446 ANNUAL. EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1924 



very extensive grasslands. Several centuries after Menes, Sahure, 

 a king of the Fifth Dynasty, captured in Tehenu-land 123,440 oxen, 

 233,400 asses, 232,413 goats, and 243,688 sheep. Senusret I. also 

 captured in tlie same region " cattle of all kinds without number." 

 This again shows how fertile the country must have been at the 

 beginning of the Middle Kingdom. The history of this part of 

 the Delta is most obscure. During the period that elapsed from 

 the end of the Third Dynasty to the beginning of the Twenty-third, 

 when Tefnakht appears upon the scene, Ave have hardly any in- 

 formation about it. What was happening at Sais and other great 

 cities in the northwest of Egypt during the period from 2900 to 

 720 B. C. ? There is an extraordinary lacuna in our knowledge of 

 this part of the country. The people living there were certainly 

 of Libyan descent, for even as late as the time of Herodotus the 

 inhabitants deemed themselves Libyans, not Egyptians; and the 

 Greek historian says that they did not even speak the Egyptian 

 language. The predynastic people who inhabited the greater part 

 of the Lower Nile Valley were apparently of the same stock as these 

 Libyans. There is a certain class of decorated pottery which has 

 been found in predynastic graves from Gizeh in the north to 

 Kostamneh in the south. On this decorated pottery are figured 

 boats with cult-objects raised on poles. Altogether some 170* vases 

 of this type are knoAvn, and on them are 300 figures of boats with 

 cult-signs. Of these, 124 give the "Harpoon" ensign; 78 the 

 " Mountain " ensign ; and 20 the " Crossed Arrows " ensign. These 

 cult-objects all survived into historic times ; the " Harpoon " was 

 the cult-object of the people of the Mareotis Lake region; the 

 '* Mountain " and " Crossed Arrows " were the cult-objects of the 

 people dwelling on the right bank of the Canopic branch of the Nile. 

 Thus it will be seen that out of 300 boats figured on vases found in 

 graves in the Lower Nile Valley south of Cairo, 222 belong to cults 

 which can be located in the northwestern corner of the Delta. 

 Twenty -two boats bear the " Tree " ensign, which was the early 

 cult object of the people of Herakleopolis, a city just south of the 

 Fayum. Ten bear the "Thunderbolt" ensign of Ekhmim. The 

 " Falcon " on a curved perch appears on three boats, and this ensign 

 undoubtedly represents the Falcon deity of Hierakonpolis. At the 

 beginning of the historic period the cult objects of the people of 

 the northwestern Delta included (1) the "Harpoon," (2) the figure- 

 of-eight "Shield with Crossed Arrows," (3) the "Mountain," and 

 probably (4) the " Double Axe," ^^ and (5) a " Dove or Swallow." ^^ 

 With the exception of the " Harpoon " all these cult objects are also 

 found in Crete, a fact which is significant in view of Sir Arthur 



22 The Cults of the Double Axe and of the Dove or Swallow are found on monuments of 

 the Pyramid Age. 



