EGYPT — NEWBERRY 445 



and the list there given would alone be enough to prove how ancient 

 the Delta civilization must have been. There was certainly nothing 

 comparable with it in Upper Egypt in those far-off days. 



What were the physical conditions prevailing in the Delta and in 

 the regions to the east and west of it immediately preceding Menes' 

 arrival in Lower Egypt? For the eastern side the evidence is ex- 

 ceedingly scanty, but there is one fact which is significant. The 

 chief god of the eastern nomes of the Delta in the Pyramid Age was 

 Anzety, a pastoral deity who was the prototype of Osiris. He is 

 represented as a man holding in one hand the shepherd's crook, 

 and in the other the goatherd's ladanisterion. There can be little 

 doubt, therefore, that in the eastern Delta there lived a pastoral 

 people who possessed flocks of sheep and goats, and this is evidence 

 of a certain amount of grassland. In the Central Delta at the same 

 period there lived a series of clans, among which a Bull Clan was 

 predominant. In historic times in Egypt the ox is often figured 

 roaming in papyrus and reed marshes, and it may be that the Cen- 

 tral Delta marshes supported herds of domesticated cattle. Much 

 more is known about the western side of the Delta at the time of 

 Menes. It formed, I believe, part of what was called Tehenu-land, 

 at all events this name was given to the region immediately to the 

 west of the Canopic branch of the Nile. There can be no doubt 

 that this part of the country Avas a very fertile and prosperous 

 region in the period immediately preceding the First Dynasty. Its 

 name signifies " Olive-land," and we actually see these trees figured, 

 vath the name of the country beside them, on a predynastic Slate 

 Palette ; on this Palette, above the trees, are shown oxen, asses, and 

 sheep of the type later known as ser-sheep. It was Menes,^^ the 

 Falcon King of Upper Egypt, who conquered the people of Tehenu- 

 land. This conquest is recorded on a small ivory cylinder that was 

 found at Hierakonpolis. Another record of the Southerner's 

 triumph over these people is preserved on his famous Slate Palette ; 

 here the Upper Egyptian King is depicted smiting their chieftain, 

 while on the verso of the same Palette is the scene of a festival at 

 the Great Port, which was perhaps situated near the Canopic branch 

 of the Nile. The mace head of Menes, which is now in the Ash- 

 molean Museum at Oxford, has a scene carved upon it which shows 

 the king assuming the red crown of Sais, and the inscription accom- 

 panying it records that he had captured 120,000 prisoners, 400,000 

 oxen, and 1,422,000 goats. This immense number of oxen and goats 

 is clear evidence that the northwestern Delta and the region to the 

 west of it (Tehenu-land) must have included within its boundaries 



'^ That Naraier was Menes is proved by a sealing publislied by Petrle in Royal Tombs of 

 tlie Earliest Dynasties, I'late XIII, 93. His conquest of Tehenu-land is recorded on an 

 ivory cylinder published by Quil>ell, Hierakonpolis I, Plate XV, 7. 



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