ANCIENT EGYPT. II7 



Stands in the front rank of such work and is comparable to 

 the finest carvings of Greece and Italy. We must now reckon 

 the earliest monarchy as the equal of any later age in such 

 technical and fine art. An ivory carving of a bear extends 

 the fauna of ancient Egypt. Examples of iron occur during 

 the Vth. and Vlth. dynasties, thus disposing of an impression 

 that the use of this metal was unknown in Egypt until an age 

 comparatively recent. It seems to me that the oft repeated 

 assertion that Menes founded the first settled monarchy is 

 made on inadequate grounds and is open to considerable 

 question, for we simply know nothing of what dynasties may 

 have preceded him, beyond the dynasty of the ten kings 

 of This or Thinis. Bear in mind that the civilization of his 

 reign was a high one, as represented by what we now know 

 and may safely infer : one requiring the apprenticeship of 

 ages to build up, far indeed from an age of barbarism. It 

 would seem that diggings at Abydos below the age of Menes 

 might conceivably yield some very surprising results. 



Tombs. 



The character of the tombs of Ancient Egypt is closely 

 bound up with the religion and ritual of the country, but I 

 will deal with this aspect of the subject at some length later 

 this evening under the heading of rehgion; suffice it, for the 

 moment, to point out that the grand idea that influenced and 

 inspired the ancient Egyptian architect was to devise means 

 for the preservation of the mummy as a tenement for the spirit 

 to revisit. 



Egyptian catacombs are usually situated on the borders of 

 the desert; or the tombs were excavated in a mountain side, 

 far away from the dwellmgs of men. 



Mastabas. 



Probably the most ancient kind of Egyptian tomb, in the 

 sense of a mausoleum, is the mastaba, the Arabic word for 

 a bench or platform, in form something Hke a truncated 

 pyramid. They vary very much in size ; and the four faces 



