefore timber of such sizes could be procured. In the tomb of Qa the
holes for the beams yet remain in the walls, and even the cast of the
end of a beam, and in the tombs of Merneit, Azab, and Mer-sekha are
posts and pilasters to help in supporting a roof. The clear span of
the chamber of Zet is 240 inches, or 220 if the beams were carried on
a wooden lining, as seems likely. It is quite practicable to roof
over these great chambers up to spans of twenty feet. The wood of such
lengths was actually used, and, if spaced out over only a quarter of the
area, the beams would carry their load with full safety. Any boarding,
mats, or straw laid over the beams would not increase the load. That
there was a mass of sand laid over the tomb is strongly shown by the
retaining wall around the top. This wall is roughly built, and not
intended to be a visible feature. The outside is daubed with mud
plaster, and has a considerable slope; the inside is left quite rough,
with bricks in and out.
Turning now to the floor, the basis of it is mud plastering, which was
whitewashed. On that were laid beams around the sides, and one down the
middle: these beams were placed before the mud floor was hard, and have
sunk about one-quarter inch into it. On the beams a ledge was recessed,
and on this ledge the edges of the flooring planks rested. Such planks
would not bend in the middle by a man standing on them, and therefore
made a sound floor. Over the planks was laid a coat of mud plaster. This
construction doubtless shows what was the mode of flooring the palaces
and large houses of the early Egyptians, in order to keep off the damp
of the ground in the Nile valley. For common houses a basis of pottery
jars turned mouth down was used for the same purpose. A very striking
example of this method was unearthed at Koptos.
The sides of the great central chamber of Zet are not clear in
arrangement. The brick cross walls, which subdivide them into separate
cells, have no finished faces on their ends. All the wall faces are
plastered and whitewashed; but the ends of the cross walls are rough
bricks, all irregularly in and out. Moreover, the bricks project forward
irregularly over the beam line. It seems, then, that there was an
upright timber lining to the chamber, against which the cross walls were
built the walls thus having rough ends projecting over the beams. The
footing of this upright plank lining is indicated by a groove left along
the western floor beam between the ledge on the beam and the side of
the flooring planks. Thus we reach a wooden chamber, lined with upright
planks, which stood out from the wall, or from the backs of the beams.
How the side chambers were entered is not shown; whether there was a
door to each or not. But as they were intended to be for ever closed,
and as the chambers in two corners were shut off by brickwork all round,
it seems likely that all the side chambers were equally closed. And
thus, after the slain domestics and offerings were deposited in them,
and the king in the centre hall, the roof would be permanently placed
over the whole.
The height of the chamber is proved by the cast of straw which formed
part of the roofing, and which comes at the top of the course of headers
on edge which copes the wall all around the chamber. Over this straw
there was laid one course of bricks a little recessed, and beyond that
is the wide ledge all round before reaching the retaining wall. The
height of the main chamber was 90.6 inches from the floor level.
Having examined the central chamber, the chambers at the sides should be
next considered. The cross walls were built after the main brick outside
was finished and plastered. The deep recesses coloured red, on the north
side, were built in the construction; where the top is preserved entire,
as in a side chamber on the north, it is seen that the roofing of
the recess was upheld by building in a board about an inch thick.
The shallow recesses along the south side were merely made in the
plastering, and even in the secondary plastering after the cross walls
were built. All of these recesses, except that at the south-west, were
coloured pink-red, due to mixing burnt ochre with the white.
The tomb of Merneit was not at first suspected to exist, as it had no
accumulation of pottery over it; and the whole ground had been pitted
all over by the Mission Amélineau making _quelques sondages_, without
revealing the chambers or the plan. As soon, however, as Petrie began
systematically to clear the ground, the scheme of a large central
chamber, with eight long chambers for offerings around it, and a line of
private tombs enclosing it, stood apparent. The central chamber is very
accurately built, with vertical sides parallel to less than an inch. It
is about twenty-one feet wide and thirty feet long, or practically the
same as the chamber of Zet. Around the chamber are walls forty-eight
to fifty-two inches thick, and beyond them a girdle of long, narrow
chambers forty-eight inches wide and 160 to 215 inches long. Of these
chambers for offerings, Nos. 1, 2, 5, and 7 still contain pottery in
place, and No. 3 contains many jar sealings.
At a few yards distant from the chambers full of offerings is a line
of private graves almost surrounding the royal tomb. This line has
an interruption at the south end of the west side similar to the
interruption of the retaining wall of the tomb of Zet at that quarter.
It seems, therefore, that the funeral approached it from that direction.
The chamber of the tomb of Merneit shows signs of burning on both the
walls and the floor. A small piece of wood yet remaining indicates that
it also had a wooden floor like the other tombs. Against the walls stand
pilasters of brick; and, although these are not at present more than a
quarter of the whole height of the wall, they originally reached to the
top. These pilasters are entirely additions to the first building; they
stand against the plastering and upon a loose layer of sand and pebbles
about four inches thick. Thus it is clear that they belonged to the
subsequent stage of the fitting of a roof to the chamber. The holes that
are shown in the floor are apparently connected with the construction,
as they are not in the mid-line where pillars are likely. At the edge of
chamber No. 2 is a cast of plaited palm-leaf matting on the mud mortar
above this level, and the bricks are set back irregularly. This shows
the mode of finishing off the roof of this tomb.
[Illustration: 377.jpg PLANS OF THE TOMBS OF DEN-SETUI AND OTHERS]
From the position of the tomb of Den-Setui, it is seen naturally to
follow the building of the tombs of Zet and Merneit. It is surrounded by
rows of small chambers for offerings, and for the burial of domestics.
The kings tomb appears to have contained a large number of tablets of
ivory and ebony, for fragments of eighteen were found, and two others
are known, making in all twenty tablets from this one tomb. The
inscriptions on stone vases are, however, not more frequent than in
previous reigns. This tomb appears to have been one of the most costly
and sumptuous. The astonishing feature of this chamber is the granite
pavement, such considerable use of granite being quite unknown until the
step pyramid of Saqqâra early in the third dynasty. At the south-west
corner is a strange annex. A stairway leads down from the west and then
turns to the north. At the foot of the first flight of steps is a
space for inserting planks and brickwork to close the chamber, like
the blocking of the door of the tomb of Azab.1 This small chamber was
therefore intended to be closed. Whether this chamber was for the burial
of one of the royal family, or for the deposit of offerings, it is
difficult to determine. Of the various rows of graves around the great
tomb there is nothing to record in detail. An ebony tablet, presumably
of the time of Den, found among the first dynasty tombs, represents a
scene in which a king is dancing before Osiris, the god being seated
in his shrine. This tablet is the earliest example of those pictorial
records of a religious ceremony which, as we now know, was continued
almost without change from the first dynasty to the thirty-third. It is
interesting to note on this engraving that the king is represented with
the _hap_ and a short stick instead of the oar.
[Illustration: 379.jpg TABLET OF DEN-SETUI, 4600 B.C.]
It should be noted also that the royal name, Setui, occurs in the lower
part of the tablet, so that there is a strong presumption that the
tablet is of the time of Den-Setui, and the presumption is almost a
certainty when the tablet is compared with some sealings found in its
vicinity. Mr. F. LI. Griffiths has written at length on this important
inscription.*
* Royal Tombs of the first dynasty, Part I: Eighteenth
Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund, London, 1900, page 42.
He thinks that this tablet and two others somewhat similar were the
brief annals of the time, and record the historic events and the names
of government officials. He translates a portion of the inscription as
Opening the gates of foreign lands, and in another part he reads,
The master comes, the King of Upper and Lower Egypt. Moreover, he
translates certain signs as Sheikh of the Libyans, and he identifies
a place named _Tny_ as This, or the capital of the nome in which Abydos
lay.
Of this reign also is an ivory tablet finely polished, but blackened
with burning, which has engraved upon it the oldest architectural
drawing in the world.
[Illustration: 380.jpg architectural drawing, B.C. 4600.]
The inscription on this precious fragment apparently refers to the great
chiefs coming to the tomb of Setui, and a picture of a building in the
middle of the inscription may be taken as representing on the left the
tomb chamber of Den-Setui, with a slight mound over it. The upright
strokes represent the steles outside the tombs, adjacent to which is the
inclined stairway, while on the right is a diagram of the cemetery, with
graves ar-ranged in rows around the tomb, with small steles standing up
over the graves.
A small piece of still another ivory tablet gives an interesting
portrait of Den-Setui. This king flourished about 4600 b. c, so that
this is perhaps the oldest portrait that can be named and dated. It
shows the double crown fully developed, and has an additional interest,
inasmuch as the crown of Lower Egypt was apparently coloured red, while
the crown of Upper Egypt was white in accordance with the practice that
we know existed during the later historic period.
[Illustration: 381.jpg IVORY PANEL OF DEN-SETUI, 4600 B.C.]
Among the many ivory objects found at Abydos is a small ivory panel from
a box which seems to have contained the golden seal of judgment of King
Den.
The engraving of this ivory panel is of the finest description, and
bears evidence of the magnificent workmanship of the Egyptians 6,500
years ago. It will be seen that enough of the fragment has been
preserved to include the cartouche of the monarch, and the snake at the
side is the pictograph of judgment. Beneath is the hieroglyph for gold,
and at the bottom is a sign which represents a seal cylinder* rolling
over a piece of clay.
* It was for a long time thought that this hieroglyphic
character represented a finger ring, but as it is now
positively known that finger rings were not in use until
long after the time of Den, this explanation had to be
abandoned in favour of the more correct interpretation of a
seal cylinder.
The tomb of Azab-Merpaba is a plain chamber, with rather sloping sides,
about twenty-two feet long and fourteen feet wide. The surrounding wall
is nearly five feet thick. The lesser and more irregular chamber on
the north is of the same depth and construction, fourteen feet by nine.
This lesser chamber had no remains of flooring; it contained many large
sealings of jars, and seems to have been for all the funeral provision,
like the eight chambers around the tomb of Merneit. Around this tomb is
a circuit of small private tombs, leaving a gap on the southwest like
that of Merneit, and an additional branch line has been added on at the
north.
[Illustration: 382.jpg STAIRWAY IN THE TOMB AZAB]
All of these tombs are very irregularly built; the sides are wavy in
direction, and the divisions of the long trench are slightly piled up,
of bricks laid lengthwise, and easily overthrown. This agrees with
the rough and irregular construction of the central tomb and offering
chamber. The funeral of Azab seems to have been more carelessly
conducted than that of any of the other kings here; only one piece of
inscribed vase was in his tomb, as against eight of his found in his
successors tomb, and many other of his vases erased by his successor.
Thus his palace property seems to have been kept back for his
successors use, and not buried with Azab himself. In some of the
chambers much ivory inlaying was found.
The entrance to the tomb of Azab was by a stairway descending from the
east, thus according with the system begun by Den. On the steps, just
outside of the door, were found dozens of small pots loosely piled
together. These must have contained offerings made after the completion
of the burial. The blocking is made by planks and bricks, the whole
outside of the planking being covered by bricks loosely stacked, as can
be seen in the photograph, the planking having decayed away from before
them. The chamber was floored with planks of wood laid flat on the sand,
without any supporting beams as in other tombs.
The tomb of Mersekha-Semempses is forty-four feet long and twenty-five
feet wide, surrounded by a wall over five feet thick. The surrounding
small chambers are only three to four feet deep where perfect, while the
central pit is still eleven and one-half feet deep, though broken away
at the top. When examined by Professor Petrie few of the small chambers
contained anything. Seven steles were found, the inscriptions of which
are marked in the chambers of the plan; and other steles were also found
here, scattered so that they could not be identified with the tombs.
The most interesting are two steles of dwarfs, which show the dwarf type
clearly; with one were found bones of a dwarf. In a chamber on the
east was a jar and a copper bowl, which shows the hammer marks, and
is roughly finished, with the edge turned over to leave it smooth. The
small compartments in the south-eastern chambers were probably intended
to hold the offerings placed in the graves; the dividing walls are only
about half the depth of the grave.
[Illustration: 384.jpg TOMB OF MERSEKHA, SHOWING WOODEN FLOOR]
The structure of the interior of the tomb of Mersekha is at present
uncertain. Only in the corner by the entrance was the wooden flooring
preserved; several beams (one now in Cairo Museum) and much broken wood
was found loose in the rubbish. The entrance is nine feet wide, and
was blocked by loose bricks, flush with wall face, as seen in the
photograph. Another looser walling farther out, also seen in the
photograph, is probably that of plunderers to hold back the sand.
The tomb of King Qa, which is the last of the first dynasty, shows a
more developed stage than the others. Chambers for offerings are built
on each side of the entrance passage, and this passage is turned to the
north, as in the mastabas of the third dynasty and in the pyramids. The
whole of the building is hasty and defective.
[Illustration: 385.jpg PLAN OF TOMB OF QA, CIRCA 4500 B.C.]
The bricks were mostly used too new, probably less than a week after
being made. Hence the walls have seriously collapsed in most of the
lesser chambers; only the one great chamber was built of firm and
well-dried bricks. In the small chambers along the east side the long
wall between chambers 10 and 5 has crushed out at the base, and spread
against the pottery in the grave 5, and against the wooden box in grave
2. Hence the objects must have been placed in those graves within a few
days of the building of the wall, before the mud bricks were hard enough
to carry even four feet height of wall. The burials of the domestics
must therefore have taken place all at once, immediately after the
kings tomb was built, and hence they must have been sacrificed at the
funeral. The pottery placed in the chambers is all figured in position
on the plan.
[Illustration: 386.jpg STYLE OF KING QA]
Only three steles were found in the grave of Qa, but these were larger
than those of the earlier graves. One of them, No. 48, is the longest
and most important inscription that has come down to us from the first
dynasty. This lay in a chamber on the west side of the tomb. In the
preparation of the stele, the block of stone had been ground all over
and edges rounded. On its surface the hieroglyphs were then sketched in
red ink, and were finally drawn in black, the ground being then roughly
hammered out. There the work stopped, and the final scraping and
dressing of the figures was never accomplished. The reading of the signs
is therefore difficult, but enough is seen to show that the keeper
of the tomb bore the name of Sabef. He had two titles which are now
illegible, and was also Overseer of the Sed Festival. This scanty
information goes to show how little the official titles were changed
between the days of the first dynasty and the time of the building of
the pyramids. The stele of the king Qa was found lying over chamber;
it is like that found by M. Amélineau, carved in black quartzose stone.
Near it, on the south, were dozens of large pieces of fine alabaster
bowls.
Among various objects found in these chambers should be noted the fine
ivory carving from chamber 23, showing a bound captive; the large stock
of painted model vases in limestone in a box in chamber 20; the set of
perfect vases found in chamber 21; a fine piece of ribbed ivory; a piece
of thick gold-foil covering of a hotep table, patterned as a mat, found
in the long chamber west of the tomb; the deep mass of brown vegetable
matter in the north-east chamber; the large stock of grain between
chambers 8 and 11; and the bed of currants ten inches thick, though
dried, which underlay the pottery in chamber 11. In chamber 16 were
large dome-shaped jar sealings, with the name of Azab, and on one of
them the ink-written signs of the Kings ka.
The entrance passage has been closed with rough brick walling at the
top. It is curiously turned askew, as if to avoid some obstacle, but the
chambers of the tomb of Den do not come near its direction. After nine
steps, the straight passage is reached, and then a limestone portcullis
slab bars the way, let into grooves on either side; it was, moreover,
backed up by a buttress of brickwork in five steps behind it. All this
shows that the rest of the passage must have been roofed in so deeply
that entry from above was not the obvious course. The inner passage
descends by steps, each about five inches high, partly in the slope,
partly in the rise of the step. The side chambers open off this stairway
by side passages a little above the level of the stairs.
The interior structure of the tomb of Qa is rather different from any
other. Instead of the timber being an entirely separate structure apart
from the brick, the brick sides seem here to have been very loosely
built against the timber sides. Some detail yet remains of the wooden
floor. The roofing is distinct in this tomb, and it is evident that
there was an axial beam, and that the side beam only went half across
the chamber. This is the only tomb with the awkward feature of an axial
doorway, and it is interesting to note how the beam was placed out of
the axis to accommodate it.
The tomb of Perabsen shows a great change in form since the earlier
series. A new dynasty with new ideas had succeeded the great founders
of the monarchy; the three reigns had passed by before we can again see
here the system of the tombs. Even the national worship was changed,
and Set had become prominent. The type of tomb which had been developed
under Azab, Mer-sekha, and Qa seems to have given way to the earlier
pattern of Zer and Zet. In this tomb of Perabsen we see the same row of
small cells separated by cross walls, like those of the early kings;
but in place of a wooden central chamber there is a brick chamber, and
a free passage is left around it communicating with the cells. What was
the form of the south side of that chamber cannot now be traced, as, if
any wall existed, it is now entirely destroyed. The entirely new feature
is the continuous passage around the whole tomb. Perhaps the object of
this was to guard against plunderers entering by digging sideways into
the tomb.
[Illustration: 389.jpg STONE CHAMBER OF KHASEKHEMUI]
The tomb of Khasekhemui is very different from any of the other royal
tombs yet known. The total length of the chamber from end to end is two
hundred and twenty-three feet, and the breadth in the middle is forty
feet, growing wider towards the northern end. The whole structure is
very irregular; and, to add to the confusion, the greater part of it was
built of freshly made mud bricks, which have yielded with the pressure
and flowed out sideways, until the walls are often double their original
breadth. It was only owing to this flow of the walls over the objects
in the chambers, that so many valuable things were found perfect, and
in position. Where the whole of the original outline of a wall had
disappeared, the form is given in the plan with wavy outline.
The central stone chamber of the tomb of Khasekhemui is the most
important part of the whole, as it is the oldest stone construction yet
known. The chamber is roughly seventeen by ten feet; the depth is nearly
six feet. There is no sign of any roof.
Nearly all the contents of this tomb were removed by the French
investigators in 1897. Among the more interesting objects found were
sealings of yellow clay, which were curiously enough of different types
at opposite ends of the tomb. Copper needles, chisels, axes, and model
tools were also found, and a beautiful sceptre of gold and sard was
brought to light by Professor Petrie, only an inch or two below a spot
that had been cleared by previous explorers.
In chamber 2 of the tomb of Khasekhemui were also found six vases
of dolomite and one of carnelian. Two of these are shown in the
illustration, and each has a cover of thick gold-foil fitted over the
top, and secured with a double turn of twisted gold wire, the wire being
sealed with a small lump of clay, the whole operation resembling the
method of the modern druggist, in fastening a box of ointment. Near
these vases were found two beautiful gold bracelets; one, Number 3,
is still in a perfect condition; the other, Number 4, has been,
unfortunately, crushed by the yielding of the wall of the tomb in which
it was deposited.
[Illustration: 391.jpg GOLD-CAPPED VASES AND GOLD BRACELETS]
Each royal grave seems to have had connected with it two great steles.
Two, for instance, were found in the tomb of Merneit, one of which,
however, was demolished. There were also two steles at the grave of Qa.
So far only one stele had been found of Zet, and one of Mersekha, and
none appear to have survived of Zer, Den, or Azab. These steles seem to
have been placed at the east side of the tombs, and on the ground level,
and such of them as happened to fall down upon their inscribed faces
have generally been found in an excellent state of preservation.
Hence we must figure to ourselves two great steles standing up, side by
side, on the east of the tomb; and this is exactly in accord with the
next period that we know, in which, at Medum, Snofrui had two great
steles and an altar between them on the east of his tomb; and Rahotep
had two great steles, one on either side of the offering-niche, east
of his tomb. Probably the pair of obelisks of the tomb of Antef V., at
Thebes, were a later form of this system. Around the royal tomb stood
the little private steles of the domestics, placed in rows, thus forming
an enclosure about the king.
Some of Professor Petries most interesting work at Abydos was commenced
in November, 1902. In the previous season a part of the early town of
Abydos had been excavated, and it was found that its period began at the
close of the prehistoric age, and extended over the first few dynasties;
the connection between the prehistoric scale and historic reigns was
thus settled. The position of this town was close behind the site of the
old temples of Abydos, and within the great girdle-wall enclosure of the
twelfth dynasty, which stands about half a mile north of the well-known
later temples of Seti I. and Ramses II. This early town, being behind
the temples, or more into the sandy edge of the desert, was higher up;
the ground gently sloping from the cultivated land upward as a sandy
plain, until it reaches the foot of the hills, a couple of miles back.
The broad result of these new excavations is that ten different temples
can be traced on the same ground, though of about twenty feet difference
of level; each temple built on the ruins of that which preceded it,
quite regardless of the work of the earlier kings.
In such a clearance it was impossible to preserve all the structures.
Had Petrie and his companions avoided moving the foundations of the
twenty-sixth dynasty, they could never have seen much of the earlier
work; had they left the paving of the twelfth dynasty in place, they
must have sacrificed the objects of the Old Kingdom.
[Illustration: 393.jpg GENERAL PLAN OF BUILDINGS AT ABYDOS]
Also, had they only worked the higher levels, and left the rest, the
inflow of high Nile would have formed a pond, which would have so
rotted the ground that deeper work could not have been carried on in the
future. The only course, therefore, was to plan everything fully, and
remove whatever stood in the way of more complete exploration. All
striking pieces of construction, such as the stone gateways of Papi,
were left untouched, and work carried on to deep levels around them; in
this way, at the end of the season, the site was bristling with pieces
of wall and blocks of stonework, rising ten or fifteen feet above
the low level clearances. As the excavations progressed, there was
an incessant need of planning and recording all the constructions.
Professor Petrie always went about with a large dinner-knife and
a trowel in his pocket, and spent much time in cutting innumerable
sections and tracing out the lines of the bricks. The top and base level
of each piece of wall had to be marked on it; and the levels could then
be measured off to fixed points.
An outline of some of the principal buildings is given, to show the
general nature of the site of the temple of Abydos. This plan is not
intended to show all periods, nor the whole work of any one age; but
only a selection which will avoid confusion. The great outer wall on the
plan was probably first built by Usirtasen I.; the bricks of the oldest
parts of it are the same size as bricks of his foundation deposits, and
it rests upon town ruins of the Old Kingdom. But this wall has been so
often broken and repaired that a complete study of it would be a heavy
task; some parts rest on nineteenth dynasty building, and even Roman
patchwork is seen. Its general character is shown with alternating
portions, the first set consisting of towers of brickwork built in
concave foundations, and then connecting walls between; formed in
straight courses. The purpose of this construction has long been a
puzzle. The alternate concave and straight courses are the natural
result of building isolated masses, on a concave bed like all Egyptian
houses, and then connecting them by intermediate walls. The hard face
across the wall, and the joint to prevent the spread of scaling, are the
essential advantages of this construction.
The corner marked Kom-de-Sultan is the enclosure which was emptied out
by Mariette s diggers, because of the abundance of burials with steles
of the twelfth to eighteenth dynasties.
[Illustration: 395.jpg WALL OF USIRTASEN I.]
They have removed all the earth to far below the base of the walls, thus
digging in most parts right through the town of the Old Kingdom, which
stood here before the great walls were built. The inner two sides of
this enclosed corner are later than the outer wall; the bricks are
larger than those of Usirtasen, and the base of the wall is higher than
his. The causeway line indicated through the site by a dotted line from
the east to the west gate is a main feature; but it is later than the
sixth dynasty, as the wall of that age cuts it, and it was cut in two
by later buildings of the twentieth dynasty. It seems then to begin with
Usirtasen, whose gateways it runs through; and to have been kept up by
Thûtmosis III., who built a wall with granite pylon for it, and also
by Ramses II., who built a great portal colonnade of limestone for the
causeway to pass through on entering the cemetery outside the west wall
of this plan.
To the north of the causeway are seen the tombs of the first dynasty.
One more, No. 27, was found beneath the wall of Thûtmosis; it was of the
same character as the larger of the previous tombs. All of these are far
below any of the buildings shown on this outline plan.
Of the two long walls, marked vi., the inner is older, but was re-used
by Papi. It is probably the temenos of the third dynasty. The outer
wall is the temenos of the sixth dynasty, the west side of which is
yet unknown, and has probably been all destroyed. The temple of Papi
is shown in the middle with the north-west and south sides of the thin
boundary wall which enclosed it. The thick wall which lies outside of
that is the great wall of the eighteenth dynasty, with the granite
pylon of Thûtmosis III. It seems to have followed the line of the sixth
dynasty wall on the north. The outline marked xix. shows a high level
platform of stone, which was probably for the basement of buildings of
Ramses II.
Within the area of these temples was discovered quite a number of
historical relics. None is more interesting, perhaps, than the ivory
statuette of the first dynasty king. This anonymous ruler is figured as
wearing the crown of Upper Egypt, and a thick embroidered robe.
From the nature of the pattern and the stiff edge represented, it looks
as if this robe were quilted with embroidery; no such dress is known
on any Egyptian figure yet found. The work belongs to an unconventional
school, before the rise of the fixed traditions; it might have been
carved in any age and country where good natural work was done. In its
unshrinking figuring of age and weakness with a subtle character, it
shows a power of dealing with individuality which stands apart from all
the later work.
[Illustration: 395.jpg IVORY STATUETTE OF FIRST DYNASTY KING]
Of greater interest, however, is the ivory statuette of Khûfûi, which
is the first figure of that monarch that has come to light. The king is
seated upon his throne, and the inscription upon the front of it leaves
no doubt as to the identity of the figure. The work is of extraordinary
delicacy and finish; for even when magnified it does not suggest any
imperfection or clumsiness, but might have belonged to a life-sized
statue. The proportion of the head is slightly exaggerated; as, indeed,
is always the case in minute work; but the character and expression are
as well handled as they might be on any other scale, and are full of
power and vigour. The idea which it conveys to us of the personality
of Khûfûi agrees with his historical position. We see the energy, the
commanding air, the indomitable will, and the firm ability of the man
who stamped for ever the character of the Egyptian monarchy and outdid
all time in the scale of his works. No other Egyptian king that we know
resembled this head; and it stands apart in portraiture, though perhaps
it may be compared with the energetic face of Justinian, the great
builder and organiser.
[Illustration: 398.jpg ivory statuette of khufvi.]
Two ivory lions were also found in one of the private tombs around that
of Zer. It is evident that these lions were used as playing pieces,
probably for the well-known pre-historic game of Four Lions and a Hare,
for the bases of the lions are much worn, as if by sliding about upon a
smooth surface, and the pelt of the lion, as originally carved, is also
worn off as if by continued handling. The lion shown in the illustration
is of a later style than those of Zer or of Mena. Near the place where
this was found were a few others. One of them, apparently a lioness, is
depicted with a collar, indicating that the animal had been tamed,
and yet another had inserted within the head an eye accurately cut in
chalcedony. Another valuable object unearthed at Abydos was the sceptre
of King Khase-khemui. This consisted of a series of cylinders of sard
embellished at every fourth cylinder with double bands of thick gold,
and completed at the thinner end with a plain cap of gold, copper rod,
now corroded, binding the whole together.
During the reign of King Zer the ivory arrow tip began to be commonly
used; hundreds were gathered from his tomb, and the variety of forms is
greater than in any other reign. Besides the plain circular points,
many of them have reddened tips; there are also examples of quadrangular
barbed tips, and others are pentagonal, square, or oval. Only the plain
circular tips appear in succeeding reigns down to the reign of Mersekha,
except a single example of the oval forms under Den.
[Illustration: 399.jpg CARVED IVORY LION]
Some flint arrow-heads were also found around the tomb of Zer, mostly of
the same type as those found in the tomb of Mena. Two, however, of these
arrow-heads, Numbers 13 and 14, are of a form entirely unknown as yet
in any other age or country. The extreme top of the head is of a chisel
form, and this passes below into the more familiar pointed form. The
inference here is almost inevitable, and it seems as if the arrow-heads
had been made in this peculiar way with a view to using the arrow a
second time after the tip was broken in attacking an animal.
[Illustration: 400.jpg ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ARROWS]
Another curious object dating from this reign and classed among the
arrows is a small portion of flint set perpendicularly into the end of
a piece of wood. This, in the opinion of Professor Giglioli, is not
an arrow at all, but a tattooing instrument. If this explanation be
correct, then this instrument is an extremely interesting find, for the
fact has been recently brought to light that tattooing was in vogue
in prehistoric times, and there is, moreover, at Cairo, the mummy of
a priestess of the twelfth dynasty having the skin decorated in this
manner.
Among the domestic articles is an admirable design of pair of tweezers,
made with a wide hinge and stiff points. Of analogous interest are two
copper fish-hooks, which, however, have no barbs. Needles also, which we
know were used in prehistoric days, appear in the relics of the tomb of
Zer and of subsequent rulers. Of the reign of Zer are also found copper
harpoons cut with a second fang, similar forms being found among
the remains of Mersekha and of Khasekhemui. In the centre of the
illustration is seen the outline of a chisel of the time of Zer, very
similar to those used in the early prehistoric ages. The same continuity
from prehistoric to first dynasty times is shown in the shape of the
copper pins dating from Zer, Den, Mersekha, and Qa.
[Illustration: 401.jpg MISCELLANEOUS COPPER OBJECTS]
At various times quite a considerable number of articles relating to
intimate daily life has been discovered. An exceedingly fortunate find
was that of an ivory comb of crude but careful workmanship, and which,
even after the lapse of sixty-seven centuries, has only lost three of
its teeth. This comb, according to the inscription on it, belonged to
Bener-ab, a distinguished lady, whose tomb has been already mentioned,
and who was either the wife or the daughter of King Mena of the first
dynasty.
Of the class of domestic objects is the primitive but doubtless quite
effective corn-grinder shown in the illustration. This was found in
an undisturbed tomb in the Osiris temenos, where also was a strangely
shaped three-sided pottery bowl, similar in shape to a stone bowl of the
same period, but otherwise unknown in antiquity. This three-sided bowl
may be regarded as a freak of the workman rather than as having any
particular value along the line of evolution of pottery forms; and it
is interesting to note that bowls of this form have been quite recently
made by the modern English potters in South Devonshire, as the result of
the inventive fancy of a village workman.
During the course of the excavations at Abydos many thousands of
fragments of pottery were collected.
[Illustration: 402a.jpg IVORY COMB, B. C. 4800]
Those that appeared to be of historic value were sorted and classified,
and, as a result of minute and extended labours, it is now possible for
the reader to see at a glance the principal types of Egyptian pottery
from prehistoric times, and to view their relationship as a whole. The
diagram exhibits an unbroken series of pottery forms from s.d. 76 to
B.C. 4400.
[Illustration: 402b.jpg CORN-GRINDER AND THREE-SIDED BOWL]
The forms in the first column are those classified according to the
chronological notation devised by Professor Petrie, enabling a sequence
date (s. d.) to be assigned to an object which cannot otherwise be
dated. In the second column are forms found in the town of Abydos, and
in the last column are those unearthed in the tombs. Most of the large
jars bear marks, which were scratched in the moist clay before being
baked; some few were marked after the baking.
[Illustration: 403.jpg TYPES OF PREHISTORIC AND FIRST DYNASTY POTTERY]
Some of the marks are unquestionably hieroglyphs; others are probably
connected with the signs used by the earlier prehistoric people; and
many can scarcely be determined.
[Illustration: 404a.jpg POTTERY MARKS]
A typical instance of these pottery marks is shown in the illustration.
These signs appear to be distinctly of the time of Mer-sekha, and the
fortified enclosure around the name may refer to the tomb as the eternal
fortress of the king. These marks can be roughly classified into types
according to the skill with which they were drawn. The first example
illustrates the more careful workmanship, and the others show more
degraded forms, in which the outline of the hawk and the signs in the
cartouche become gradually more debased. It is tolerably certain that
what are known as the Mediterranean alphabets were derived from a
selection of the signs used in these pottery marks.
[Illustration: 404b.jpg POTTERY FORMS FROM ABYDOS]
An undisturbed tomb was found by accident in the Osiris temenos. The
soil was so wet that the bones were mostly dissolved; and only fragments
of the skull, crushed under an inverted slate bowl, were preserved. The
head had been laid upon a sandstone corn-grinder. Around the sides of
the tomb were over two dozen jars of pottery, most of them large. And
near the body were sixteen stone vases and bowls. Some of the forms,
such as are shown in the illustration, Nos. 3, 7, 8, are new to us. A
strange three-sided pottery bowl was also found here, but since there
is no museum in England where such a complete tomb can be placed, it was
sent to Philadelphia, in order that the whole series should be arranged
as originally found.
The sealings, the general description of which has been already given,
have come to light in such considerable quantities during the past few
years that their study became a special branch of Egyptology. As to
the earliest sealings, it was not until the time of Den that a broad
uniformity of style was established. The seals of the second dynasty are
generally of a smaller style and more elaborately worked than those of
the first dynasty. It is reasonable, therefore, to conclude that the
later seals were made in stone or metal rather than in wood.
[Illustration: 405.jpg THREE TYPES OF SEALINGS]
The illustration given of sealing No. 128, of the Egypt Exploration Fund
collection, shows a very fair type of the figuring of men and animals at
the time of the first dynasty as a survival of the prehistoric manner of
engraving. Here, then, at the very dawn of history, we find a spirited
depiction of the human form, for, rude though it is, there can be no
doubt but that it is a representation of the human figure, and stiff and
ungainly though the action of the drawing be, there can be no doubt as
to the progressive movement intended by the artist. On a sealing, No.
116, is seen the leopard with the bent bars on his back. The shrine upon
the same seal is of the general form, and is like the early huts with
reed sides, and an interwoven palm-rib roof. This is a specimen of an
intermediate manner of workmanship. The most advanced stage of art in
the sealings of the first dynasty, is No. 108. This is the royal seal of
King Zer, B.C. 4700, showing him seated and wearing the crowns of Upper
and Lower Egypt. By his side are the royal staff and his cartouches. It
was workmanship of this character which survived in Egypt almost as late
as Roman times; that is to say, the same style engraving was current in
the Valley of the Nile for forty-six centuries.
A particularly interesting sealing is a representation of two jars with
the flat seals across their tops.
[Illustration: 406.jpg A SEALING SHOWING JARS]
These jars, moreover, are depicted as bound around with a network of
rope in a manner which corresponds with some fragments of rope found
around some jars of this character.
[Illustration: 407.jpg accounts on pottery, B.C. 4600]
A small fragment of pottery originally forming the base of a brown
earthenware dish had inscribed upon it some accounts, and is the oldest
of such business records yet found in Egypt. The exact import of the
figures is not yet entirely intelligible, but they seem to refer
to quantities of things rather than to individuals, as the numbers,
although mostly twenty, are sometimes one hundred and two hundred. This
interesting fragment was found at the tomb of Zet, and thus establishes
the use of arithmetic before 4600 B.C.
The expedition supported by Mrs. Hearst, in the name of the University
of California, has done some useful work at El-Ahaiwah, opposite
Menshiyeh. The main cemetery at this place is an archaic one, containing
about a thousand graves or more, of which about seven hundred had
already been plundered. Between these plundered graves, about 250 were
found untouched in modern times. The graves yielded a good collection of
archaic pottery, pearl and ivory bracelets, hairpins, carnelian, garnet,
gold, blue glaze and other beads, etc.
About this cemetery was a cemetery of the late New Empire, containing a
number of vaulted tombs built of unburned brick. These yielded a large
number of necklaces, and several fine pieces of faïence and ivory, and
other objects. A second cemetery, farther north, contained a few late
archaic graves and about fifteen large tombs, usually with one main
chamber and two small chambers at each end. These tombs were of two
types (1) roofed over with wood, without a stairway, (2) roofed over
with a corbelled vault and entered from the west by a stairway. The
burials in these tombs are in the archaic position, head to south.
Dissected, or secondary, burials occur in these cemeteries, but
only rarely. Only one indisputable case was found, as shown in the
illustration.
[Illustration: 408.jpg UNIQUE INSTANCE OF A DISSECTED BURIAL]
It would require several volumes adequately to deal with the results
of the excavations of the present century. Further discoveries, all
throwing new light upon the life of ancient Egypt, are being made each
season, and the number of enthusiastic workers gathered from every
nation constantly increases. Notwithstanding the heroic and splendid
work of past investigators, for many years to come the valley of the
Nile promises to yield important results, not only in actual field work,
but also in the close study and better classification of the thousands
of objects that are continually being brought to light.
Six thousand years of history have been unrolled; tomb and tablet, shard
and papyrus have told their story, and the vista stretches back to
the dawn of human history in that inexhaustible valley watered by the
perennial overflow of the grandest river in the world. But there is
much still to be accomplished by the enthusiastic spirit, the keen and
selective mind, in the study of this ancient land, the cradle and the
grave of nations.
THE END.