30 



ARCHEOLOGY. 



illustrating the arts of that remote period. But 

 his work has been criticised as lacking in system. 

 Prof. Petrie, going over the ground again, ap- 

 plied the scientific processes and methods of 

 identification and registry which were described in 

 the Annual Cyclopaedia for 1899. While M. Ameli- 

 neau's researches left the exact date of the relics 

 he found in doubt, with room for wide differences 

 of opinion, those of Prof. Petrie resulted in the 

 settlement of this question and in the collection 

 of large quantities of material identified as of the 

 first dynasty. While this first dynasty, Prof. 

 Petrie said in giving an account of his discoveries 

 at University College, Gower Street, London, had 

 generally been looked upon as more or less myth- 

 ical, we were now able to handle the royal drink- 

 ini: bowls from the palaces, to compare the art and 



tho Usafais, Miebis, and Semempsis, had been iden- 

 tified. Other royal tombs of the same group were 

 those of other kings of the first dynasty. This 

 discovery had also, by the style of the work and 

 the position of the objects of King Aha, led to 

 this king's being certainly identified with Menes, 

 the founder of the Egyptian monarchy. Thus the 

 tablet found by De Morgan in the tomb of Aha 

 proved to have' been correctly interpreted by Bor- 

 chardt. We were now in a position to form a cor- 

 rect appreciation of the whole of the first dynasty 

 between 4000 and 5000 B. c. The art, which was 

 rude and archaic under Menes, rose to its best 

 point under the luxurious King Deu-setui, the 

 fifth of the dynasty. His tomb was paved with 

 red granite and richly furnished with cups of 

 crystal and beautiful stones, bearing his name in 



DISCOVERIES MADE BY 



THE EGYPT EXPLORATION FUND 



AT ABYDOS. 



OBJECTS RECOVERED FROM TOMBS OF THE FIRST DYNASTY AT ABYDOS, EGYPT. 1. Box of pottery, with figures of 

 gazelles, a boat, and fishes (on the end) ; prehistoric. 2. Box for eye paint, in the form of two half ducks linked 

 ut the tails; carved from a single piece of ivory; first dynasty (beginning). 3, 4, 5. Stone jars; beginning of the 

 first dynasty, -fi. Piece of pottery marked with accounts of workmen ; tomb of Zet Ateth, third king of the first 

 dynasty. 7. Palette of slate, King Merneit Ata; first dynasty. 8. Copper tweezers; first dynasty. 9. Copper 

 harpoon; first dynasty. 10, 11. Pieces of painted ^Egean pottery; tomb of King Mersekha-Semenptah ; first 

 dynasty. 12. Stele erected on the grave of two dwarfs (king's servants), and bearing figures of dwarfs. 13. 

 Canopic jar ; about 2,500 B. c. 



the carvings of the period, to criticise the posthu- 

 mous respect paid to each king, and " to feel much 

 more familiar with the daily life of the age than 

 we could with our own Saxon kings. All this had 

 come about through the careful study of three or 

 four insignificant-looking lumps of black mud." 

 The royal wine jars, of which many remains were 

 found, were sealed by the officials, and bore gen- 

 erally only the hawk'name or Ka name which, not 

 being recorded in the lists of kings, was not suffi- 

 cient for historical identification. But one or two 

 seals of each king bore both his names, and from 

 these the actual tombs of the fifth, sixth, and 

 seventh kings of the first dynasty, named by Mane- 



large, finely cut hieroglyphs, while no fewer than 

 20 tablets of ivory and ebony carved with inscrip- 

 tions were known of from his tomb. The tombs 

 of the later kings were less sumptuous, but a more 

 general habit of inscribing the objects of the palace 

 and the tomb seems to have prevailed among them. 

 Among the principal classes of antiquities obtained 

 during the winter, Prof. Petrie names: (1) The 

 great tombstones of the kings, one of Merneit, a 

 king previously unknown, and one of Qa, the last 

 king of the dynasty; (2) the private tombstones 

 of the royal domestics, of which 50 were obtained, 

 one in particular giving all the official titles of a 

 major-domo of this age; (3) the fine stone drink- 



