ARCHEOLOGY. (EGYPTIAN.) 



33 



that one of the number, Nariner, was really that 

 Boethos whom Manetho makes the first king of 

 the second dynasty. The reviewer in the Athe- 

 naeum of Prof. Petrie's book on The Royal Tombs 

 of the Earliest Dynasties, referring to some points 



"has sought, in a communication to the Academic the beginning of the pyramid age. North of this, 

 des Inscriptions, to show on linguistic grounds its superstructure rising in steps and similar in 



" ri --*- design to the pyramid of his predecessor, is the 

 tomb of the king whose name seems to read lien- 

 khet. This tomb also had been plundered, but the 

 head and remains of the king, with much of the 

 tomb furniture and some scraps of the jewels, 

 were recovered. Mr. Garstang, from several con- 

 siderations, regards it as probable that both of 

 these kings belong to the hitherto unrepresented 

 third dynasty of Eygptian history; but it is not 

 immediately possible to identify the names with 

 those on the traditional 

 lists. He is of the opinion 

 likewise that the tombs 

 are near the site of his- 

 toric This. 



Explorations of the pyr- 

 amids near Sakkarah, 

 where excavations were 

 carried on between 1881 

 and 1886, have been, re- 

 sumed by Prof. G. Mas- 

 pero, who will give special 

 attention to the chapels, 

 enclosures, etc., attached 

 to each pyramid. Some 

 successful work has been 

 done at the pyramid of 

 Unas, against great diffi- 

 culties from the deep ac- 

 cumulation of rubbish, in 

 the course of which a 

 grave of a person named 

 Samnofu, intact, and sev- 

 eral mummy pits of the 



of doubt in the identifications by Prof. Petrie, ob- Saitic period, have been found. In the mummy 



pit of Psammetik the \valls of the funereal cham- 

 ber are covered with texts from the ancient collec- 

 tion of magic formulas. 



The results of three seasons of surveys and 

 making drawings and tracings and copying in- 

 scriptions in one of the tombs on the west side 

 of the Nile, opposite Thebes, have been published 

 by Mr. Percy E. Newberry in the Life of Rekhma 



THE OLDEST CONTINUOUS LINE OF HIEROGLYPHS EXTANT. 



serves that " it would seem to be wiser to treat 

 the identification of Aha with Menes as not yet 

 proved." 



Mr. John Garstang, of the Egyptian Research 

 Account, reported, May 5, the completion of the 

 excavation of the tombs of Neter-Kha, known as 

 the builder of the step pyramid at Sakkara, and 

 of his successor, whose name is read Hen-khet. 

 The tombs are situated westward from Girga, and 



Ra, Vizier of Upper Egypt, offering an impor- 



the superstructure of the larger tomb is visible in tant record of bureaucratic life in the time of the 



cool Weather from the farther side of the Nile, eighteenth dynasty. The vizier (Zat) was de- 



The original approach to the chamber of this scended from a family of officials, his uncle, grand- 



i . ,. ** , i . i i J _ r_J.T J . __J. _. . J_J.l 1 : T__1J AT-- 



tomb is from the top by a stairway which de- 

 scends, making several turns, to the depth of 

 about 60 feet below the level of the desert. This 



father, and great-grandfather having held the 

 same positions, and other relatives other offices of 

 state. He is supposed to have been born during 



passage was. stopped, after the burial of the the reign of Hatasu, and was brought up " a priest 

 king, by single large stones placed at intervals in of the goddess Maat, the goddess of law." Be- 

 it. Plunderers had, however, found their way sides occupying the post of vizier, he was " gov- 

 into it, and carried off the treasure, but left many ernor of Thebes," " chief justice," " steward of 



Amen," and " regulator of all the art works of 



relics of archeological value; and it was by fol- 

 lowing their tracks that the explorers gained an 

 entrance. The entrances to the 18 chambers 

 were strewed, so that it was very difficult to pass 

 at once from one to another, with hundreds of 

 vessels of alabaster, bowls of diorite, breccia, and 

 other stones, and jars that had been filled with 

 wine and offerings. The impressed sealings re- 

 corded several chief officers and stewards of the 

 king, with one of Perabsen, whom he apparently 

 succeeded; and two of the royal mother, Rap-n- 

 Maat. The official title of the king is recorded 



Amen " in Karnak. The scene depicting his life as 

 vizier shows the court as a long building attached 

 to the temple of Amen, open at one end and sup- 

 ported by two rows of columns, w r ith a dais at the 

 upper end, on which the vizier sat. An inscrip- 

 tion describes him as " the vizier governor of 

 Thebes and the southern towns in the divan of 

 the vizier." He is depicted as wearing his judicial 

 robes, and having in front of him the ken mat, a 

 sign of the highest judicial office. The " super- 

 intendent of the court " stands on his right, and 



as "King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Uniter of the "guardian of those coming in" on his left; 



the two Egypts, Neter-Khe, the Golden (a w b)." 

 The Horus name is the same. To the east of the 

 tomb were several mastabas of this king's chief 

 servants. The plans of these tombs, though they 

 were coeval, provide in themselves a remarkable 

 sequence. They link the type prevailing in the 

 earliest times with this large tomb, foreshadowing 



a collection of forty rolls of the law, " the books 

 of knowledge," containing former decided cases, 

 is before him; the jury of "the members of the 

 council of the southern tens and the scribes and 

 reporters stand in two rows on each side of him; 

 and the porters and " two swift messengers " are 

 at the doors. Another picture represents the 



the taste for massive grandeur that prevailed at vizier on his way to the court in the morning, 

 VOL. XLI. 3 A 



