Books on

Egypt and Chaldaea

BOSTON
PUBLIC
LIBRARY

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W.B.CLARKE CO
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Boos^
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St. Church,

Bosto-

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PUBLISHERS' NOTE
Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., beg to
announce that they have still in stock a limited number of the
larger edition of the hieroglyphic text

and translation

of the

Book of the Dead, with the hieroglyphic vocabulary by Dr. Wallis Budge, which appeared in
three volumes under the title " Chapter of Coming Forth

Theban Recension

by Day,"

of the

late in 1897.

Price for the Entire Work,

10s.

Volume I. contains all the known Chapters of the Theban

Recension of the Book of the Dead, printed in hieroglyphic
type (pp. 1 517), and a description of the papyri in the British
Museum from which they have been edited, and a list of

Chapters, etc. (pp. i. xl.). This edition

which has hitherto been published.

Volume

II.

contains a

full

Book

of the

Dead and

the most complete

vocabulary (pp.

hieroglyphic texts of the Chapters of the

the

is

386) to

III. contains

the
of

to the supplementary Chapters from

the Saite Recension which are given therewith in

The volume contains about 35,000 references.

Volume

all

Theban Recension

Volume

I.

Preface and list of Chapters (i.-xxxvi.).

Introduction (pp. xxxvii.-cciv.)
Chap. I. The History of the Book of the Dead.
This
Chapter is accompanied by eighteen plates which illus1.

trate the palaeography of the various Recensions of the

Book

of the

Dead from the Vth Dynasty

to the

Period.

VOL.

I.

Roman

Chap.

II.

Osiris and the Resurrection.

The Judgment of the Dead.

IV. The Elysian Fields or Heaven.

III.

With

extracts

from the Pyramid Texts.

V. The Magic

of the

Book

of the

Dead.

The Object and Contents of the Book of the Dead.

VII. The Book of the Dead of Nesi-Khonsu, about
VI.

B.C.

1000 (English translation).

The Book of Breathings (English translation).

IX. The Papyrus of Takhert-puru-abt (English

VIII.

translation).

Translation of the Book of the Dead

The volume also contains three scenes from the
famous Papyrus of Ani representing the Judgment Scene, the
Funeral Procession, and the Elysian Fields, which have been
2.

English

(pp. 1

354).

reproduced in

full

photo-lithographer.

colours by Mr.

W.

Griggs, the eminent

Boofes on JEgppt anfc Gbalfcaea

A HISTORY OF EGYPT
From the End

oi

the Neolithic Period to

the Death of Cleopatra VII.

Vol.

EGYPT

IN

b.c.

30

I.

THE NEOLITHIC AND

ARCHAIC PERIODS

t>T83

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l&ookB on JQWt an& Cbalbaea

EGYPT
THE

IN

NEOLITHIC AND ARCHAIC PERIODS

BY

E.

A.

WALLIS BUDGE,

M.A., Litt.D., D.Lit.

KEEPER OF THE EGYPTIAN AND ASSYRIAN ANTIQUITIES

IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM

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NEW YORK

HENRY FROWDE
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AMERICAN BRANCH
1902

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DEDICATE THIS WORK

BY PERMISSION
TO

GENERAL LORD KITCHENER OF KHARTUM,

G.C.B., K.C.M.G., ETC.

COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE BRITISH FORCES IN SOUTH AFRICA,

AS A TOKEN OF GRATITUDE FOR MUCH

FRTENDLY AND EFFECTIVE HELP

DURING MY MISSIONS TO THE SUDAN,

AND AS A MARK OF ADMIRATION FOR

A STRENUOUS,

JUST,

AND FEARLESS

SOLDIER.

PREFACE

The

present volume

dealing with the

is

the

history

first

of

of a group of volumes

Egypt, which

be

will

published at frequent intervals in the series of " Books

on Egypt and Chaldaea."

The

narrative begins with

an aecount of Egypt and her people in the latter part

of the Neolithic Period, and ends with the description

of her conquest by the

B.C.

The

30.

Romans under Caesar Octavianus,

history

of

Egypt

as

an independent

country properly ends with the death of

great queen was the last of the independent

for this

monarchs who succeeded

Each volume
history,

and

is

summary

to the throne of the Pharaohs.

describes a certain period of Egyptian

divided into chapters, each of which

treats of a dynasty, or a

Cleopatra,

group of dynasties, or contains

of the principal characteristics

tinguish the period with which the volume

The reign

is

of each king is described in a

which

dis-

concerned.

number

of

paragraphs, wherein will be found not only an enumeration of the bare facts of history, but also extracts from

papyri and stelae and other Egyptian documents, which

vol.

I.

PREFACE

serve to illustrate the condition of the country, both

civil

and military, during

the

period of

his

rule.

Besides such extracts there have been added a number

of passages from

and other

the works of Herodotus, Diodorus,

classical writers,

which supplement the bald

statements of the hieroglyphic inscriptions, and supply

interesting and often important information about

Egypt

and the Egyptians, not only whilst they were ruled by

their

native

Pharaohs, but

also whilst

the country

was under the domination of the Assyrians, Persians,

Macedonians, and other conquerors.

The names and

representative of
or as the

Horus

titles

of each king, whether as the

Horus and

Set, or as the son of Ra,

of Gold, or as the lord of the shrines

of the goddesses

Nekhebet and Uatchet, are given

in

the hieroglyphic characters at the head of the section

which

treats of his reign,

and the names of the kings

given throughout the volumes of this work form the

King List which has hitherto been published.

The main facts given in this History of Egypt are

fullest

derived from ancient Egyptian

and the reader who wishes

original

to

monuments and papyri,

study at first hand the

documents will find scattered throughout the

volumes numerous references to published works in

English, French, and German, wherein he will find the

Egyptian

texts, often

with translations and elaborate

introductions.

The volumes are

ductions made from

illustrated
(1)

a large

by a

series

number

of repro-

of predynastic

PREFACE
and

dynastic

Museum

XI

the British

preserved in

antiquities

from photographs of Egyptian temples

(2)

and pyramids, and

other

monuments, and

of

Nile

scenery; and (3) from outline drawings and tracings

made

chiefly

from published works.

The photographs

made by Signor A. Beato, the

distinguished photographer of Luxor, Egypt, who has
kindly permitted me to make use of his work in this
copied herein were

manner, and the drawings and tracings reproduced in

the following pages were

The

made by Mr. F. Anderson.

greater part of the present volume

is

occupied

with a narrative of the excavations which have been

made during the last ten years on predynastic sites

in Egypt by Messrs. J. de Morgan, Petrie, Amelineau,
and others, and with an account of the various sources
from which we derive our knowledge of the chronology
of Egypt.

It

was necessary

to

discuss the results of

recent excavations at some length, especially the correct

Morgan was the first to

draw from them with the help of Professor Wiedemann
of Bonn, and of M. Jequier, because they have a most
important bearing on the views which must now be
deductions which

M.

J.

de

taken concerning the course of early Egyptian history

and the antiquity of Egyptian

civilization.

long been held by archaeologists that

1

Professor Petrie

London, 1901,
p. 28.

p. 8

the period

has
of

New Race,"
he thus described were preSee Sir John Evans, Presidential Address,

lias

now

and admits that the people

dynastic Egyptians.

It

rejected the

name

of "

whom

and Petrie, Diospolis Parva, London, 1901,

PREFACE

xii

many were

three or four thousand years which

content

to allow for the rise, growth, development, maturity,

and decadence

ancient

of

and that

insufficient,

Egyptian

civilization

was

beautiful

bas-reliefs

and

the

paintings, and the gigantic Pyramids, which were the

works of the Egyptians in the IVth Dynasty, could

never have been produced by men who a few hundred
years before were quite savage or very nearly
correctness of these views has
it

is

known

now been

so.

The

proved, and

that Mena, or Menes, was not the

first

king in Egypt, and that the phase of civilization which

is

revealed to us by the works of the dynastic Egyptians

did not spring up ready made, as

were, during the

it

It is also certain that

reign of that king.

numbers of

independent kings must have ruled both in the Delta

and in Upper Egypt long before Mena, though

it is

historical king

who

quite possible that he

is

the

first

succeeded in making himself lord both of the South

and of the North.

The names

kings of the North are

of

some of these early

preserved on the

Stele

of

Palermo, and Professor Petrie has found at Abydos

both tombs and- certain funereal objects of the kings of

the South,
before

Be and

e.g.,

Ka.

thus

it

is

evident that

dynastic times the Egyptians were acquainted

with the art of writing, the earliest

example of an

Egyptian hieroglyphic which we possess being probably

the sign for " king of the South,"
in relief

on a

slate

from Al-'Amrah

I,

which we find cut

object of the predynastic period

(Brit.

Mus., No. 35,501).

Now

the

PREFACE
civilization of these

Xlll

predynastic kings of the North

and kings of the South differed in many respects from

that of the dynastic Egyptians, but this

wondered

at, for

is

not to be

the predynastic Egyptians themselves

differed

from the dynastic Egyptians in several par-

ticulars,

although some writers think otherwise.

and the age of the

latter part of the predynastic period

first

three

dynasties

may

The

be conveniently grouped

together as a period which can be called

"Archaic,"

during which period Egyptian civilization developed

rapidly.

The

earlier

predynastic Egyptians

sprang

from one of the indigenous non-Negroid races of northeast Africa, whilst

the Egyptians of history were a

people whose parents on the one side were originally

of African,

and on the other side of Asiatic

The descendants

origin.

of the indigenous folk were conquered

by the immigrants, who seem

to

have been bigger and

heavier than they, and to have been better armed, their

weapons being, perhaps, of metal, and the new-comers

men they vanquished

appear to have taught the

arts

and

crafts of which,

up

to that time, they were

ignorant, and to have adopted themselves a

indigenous African customs.

the

The

number

of

civilization of the

dynastic Egyptians contained, then, an African as well

as an Asiatic element,

and the influence of the

beliefs

and ideas of the predynastic Egyptians, which made

itself

felt

chiefly

development,

was

in

the

never

religious

eradicated

character

from

it.

of its

The

immigration of the conquering people from Asia must

PREFACE

XIV

have taken place between the

and

earlier

later pre-

dynastic periods.

But although we

civilization of the

the

see that

dynastic Egyptians rested upon a phase of civilization

which had existed in predynastic times when men

could write, and that that phase rested in

upon a phase

of civilization

could not write, the

its

turn

which existed when men

recent excavations which have

given us this knowledge do not help us to assign dates

to either

one or the other of the phases of the pre-

The

dynastic civilization of Egypt.

impossibility of

estimating in years the lengths of the Palaeolithic and

Neolithic Periods in
to need mention

may

Egypt

is

so obvious as

scarcely

that these Periods existed in

be taken for granted,

when we remember

Egypt

that the

evidence for their existence was accepted by the late

General Pitt Rivers, and

is

admitted by Sir John Evans,

K.C.B., M. J. de Morgan, and other eminent experts.

The

impossibility of assigning a date to the begin-

nings of Egyptian civilization naturally calls attention

to the fact that it is equally impossible to assign

exact date to the reign of Mena,

i.e.,

an

to the first historic

king of Upper and Lower Egypt, whatever his name

may have

been, or to formulate an approximately exact

system of chronology from the materials

now

available.

In a chapter of the present volume an attempt has

been made to describe the sources in Egyptian and

Greek which may be used

for this

purpose

and

it

will

be seen by a perusal of the evidence that no exact

PREFACE

XV

The three
Sakkara, Abydos, and Karnak prove

conclusions

can be deduced from them.

King

of

Lists

chiefly that Lists of this kind cannot be regarded as

complete, that they only contain selections

of royal

names, which in one case are arranged in a purely

from

arbitrary order, whilst the inscriptions derived

the recent excavations at Abydos prove that, in the

XlXth Dynasty,
List for Seti

I.

who compiled the King

the scribe

actually misread the

of the kings of the 1st

names of

and Ilnd Dynasties

of course, have been careless

several

He

may,

in reading the hieratic

characters which were written on the papyrus docu-

ment before him

but

Greek

unlikely, for the

is

it

forms of these names, which are given by Manetho in

his

King

List, indicate that the readings of the

as found in the

names,

documents from which he compiled his

work on Egypt, were similar

those given in the

to

papyrus from which the scribe of Seti

I.

drafted the

List for the mason.

It must, of course, not be forgotten

that Manetho's List

may have been

monumental
Dynasty
in

lists

made

at

the

time

of the

XlXth

hence these mistakes have been perpetuated

Manetho.

such

lists

compiled from the

Thus we cannot

upon

rely absolutely

even for the correct spelling of royal names

in the Archaic Period.

The Royal Papyrus

would have been of the greatest value

the fragments into which

it

to us,

was broken on

at

Turin

but

alas,

its ill-fated

journey, were "joined" by Seyffartk, and the document

has been useless ever since.

The best general authority

PREFACE

XVI

on dynastic Egyptian chronology

King

List,

is,

after all,

Manetho's

even though his copyists have played havoc

with his figures, and one or two of his dynasties seem

to

His List must be studied

have got out of place.

with the Old Lists, and checked by the actual monu-

The hieroglyphic

ments.

inscriptions prove that the

many of his dynasties

lengths of many kings' reigns

order of the kings in

is

and that the

are stated

by him with considerable accuracy, and

he, at

any

rate, copied his archetypes

the scribe of Seti

I.

it

goes,

valuable, but

it

since

blundered so seriously, as we have

one thousand years

as

seems that

with care

seen above, we cannot expect Manetho,

far

it

correct,

later,

who

to be better

As

informed.

Manetho's King List

does'

lived about

is

extremely

not enable us to get behind the

mistakes made by the scribe of the

XlXth Dynasty,

The

the excavations at Abydos have enabled us to do.

information which has

been

Egyptian monuments as

to

dates

native

at present,

is,

sufficient to enable us to correct the

figures of Manetho's List

from

obtained

as

in-

mistakes in the

which are due

to the careless-

ness or ignorance of copyists, and until some other

means

of doing this is found,

torture

his

figures,

chronology are

as

certain

XIII.,

many

pleased to

succession of the kings

is,

it

do.

is idle to

on

writers

The

shuffle

and

Egyptian

order

of

the

generally speaking, tolerably

in the periods of Dynasties IV.

VI..

XVIII. XXIL, XXVI.XXX.,

XII.

complete cer-

tainty has been attained, though the exact lengths of

PREFACE
the reigns
is

that

we

The truth

often doubtful.

is

XV11

of the matter

shall never be able to construct

an exact

system of chronology until we have a complete series of

inscribed

monuments

kings of Egypt, which

of the

either record the lengths of their reigns or are dated

in the highest years of their reigns, or until a List be

names

discovered which will give the

of the kings, in

the order which the Egyptians believed to

correct one,

and the lengths of their reigns.

excavations

may

be the

Future

bring to light such a List, but

it is

useless to hope for the discovery of a complete series of

monuments

or documents

which

will give

us the highest

we

regnal years of all the kings of Egypt, and thus

have
to

to fall

back upon such material as we have, and

be content with broad generalizations as to the

duration of certain periods of Egyptian history.

in

a modern

work on the history of Egypt

But
it

is

necessary to have some system of chronology, otherwise the general reader will be hopelessly bewildered,

and think that the subject

mass of

facts

shuffled into

is

nothing but a confused

about wars and conquests which

any chronological

arrangement of them

is

as

order,

may

be

and that any one

good as any other.

Many

systems of Egyptian chronology have been invented by

Egyptologists and others, but only a few of them have

been constructed with a due regard to the facts and

The systems of
Archbishop Usher and Sir Gardner Wilkinson must be
entirely set aside, for the former scholar made his

probabilities of the history of Egypt.

PREFACE

XV111

figures

fit

his preconceived views and theories about

Bible history, and the latter never realized the great

antiquity of the civilization of the wonderful country
in

which he lovingly toiled

for so

many

which he did such a great work.

years,

and in

The systems

of

Champollion-Figeac and Mariette showed that each of

these able workers was on the right track, but viewed
in the light of recent research the

Menes by them appears

date assigned to

Of

to be too remote.

the

all

systems hitherto propounded, that of the late Dr. H.

Brugsch has most

purposes, and

it

to

recommend

it

for

practical

agrees exceedingly well on the whole

with the evidence, derived from various sources and

considerations,

which indicates that the duration of the

dynastic period, beginning with

the

close

of the

Mena and ending

with

Ptolemaic Period, was about 4500

Dr. Brugsch had an unrivalled knowledge of

years.

hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic texts, and there

is

no branch of Egyptological literature in which he was

not a first-rate expert.
that

of

century,

Herodotus,

His chronological system,

allows

three

generations

and contains one great gap of

like

to

500

years

between the Xlltli and the XYIIth Dynasties

but

although the average of three generations per century

is

too low, and the years given to the gap

in

the

history are too many, the 4400 or 4455 years, which

he considered to be the length of the dynastic period

as a whole, do not

seem excessive.

The

dates which

he assigned to kings individually were never intended

PREFACE
to

XIX

be more than approximately correct, and in the

many of the kings may be antedated

by as much as thirty years. Synchronisms

earlier dynasties

or postdated

with Babylonian history have

shown

that

the

in

XVIIIth Dynasty the date given by Brugscli to

Thothmes III. is more than fifty years too early, and
it is

of course possible that other dates

incorrect,

but

it

unlikely;

is

backwards from the

any

in

XXVIth Dynasty

XVIIIth Dynasty, the

of the

may

be equally

working

case,

to the

beginning

error in the date of

king can hardly be greater than

any

Before the

this.

XVIIIth Dynasty the error may be, and probably is,

much greater, because there is reason to believe that
several kings,

King
the

XVIIth Dynasty.
exact

no place in Manetho's

These

must of course be

facts

in using Brugsch's system of chronology.

dates

can be assigned to Egyptian kings

XXVIth

before the

find

Egypt during the period before

List, reigned over

remembered

No

whose names

Dynasty, and any system which

attempts to date the reigns of the kings of the earlier

dynasties otherwise than after the

by Brugsch

is

manner employed

We

both misleading and incorrect.

do

not possess chronological data sufficient for the purpose,

and no amount of shuffling of

figures,

or guesses, or

emendations, can be regarded as satisfactory equivalents

of facts.

Still

less

can any trustworthy estimate in

years be

made

for

the

period

of

Egyptian

duration

history,

of the

even

predynastic

we deny the
Egypt nor can

if

existence of a Palaeolithic Period in

PREFACE

XX

any calculations concerning

the rate of the deposit of

regarded as
it

was

laid

known.

it

which are based upon

mud

in the Nile Valley be

final,

because the conditions under which

down

in all parts of the Valley are un-

The actual

facts of the case

must be admitted,

and though these indicate that the period

predynastic

and

dynastic

civilizations

covers

of

the

many

thousands of years, they do not show how long that

period was.

E. A.
London

December 13th, 1901.

Wallis Budge.

CONTENTS

Map

of Egypt.

Chapter I. Chronological
Difficulties.
Archaic
Egyptian Antiquities. Tomb of Osiris. Excavations by de Morgan, Petrie, Amelineau, Garstang,
and Others. The Predynastic Egyptians and
their Conquerors. The Land of Punt. Physical
Characteristics of the Predynastic Egyptians.
Elephant Hunting and Fishing. Babylonian and
Egyptian Mace-heads Compared.
Agriculture.
Wheat and Barley. Domestic Animals. Flint
tools and Weapons of the Palaeolithic and
Neolithic Periods.
Variegated Stone MaceHeads. Rafts of Reeds. Boats with Standards.
Boats with Sails. Palaeolithic Age in Egypt.
Metal Tools and Stone Vases. Pottery, Red
and Black, Painted, etc.
The Predynastic
Grave. Religion. Belief in a Future Life in
the Predynastic Period

Chapter

II.
Egyptian Chronology. The King Lists
of Sakkara, Abydos, and Karnak. Royal Papyrus
of Turin. The King List of Manetho. Versions

Africanls and Eusebius. The Old

The Book of the Sothis. Herodotus
and Diodorus. Sothic Period. The Set Festival.
Synchronisms.
Systems of Chronology.
Dr.
Brugsch's System
of Julius
Chronicle.

Ill

CONTENTS

XX11

PAGE

Chapter

Divine Dynasties. Dynasties of Demigods. Followers of Horus.

The Predynastic
Kings Te, Be, and Ka. Kings of Lower Egypt
III.

Chapter IV.

Early Dynastic Kings

First Dynasty.

.171

Mena and Aha, Khent Teta, Nar-

mer, Ateth, Ata. Pyramids at Cochome.

Semti,

or Hesepti, Dancing before his God. The

Pygmy in Early Dynastic Times. The Book
of the Dead in the reign of Semti.
Merpeba. Hu or Nekht (Semsu). Sen, or Qa-

Sen (Qebh).

Second Dynasty. Besh, i.e., Neter-baiu, Betchau.

Origin of the Cartouche. Hetep-Sekhemui.
Ea-neb (Ka-kau). Enneter Uatchnes. Perab-sen.
The Horus and Set Names of a
King. Sent. Ka-EI. Nefer-ka-Ea. Neferka-Seker. Hetciiefa. Tchatchai.

162

Third Dynasty. Neb-ka.

Tcheser.
The Step
Pyramid of Sakkara. Teta. Ahtes. Setches.
Nefer-ka-Ea Hun i.

LIST OF

1.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Group of bone or ivory figures of the Predynastic Period

2.

52

Bone or ivory figure of a woman and child of

the Dynastic Period

53

3.

Bone or ivory comb of the Predynastic Period

4.

Slate cuttle-fish of the Predynastic Period

5.

Group of

slate

objects

of

the

54

58

Predynastic

Period
6.
7.

8.
9.

10.

59

Green slate turtle of the Predynastic Period

Mace-head of Sargon I. of Agade

....
.

...

Mace-head from a predynastic grave

Egyptian mace-head of the Archaic Period

63
63

64

Variegated stone mace-heads of the Predynastic

Period

65

....
....

12.

Mace-head of Enannadu, b.c. 4500

Axe-heads of the Archaic Period

13.

Predynastic boat

14.

Ornamented vases of the Predynastic Period

15.

Standards on boats of the Predynastic Period

16.

Boat with sail of the Predynastic Period

17.

Flint arrow and spear-heads of the Predynastic

Period

11.

60

67

68
73

75

78

80

84

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

XXIV

PAGE

Flint implements op the Palaeolithic and Neolithic Periods

85

19.

Flint implements of the Predynastic Period

89

20.

93

21.

Group of vases of the Predynastic Period

Group of stone vases of the Predynastic Period

22.

Ornamented earthenware box of the Predynastic

18.

Period

95

98

23.

Designs on vessels of the Predynastic Period

24.

Mummy

25.

Grave at Al-'Amrah.

26.

Grave at Kawamil.

99

of the Predynastic Period

103

Predynastic Period

104

Predynastic Period

105

106

27.

28.

107

29.

108

30.

109

King List of Seti I. at Abydos

King List of Sakkara

121

127

34.

King List of Karnak

Ivory plaque of King Aha

35.

Scene from the mace-head of Nar-mer

36.

Green slate object with reliefs of Nar -mer

31.
32.
33.

....
....

124

178
183

Obverse
37.

185

Green slate object with reliefs of Nar MER

Eeverse

187

38.

Design from a vase of Nar-mer

39.

Ebony tablet of Hemaka.

40.

Ivory plaque of King

41.

Jar sealing of King Qa-Sen (Qebh)

205

42.

Design on a granite vase of King Besh

208

43.

Figures of slain enemies from

King Besh
44.

Hu

190

(?)

195

or

Nekht (Semsu ?)

......

The Step-Pyramid of Sakkara

the statue

203

OF

210
218

EGYPT
IN

THE

PREDYNASTIC AND ARCHAIC PERIODS

CHAPTEE

I.

THE PREDYNASTIC EGYPTIANS.

Until within the

last

few years the writer who set

out to gather together the facts concerning the various

great periods of Egyptian history, with

placing before

the

view of

his readers a connected sketch of the

most important events which took place in the Valley

of the Nile

between the Fourth Cataract and the

Mediterranean

Sea,

hesitatingly that

was

compelled

to

state

un-

Egyptological science possessed no

exact knowledge concerning the origin of the people

who have been

universally

called

" Egyptians."

It

was generally assumed that they were not indigenous,

but hardly any two Egyptologists agreed as to the
site of their original

home, and whilst one authority

declared unhesitatingly that the Egyptians came from

Central or North-Eastern Asia, another placed their

probable
VOL.

I.

home

in

some country

far to the south of that

THEORIES ABOUT THE EGYPTIANS AND

Nile Valley which

portion of the

is

commonly

called

" Egypt," and another maintained that some tract of

land lying to the west of the Nile in Northern Africa

must be regarded

as their true

Each authority

home.

produced proofs in support of his assertion, and each

group of proofs was regarded as satisfactory evidence

by those who accepted the theory which they were

intended to support.

The various

theories put forward

were based upon:

(1)

The

by competent men
examination of

scientific

the mummified remains of the historical Egyptians

and

(2) historical

information

geographical

from the hieroglyphic inscriptions

peculiarities

the

of

hieroglyphic texts

the philological

(3)

language as exhibited

and

(4)

derived

by the

statements made by ancient

chronographers and historians.

The evidence derived from the statements

under No. 4 was, of course, only of

referred to

scientific

when supported by evidence derived from any

the classes of information summarized

in

value

or all of

Nos.

1,

2,

The researches which have been made since

the times when the main theories about the original
and

3.

home

of the Egyptians were

each of them
their authors

had
of

many

propounded show that in

of the details were correct, and that

would have arrived

their deductions been based

facts,

and

upon a wider

and information.
available

for

at right conclusions

upon a larger number

field

of

examination

Unfortunately, however, the

examination was limited, and

all

field

the

THE EGYPTIAN LANGUAGE AND CHRONOLOGY

necessary facts were not forthcoming, and the pity

that the

writers

early

is

on Egyptology assumed that

they had solved a number of far-reaching problems in

when

Egyptology

was

it

evident

to

all

observers and honest enquirers that they

unbiased

still

lacked

which could only be obtained from

the information

Speaking broadly,

data that were then non-available.

the propounders of theories were hampered by their

own preconceived

views,

and also by ideas derived

from the works of Scriptural and classical writers

and their

own

were increased greatly by their

difficulties

make the evidence

to

efforts

derived from

the

ancient Egyptian native writings " square " with that

which they obtained from foreign sources.

Side by side with the question of the site of the
original

home

discuss

the

chronology

of the Egyptians

cognate

and

the

subjects

language

it

of
of

was necessary

to

early

Egyptian

the

primitive

Egyptians, and the views and opinions put forward

by writers on these matters were as conflicting as those

which existed on the original home.

the language of the early
origin, others declared

it

Some held that

Egyptians was of Aryan

to be closely

allied to the

Semitic dialects, especially to those belonging to the

northern group,

i.e.,

others claimed for

it

Hebrew, Syriac, and Chaldee, and

a Berber, or Ethiopian, or Libyan,

or Central African origin, according to individual fancy

or observation.

On

early

Egyptian chronology opinion was hopelessly

AN EXACT SYSTEM OF CHRONOLOGY IMPOSSIBLE

many

divided, the principal reason being that

attempted

gators

confine

to

whole

'the

investi-

period

of

Egyptian dynastic history within the limits assigned

to

Old Testament history by the impossible system of

Those who did

Archbishop Usher. 1

this lost sight of

the fact that they were not allowing sufficient time for

the

and growth and

rise

civilization,

development of Egyptian

and they wrote as

if

they thought that

the wonderfully advanced state at which the religion,

and

art,

and sculpture, and architecture, and education,

and government of ancient Egypt had arrived

at the

beginning of the IVtli Dynasty had been reached after

the lapse of a few centuries.

which may

at present

modern acceptation

No

system of chronology

be devised can be accurate in the

of the term,

and none can

with truth, pretend to be approximately

so,

ever,

except in

respect of isolated periods of time of relatively limited

duration.

But the system which

will

have the best

chance of survival, and at the same time be the most

correct, seems,

judging by the evidence before us, to be

James Usher was born in Dublin on January 4th, 1580, and

March 20fch, 1656, at Reigate in Surrey. He was a contemporary of Camden, Selden, Sir Thomas Bodley, and Sir
Thomas Cotton. Between 1650 and 1654 he published Annales
Vetcris et Novi Testamenti, in which he propounded an impossible
1

died on

system was, unBible with most

disastrous results, for thereby it gained an authority which it
should never have enjoyed. The system is worthless, and has
proved a stumbling-block to many honest enquirers into Bible

system

of

chronology

fortunately, inserted in

history.

for

the

many

Bible.

This

editions of the

THE PRESENT STATE OF EGYPTIAN KNOWLEDGE

IN

that which will take into clue consideration the extreme

antiquity of civilization of one kind and another in the

Valley of the Nile, and which will not be fettered by

who would

views based upon the opinions of those

Egypt

limit the existence of the civilization of ancient

to a period of about

3000 years.

Until the year 1891 the writer in favour of assuming

a high antiquity for ancient Egyptian civilization was

obliged

rely

to

furnished

for

by the

his

proofs

inscriptions,

upon

the

evidence

and upon deductions

based on information supplied by texts written upon

papyri,

now

labours

who have examined and

excavators

number

thanks to the

but,

the

recent

cleared

out a

of

of the predynastic cemeteries in Egypt,

it

is

possible to produce objects of various kinds which

prove beyond
older

by

doubt that Egyptian civilization

all

thousands

several

Egyptologists have wished to

existence of

man

in

of

years

admit,

many

than

and

the Valley of the Nile

is

the

that

may

be

traced back even to the Palaeolithic Period in Egypt.

But

before passing on to the consideration of the pre-

dynastic Egyptian

the

it

will be well to

summarize

briefly

principal facts in connection with the important

excavations

which

have

produced

such remarkable

results.

It will be

remembered that between the years

870

and 1890 there appeared from time to time in the hands

of dealers in Egyptian
figures of animals

made

antiquities

numbers of rude

of green slate, with inlaid eyes

FIRST DISCOVERY OF PREDYNASTIC

groups of earthenware

formed of bone rings, and

little

vases, painted in red, with

unusual designs.

of these were purchased

by

Specimens

and others, and

travellers

certain examples were acquired, through the late Eev.

a large,

flat,

Thus

Museum.

Greville Chester, B.A., by the British

green slate figure of a horned animal, with

inlaid eyes (No. 35,049),

was purchased

in June,

1871

a figure of a sheep, in the same material (No. 20,910),

1886

in October,

a green slate object, belonging to

the class which has been wrongly called

(No. 21,899), in July, 1S87

" palettes

and a green

slate

bat,

with outstretched wings (No. 21,901), in the same year.

Among the painted vases which were acquired in 1881

may be mentioned a little two-handled vase^ ornamented with red wavy

(No. 35,050)

lines

and two

black and red earthenware vases, and two earthenware

pots with most

presented

and

Fund

with

identified.

bank

there

earthenware
rings

number

The provenance
viz.,

vase

Egypt

of

site

many

(a

to

be

ornamented

painted

of flints

Gebelen

of the Nile, about

which marks the

the

remain

in

red

and small green

which have not as yet been

was well known,

left

these

concentric

(No. 26,411), and a

slate objects,

Museum by

1885 (Nos. 22,185, 22,186, 22,173,

small

of

series

in

Besides

22,200).

enumerated

British

the

to

Exploration

unusual ornamentations, which were

satisfactorily

of these objects

town situated on the

470 miles south of Cairo,

of the

Crocodilopolis

Greeks) and the neighbourhood of Abydos.

of the

Opinions

AND ARCHAIC EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES

age of the green

differed as to the

animals and the earthenware vases

slate

7
of

figures

some Egyptologists

boldly declared the former to be "clumsy forgeries"

and the

latter to be the product of the

and others believed both

had

settled in

pottery, 1

being

vases,

i.e.,

of

it

most

ornamented

bowls,

jars,

unusual

wavy

lines,

represent water,

made

this

and

some

etc.,

being

others

The decorations

series of concentric

which were probably intended

to

and figures of a number of objects

which could not then be

Among

saucers,

shapes,

on the pottery consisted chiefly of

rings,

large quantities of*

unusual designs.

Avith

times.

became known that certain

Egypt had discovered

natives in

some reason

for

Egypt during dynastic

About the year 1890

period,

classes of objects to be the

work of a non-Egyptian people, who,

or other,

Koman

identified, traced in reel paint.

pottery were a large

number

of vessels

and black earthenware, the upper parts

of reel

being black and the

lower

parts

red,

and

was

it

generally agreed that these, at least, belonged to no

comparatively modern period like the Eoman.

Sub-

sequent inquiries revealed the fact that pottery of this

kind was always found in graves of a certain

which seem

to

have been quite unknown

except the native dealers in antiquities in

little

by

little

Examples

Museum

of

to

class,

anyone

Egypt, and

the characteristics of such graves became

the

predynastic

pottery

which

reached

the

in 1891 are Nos. 26,635-26,638, 26,643, 26,644, 26,651-

26,653, 26,657, 26,660, 26,729,

all

of

which came from Abydos.

EXCAVATIONS BY NATIVES

known

The most important variation

generally.

in

the system of sepulture employed by those

who made

among the

historical

graves from that in

the

use

Egyptians was in the preparation of the body for

burial

and

its

disposal

return to this subject later on, there

go into details here, and

that

the

it

is

shall

no necessity to

will be sufficient to say

which were

bodies

As we

tomb.

the

in

found

in

the

graves

mentioned above were not mummified, that they were

sometimes dismembered, and that when discovered in
a perfect state they were always resting on their left
sides,

chins,

with their knees drawn up on a level with their

and their hands

Avere raised to their faces

almost

as if in an attitude of prayer or adoration.

Little

by little

it

became clear that graves containing

bodies which had been buried in this fashion were to

be found in

many

in such large
for

them

parts of Egypt, and that they existed

numbers that

to be the

it

was almost impossible

remains of any small, isolated body

of settlers in Egypt, or of an

unimportant section of

the old population of that country.

Meanwhile the natives

in

Egypt had excavated with

great thoroughness some of the sites where such graves

were found in abundance, and many of the older

men

among them, having learned exactly what class of

antiquity was being demanded by European savants
and archaeologists, remembered that

flint

knives of fine

workmanship, and vases and vessels of earthenware

made

in various shapes

and painted in red with con-

EXCAVATIONS AT BALLAS AND NAKADA

and wavy

centric circles

had been found near

lines,

Abydos, and at Nakada, and Gebelen, and other places,

and they

obtain permission to dig on

to

Most of the applications

these sites.

dig

work

set to

made by

for licenses to

natives were refused by the authorities,

and comparatively

was done

little

in

the

matter of

excavating these curious graves until the end of 1894,

when

make excavations on

Professor Petrie decided to

a large scale on a site which lay along the " edge of the
" desert,

between Ballas and Naqada.

" about thirty miles north of Thebes,

" side of the Nile."

This

district is

and on the western

In the course of the winter of

1894-95 he " recorded the plans and contents of nearly

"three thousand graves and two towns ... in the four
" or five

months of work

"

a vast quantity of pottery

and large numbers of other objects were found in the

course of the excavations on this

material

already

became available

known

and the "pit in

"

study.

for

and thus much

To the

the following details were added

graves were often

stream courses

site,

made

the

in

facts

The

gravel shoals of the

the typical tombs were vertical pits,

all

wealthy graves was roofed over with

beams and brushwood; in place of preserving the body

"intact and embalming

"or

less cut

it,

the bodies are usually more

up and destroyed

" full length, with head-rest

in place of burying at

and mirror, the bodies are

" all contracted and accompanied

by many jars of ashes. 3

See Petrie, Naqada and Ballas, London, 1896,

Ibid., p. vii.

p. vii.

Ibid., p. 18.

10

UNUSUAL METHOD OF BURIAL

"

are always sharply bent at 45 to the thighs,

The knees

"or

else nearly parallel

" at right

while the thighs are always

angles to the body, or even more drawn up so

The arms

" that the knees touch the elbows.

" bent,

are always

with the hands placed together before the face or

"the neck.

In a few cases the body

is

laid

on the back

"

and the knees bent sharply, so that the legs are folded

"

up together

or else both knees

" sharply, so that the legs are folded

" the body.

The

and hips are bent

up on either

direction of interment

" as the attitude

side of

was as constant

the body lay on the

side,

left

" facing the west, with the head to the south and the
" feet to the north."

From an examination

the

of

graves which

excavated Professor Petrie concluded that

skull
2.

was often intentionally removed

The

skull ivas separately placed in the grave,

and hands were

removed before burial.

often

times the trunk was partly cut

whole

completely
6.

was

body

before

burial,

to

3.

The

perhaps

4.

Some-

pieces before burial.

sometimes

and

1.

The lower arms

to the burial.

The

he

before burial.

some time subsequent

5.

dismembered

artificially

arranged.

Bodies were sometimes with all respect cut up and

partly eaten.

About a year

later,

that

is

in the winter of 1895-96,

M. Amelineau was sent to Egypt at the instance of

M. le Marquis de Biron and his friends M. le Comte
Henri de la Bassetiere and M. Sigismond Bardac, and
1

Petrie,

Naqada and

Ballas, p. 32.

EXCAVATIONS AT ABYDOS
began

lie

make excavations on a

to

Abydos, where,

notwithstanding

the

II
large

at

scale

vast clearances

which had been made by Mariette, a great deal of work

needed to be done.

Mariette excavated with thorough-

ness the temples of Seti

and Barneses

I.

II.,

but

is

it

quite clear that he never recognized the real antiquity

of the site nor even suspected the existence there of

belonging to

antiquities

period

As M. Amclineau has

Vlth Dynasty.

than the

earlier

described

great length the results of his labours at Abydos,

only necessary here

is

number

say that he

to

at
1

it

discovered

same kind as those which

of graves of the

Professor Petrie had excavated at Nakada, and in one

wherein the body had escaped destruction he saw that

lay on

it

its side in

the position which has already been

described;- he also found large numbers of stone jars

and earthenware
coarse,

The pottery he described

vessels.

and the decorations upon the various vases he

considered

to

designed by

be quite

primitive, and

men who were

and educating themselves

1

as

Les Nouvelles Fourths

still

to

have been

" trying their

brush

"

in artistic matters. 3

d' Abydos,

Angers, 1896.

nu sur le cote, les genoux

ramenes a la hauteur de la poitrine, les deux bras par devant le
visage, dans la posture de l'enf ant dans le sein de sa mere." Ibid.,
2

" II n'etait point momifie, etait couche

p. 14.
3

que

" Je dois dire cependant que sur les vases de terre grossiere
je trouvai dans quelques sepultures je reconnus des dessins

tout a fait primitifs, dessines par des

hommes

qui en etaient en

corse a essayer leur calame et qui faisaient leur education artistique."

Ibid., p. 14.

EXCAVATIONS AT TUKH

12

In the winter of 1896-97 M. Amelineau continued

his excavations in the neighbourhood of Abydos, and

he was rewarded by the discovery of a large and very

important tomb, in the chambers of which he found
variety of objects,

tools,

flints,

i.e.,

fragments of metal, metal

pottery, alabaster

and marble

jars, etc.

he believed this tomb to date from a period anterior

to that of the

tombs which he had found during the

previous winter. 1

month

In the
the

field,

of March, 1897, another worker entered

and M.

J. de

Morgan, Directeur General des

Antiquites de l'Egypte, decided to examine for himself

some of the cemeteries where graves of the kind which

has already been described were to be found.
spot selected

by him

locality already well

The

excavating was Nakada, a

for

known

as a source of supply of the

curious pottery, which had by this time become tolerably

common
district

according to M. de Morgan, a portion of the

had already been explored by Professor Petrie

two years previously, but the explored portion only

included the cemeteries of Tiikh and

B alias,

region to the south of Tiikh was virgin

and the

soil.

Two

1
" Je crois que le monument de cette annee appartient a une
epoque quelque pen anterieure a celle des tornbes decouvertes
pendant la campagne 1895-96."
See Amelineau, Les Nouvelles
Fouilles cV Abydos (Deuxieme Campagne, 1896-1897), Paris, 1897,

p. 43.
2

"

avec

Deux ans auparavant, M.

mon

autorisation, explore

le

Professeur Flinders Petrie avait,

une partie de ce

district

mais

je

savais que ses investigations avaient porte sur les necropoles de

Tonkh

et

de Ballas et que, bien

qu'ayant intitule Naqadali

et

TOMBS DESTROYED BY FIRE

cemeteries were attacked,

13

one to the south, which

tlie

belonged to the indigenous inhabitants of Egypt, and

the one lying at a distance of a few miles to the north,

which contained the tombs of the early Egyptians.

Important results attended these excavations, for in a
little hill

situated to the north of the northern necropolis

monument built of crude bricks were

and M. de Morgan was fully convinced that it

the remains of a
found,

dated from one of the most ancient periods of Egyptian

The

civilization.

walls and other parts of the building-

exhibited traces of

fire,

and M.

cle

Morgan believed that

an attempt had been made to destroy the building by

fire

some time

had found
which by

at
fire

after

it

M. Amelineau

had been finished.

number

of

tombs to destroy

an attempt seemed

to

have been made,

Abydos

and this apparently shocking work he attributed

to the

Coptic spoilers of tombs, who, at the beginning of their

career as

Christians, set

monuments
heathen.

out wilfully to destroy the

of the ancient Egyptians

whom

His views on this subject were

they called

at first shared

by M. de Morgan, but subsequently he rejected them,

for he

found abundant proof that whatever damage had

been done

to the

tombs by

ancient times, and indeed

faction that such

it

fire

had been done

was soon

in very

clear to his satis-

tombs were deliberately

the friends and relatives of the deceased

set

on

fire

when they

by

laid

Ballas l'un de ses derniers ouvrages, l'archeologue anglais avait

laisse vierges les terrains situes

au sud de Toukh."

BfhnograjpMe Prehistorique, Paris, 1897,

p. 148.

J.

de Morgan,

DISCOVERY OF BROKEN VASES

14

him

the tomb which had

in

been specially built for

Large numbers of vases in stone and other

him.

materials had been placed in the various chambers of the

tomb, but nearly

all of

them were found

to be broken,

and M. de Morgan, on examination of the fragments,

decided that they were broken and scattered about in
the tomb before

it

was

time of the funeral.

vessels

set

on

fire

in remote days at the

The breaking

of the vases and

was not the work of tomb robbers,

for pieces of

the same vase were found in different rooms, and

known

well

that

it is

among many peoples the custom

of

breaking vessels of pottery, and figures of various kinds,

at the time of the funeral is observed

ages been

the

had the break-

work of robbers, the various pieces

belonging to one jar would have been found together,

for they

would never have taken the trouble

to scatter

them.

Of the

identification of the builder of the great

tomb
which M. de Morgan discovered we need not speak
here, and as he himself has described it and given a
list

of the objects

pass on to note

which he found therein, 1 we may

other facts in connection with the

excavation of predynastic

sites.

In November, 1897, M. Amelineau continued the

work of excavation which he had begun

1

See Recherclies sur

les

in 1895,

and

Origines de I'Egypte, Ethnographie Pre-

Tombeau Royal de Negadah, par J. de Morgan, avec

collaboration de MM. le Professeur Wiedemann, Gr. Jequier, et
liistorique et

Dr. Fouquet, Paris, 1897.

la
le

DISCOVERY OF THE "TOMB OF OSIRIS

his labours were

crowned by the discovery of the tomb

(whom he

of a king

15

identified

with the god

which he gave the name " Tomb of

opinion the tomb

dated from

Osiris), to

the time

In his

Osiris."

when

Osiris

Un-nefer, the god of the Egyptian underworld and of

the dead, actually reigned upon earth, and although

and fabric several of the

resembled in construction

tombs which stood

near

it,

M. Amelineau saw no

"antecedent improbability" in

being the veritable

its

The building was

sepulchre of the god.

it

in the form

of a house built on three sides, north, east,

and south,

with an inner court, and at the north-west end was a

which M. Amelineau

staircase,

believed

staircase referred to in the texts

"

god who

is

at the top of the

of

staircase/'

when

i.e.,

the

windows

by declaring that

fact

The

greater

number

the

at the time

tomb was built men had no knowledge

or doors.

Osiris.

of various sizes,

which were without doors, and this

discoverer accounted for

the

which speak of the

The tomb contained fourteen chambers

all

be

to

of the

either of

chambers

were empty, but some of those that were built along the
sides of the

tomb contained large wine jars, and although

most of the jars had been broken, a few

their conical

mouth

burnt as hard as
in the

were

tomb

all

by the

tiles

possessed

which had, however, been

fire

which had been kindled

at the time of burial.

These jar stoppers

stamped with one of the names of the personage

minute description
neau's Le Tombeau tVOsir
1

covers,

still

of the tonib will

:

s,

be found in M. Anieli-

Paris, 1899, chap. v. p. 91

ff.

THE BED OF

i6
for

OSIRIS

wliom the tomb had been built

to be the "

thus

Horus name

"

name appeared

this

of some king

and was written

On the 2nd

found in the chamber marked

a

(i

Osiris

nanie of

"bed

new

the

on his plan,

which lacked the lower jaw, and

skull

which he believed

The Horus

M. Amelineau

of January, 1898,

to be the

head of the god

a little later in the day the so-called

was dug out by his men.

of Osiris"

kino-.

The "bed

monument hewn

monolithic
lion

bier,

made
head
so

Osiris"

of

i.e.,

funeral

shape

the

in

couch

grey granite

is

end and a

familiar

"bed"

is

in

funeral

and

At the head

his feet are the remains of figures of

i.e.,

the

is

this

who wears

holds

symbols of sovereignty and dominion,

a whip, in his hands.

On

scenes.

a figure of the god Osiris,

white crown upon his head,

a lion's

the other, which

lion's tail at

Egyptian

the

by legs

supported

in the form of the legs of a lion, with

at one

of

the

usual

a sceptre and

of the

god and

at

two hawks, which,

according to the legend inscribed under each, represent

The kings

Egypt possessed several names, viz., one as the re"

is commonly known as the " ka name
" banner name," one as the representative of the god Set, one as
of

presentative of Horus, which

or

the lord of the shrines of the vulture and uraeus

Horus

of

sold
i

and one

one

as " son of the

as king

Sun

"

ns^.

are usually written within cartouches.

cartouche was Besh.

one as the

the South and North,

of

The

The
first

last

two names

king to use a

OSIRIS

Horus,

tlie

UN-NEFER AND

17

Above the middle

avenger of his father.

the

ISIS

body are the remains of another hawk,

which, according to the inscription near

represents

tot*

goddess

the

which

Q o

" Osiris

reads,

a line of inscription

is

Un-nefer,

victorious,"

god of

Osiris in his character of

is to say,

it,

Close by the

Isis. 1

right shoulder of Osiris

that

of

On
monument

the underworld, and judge of the dead.

the

sides

of that

portion

of the

which represent the framework of the " bed

" Horns,

are

the
aveng-er
of his
father."

tomb

monument

for

The

Hymn

of the

worship or veneration in the

but at some period subsequent to

the king's

tion

name

name was very

Osiris

"c'est

l'a

cherche sans se reposer

Isis,

hammered

vengeresse de son f rere ; elle

le tour de ce monde en se
point arretee sans l'avoir trouve elle a

l'illustre,
;

la

elle

a fait

lamentant elle ne s'est

de la lumiere avec ses plumes
;

fait

carefully

elle

elle

a fait du vent avec ses

a fait les invocations de i'enterrement de son frere

a emporte les principes du Dieu au coeur tranquille

extrait son essence; elle a fait

ra

/vww\
I

llllllllll

^
VOL.

=\

o
I.

un enfant.

dedica-

quoted by Chabas, Revue Archeologique, 1857,

65:

elle

its

position of Isis refers no doubt to the passage in the

to

p.

ailes

when complete, conking who dedicated the

which,

inscriptions

tained the

"

P^H^o^
^

S3 /WVW\
/wwv\
/wvw\

elle

AGE OF THE TOMB OF OSIRIS

l8

the

for the general style

and except

out,

monument

there

is

and character of

no evidence available for helping

us to assign an exact date to

M. Amelineau

it.

first

thought that the prenomen which had been chiselled

out was that of Seti L, the second king of the

XlXth

examination of the

broken

Dynasty, but

an

later

surface seems to have convinced

him that the

hiero-

glyphics which form the prenomen of that king would

require

more space than the enclosing

cartouche contains, and that the

for the king for
it

whom

monument was made

the tomb was built, with which

was contemporaneous.
In April, 1898, M. Amelineau announced

the

Academie des Inscriptions

discovery of the "

of the

line

Tomb

et

of Osiris."

officially to

Belles-Lettres

There

is

no need

to follow in detail here the acrimonious dispute

arose between
this

MM.

which

Maspero and Amelineau concerning

announcement, and

to note that the

the

it is

sufficient for our

purpose

former took the view that the tomb was

not that of Osiris, but only a funeral chapel which had

been dedicated to the god, and that Osiris was not a

real king,

men.

and that Set and Horns had never been

According to M. Maspero the tomb belonged to

the same period as the tombs round about

contained the

name

of the beginning of the 1st

set forth

which

of no king earlier than the period

of the 1st Dynasty, and he regarded

the lllrcl Dynasty

it,

it

as the product

Dynasty or of the end of

for certain reasons

which he duly

he thought there was greater possibility of

its

BED AND TOMB OF OSIRIS CONTEMPORANEOUS

ig

belonging to the Illrd or Unci Dynasty than to the

Dynasty, and

1st

appeared to him to be a royal

it

sepulchre which was at a later period transformed into

That the "bed

a divine tomb.

temporaneous
Egyptologists
to

with

tomb

the

was con-

of Osiris"

and

he

all

who had examined the monument held

be impossible, for the characteristics of

proclaim that the period in which

it

its

available

seems

copy of

of opinion that

The

period.

later

is

is

to

it

on

evidence

show that the

Ameiineau, at some

lieved

that

the

belongs to a

still

the

now

"

subject

bed of Osiris

excavated by M.

between the beginning

period

XXth Dynasty

Dynasty, by

an ancient monument and that this

copy was deposited in the tomb,

of the

style

was made was not

more remote than that of the XYIIIth Dynasty

present writer

other

and the end of the

who

Egyptians

appear

to

XXVIth
have

be-

they were restoring the funeral bed of

the god in a funeral shrine or chapel, which at that

time was regarded as the

Osiris.

genuine tomb of the god

This view appears to have originated from the

fact that the Egyptians,

who had made

the original of

the copy of the " bed of Osiris," finding in the tomb the

whom

remains of the king for

objects inscribed with his

to the

conclusion, like

discovered the
i.e.,

tomb

it

was made, and various

name "Khent,"

rlTK,

jumped

M. Ameiineau, that they had

of "

Khent-Amenti

"

ff[h ft

the god Osiris in his capacity of " the head of the

THE TOMB OF

20

Underworld" (Amenti).

FRAUD

OSIRIS, A PIOUS

The mistake once made was

perpetuated by succeeding generations

and there

is little

of Egyptians,

doubt that the tomb which modern

Khent,

Egyptologists have proved to be the tomb of

one of the oldest known kings in Egypt,

i.e.,

was

believed by large numbers of well-informed Egyptians

to be

none other than that of

pilgrimages were

The

country.

discovered by

made

Osiris,

and that as such

thereto from all parts of the

archaic characteristics of the

M. Amelineau,

i.e.,

monument

the forms of the lions'

heads, etc., are more readily explained by the hypothesis

that

it

a copy of an old original which was

is

made

during the rule of the kings of the Early Empire than

by any other;

it,

moreover,

gives

a hint

mistake was a very ancient one, and that

dates from a period anterior to the

With

the

discovery

of

the

that

it

the

probably

Vlth Dynasty.

"bed

of Osiris"

M.

Amelineau's excavations practically came to an end,

for

although the clearing of sand,

some time

after January, 1898,

etc.,

went on

for

no results of importance

were obtained, and whether for want of funds or some

other

reason,

the

excavations

Abydos, and then the

M. Amelineau and

his

site

was

were
finally

supporters.

suspended

at

abandoned by

Every one who

knows how hard M. Amelineau worked, and with what

devotion he carried on his investigations, will regret
that his exertions were not crowned with greater success.

The

fact,

however, remains that he was the

first to

discover early dynastic tombs at Abydos, and for this,

EXCAVATIONS AT ABYDOS CONTINUED

if for

nothing

else,

21

Egyptologists owe him a debt of

gratitude.

In the winter of 1899-1900 Professor Petrie applied

Egyptian Government

to the

excavations
" Mission

Abydos,

at

"

Amelineau

for permission to

and

at

had abandoned the

when the
site,

he was

His search among the

allowed to begin work there.

royal

length,

make

tombs, which were said to

have been already

ransacked and partly cleared by M. Amelineau, was

rewarded by the finding of numbers of fragments of

inscribed earthenware and stone vases, plaques, stelae,

and

etc.,

than

hard

it is

the

that

excavations

though

carelessly,

arrive

to

had not

in his

diggers

do their work

must be made
Professor

and

it

employ

later

Petrie at

1900-1901,

is

it

ot

diligently,

any other conclusion

at

his

predecessor were

conducted, and that he

sufficient overseers to

systematically.

make

the

As mention

on of the results obtained by

Abydos both

1899-1900 and

in

unnecessary to go into details here,

note in passing that the

will be sufficient to

general accuracy of M. de Morgan's views and state-

ments as

laid

VEgypte was

Among
early

down

in his

works on Los Origines de

fully confirmed.

other investigators

dynastic

of the

predynastic and

tombs of Egypt must

Messrs. Eandall-Maciver and Wilkin,

be mentioned

who made

ex-

cavations at Al-'Anirah at the end of the year 1900,

in two cemeteries which lie between two wide valleys

that " run

down from the upper

desert a short distance

DISCOVERY AT BET KHALLAF

22

"north of Al- fAmrah."

One cemetery seems

have

to

contained about six or seven hundred graves, which

" ranged

from the very earliest

'

" through the entire middle period

"ning

New Eace
down

times

'

to the begin-

of the 'Late Prehistoric'"; this cemetery

was

in the south-west corner of the tract of land between

The other cemetery contained

the valleys.

" burials of

almost, if not quite, the earliest type," which continue

"

down

to the 1st or

In 1901 Mr.
find the

J.

Ilnd Dynasty."

Garstang was fortunate enough to

tombs of two kings of the Illrd Dynasty,

Tcheser and Hen-nekht at Bet Khallaf, u&a-

u^*>,

i.e.,

near

Girgah.

The reader has now before him a tolerably complete

statement of the work which has been done in
connection

with the excavation

and

Of the work which has been

the years 1894 and 1901.

by natives

predynastic

Egypt by Europeans between

early dynastic graves in

carried out

of

for

the administration of the

Gizeh

Museum

that

was considerable.

It is greatly to be regretted

much

work has been unsystematic,

it

that so

but there

many

is

nothing definite can be

of the native

said,

except

no doubt that the Egyptian has rescued

very fine objects,

made by

his remote ancestors,

from oblivion or destruction, and there

is

equally no

doubt that the amount and extent of the destruction

of ancient remains which he

is

alleged to have per-

petrated in recent years have been greatly exaggerated.

1

See Man, April, 1901, pp. 50,

52.

THE
Notwithstanding
" scientific "

some

"

NEW RACE
that

all

excavations,

credit, for

lias

23
been

native

the

about

said

digger

deserves

with very few exceptions the excava-

which have been successful owe their success

largely to the information about ancient sites which he
tions

has supplied.

has been said above to indicate to the

Sufficient

the

reader

which

objects

of

class

the

remarkable

graves already briefly described have yielded, and

show how the evidence which they

has been interpreted, and what deductions we

now remains
afford

to

are justified in drawing from

The

first

based

Naqada and

of things,

into

upon an examination of the

hand was Professor

antiquities at first

his

it.

investigator to publish a connected series

conclusions

of

it

Ballas, p. 59

ff.,

who, in

stated that the classes

which had been

pottery, etc.,

i.e., flints,

Petrie,

drifting

the hands of collectors and into great national

collections for several years before

Nakada, belonged
" the whole of

" to a large

Upper Egypt

he began to dig at

population spread over

"

and that a complete

break existed " between the Egyptian civilization and

" that of the

New

he designated

Piace."

the

people

"Egypt " by whom the

By
or

flints,

the words "

" certain

New

Race

invaders

;;

of

pottery, stone jars, vases,

New

etc.,

had been made, and he decided that the

Bace

" possessed an entirely different culture to that of

" the Egyptians,

"them."

and had no apparent connection with

Because burials were found which intruded

THE

24
into

"

NEW RACE

the Egyptian tombs of the Early Empire, and

because a burial of the Xllth Dynasty was superposed

"

on burials of the

New

Race," and because brick

tombs were built during

the

Dynasty through the ruins

period

Egypt

after the period of the

that of the

Xllth Dynasty.

tables, bowls, etc.,

the "

New Race

Xllth

the

town of the "

of a

Race," he concluded that the "

of

New Race "

New

lived in

IVth Dynasty, and

before

Because the earthenware

which are found in the

later style of

" tombs appear to be copied from the

well-known forms of the Early Empire

the

adoption

of forms being due to imitation and not to learning

from aDcient Egyptians,

all

the copies being

made by

hand, and not on the wheel like the originals

"

New Race

" entered Egypt between the Early and

The period

Middle Empires.
available

for

such

an

Dynasty and before the

between
"

the

B.C.

3322 and

in

intrusion
rise of

Egyptian
after

is

history

the

the Xlth Dynasty,

B.C. 3000,

and

"

Yth
i.e.,

from the total

absence of any known Egyptian objects belonging to

"this age in Upper Egypt,

" the

it

seems not improbable that

dominion of the invaders covered these three

" centuries, and

we may approximately date

" mains between 3300 and 3000 B.C."

objects

are

history of the

wheel

is

their re-

Because Egyptian

absent,

even in the later period of the

"New

Race," and the use of the potter's

disregarded, the relations of these " invaders

with the Egyptians appear to have been completely

hostile,

and there was no trade between them, and we

THE " NEW RACE

"

must accept

"been
the

tlie

"

25

expulsion of the Egyptians as having

That

practically complete from the Thebaic!."

"New

Eace " was a tribe, " and not merely

"employed by Egyptians,

ponderance

is

also

shown by the pre-

women, who have exactly the same

of

"physical characteristics

as

the

men.

Everything,

" therefore, contradicts the association of the

"and the New Race; and

it

Egyptians

the absolute exclusion of their

" remains, one from the other, in both

"makes

men

tombs and towns,

impossible to regard them as dwelling in the

" country together.

We

therefore conclude

the

that

"invaders destroyed or expelled the whole Egyptian

"population, and occupied the Thebaid alone."
the

"New Race"

were a "sturdy

by the " massive legs and

They were

people"

is

proved

stature often found."

tall

neither fighters nor quarrelsome, " as only

" about one in 300

" period of

hill

That

life,

shew

[sic\

bones broken at any

and not a single skull injured before

"death has been observed"; they were great hunters,

they were acquainted with the metals gold,

silver,

and

they were right-handed, they could spin and

copper,

weave, they were masters in the

art of

working in

stone and in the production of vases and vessels of

beautiful shape and form;

they

"had simple marks,

" which were probably personal signs, but never com" bined

them

" the future

to

form ideas

they had fixed beliefs about

and the needs of the dead, as the order

"the grave furniture

" of the

is

of

very constant, and the position

body almost invariable.

They had

great

THE

26

NEW RACE

"

"burning

at their funerals,

" burnt.

But the bodies were

"

though the body was never

often cut up,

more

or

" less, and in some cases certainly treated as if they were

The "New Eace

"partly eaten."

"

was connected by

Professor Petrie with the Libyans because

resembles in

and form, and

shape,

Kabyles,

material that of the

representatives

the

of

the

are

and

"New Race"

hunting habits of the

pottery

the modern

because

of Seti L,

about

B.C.

the

resemble those of

Kabyles, and the tattoo patterns of the

Eace" resemble those

and

decoration,

who

Libyans,

its

"

New

of the

Libyans in the tomb

1370.

He

thought that the

Egyptians were largely formed from Libyan immigrants to begin with

the basis of the race apparently

being a mulatto of Libyan-negro mixture, judging from

Medum." Finally he concluded

the New Eace we see a branch of the same

the earliest skeletons at

that in

Libyan race that founded the Amorite power; that we

have in their remains the example of the

civilization of

the southern Mediterranean at the beginning of the

use of metal, about 3200 B.C.

And

the galleys painted on the pottery

that probably in

we

see the earliest

pictures of that

commerce of the Punic

was so important

for

on that

sea.

race,

which

some three thousand years

later

In short, we have revealed a section of

the Mediterranean civilization, preserved and dated

for

us by the

soil of

Egypt."

Certain of the conclusions

which were arrived

at

by Professor Petrie were generally accepted by both

RESEARCHES BY

DE MORGAN

M.

27

anthropologists and Egyptologists, but these were of

the class which were self-evident

of the remainder

diametrically opposed to those arrived by

many were

other investigators at

bated with vigour on

many were com-

hand, and

first

On

sides.

all

M. Ainelineau claimed that the

the

objects

one hand

which he had

found at Abydos, and which resembled those found by

Professor

Petrie

" divine "

the

Tukh, dated from the time of

at

kings

Egypt,

of

and

on the

other,

Professor Petrie declared that they were not older than

the period which

and

the "

attributed

between

lies

bed of Osiris,"
such a

3300 and

B.C.

3000

which the former excavator

to

great

B.C.

antiquity,

was thought by

M. Maspero to be a work not older at most than the

XVIIIth Dynasty.
At this period of doubt and uncertainty great light
was thrown

upon

Egypt and the

M.

origin

preclynastic

ethnography of

Egyptian

of

whose

Morgan,

de

J.

the

training

civilization

many

questions

outside the

the

authority.

him

to decide

competence of Egyptologists, and whose

subjects

Nakada enabled him

under

discussion

In the year 1898

The year given on the

title-page

with

is

les

1897, but the

as far as I have been able to find out, appear in

1898.

to speak

peculiar

he published the second

volume of his work Becherches sur

1

scientific

on these subjects which were quite

extensive excavations at

on

as

geologist and mining engineer qualified

by

Origines de
work did not,
England until

CONCLUSIONS BY

28

VEgypte, wherein

DE MORGAN

M.

described the

lie

of

results

his

labours in the field of predynastic research, and set

forth the conclusions at

which he had arrived; these

conclusions were very different from those of Professor

Petrie,

and the evidence now available shows that the

eminent geologist was usually correct in his assertions.

him

Professor Petrie's observations led

to think that

the numerous population which produced the remarkable series of objects already referred to occupied the

whole of Upper Egypt only, but M. de Morgan showed

that their remains
of sites

may be found on

a continuous chain

which extends from Cairo in the north

Haifa in the south, with which

the Oases and the

"New Kace

"

Fayyu.ni

also

may

Wadi

to

be reckoned

thus Professor Petrie's

occupied the whole of the Nile Valley for

nearly one thousand miles instead of a comparatively

small portion of

it

in

Upper Egypt.

characteristics of the Egyptians

and of the

which Professor Petrie drew up

parison,

it

was clear that the

From
"

the

New

for purposes

latter

list

of

Race

of

"

com-

were at a lower

stage in the scale of civilization than the former, and

that

the manners, and

abilities of the

customs, and industries, and

two peoples were entirely

different,

and

that their physical characteristics were entirely distinct.

Moreover, the objects found in the graves of the "

Kace

"

showed not the

influence,

slightest

trace

New

of Egyptian

and the graves contained no objects which

had been made by Egyptians

siderable evidence to

but there existed con-

show that the

historical

Egyptians

AS TO

THE AGE OF THE

<(

NEW RACE

had borrowed largely from the industries

29

of the "

New

Kace."

The net
and the

result of all this proved that the Egyptians

"New Eace"

did not live side by side, and

that they did not occupy the country at the same time

had there been communication between them, the

more civilized race would have transmitted to the less
for

civilized a great

number

and the results of

its

of its

manners and customs,

industrial arts, and the use of

Egyptian objects would have been adopted by the race

with inferior civilization.

This being

so,

one of the

two peoples must have preceded the other

country of Egypt, and the

first

other than Professor Petrie's "

spite of its less

in

the

occupant could be none

New

advanced degree of

Eace," because, in
civilization, it

had

borrowed nothing from the more advanced Egyptians.

The "New Eace"

perhaps,

whom

more

were,

correctly,

then,
the

the

aborigines,

inhabitants

or

of Egypt,

Egyptians found there when they entered or

invaded the country, and they could be nothing else.
the

Having thus proved the great antiquity of the " New

Eace," M. de Morgan went on to show that the period
assigned by Professor Petrie for their existence in
Egypt was an impossible one,, for at the end of the
Early Empire Egypt was highly

civilized,

and

its

armies had advanced far into Western Asia and the

Eastern Sudan, and

its

kings were ruling over large

tracts of country;

how, then, could a semi- barbarous

people

which formed

like

those

the

"New

Eace,"

THE

30

"

NEW RACE

who were armed

AND THE LIBYANS

weapons

with, flint

only, invade

Egypt,

and expel or massacre the whole of the population of

the country without leaving any trace of

The

chronological

correct

by M. de Morgan

assigned

position
to the

it

behind?

having

"New

been

Eace,"

it

remained to consider whence they came and where their

original

home was

to the definite conclusion

Eace were Libyans and

of Syria,

Professor Petrie had come

situated.

(Naqada,
also

p.

64) that the

New

kinsmen of the Amorites

and that their remains were examples of the

southern Mediterranean civilization of about B.C. 3200

but

it

is

only possible to speak of the

New Eace

as

being Libyans in the sense that they were the northeast African substratum of the ]ater race of historic

Egyptians.

know

Of the Libyans

nothing, and, as

of predynastic times

we

M. de Morgan has shown that the

"New Eace" were the aborigines of Egypt, or at least the

people whom the Egyptians found in Egypt when they
entered the country,

it is futile

between the

"New Eace"

Amorites, for

whom

of,

to declare a relationship
say, B.C. 5000,

and the

the character of pre-Semitic abori-

we know, on insuffi-

gines of Palestine

is

claimed, so far as

cient evidence.

similarity between early Palestinian

"

New Eace

"

pottery does not necessarily imply any

racial connection

between Libyans and Amorites, and,

and

since Professor Petrie's date for the "

wrong by

at least

2000

New Eace

"

was

years, by his words, "civilization of

" the southern Mediterranean,"

we can only understand

an early civilization which was Egyptian, for there

is as

THEIR RELATIONSHIP DENIED

31

yet no proof that the primitive culture of Palestine and of

the

Aegean dates from

On

5000.

he

is

a period

which

is

as remote as B.C.

M. de Morgan

the other hand,

declares that

who dwelt
Egyptians a name

greatly troubled to find for the peoples

in the valley of the Nile before the

which

will exactly express his

thoughts on the subject

he cannot describe them as aborigines, or autochthones,

for

they were not born

in

the

and they

country,

probably came from other countries, and either drove

men who

out or subjugated the

before

them, and

there.

Further,

whom
he

is

lived in the country

they found on their arrival

unable

employ the term

to

" Libyans," for that would imply a special origin, and

besides

we have, he

thinks, no reason for placing the

human

hearth of this

Though not

than in another.

to use the expression

"

New

race in one country any more

strictly exact,

"indigenes"

for

he decided

describing the

Kace," and this he uses throughout his book in

its relative

and not absolute

sense,, for

we know

nothing-

whatever about the origin of this people or of those

who preceded them

The question

in the Valley of the Nile. 1

of the racial connection between the

Egyptians and the Libyans has been discussed from a

craniological point of view

by Mr. Kandall-Maciver, who

has arrived at the following conclusion

" this whole investigation has been to

"and

early

" The result of

show that Libya

Egypt were not united by any

" but that they

were in
1

J.

sufficiently close

de Morgan,

o.p. at., p. 51.

ties of race,

contact with

CRANIOLOGICAL EVIDENCE

32
" one
"

known

While,

identical.

of the

however,

too

little

is

early civilization of the Berbers

to

" permit of stating

whether

istics alien to Egypt,

"

centre to have

developed a culture which was in some important

"respects
"

common

another or with some

it is

exhibited any character-

it

certain that the prehistoric

Egyptians were acquainted with developments of art

" of

which no trace

is to

be found in Libya.

... A

"natural prejudice inclines the archaeologist to suppose

"that it was the Egyptian who possessed the superior

" and

who

supplied their products to their less civilized

" neighbours without deriving

much from

" return

is

skill,

but, after

all,

there

the latter in

not sufficient evidence

"to justify any confident assertion upon the point."

(Libyan Notes, pp. Ill, 113.)

In his more recent

work, Earliest Inhabitants of Abyclos, Mr. Eandall-

Maciver reasserts these views.

Professor Wiedemann thinks that the civilization which
is

illustrated

way

by the objects from Nakada was in some

related to that of the western neighbours of Egypt,

and that

this is

" vertible

more evident

if

we consider the "incontro-

connection" between the civilization of Nakada

and that which one

calls the

Greece, which preceded the

" island civilization " of

Mycenaean period

country of the northern Mediterranean.

evidence at present before us
as definite

or final

it

is

in the

But with the

difficult

to accept

any statement which asserts an

absolute connection between the predynastic cultures

of

Egypt and Greece,

for the very simple fact that

we

LATEST DATE FOR PREDYNASTIC ANTIQUITIES

have at present no reason
primitive

antiquities

for dating

from

33

even the most

Greece before B.C. 2500,

whereas in respect of the predynastic antiquities of

Egypt

almost the latest possible

assigned to
it is

them

is

B.C. 5000.

date

And

that can

be

in this connection

important to note that Mr. Arthur Evans' recent

discoveries point to the fact that the

ture of Greece,

i.e.,

most primitive cul-

the culture illustrated by the "Island

Graves," was more or less contemporaneous with the

period of the

Xllth Dynasty. 1

And

be

if this

follows that the fragments of painted

so, it

Pre-Mycenaean

pottery 3 which were found in the tombs of Tcha, Ten, and

Semerkhat, kings of the 1st Egyptian Dynasty, cannot

belong to the period of these kings, but must have been
introduced into their tombs at some subsequent period.

Belying on his view described above, Professor Wiede-

mann

of opinion that the autochthones of

Egypt were

related to the " Libyans," that they were

conquered

is

and reduced

to a state

and that

the beginning of the Early Empire they

formed

at

the

inferior

by another people,

of slavery

class

in

the

Valley

of

the

Nile.

The views

of the eminent anthropologist

ologist, Professor Sergi,

convincing

nor

and crani-

on the subject, though neither

must

satisfactory,

See Evans, Primitive Pictograplis,

p.

105

ff.

here

be

noted,

Hall, Oldest Civiliza-

tion of Greece, p. 71.

2

These are exhibited in the First Vase

(Wall-case No. 5).

Room

of

the British

Museum
VOL.

I.

THE CRANIOLOGICAL EVIDENCE

34

his Mediterranean Race, p.

for in

91

f.,

says

lie

"I cannot here reproduce all the reasons brought

" forward by de Morgan against the opinion of Petrie,
"but they seem

to

me

for

the most part just, and

" I accept his conclusions that

we

are here concerned

"with a primitive population, not one that arrived at a

" late epoch of the old Egyptian empire
as also I
;

his opinion that we find here a civilisation

" accept

" anterior to that of the Pharaohs in its definite and

But

"well known forms.

"when he

attempts to

" anthropology,

show, even with the

the

that

"may

Many arguments

Asia.

be found in his

" elsewhere,

own

aid of

population was

prehistoric

" different from the Egyptian,

" from

Morgan

I cannot follow de

which he would bring

against

his

opinions

Naqada and

discoveries at

and in the physical characters of the

"skulls described by Fouquet, as well as by Petrie.

we may note the method of burial adopted

" in the necropolis of Naqada and elsewhere, so well
" investigated by Wiedemann, who, though desiring to

" First of all

"show

the Asiatic

" furnishes

" opinion

arguments
of

an

the

favourable

African

" necropolis of the

" that period

of

origin

origin.

Egyptians,
to

opposite

Excavation

Naqada type shows

had three methods

the

really

that the

of burial

(
:

in

men

of

Either the

"

'

grave received the disseminated and incomplete bones,

"

'

or the skeleton

"

'

was placed

of the foetus, or the body

in a position recalling that

was burnt in a monumental

"'tomb,' as seems to have been the case with a royal

ACCORDING TO PROFESSOR SERGI

"tomb explored by

35

de Morgan, though this has been

"doubted and even denied by others.

(See de Bissing,

" Les Origines de VEgypte, in L'Anthropologie, vol. ix.

"p.

Wiedemann, however, accepts

415.)

this

con-

" elusion, and also agrees that these three usages are

"unlike the classical customs of the Egyptians, but he

" believes it

" united

may

be shown that they are intimately

with the

Egyptian religion

and with the

"worship of Osiris and Horns, as learnt from the Booh

" of the

Bead and

" Eeferring to

dismemberment, Wiedemann states that

"'the vestiges of
"

'

the ritual formulae of the Egyptians.

custom have never

this very ancient

completely disappeared, and are preserved not only in

Up

" 'the texts but also in actual practices.

to a very

"

'

late period the lower part of the foot of the

"

'

was

dislocated,

mummy

and in other cases the phallus of the

" 'corpse was cut off in order to be

embalmed separately

"

This explains, in his

'

and buried near the mummy.'

" opinion,

the

and disorder

dismemberment

" bodies in the graves discovered

by

Petrie,

and hence

" a custom which was symbolically preserved

epoch of Egyptian history.

the

of

down

to

As regards

"the

latest

" the

absence of portions of the body, explained by

" Petrie

as clue to a special

kind of anthropophagy,

"with the object of inheriting the virtues of the dead,

"

Wiedemann

gives

no

satisfactory explanation,

"cannot accept anthropophagy.

This transforma-

"tion of burial customs has convinced

"has been a

real evolution

up

but

me

that there

to the definite

form of

THE CRANIOLOGICAL EVIDENCE

36
"

Of

embalming which then remained constant.

"Fouquet,

in

found

examination,

craniological

liis

this

" evident traces in the skulls of Beit Allam, of Guebel-

" Silsileh, and other places.

There

" the skulls of the rude stone

" of

exists,

he

states, in

epoch in Egypt, deposits

bitumen mixed with cerebral substance, and this

"bitumen could not have been introduced by the nasal

" passages, the brain not having been removed, but only

"by

the occipital foramen, after the head had

"cut

and Petrie repeatedly

off;

"

was generally cut

"

Morgan

off in the

states that

"

De

compelled to admit that the burial customs

is

it

so,

the head

graves he explored.

"of the early Egyptians were not yet

"was

been

cannot be

affirmed

If this

fixed.

that

the

historical

Egyptians were not the descendants of those who

left

"their graves at Abydos, Naqada, and Ballas, that

" to say, the graves of neolithic civilisation.
" the

tomb

royal

at

is

Besides,

Naqada, regarded as the tomb

Dynasty, clearly

"of Menes, the founder of the

1st

"

shows

neolithic

civilisation

"

and a new

acquiring

its

transition

between

civilisation slowly

definite

" characters."

Professor Sergi devotes several pages to a discussion

of the evidence derived from craniology concerning the

"New

Race," which he concludes thus

(p.

112)

"Not

" only in this comparison of prehistoric skulls with those

" of the dynasties do

we

find that both

show the same

" forms and therefore belong to the same stock, but also by
" an examination of the royal

mummies

of Deir-el-Bahari,

ACCORDING TO PROFESSOR SERGI

" which, as I

37

have found, yield ellipsoidal and pentagonal

" forms as well as one beloid.

"conviction has grown in

On

my mind

these grounds the

that there

is

no

"difference of race between the historical Egyptians

"

and the men who preceded them, the so-called Proto-

" Egyptians of Evans,

and Morgan's 'old

Both

race.'

"alike belong to the Mediterranean stock, and are of

" African origin."

The above remarks, coming

as they

do from an expert craniologist, are extremely interesting,

but they leave an uneasy suspicion in the mind that

the craniological measurements of predynastic skulls

cannot be regarded as possessing any very definite or

absolute authority in the settlement of the question

under consideration, and that the archaeologist must

expect but

help from data which are capable of

little

being interpreted in several ways.

The

view

enunciated

resembles closely that of

Wiedemann
M. Maspero, who many years
by

Professor

ago held the opinion that the root-stock of the Egyptians

was African, and in his

the subject he

the

pronouncement on

the bulk of the Egyptian

says that

population presents

latest

characteristics

of the white

races which one finds settled from all antiquity in the

parts of the Libyan continent which- are on the shores

of the Mediterranean, that

made

its

way

from the south-west.

He

and that

this

it

people arrived in

there a black

race,

it

originated in Africa

into

itself,

Egypt from the west

further suggests that

or

when

Egypt they may have found

which they either destroyed or

THE

38

ASIATIC ORIGIN OF

THE

drove out, and that they were subsequently added to in

number

by

Asiatics

who

were

introduced

either

through the Isthmus of Suez or through the marshes

The views

of the Delta. 1

Wiedemann seem

of Professors

to be the deductions

Maspero and

which we cannot

help making from the facts before us, and as they are

propounded by men who are both archaeologists and

Egyptologists they merit serious consideration by

who

are interested in the matter.

note in passing that there

is

the

or

existence

of a

New Race "

preceded the "

and

country,

black,

that

We

must, however,

no reason for assuming

negro population,

in

who

the occupation of the

importance

the

all

of

the

Asiatic

element in the historical Egyptian has been understated.

We

"Where
? "

from

people

now

are

face to face with the difficult question,

'New Race' come

original home of the
New Race," and who

did the conquerors of the

i.e.,

Where was

who supplanted

the

the

"

founded the civilization of the historical Egyptians

All the evidence

now

available points to the fact that

these conquerors came from Asia,

which can be advanced in support of

following
(1)

may

An

be mentioned

and as arguments
this statement the

examination of the words found in the early

Egyptian inscriptions proves that many of them are

akin to the dialects of North and North-East Africa

but

it

also evident that in the matter of personal

is
1

Histoire Ancienne, Paris, 1895, pp. 45, 46.

CONQUERORS OF THE " NEW RACE

pronouns, pronominal suffixes, idioms,
exhibits such

etc.,

"

39

the language

remarkable similarities to the Semitic

dialects,

that they cannot be the result of accident.

The only

rational

is to

way

to account for these

phenomena

assume that the language of the Semitic nations

and that of the inhabitants of Egypt were descended

from the same common stock, from which they had been

But

severed at a very remote period.

to

that the

assert

dialect

Egyptian language

on the contrary,

languages

of

it is

North

it

not correct

is

Semitic

one of the indigenous

is

Africa which

became

greatly

such

modified

through

influences

must have emanated from Asia, and they did

so

at

time

Proto- Semitic

when

the

influences

Semitic languages had not

assumed the form in which they are known in the

oldest literatures,

and when they were, more or

less, in

a state of flux.
(2)

The

predynastic

of

graves,

contain no inscriptions, and

it

is

whatever

clear that those

made them were unacquainted with the

M. de Morgan declares that about
peoples in the world

who

kind,

B.C.

who

art of writing.

4000 the only

could write were the Semitic

and Turanian Chaldeans, who lived side by side in

Mesopotamia, and the Egyptians, who lived in a country

which was

at

some distance from the Euphrates, and that

the systems of writing employed by

a

common

that the

origin,
art

Mesopotamian

of

and that

it is

writing was

to the

all

three peoples had

more rational
transmitted

to

assume

from

Egyptian peoples, than

the

to think

THE ART OF WRITING

40 EVIDENCE DERIVED FROM

that

was discovered by

it

especially

as

paratively

the

small,

group independently,

each,

between them was com-

distance

and communication

Many

was relatively easy.

between them

have held this

scholars

view substantially for several years past, but

all

do not

agree as to the details of the manner in which the

transmission

was

conquerors of the "

which the

If

effected.

New

Kace

art of writing

was

that they should bring with

into

Egypt

"

we

assume

that the

came from a country in

practised,

it

is

them a knowledge

but although the fundamentals

picture systems of writing

and Egypt may

at one time

natural
of

it

of the

employed in Mesopotamia

have been

identical, it is

quite certain that they developed on entirely different

and that an important factor in the different

methods of development was the material employed for
lines,

writing purposes in the two countries.

In Mesopotamia

the material most used for writing upon was clay,

while

Egypt papyrus was

in

employed;

probably due to the fact that because of

this

its fine

was

texture

and tenacity the clay of Mesopotamia was more suitable

which had

for tablets

the

mud

of Egypt.

to be inscribed

Be

this as it

and baked, than

may, the influence of

the material upon the writing was soon evident, for

whereas the Egyptian scribe found

it

was very easy

to

and circular forms of natural and

objects on papyrus, his Babylonian brother

depict the curves

artificial

found

it to

obliged to

be almost impossible to do

make wedges impressed upon

so,

and he was

the soft clay to

METAL OBJECTS AND THE CYLINDER SEAL

take the place of linear designs. 1

41

That the knowledge

was probably derived from some Asiatic source

seems evident, but the Egyptian written character was
of writing

not a modification of the linear Babylonian script,

of any variation

less

character;

of cuneiform

still

it

is

Egyptian

probably more correct to assert that the

hieroglyphics and the early cuneiform characters had a

common

ancestor, of

which no traces have survived.

The predynastic graves of the

found to contain numbers of small
(3)

copper and bronze

later period

made

objects

dug out from the mines

by

peoples

indigenous

of

Egypt,

is

of Sinai

though

On

evidence in support of this view exists.

hand, there

of

the material for the former might

quite well have been

the

were

no

the other

every probability that they obtained

their knowledge of the

from some nation

that

artificial

composition bronze

dwelt in

near

or

Southern

Mesopotamia, where bronze was apparently made and

used for various purposes at a very early period.

Perhaps one of the strongest arguments in favour

(4)

of an Asiatic origin of the conquerors

Kace

"

is

"New

the use, in the early ages only of Egyptian

history, of the cylinder seal,

characteristics of the
zation,

of the

which

is

one of the chief

Sumerian and Babylonian

civili-

and which was employed universally in Mesopo-

1
The most recent word on this interesting subject has been said
by Mr. L. W. King in his Easy Lessons in tlie Cuneiform Inscriptions,
The development of the wedge characters from the picture
p. 3 ff
signs is well illustrated by the comparative list given on p. 4.
.

THE ART OF BRICK MAKING

42
tarnia

and the neighbouring countries from the

In Egypt the earliest cylinder

to the latest times.

seals

appear not to be older than the 1st Dynasty, and

Museum

the latest in the British

is

earliest

inscribed with the

name

of

is

No. 16,579, which

Amen-hetep

I.,

B.C.

1600.

In connection with cylinder seals must also be mentioned the art of brick-making, and as

we do not

find

any brick buildings in Egypt much before the period

the

of

1st

Dynasty, whilst they were

Mesopotamia from the

earliest times,

we

common

in

are justified

assuming that a knowledge of brick-making was

in

brought into the country from the East.

(5)

It has

been declared that whilst in general the

Babylonians buried their dead in a semi-embryonic

1

position,

they were sometimes in the habit of burning

them partly

or wholly, 2 but sufficient regard has not

been paid to the date of the tombs in Babylonia which

are here referred to.

The glazed pottery which

is

found

with such burials, and the peculiar character of the

earthenware
proclaim

coffins

that

all

and objects that accompany them,

such

burials

belong to a period

subsequent to that of the rule of the Persians

Mesopotamia

we should

therefore be in error if

in

we

attempted to prove a connection between the predynastic

Egyptians and the Babylonians by comparing a tomb

See Taylor, Notes on the Ruins of Muqeyr (Journal R.A.S., xv.

(1855), p. 270).
2

Koldewey, Die Althdbylonisclien Grdoer (Zeitschrift fur As-

syriologie, vol.

ii.

pp. 403-430).

BABYLONIAN METHOD OF BURIAL

say, B.C. 250, with a

in

Babylonia

of,

say, B.C. 5000.

of,

Besides

the conquerors of the "

Babylonians, and
into

it

was

this,

we

New Kace

tomb

43

Egypt

in

are assuming that

"

were akin to the

this very people

who introduced

of burying the dead lying on

Egypt the custom

their back at full length, a custom

which eventually

superseded the indigenous Egyptian practice of burying

dead in a semi-embryonic

the

famous " Stela of the Vultures

From

position.
"

it is

the

clear that the

early Babylonians were buried lying at full length and

the

not in

doubled-up position which

is

the chief

characteristic of the earliest race of Egyptians.

The

facts set out in the

above

paragraphs make

five

Egypt who conquered the

"NewBace" and amalgamated with them came from
clear that the invaders of

it

the East, and although

it

cannot be proved, as

is

some-

times stated,- that the Egyptians derived their earliest

culture from Babylonia,

it is

certain that

many

of the

elements of Egyptian culture were

most important

brought into Egypt by a people who were not remotely

connected with the

come from

people

Egypt

way
1

By what

Where

route

New

Kace

"

this

enter

theories have

according to one, the conquerors of

entered Egypt from the north-east by

of the peninsula of Sinai and the Delta,

making

E. de Sarzec, Decouvertes en Clialdee, p. 97, plate 3 C, Faris,

1884.
2

did

did they

To answer these questions two

been propounded
the "

Babylonians.

Hommel, The

Civilization of the East, p. 1.

THE FOLLOWERS OF HORUS

44

way thence

their
other,

which

up

the

river

the

more probable, starting

certainly the

is

according to

from some point in Southern Arabia, they crossed over

the straits

Bab al-Mandab

of

the African shore,

to

which they followed northwards until they arrived

the entrance of the

Wadi Hammamat

at

at Kuser, 1 they

then entered this valley, and after a few days' march

arrived

in

Egypt near the ancient

of Coptos.

city

According to both theories this people was of a ProtoSemitic origin, and as

it is

many eminent

admitted by

authorities that the cradle of the 'Semitic

Arabia, the

home

may

of these invaders

Kace was in

quite well have

been in the southern part of that country, and their

civilization

may

equally well have been derived from

In favour of this latter

the Sumerians of Babylonia.

theory the following arguments

1.

may

be adduced

Tradition generally asserts that the god Horus of

Behutet and his servants, or followers, who are described

as mesniu or mesenti,
i.e.,

the

" metal-workers,"

fl|

and who are

Heru

Shemsu

J&.

or

jii

to be identified
i

" followers

or

Horus," who accompany the other form of the god,

Horus

the

(Harsiesis),

North.

By

son

came
the

stand Nubia or
1

of Isis,

from

v\
the

South

and

word South we are not

Central

The^JI

Africa,

as

of
i.e.,

Heru-sa-Ast,

l\

with

not
to

the

under-

some have con-

of Yakut, IV. p. 126.

LEGENDS OF THE MESNIU

tended, but

when

the

45

South of Egypt, or Upper Egypt,

the
writer

considering

is

the

Now

Lower Egypt.

the standpoint of

matter

from

whole

in the

legend of Horns and his mesniu we no doubt have a

tradition of the invasion

the conquerors of the

of

"New

Egypt from the South by

who succeeded

Race,"

in

overthrowing the indigenous peoples chiefly by their

The hieroglyphic

weapons of metal.

inscriptions

which

record this legend under different forms mention the

neighbourhood of Denderah as the place where the

principal battle between

Horus and

his

mesniu and the

indigenous people took place, a record of the incident

being preserved in the name of the place which the

Egyptians called " Khata-neter

" god's slaughter."

"
|

oT A @

Now, according

to

i.e.,

the

the

second

theory the invaders made their way to Kuser, and

they entered Egypt by the

would

Wadi Hammamat, they

strike the Nile at a point near the

of Kena,

which

is

if

modern town

almost exactly opposite Denderah,

near which, as we have said above, the battle took

Having arrived

place.

at

this point

the

conquerors

occupied the country to the south as well as to the

north, but they seem to have met with considerable

opposition near Thebes, and not to have advanced

further than

much

the modern town of Edfu, where their

leader founded a settlement, which continued to

1

On

this

legend

see

Naville,

Mytlie d'Horus,

and Maspero, Les Forgerons d'Horus, Etudes de

p.

313

ff.

plates

the

12-19;

Mijtliologie, Vol. II.

HATHOR OF THE DIVINE LAND

46
latest

and

times,

formed the principal seat

worship of Horns of Behutet.

This

the fight between Horus and Set,

the legend of

is

i.e.,

the

of

the struggle of

the invading leader and his followers against the socalled "

New

Kace."

Another legend makes the goddess Hathor

2.

principal

come

seat

from

land," or

of

of

Horus"),

whose worship was

Ta-neter

r^-o

"land of the god "; in

often applied in the

is

"House

^et-Hem,

Qnlkll

texts

(i e.,

i.e.,

at

the

Denderah,

the

" divine

late times this

name

Egypt, but in the

to

earliest times it

always refers to a country to the south

of Egypt, which

may

well be identified with Soma] Hand

and Abyssinia, or even the country further to the north,

i.e.,

the modern Erythrea.

The Egyptians themselves always seem

3.

to

have

had some idea that they were connected with the people
of the land of

Punt n ^^^

a country which

is

probably identical with the Ta-neter, or the " divine

land" mentioned above, and M. Naville thinks that

there

may have been among

the Egyptians a " vague

and ancient tradition that they originally came from

the land of Punt, and that

it

had been their home

before they invaded and conquered the lower valley of

the Nile."
the

texts

As

without
Deir

el

name Punt

the
,

the

is

always written in

determinative of a foreign

Bahari, Pt. III., London, 1898,

p. 11.

PUNT AND
country,

it

seemed as

if

INHABITANTS

ITS

47

they regarded the people of that

place as being racially connected with themselves

we

are probably justified in regarding the inhabitants

Punt

of

and

as a section of the invading hosts from Arabia

which was

left

behind by the greater portion of the

conquerors on their way from the

Whether

Kuser.

Bab al-Mandab

to

this be so or not, it is quite obvious

from the representations of the people of Punt which

monuments that the racial connection

between the two peoples must have been exceedingly
close
and we may note in passing that the plaited,
occur on the

turned-up

which

beard

Egyptian gods

found

is

is

of the

characteristic

have been worn by the

to

inhabitants of Punt in the time of Queen Hatshepset

and also by the Egyptians of the 1st Dynasty, though

never at a later date.

sometimes stated that the

It is

conquering race, having passed through Punt to Egypt,

made

its

way onwards

into

Palestine,

and that the

Philistines (of the Bible) are probably a branch of this

race

such a

statement,

however,

ignores

the

all

arguments in favour of a Western or European origin

for the

name

To suggest still further that the

the people of Punt is in any way connected

Philistines.

of

with that of the Poeni or Phoenicians, who in later

times

founded the Punic colony of Carthage,

betray an ignorance of the following facts

pure

Semites,

language which w as almost

identical

the

Phoenicians were
T

2.

That there

is

1.

is

to

That

who spoke a
with Hebrew;

no evidence that they called themselves

THE

48

"

NEW RACE

by any name which

or the

"

is

way resembled Pun

in any

Greek Phoinix

punicus

AND THE WADI HAMMAMAT

3.

or

Punt

That the Latin adjective

derived from the

noun Poenus, which

between

the Latin equivalent of the word Phoinix,

which and the word Punt there

is

no resemblance or

is

connection whatsoever.
It

may now

be mentioned that the theory, which

would make the conquerers of the "

Egypt by the Wadi Hammamat,

New

Ptace " enter

receives a remarkable

confirmation in the fact that the earliest tombs and

monuments

of the dynastic Egyptians are found in the

neighbourhood of Coptos, where the Wadi

opens into the Nile Yalley,

and that Manetho

of kings

i.e.,

and Nakada,

at Abyclos

states that the first

two dynasties

We

were of Thinite origin.

have

described the excavations which have been

predynastic cemeteries of Egypt

others,

made

briefly

in the

by Europeans and

and have mentioned the principal deductions,

which may

come

Hammamat

fairly be

to light

made from the

facts

which have

through the labours of the excavators,

concerning the original homes and origin of those

were buried in them

who

and we may now, in a few

paragraphs, summarize the information

derived from

an examination of the objects which were found in

them, and so endeavour to give the reader an idea of
the physical characteristics and customs of the

who

at

such a remote

period,

by

their

skill

men
and

knowledge, obtained a position of pre-eminence among

their fellows.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

The predynastic Egyptians, that

stratum of them which was indigenous

49

is

to

to

North

that

say,

Africa,

belonged to a white or light- skinned race with

hair,

who

who

in

in

many

particulars resembled the Libyans,

times

historical

later

" long-headed,"

from side to

i.e.,

side, or

less proportion to

very near

the

dolichocephalic,

diameter of their skulls

the

the transverse diameter, bore a

the longitudinal diameter,

from front to back, than 8

physically

lived

They were

western bank of the Nile.

or

fair

to

10

i.e.,

that

hence they were, both

and mentally, entirely

from the

different

Egyptians, whose skulls, in respect of measurements,

occupy a middle position between the dolichocephalic

and the brachycephalic, or " short-headed

"

The

men.

hair of both sexes was short, and the beards of the

men

were long and pointed, but turned up at the points

the faces of both
shape,

oval in

The eyes

men and women were

and the

of the

lips

projected

regular and

but slightly.

women were almond shaped and very

broad, and they were shaded with heavy, arched eye-

brows

the figures of the

slim, their thighs

size,

to

to

feet of

moderate

Both men and

have had slightly sloping shoulders,

have been a

Prof.

were broad, and their

with, in some cases, a good instep.

women seem
and

women were comparatively

little

above the average height, and

Virchow (Abliandlungen der Konigl. Preus.

AJcad.

der

Wissenschajten, Berlin, 1899) declares that the light colour of the

hair found on predynastic bodies

the

soil,

VOL.

is

due to the action of the

and that the hair was originally black.

I.

salt in

TATTOOING

50

not of a heavy type in their build.

They seem

have

to

tattooed their bodies with figures of animals and with

wavy

lines,

etc.,

but

the

not very strong.

assumption

is

nearly

semi-savage or

all

direct
1

evideDce

It is well

barbarous

this

for

known

peoples

that

adorn

their bodies either with painted scenes or with tattooed

and there

designs,

is

no good reason for believing that

the predynastic Egyptians formed any exception to the

The dynastic Egyptians do not seem

general rule.

have

adopted

according

although,
Professor

tattooing
to

on

any considerable
examples

the

Wiedemann, they resorted

2

to

scale,

by

quoted

to it occasionally,

but M. de Morgan thinks that the pieces of red and

yellow ochre, which

are found

so

frequently in the

tombs of the predynastic Egyptians, formed the colouring matter which they used in tattooing, and
so

custom must

the

if this

have been widespread.

It

be
is

probable that in the daytime most of the predynastic

Egyptians wore no clothing of any

members

kind,

of the ruling houses or families

made

into drawers

as goats or

which they fastened round

the waist with a rope or cord tied into a knot

case there

is

were worn
1

2
iii.

See

See

J.
J.

it

no evidence that they wore long,

flowing garments.

It

the

seem to have

worn the undressed skins of animals, such

gazelles,

but

in

any

loose,

seems that when skins of animals

was the custom

to allow the tail of the

de Morgan, Elhnographie Prehistorique, p. 56.

de Morgan, op. cit., p. 222, and Lepsius, Denkmaler^

106, 109.

FIGURES OF PREDYNASTIC EGYPTIANS

animal to hang down behind the man's back
of men's

characteristic

and survives

times,

as

dress

the

in

The

period.

have been a

skirt,

illustration
figures of

which

In the accompanying

reproduced a few predynastic

are

give the

and 3

and 6 a

Museum

the British
reader

women during

appearance of
1, 2,

to

and the upper part of the body and the

women from

will

women seems

not very loose, which reached almost

arms remained without covering.

hair

dynastic

an important feature of the

principal garment of the

to the ankles,

5,

early

this is a

costume of kings and gods down to the latest

festal

Nos.

collection,

an idea of the general

the predynastic period.

illustrate the earliest types,

and Nos.

4,

which shows the treatment of the

later type,

when allowed

ivory

to

grow long

No. 5 has eyes inlaid

with lapis-lazuli, by which we are probably intended to

understand that the

here represented had blue

No. 7 belongs probably to a much later date,

eyes.
for,

woman

judging by the fringed or pleated work round the

neck of the garment which the woman wears, at the

when she

period
to

lived the people

must have been able

weave linen of some fineness

the later date of the figure

hair

by a

is

is

another proof of

the manner in which the

gathered up into a mass, and held in position

fillet

which runs round the back of the head.

According to M. de Morgan, the art of weaving was

unknown

to the earliest predynastic Egyptians,

and he

bases this view upon the fact that he found no woven

stuffs in

any

of.

the graves except such as contained

No.

1.

No.

No.

3.

2.

>1

32144

32140

32139
No.

No.

4.

,H*
No.

6.

IVJ

32|

141

32125

No.

No.

7.

32143

32143
Bone or ivory

figure of a

Back View.

Front View.

mother and

child of the early Dynastic Period

(Full size.)

(?)

DRESS AND ORNAMENTS

54
metal objects

in this case No. 7

must belong

either to

the period of the 1st Dynasty or that which immediately

preceded

it.

women wore

Predynastic
laces of beads

agate,

and

flint,

of

bracelets

made

neck-

of carnelian,

and other hard

and

limestone,

made

stones,
shells

of ivory, limestone,

have

and mother-of-pearl

flint,

been found in their graves.

also

The

flint bracelets

prove that the

must

possessed

makers

have

marvellous facility in the working

of

flint,

been

which could only have

acquired

as

the

result

of

flint-working for generations, and

we may

well believe that the pro-

duction of a

flint bracelet

the highest point of the

marked

art.

Flint

bracelets are rare in dynastic times,

and

it

seems as

then no

number
u

1 1/

'/

38666
Bone or ivory comb,

teeth

if

Egyptian women

longer wore

bone combs with short

of:

have

dynastic

them.

been

graves,

found

but

in

they

pre-

can

hardly have been used except for

Predynastic Period.

purposes of ornament,

known

in the early period, for

wore their hair short

women

if

they were

as well as

men

some combs are surmounted by

ARTICLES FOR THE TOILET

of birds, but these

figures

must belong

55

to the

which immediately preceded dynastic times.

period

Side by

must be mentioned the large numbers of

side with these

bone and ivory objects to which the name pendants

has been given

they are often curved and in shape

Some of
at the broad end, and some of them
there, and all of them are ornamented

generally resemble the claw of an animal.

them

are pierced

have notches cut

with horizontal, diagonal, or zigzag lines

if

it

seems as

such objects must have been worn as ornaments, or

have served some purpose of the

class

M. de Morgan groups the

In the same

toilet.

long, hollow ivory sticks

which are made in the form of rude figures of men

the larger end

made

usually closed by means of a stopper

some resinous substance, and

of

beneath

is

is

found to be

filled

such as sulphur of antimony,

Thus we have seen

and women

in

the hollow

with coloured substance,

etc.

men

that the earliest predynastic

Egypt dressed themselves

in skins,

and

that their descendants, certainly the female portion of

them

at least,

fabrics,

made themselves garments out

woven

and that the ornaments worn by the women

consisted of necklaces of beads

bracelets

made

of

flint, etc.,

made

of stones, etc., of

and of combs, pendants,

and plaques made of bone and ivory.

sticks

of

referred

to

coloured substance

above as being

filled

we may look upon

of the Iwhl or stibium tubes

of the

The ivory
with

some

as prototypes

dynastic period,

and the presence of sulphur of antimony, to which

PREDYNASTIC DWELLINGS

56

M. de Morgan

refers,

adds confirmation to

the

sug-

gestion.

The dwellings

predynastic Egyptians were

of the

small huts formed of branches of trees or reeds, 1 tied

together with twigs, and probably

much resembled

the

huts, with walls formed of reeds tied together and roofs

made

of the dried

leaves

of palms called " salatik,"

which are in common use among the better

classes of

summer time
they did, no doubt, as the modern Egyptian does when
he is pasturing his flocks in Upper Egypt, i.e., simply
sheltered themselves behind a mat of reeds through
which the wind could easily make its way. Of the

the

Sudan

at the present

day

in

the

position of such dwellings nothing can be said, for all

traces of the habitations of the predynastic Egyptians in

the actual valley are buried under some forty feet of Nile

Buildings or houses made of crude brick usually

mud.

contain the remains of metal objects, a fact which is

prove that the art of brick-making

is

one

of the

characteristics of the conquerors of the "

New

Kace,"

i.e.,

sufficient to

of the invaders from the East.

Whether

the indigenous population was dense or only very large

cannot at present

be

said,

but,

judging

from

the

remains of the predynastic settlements which M. de

Morgan

7)

identified on the edge of the desert on both

This view was also held by Diodorus Siculus

T7jf

e/c

tcou

Didot, p. 36.)

Ka\dfxuu

^X eiV

^OKifxa^ouTas

(I. xliii.), oUrjaLV

apice?a6ai

ravrri.

(Ed.

HUNTING THE ELEPHANT

57

banks of the Nile, the occupants of the country must

have been tolerably numerous.

From
their

the fact that the predynastic Egyptians buried

dead in skins of animals, and that they

also

wore drawers made of skins, we are justified in assuming

that they spent
forests,

much

of their time in hunting in the

which in the period of their

of the Nile Valley covered

The numerous ivory

their graves

seem

have

one

been

hunted, but

it

arrival of the

the banks

the

of the

river.

which have been found in

to indicate that

of

is

objects

earliest occupation

wild

the elephant must

which

animals

they

pretty certain that long before the

dynastic Egyptians that mighty beast

had retreated from the country and made his home

further

to

the

south.

" elephant/' which

is

The

name

"

Abu,"

i.e.,

given to the Island of Elephantine

in the hieroglyphic inscriptions, is probably due to the

fact that

some one in very early days thought that the

shape of the island resembled that of an elephant, just

as

some centuries ago the Arabs, thinking that the

which the great

was

built at the

point where the Blue Nile flows into the

White Nile

piece of land on

city

resembled the trunk of an elephant, called the city

itself "

Khartum,"

i.e.,

" elephant's trunk."

The

chief

name of Elephantine Island

is that the early Egyptians who gave it the name
" Abu "must have known what an elephant was like,

point of interest in the old

and that they were familiar with the form of the

animal.

But although the elephant was not found

in

MARSHES AND SWAMPS OF EARLY EGYPT

53

Egypt

we

in early dynastic times,

hippopotamus was,
either in or near

and

Egypt

is

are certain that the

he was often limited

that

clear from the fact that the

tombs of great men often contain pictures showing the

pursuit and attack of the beast by the deceased

wild bull, the wild boar, and

all

the

the various kinds of

animals of the gazelle and antelope species, the

leopards of various

lands, the hyaena,

lion,

the wolf, the

jackal, the crocodile, etc., were

frequently hunted.
pal

The

princi-

homes of such wild animals

must have been the swamps and

marshes which existed in many
parts of the Nile Valley and in

the Delta, and

it

was in these

that the predynastic and dynastic

Egyptians sought

their prey

the

formation of such can be

well

explained by wl\at takes

place to this day in the rivers

to the south of
Green

slate object representing

a cuttle fish.

Egypt.

As

long-

as the rivers are in flood their

Predynastic Period.

irregular channels are filled to

overflowing, but as soon as the rains in Central Africa

cease the rivers

fall rapidly,

and before long dry patches

and sand-banks appear in their beds.

As the supply

of

water further diminishes, such patches grow wider and

longer, and eventually the river

a series of lakes and marshes

becomes nothing but

or

swamps, separated

MODELS OF ANIMALS

59

111

03
PI

u
P4

MARSHES AND SWAMPS OF EARLY EGYPT

6o

from each other by long reaches of sand;

want of

water compels the animals and reptiles to congregate in

and about such lakes and swamps, and travellers who

have seen such in the remote parts of the Atbara and

Blue and White Niles describe the scenes as

of the

something extraordinary.

Here may be seen elephants,

hippopotami, lions, hyaenas, panthers, crocodiles, turtles,

etc., all

living together in a peace

Green

them by

slate object representing turtle.

their

of the Atbara

common enemy

and other rivers

which

forced

upon

Predynastic Period.

thirst.

of

is

What

true

is

the kind in our

own

days was true for the Nile in predynastic and dynastic

times,

Kace

"

and

for long after the

had made

their

way

conquerors of the "

into

Egypt the

New

lords of the

land would be able to indulge their fancy for hunting

" big game."

To attempt

predynastic Egypt

is

to

enumerate the birds of

hopeless, for the varieties

must

THE OSTRICH
have been exceedingly numerous

number

have

species

of

been

6l
the forms of a large

by

preserved

the

hieroglyphic characters of the dynastic Egyptians, but

which,

these

probably only

either

by their habits or through the ideas which were

them

associated with
special

manner

Moreover,

it

the

represent

times, appealed

early

in

varieties

in a

to the early masters of picture writing.

is

more than probable that by the time

the dynastic Egyptians had developed their system of

writing, several of the species of birds of predynastic

Egypt had ceased

to exist.

The

ostrich seems to have

been esteemed in a most unusual manner, for remains

and bones are often found in predynastic

of its eggs

graves

the few perfect specimens which

have been

discovered are usually pierced at the ends and covered

with designs of various kinds.

It is interesting to

note that ostriches' eggs are used in the ornamentation

of churches and

mosques in many parts of Egypt and

in the countries lying further east, to this day, and a

certain

amount

them

they

of

are

the

sanctity

pierced

is

and

generally attached to

suspended

by

cords

prominent parts of these

attached

to

edifices.

In some churches they are hung before the

altar,

roofs

in

and the present writer has seen many which

have been painted and decorated before they were so

hung.

Neither Christian nor

good reason

to

Muhammadan had any

give for having such things in their

churches and mosques, and no one seemed to

what the eggs

typified,

know

but the preservation of the

FLINT AND STONE WEAPONS

62

egg of the ostrich with such reverence

is.

common

survival of a custom which was

no doubt, a

in prehistoric

times.

We

have now

to

the

consider

kinds

various

oi

weapons with which the predynastic Egyptian armed

himself

when he

hunt wild animals, or

set out to

to

The com-

defend himself in war against his enemies.

monest and simplest form of weapon, and that with

which man

when used

staff;

defended himself, was the stick or

first

as a

weapon the

stick

was

short,

and

when used as a mark of rank or dignity it was long.

To make the short stick more effective it was weighted
end with a piece of ivory or stone, which was

at one

way

either tied on to the stick or pierced in such a

it

might

fit

on to the end of the

Such

stick.

that

stones, or

mace-heads, as they are generally called, are usually

conical

in

stone, the

shape, and are

made

of several kinds of

most favourite, however, being breccia, or

the red and yellow "plum-pudding" stone;

head attached

to

a stout stick

about two feet long

would make a very formidable club, and

the

knowledge of this

weapon

fact

"

to be popular all over the world.

inscribed with the

Sargon L,

head

"

it is,

.of

from

are of the

name

Agade, about
a

predynastic

no doubt,

which has caused this

panying illustrations represent

head

a mace-

the

The accom-

famous

"

mace-

of the Babylonian king

B.C.

3800, and a "mace-

grave

in

Egypt

both

same shape, both are pierced in the same

way, and both are made of the same kind of stone,

BABYLONIAN AND EGYPTIAN MACE-HEADS

63

but the former was found more than twenty years

and the

ago in Mesopotamia,

Abydos

in

Egypt a few years

latter

ago.

was found

at

Mace-heads are

sometimes round in shape, and both round and conical

were

used

Sumerian times down

Empire, and,

if

Babylonia

over

all

and

Assyria

to the period of the last

Sumerian legend

from

Assyrian

be trusted, the

is to

32089
Mace-head

of Sargon.

I.

Mace -head from a predynastic grave.

of Agacle.

great god Marduk,

when he was commissioned by

the

gods to wage war on their behalf against Tiamat and

the brood

whom

of fiends

she

had spawned, armed

himself with a mul-mullu, or club, of this kind, and the

weapon helpsd him

to

slay the monster.

To

this

day

the people of Mesopotamia in their journeys through

the desert carry with

them clubs made

of a short piece

MACE-HEAD OF THE ARCHAIC PERIOD

64

of stout stick with, a

and
is

its

head made of bitumen and

clay,

shape closely resembles that of the club which

represented on some of the Assyrian sculptures.

In

Egypt the club was used both by predynastic and

dynastic Egyptians, and in one form or the other

found on walls and

reliefs

wherever battle scenes are

The mace-head

represented.

it is

figured on this page is of

2 6 24-7
Egyptian limestone mace -head

peculiar interest.

grave, and

is

made

It

of the

was found

Archaic Period.

in an early dynastic

of hard limestone

it is

ornamented

with a representation of a serpent coiled round

with figures of birds, and the projections on
the spiked

club of mediaeval times.

that this object was

mounted on a long

it

it,

and

recall

It is probable

stick

and then

Ph

Ph

VOL.

I.

MACE-HEAD OF ENANNADU

67

about in processions or used for ceremonial

carried

even

purposes,

as

some

were used in Babylonia.

of

the

large

An example

mace-heads

of this

class is

Close by the perforation, on the top,

figured below.

inscribed the record of the dedication of a temple to

is

the god Ningirsu, by Enannadu, a governor of Shir-

Kound

purla, or Lagash, about B.C. 4500.

sculptured

are

relief

rude

of an

eagle,

etc.,

the object

in

figures
lions,

which are con-

sidered by some to

form

the

emblem
city

ancient

the

of

Shirpurla, the

modern
Another

Lo.

Tell

form

of

which

mace - head

has been found in

predynastic
is

the

graves

illustrated

by

drawings

on

Mace-head inscribed with the record

of the
dedication of a temple to Ningirsu by Enannadu, governor of Lagash in Babylonia,
B.C. 4500.

page 65, and

it is,

perhaps, right to group here the class of stone objects

which specimens are represented on the same page

of
all

these are in the British

The next most

useful

Museum.
object

commonly employed

by the predynastic Egyptians, whether for purposes

of war or peace, was the axe-head, which was made

STONE AXE-HEADS

68

No.

1.

of

either
of

flint

some other hard

polished

either

rough

left

means
No.

2.

fastened

by

handle

its

or

was

it

probably
to

was

and

stone,

307"*7

or

leathern

of

Flint dag-

thongs.

gers, knives, spear-

heads, arrow-heads,

have

scrapqrs, etc.,

been found in large

numbers, and nearly

every great
32092

numerous

contains

examples
various
No.

these

3.

the

of

types

of

In

objects.

however,

of

excellence

of

spite,

the

museum

their flint

the

weapons

predynastic

must

Egyptians

have

trapped

or

snared the greater

number
30746
Archaic Period, made of
variegated red and yellow stone.

Axe -heads

of

beasts

which

killed,

for

of the

wild

they

none of

FISHING
tlieir

69

weapons mentioned above would be

effective in the

case of " big game," except at close quarters, and after

With them hunting

the animal had been dragged down.

was a

necessity,

and

it

must have formed one

of the chief

sources of their food supply; their other great source

was the

Nile,

numbers

which must always have contained large

of fine fish.

The

flint

harpoons which have been

found prove that the early indigenous peoples of Egypt

knew how

to spear fish with such implements,

fishing scenes in the

tombs

and the

testify to the fact that the

Egyptians of dynastic times were as

gentle art as their predecessors.

the

in

skilful

The greater number

of the fish caught, however, were probably obtained not

by spearing but by reed traps built

at the sides of the

river,

and some were, no doubt, caught by the

net.

But there must have been

a time

and

line

when the

pre-

dynastic Egyptian possessed neither line nor net, and

when he

did

does to this

what the poor peasant

Having

clay.

bank where the

Mesopotamia

selected a place on the river-

side is not too steep

not too deep, he fixes a

in

number

and the water

is

of stout reeds on sticks

upright in the river in such a manner that they form

a semi-circular palisade, one end of

bank, whilst the other does not

these

the

quite

means a portion of the water

gap which

is

palisade and the

reeds

which touches the

slantwise

left

is

touch

it

enclosed.

by
In

between the one end of the

river-bank are placed a number of

with

their

tops

pointing

inwards

towards the enclosure, and experience proves that when

RAFTS AND BOATS

70
tlie fish

have once swum over them they are unable to

swim back

they are thus caught in a trap which has

the merit of having water continually running through

and

it,

is,

Great

inexpensive.

besides,

numbers of

large fish are frequently caught in such traps along

the

swamps through which the

flow,

Tigris and Euphrates

but in the portions of these rivers where the

current runs fast traps of this kind are unprofitable,

stream washes the reeds out of the ground.

for the

That some such method as

this of catching fish

have been employed in Egypt in the

evident

the

M. de Morgan has

for as

peoples

on

must

earliest times is

rightly observed, 1

banks of the Tigris and the

the

Euphrates and the Nile must have developed under

the same conditions, since they had the same needs,

and they possessed the same natural resources, and

lived

under almost the same natural conditions, in

countries the soil of which

had been formed

in almost

the same manner.

In his pursuit of his

calling, or in quest of food, the

must have discovered

preclynastic fisherman

early period that his labours

if

at a very

would be much lightened

he had the means of following up his prey in the

marshes, and his inventive faculties were soon set to

work

to

make

materials used

raft

or

of all

first

boat

of

some

kind.

by him were, no doubt,

The
tree

trunks and reeds, or the leaves of some kind of tree

resembling the palm

he guided the tree trunk with his

Op.

cit.,

p. 89.

BOATS OF REEDS
feet

71

and hands in the shallows, and probably with a stick

or pole in the deeper waters, but the difficulties which he

must have met with in directing his trunk whenever

he found himself in a current must have induced him

some better and surer means of conveyance

to contrive

Shallow boats made of reeds plaited

over the waters.

or tied together were then probably invented,

and as

long as only sheets of water, like the lakes in

Delta, or marshes,

purpose

to

be traversed they suited the

which they were

for

Keed boats

had

are

known

to

after the conquest of the "

Moses

to

intended

New
1

in

Kace," and the mention

which Hebrew tradition

have been placed, suggests that the

knowledge of such boats existed down

late times,

though

admirably.

have existed in Egypt long

of the " ark of bulrushes,"

declares

the

it

to comparatively

must be admitted that

this portion

may have descended

and may have formed part

of the story of the great law-giver

from a very ancient period,

of a legend of an earlier hero

introduced into his narrative.

which the

The

later writer

existence of boats

in the predynastic period has been for some years past

considered

to

be proved by the paintings found on

contemporaneous pottery, but one archaeologist, Mr.

Cecil Torr, identifies as ostrich farms the remarkable

paintings which another supposes to represent boats.

1

of

The Babylonian version of the story states that the mother

Sargon of Agade placed her son in a " basket of reeds,"

^T^T ^T*- y^ ^T ^"TkT Kuppi sha shuri, the door of which

was fastened with bitumen see Cuneiform Texts, Part xiii., pi. 42,
;

line

5.

PREDYNASTIC BOATS

72

In an interesting paper published in L' Anthropologic,

Sur quelques pretendus Navires Egyptiens,

Mr. Torr has reproduced a number of drawings of early

entitled

boats from vases in the British

Museum which have

the great merit of being faithful copies of the objects

which they represent

Mr. Torr

says,

accuracy of representation

is,

as

an important consideration in the inter-

pretation of the subjects. 1

out that though

Mr. Torr goes on to point

we have human

ostriches depicted on the vases,

and

beings, gazelles

we never have

fish

that no rowers are ever represented in the supposed

boats; and from certain lines on one side of a model of

made

a boat

same material

of the

as

the vases, he

draws conclusions which confirm him in his opinion

that the long curved lines do not represent boats at

On

all.

the contrary, he thinks the curved line represents a

rampart, that the straight short lines, which are usually

called

seen in

is

represent

oars,

rampart

is

this

glacis,

the

that

gap which

row marks the path by which the

approached, and that the objects which are

called cabins

each

side

of

are nothing else than

the

rampart. 2

little

In the

towers on

accompanying

" J'appelle l'attention sur les inexactitudes dans les figures de

M. de Morgan conime dans eelles de M. Petrie, parce que le degre
1

de confiance que meritent ces images est une consideration

importante pour l'interpretation des sujets."
2 "
Pour nia part, je crois que les longues lignes courbes, qui ont

comnie representant des navires, sont, en realite,

que les lignes droites plus courtes,
qnalifiees de rames, indiqent une sorte de glacis
que la lacune qui

ete considerees

l'indication

d'un rempart

PREDYNASTIC BOATS

which are drawn from predynastic vases

illustrations,

in

the

will

Museum,

British

paintings

are

depicted,

show that they

boats,

73

few

of

varieties

such

and an examination of them

really are intended to represent

and the pictures of boats which are drawn

upon papyri of a

late period

prove that certain of their

characteristics were preserved long after their

had been forgotten.

meanings

All the boats here represented are

Representation of a boat from a predynastic vase.

of the

same kind, and the plan of their construction

proves that they were intended for river work, where

was necessary

for

the

bow

of the

or stern

it

boat to

up the bank over the shallow water there.

This fact makes it impossible for such boats to have been

project

used for sea-going purposes as suggested by Prof. Petrie.

marque lesentierpar lequel on aocedait
en fin, que les objets qualifies des cabines ne sont pas

s'observe clans cette rangee

an rempart

autre chose que de petites tourelles de part et d'autre de l'entree

du rempart."

L' Anthropologic, torn, ix., p. 32

see also p. 717.

PREDYNASTIC BOATS

74

Each boat contains two small

huts, which are placed

amidships, and attached to one of these

is

a sort of

an emblem of some kind

mast, on the top of which

is

in the front of the boat

placed what appears to be a

branch or bough of a
rope for tying up
boat,

is

is

tree,

and in some examples

represented under the front of the

and steering poles are represented

at the stern.

The numerous lines which project from the boat

vertically downwards are considered by Prof. Petrie 2
represent oars, and

to

neither more nor less

he believes such boats to be

than rowing galleys, probably

because they contain nothing which can be identified

would rather

as sails; he

refer

"these galleys to the

Mediterranean than to the Nile,"

?'

and considers the

pottery on which such " galleys " are represented to

have been

But

if

"

imported

into

Egypt from

elsewhere."

the vertical lines really represent oars the boats

which they were worked must have been very large

in

indeed, in fact they would probably have been too large

to float

on the Nile

but whether this was so or not

See Petrie, Naqada and Ballas,

Ibid., p. 48.

Professor Petrie says

pi. 67,

" Whether

it

No.

14.

be a sea or river boat

is

important. Nile boats are always mainly worked by a sail, and

sails were used from the IVth Dynasty onward in a well-developed
form. On the other hand, rowing galleys have characterized the
Mediterranean the most reliable power of propulsion on that sea
has always been rowing, and the galleys of the sea-fight under
Barneses III., at Salamis, at Actium, of the Venetian Eepublic, of
the Algerian Corsairs, of the French navy, show that oars were
generally more important than men."
;

"g

3
3
O
H
&fl

TJ

^SiS&taiSMr

Ph

CO

to

OS

,_

PI

S &
CD

P.

h S

PREDYNASTIC BOATS
some other explanation of the
sought;

for

there

lines

information as to the
built

it

seems

clearly be

M. de Morgan thinks

that they depict "engins de peche,"

objects,

must

no evidence in support of the

is

theory that they represent oars.

some unknown

JJ

i.e.,

fishing tackle, or

but until we have some definite

way

which such boats were-

in

idle to speculate

There

on the matter.

remains to be considered in connection with

these

predynastic boats the object, which resembles a bough

or branch of a tree, or a mat, in the

bows of the

and the mast, with the symbol on the top of

It has

attached to the aft cabin.

is

it,

boat,

which

been thought 3 that

the bough "is placed at the stem to shade the look-out

man," but the bough or branch

precursor of the
out.

The

mat on which

is

more

sat the

likely to be the

man

on the look-

man on

part of the boat on which the

T
look-out sat was called nefru
J

^^^ \\

i,

6<=>Jr* J T-i

the

and this

M. de Morgan adds: " et que les rames sont seulement les

traits qui, places obliquement a l'une des extremites du bateau,
sont munis d'un elargissement figurant la palette." (Op. cik.,
1

p. 91.)
2

les

But compare

de Morgan (op.

J.

roseaux etaient places dans

aux deux extremites

les divers

le

cit., p.

92).

"Les

joncs ou

sens de l'axe de l'embarcation

elements etaient relies entre eux

par un fort noeud, tandis que des liens tres rapproches les uns des
autres traversaient la coque tout entiere normalement a son axe en

Le bateau ainsi construit etait

forme d'une veritable natte qui n'eut pas ete suffisante si l'epaisseur
des nattes n'eut ete triplee ou quadruplee, si des armatures de
bois n'etaient venues maintenir l'ensemble rigide et si un enduit
n'avait ete applique pour rendre l'embarcation impermeable."

reliant entre elles toutes les tiges.

Petrie, op.

cit.,

p. 48.

PREDYNASTIC BOATS

78
is

the

the

name which

boat

on the

the

19,

Ka

Sun-god

of the

Ani, plate

given to the

is

look-out

the

in

god Harpocrates

mat which

stretched

is

place in the bark of

Ka

as

it

is

over

place in

Papyrus of
seen

the

sitting

look-out

sails over the sky,

sometimes the place where the god usually

occupied by a bird.
or

mat seems

information

to

The

object, however, of the

have been

to supply to all

concerning the tribe

occupant of the

The

boat.

and

sits

is

bough

beholders

and family of the

short

mast which was

attached to the aft cabin was probably used for dis-

playing a flag or symbol which either referred to the

country or city of the master of the boat, or declared

his rank

the following examples of such symbols or

(6)

(8)

Standards from representations of boats, painted on vases of the

Predynastic Period.

flags

are reproduced from the

work of M. de Morgan,

who has borrowed most of them from the drawings of

Thus we have the
boats given in Naqada and Ballets.
standard of the
or five hills

man from

(Nos. 1-4)

the region of two, three, four,

and the standard of the men

AND THEIR STANDARDS

who adopted horns
emblems (Nos.
(No.

6,

(No.

5),

and two arrows as their

and .the standard of the

7),

but most interesting of

8),

symbol of the

man who adopted

elephant

9)

(No.

It

79

is

all

is

fish

the flag

or

emblem the

as his

more than probable that

these

and other symbols which were

short

masts in boats subsequently became the em-

affixed

to

the

blems of the nomes in Upper and Lower Egypt, and

the noine-standards, which are so often seen depicted
in

the

temples

great

appear to be

else

little

of

the

historical

than direct copies

and each

portant

division

must be
of

emblem

country,

the

the territory of a great

the

tribe,

in

any

North African

case the symbols are of indigenous or

origin,

Egyptians,

of

an im-

which represented

and which under the

conquerors from the East became a nome, though in

historic times the personal element
it.

But

was eliminated from

the predynastic Egyptian found

as

trunk propelled by his own hands and

factory

means

feet

of crossing or travelling

an unsatis-

up and down

the river, so he must also have found that boats

of reeds

tree

made

and rushes were both unsuitable and dangerous

for the purpose of fishing or fowling in the thickets of

marshes, which were crowded with crocodiles, or other

huge amphibious
set to

at

work

present

building,

beasts,

and as a result he must have

to build stronger craft.

how

far

It cannot be said

he advanced in the art of boat

whether he ever succeeded in building

or

a boat which

crocodile

could not

crush with his

EARLY BOAT WITH A SAIL

80
jaws,

or

which

hippopotamus

reduce to splinters

could

not

but the probability

is

easily

that his

boats were always more or less fragile, and that they

were most frequently of very light draught, and that

The natural

they had do decks of any sort or kind.

assumption
poAver

is

that in going up stream

their motive

was the wind, but in none of the examples of

painted predynastic pottery which have been published

Boat with

From

sail.

in the British

a vase of the Predynastic Period

Museum. (No. 35,324)

has the representation

of any

sail

been discovered.

Early in 1901, however, the Trustees of the British

Museum purchased

a large predynastic jar on which

is

an excellent representation of a boat, the shape of which

is

from pictures of boats which were

familiar to us

drawn in dynastic
mast, whereon

the mast

is

is

times.

At one end

a large rectangular

a seat

at the

of

sail,

it

and

close

same end of the boat

appears to be a steerfng oar.

set

is

is

At the other end

by

what
is

AGRICULTURAL PURSUITS
kind of cabin with a slanting
boat in the painting

is

roof,

masses

are

of

but the stern of the

damaged, and the details of

Bound and about

cannot be clearly made out.

boat

8l

wavy

which

lines

conventional pictures of water

are

it

the

clearly

the other paintings on

the vase depict a large bird in the act of pecking at a

wriggling worm, and four scorpions on a line which

seems to be intended to represent the ground.

vase

The

large and well made, and in respect of material,

is

colour, etc., closely resembles other earthenware vessels

of its class and period.

We

have seen that the predynastic Egyptians must

have been great hunters, and

it is

clear from

been said above that water-fowl and

fish

what has

must have

formed a considerable portion of their food supply, but

we have
cereals,

also to consider

whether they raised crops of

and whether they had succeeded in domesticat-

ing animals which would provide them with meat

game was

M. de Morgan was

scarce.

opinion that they

his opinion

were agriculturists,

upon the

fact

of all of

and he based

that he had found in his

excavations of predynastic sites a

flints

first

when

number

of saw-like

which he thought had been fastened in

sickles,

but subsequently he noticed that he had never found

objects of the kind on

any of the

sites

which contained

nothing but remains of the predynastic period, and he

therefore doubted the correctness of the opinion

which

he had formed, and which he had published in his

work, L'Age de
VOL.

I.

la

Pierre

et

Ves

Metaux, in 1896.

WHEAT AND BARLEY

82

Subsequently the eminent botanist, Professor Schweinfurth, pointed ont to him that wheat and barley were
their

in

natural

home

in

Mesopotamia, where they

actually grew wild, and the obvious deduction to be

made from this was that if wheat and barley existed in

Egypt in predynastic times they must have been
brought there from that country by the conquerors of
the indigenous peoples.

To decide the question M. de

Morgan made further very

careful researches with the

view of ascertaining whether wheat, and the remains

of agricultural tools were ever found together in the

same grave, and he found that they were not

until

further trustworthy excavations prove to the contrary,

we must

therefore assume that the cultivation of wheat

and barley was introduced into Egypt by the early

invaders of the country, and if this be so, the fact
forms another proof in favour of the Asiatic origin of
the

new comers.

In most countries, certainly in those

which have a winter season, the absence of cereals

would make it impossible to keep flocks and herds, but
this

was not necessarily the case

in Egypt,

where they

have no winter in the western sense of the word the

only period of the year when the predynastic Egyptian
;

would

find

any

difficulty

in

feeding

his

domestic

animals would be at the time of the inundation, but

then he would, as his modern representative does today, fall back upon the branches of trees for food for
his cattle.
Tt

has been often stated that the greater number

DOMESTIC ANIMALS
domestic

of the

the tombs

of the

Asiatic origin

there

animals which

this

them, for

it

depicted

are

upon

and Yth Dynasties are of

IVth

may

be so, but

a strong strain of the

is

83

it

is

probable that

indigenous cattle in

has yet to be proved that the offspring of

foreign cattle either did or will thrive and increase in

Egypt, except they be crossed with native breeds.

suggestive

is

it

fact,

when

however,

But

viewed

in

connection with the Asiatic origin of cattle in ancient

Egypt, that the god Osiris

Amentet,"
the

and that

the " Bull of

the cow-goddess

Hathor

(see

cow's head, No. 32,124, page 84) was brought

flint

Egypt by the invaders

into

called

is

these

facts

show that

men who wrote at least some of the chapters

of the Book of the Dead the bull was the strongest and
best animal known to them, and the one best suited to
to the

be the type of their god.

and

goat,

and

all

The

antelope,

and

gazelle,

the animals of that class lived with

the predynastic Egyptians in a more or less domestic

state,

and the paintings on pottery prove that they

were well acquainted with them; on the other hand,

the sheep, which forms such an important possession
in Asia,

was unknown

the Early Empire

ing

calf,

it

to

them.

was the "milk

17.

in the period of

calf," i.e.,

the suck-

and not the lamb, which was the symbol of

innocence and helplessness.

the god

Even

Khnemu may have

The ram which

represents

belonged to an indigenous

See Booh of the Dead, chap. 1.4;

LXIIIa. 2; CLXXXII.

12,

FLINT WEAPONS

84
species

which seems

to

have become extinct

after the

period of the Xllth Dynasty.

When
or

at

his

the indigenous

Egyptian was not hunting

war he probably spent much time in making

flint

weapons

and

tools,

the

notwithstanding

34387

Flint arrow and spear heads, and flint cow's head (No. 32,124.), emblem
of the goddess Hathor, in the British Mnsenm. Predynastic Period.

fact

that

skilled

the

each tribe must have

flint

workers

examples which

the

most

to

The

ot

us could

men who had devoted

of working in flint.

own

its

beautiful

have come down

only have been made by

lives to the art

for

possessed

art

their

began

PALAEOLITHIC AND NEOLITHIC FLINTS

86

remote period, 1 and

a very

at

became more and

it

more prosperous until man discovered how

metal

the use of

though

religious

of flint

survived for a
connection

In the hieroglyphic

was commemorated long

thus in the hieroglyphic for sickle

represent

projections

with

and weapons were generally used in

after metal tools

Egypt

in

chiefly

and ceremooial customs. 3

inscriptions the use

work

and knives did not at once

flint tools

disappear, as might be expected, but

lengthy period,

to

and

flint teeth,

ordinary words for knife,

_^

tes

_.

in

we

,,,,J^

one

the

of the

see that the

last sign is the determinative for stone, a fact

which

takes us back to the time

when knives were usually

made

or

of stone,

agreed that

all

i.e.,

the

flint

flint

It

chert.

weapons,

etc.,

is

generally

which have up

to the present been found in predynastic graves, belong-

to the Neolithic Period, but a

number

of others,

which

have been attributed to the Palaeolithic Period, have

also

been brought from Egypt

the latter were found

on the surface of the ground on plateaux lying at a

height considerably above the level of the Nile, and

They have formed the

not in workshops or near mines.

subjects of minute discussion and description, and such

eminent authorities as Sir John Evans, K.C.B., and M.

de

Morgan have no
"

hesitation in assigning

them

to the

remonte en Egypte aUx temps

Morgan, op. cit., p. 101.
2
See especially Sir John Evans, The Ancient Stone Implements
and E. B. Tylor, Researches
Britain, 2nd edit., 1897, p. 9
Great
of
into the Early History of Mankind, 1865, p. 191 ff.
1

L' usage de tailler la pierre

quaternaries

" J. de

EXISTENCE OF A PALAEOLITHIC AGE DOUBTED 87

Palaeolithic Period

but, on the other hand, Dr. Forbes

has come to the conclusion that " none of the surface

" 'palaeolithic'

implements from Egypt and Somaliland

" have yet been clearly proved to belong to that period,

" while the probability is that the bulk of

"much

them

are of

and he thinks that "they probably

the Xllth Dynasty, going back perhaps, but

later date,"

"belong

to

"not probably,

Dynasty."

to the Vltli

But the

General Pitt-Eivers " discovered in 1881

some

late

flakes

" of palaeolithic type, in situ, in gravel near the Valley of

" the

Tombs

"low

level,

" gists

of the

far

the

back

which appears

to Sir

very rude scraper-like

but until

it

agree,

must have been

prehistoric

in

highest degree probable, 3

gravels,

Thebes, at a comparatively

spot

evidence of a Palaeolithic
of

at

which," as Dr. Forbes admits, "all geolo-

who know

" deposited

Kings

The

times."

Age in Egypt, the existence

John Evans to be in the

may

flints

rest

on the flakes and

found in the Bab al-Muliik

has been proved that General

Pitt-Eivers was mistaken, the apparently supplementary

evidence
1

On a

may not

be lightly thrust aside.

Collection of Stone Implements in the

Liverp. Mus. II., Nos. 3 and

2

See Journal

4,

It

may, how-

Mayer Museum

(Bull.

January 20th, 1900).

of the Anthropological Institute,

vol. xi.,

p. 382,

1882 (Discovery of Chert Implements)

3
The Antiquity of Man, an Address delivered in the Town Hall,
Birmingham, October 25th, 1899, p. 13. This pamphlet contains
an interesting resume of the recent discoveries in Egypt, and, as
M. Boule remarks (L' Anthropologic, vol. xi., 1900, p. 274), "est ecrit
avec cette f acilite et cette humeur qu'ont pu apprecier toutes les per-

sonnes qui ont ete en relations avec l'eminent archeologue auglais."

THE PALAEOLITHIC AGE

88
ever, be

mentioned in passing that so high an authority

Canon W.

as

EGYPT

IN

ever about

G-reenwell, F.B.S., has no doubt whatso-

the existence of a Palaeolithic Period in

Egypt, and the researches which Professor Sayce has

made
flints

in Egypt,

and the positions of the palaeolithic

which he has found in

In any case the question

situ confirm this opinion.

one which only geologists

is

can usefully discuss, and the Egyptian archaeologist

must wait

An

until they arrive at a decision on the matter.

examination of the

flint

weapons,

and

tools,

implements of the neolithic period figured by M. de

Morgan 1 and Professor Petrie, 2 shows that they include

a number of forms and represent several methods of
workmanship which are quite unknown
in the

same

among

the

age.
flint

Similarly,

in

any country

many forms which

exist

implements of other countries of the

neolithic age have no equivalent

among those

dynastic Egypt, and, according to

personal effects of the

men who

of pre-

M. de Morgan, the

lived in the Nile Valley

present certain well-defined peculiarities which seem to

prove that the civilization of the Stone Age in Egypt

suffered but very little from foreign influences,

and that

the indigenous peoples of that country were as

affected

by such things

as

little

were their followers

in

dynastic times.

In spite of the fact that most of the tools of the

predynastic Egyptians were

made

of

flint, it

seems as

they possessed the knowledge of working in stone,

if
1

Op.

cit.,

pp. 103-116.

Naqada and

Ballas, Plate 71

ff.

NEOLITHIC FLINTS FROM EGYPT

30758

Flint implements of the Predynastic Period in the British Mnsenrn.

89

METAL TOOLS AND STONE VASES

for
it

many
is

stone vases, rudely shaped and poorly worked,

true,

of all kinds
is

object

The

have been found in their graves.

custom of depositing stone vases

it

gi

was common

certain that

was not

in

Egypt

originated

it

filled

to offer vases

with offerings

in every period,

among people whose

and vessels but offerings

whereon those who were buried were supposed to

after they

had entered upon

and

new

their

live,

until such

life,

time as they were able to provide for themselves in the

The dynastic Egyptians

world beyond the grave.

adopted the custom, and, having metal tools at their

command, they succeeded

delicate

in producing vases of

most

and beautiful forms out of very hard stones,

such as diorite and haematite and the like

a true idea

of the variety of forms and of the excellence of the

workmanship can only be obtained by examining a

number

examples, a

of the best

fine

series

will be found in the National Collection.

of the earlier people to

wise were failures, but

had been taught

make

which

The attempts

figures in relief or other-

nearly certain that

it is

of

to use metal tools

when they

by their conquerors

they became extremely useful workmen.

Their want

of success in working in stone was, however, counter-

balanced by their
ivory, as

we may

skill in

come down
in

of

An

to us.

working ivory
1

objects of bone

and

from the numerous pendants, and

see

combs, and figures

making

is

Op.

men and women, which have

excellent example of their skill

quoted by M. de Morgan, 1
cit.,

pp. 71 and 118.

who

PREDYNASTIC POTTERY

g2

mace found

describes the head of a

at

Silsila

made out of the tusk

potamus, and having been sawn into shape

interesting object

had a hole

drilled

is

through

it

of a hippo-

clearly,

end

at each

The ends

in the middle.

show the saw marks quite

this

and from their

M. de Morgan assumes that the task

irregularity

sawing was long and tedious

hole by which

it

was

fitted

on

of

on the other hand, the

to its

handle was drilled

with great regularity, and this was no doubt done by

means

of the drill used for

The pottery

making hollows

in vases.

of the predynastic Egyptians

without the help of the potter's wheel,

of

was made

which they

had no knowledge, and the materials employed by

them were Nile mud and

clay

the latter, no doubt,

was taken from special quarries, such as those

Aswan and Kena, which were much worked by

dynastic Egyptians
of

examples

of

fortunately a very large

earthenware

their

survived, and these proclaim that

skilled in the potter's art.

mud became

brown and black

made

the

number
have

vessels

they were highly

made from the Nile

reddish colour when

Pottery

of a yellowish

baked, and that

at

or

of clay

vessels were

became a bright red

made from paste with

which colouring matter, such as bi-oxide of manganese,

had been mixed.

classes

The most

of predynastic

pottery

interesting
are,

of course,

which are ornamented with incised designs,

otherwise,

of all

coloured, red and black.

The

those

linear

and paintings, and those which

the

are

and
bi-

paste of which the red

SPECIMENS OF PREDYNASTIC POTTERY

93

CO*"
CO

pj

us v

I>
I

o
o
cq

<M

SO

&H

G3 r

Jo*
c3 Q}
p.

fn

STONE VESSELS OF PREDYNASTIC PERIOD, ETC.

95

pq

fc

03

3
U
PM

BLACK AND RED POTTERY

and black pottery

is

made

is

fine

97

and porous, and was

kneaded before being worked into shape

well

surface

is

the

highly polished, the polishing being done by

The upper

flint polishers.

vessels of this class,

and

parts of the outsides of the

the insides, are black,

all

while some of them have black outside lower parts

only, but the black

is

due neither to smoke nor to the

employment of a second kind of paste by the

potter. 1

Eed and

red,

black

pottery,

like

wholly

that

is

frequently ornamented with designs iu white, wherein

geometric ornament, figures of men, animals,

represented.
all

etc.,

are

Certainly of later period than these are

the classes of painted pottery in which the paste

fine,

is

hard, and smooth, and of a yellowish colour, while

the designs upon

it,

though resembling in some respects

those which are in white on the pottery of an earlier

period,

wavy
1

are painted in red;

lines,

spirals,

such paintings represent

branches of

Professor Petrie's explanation

of the black-topped pottery

is

trees, lizards, oryxes,

as follows

consists

" The difference

The redwhere it was

iron was preserved.

in the baking.

polished was put in the upper part of the kiln,

exposed to air all round, and the red oxide of

The lower stratum of vases was, however, partly buried in ashes,
and so far as the charcoal covered them, it deoxidized the iron
from red peroxide to black magnetic oxide. All the vases were

mouth down in the kiln, the black part is around the

mouth, or in the inner side of the large bowls. ... It is precisely
the same question of colour and composition as on Greek vases,
where the black may become red wherever a draught of air has
impinged upon it and the black and red may be changed from
one to the other any number of times by regulating the air
supply." Naqada and Ballas, p. 36.
stacked

VOL.

I.

98 DATING OF EARLY POTTERY LARGELY

boats,

ostriches,

This

etc.

large

GUESSWORK

group of

pottery

belongs, no doubt, to the end of the predynastic period,

and
such

it

most probable that the practice of making-

is

in

Egypt continued

conquerors in that country.

result in a

Earthenware box

when

classification of pre-

further excavations of the

of the Predynastic Period ; ibexes, boat, water, etc.,

painted red on a buff ground.

cemeteries of the indigenous peoples

parts of

the

Extended research must

more exact system of

dynastic pottery, and,

advent of

the

after

Egypt have been made,

it

in

may

many

other

be reasonably

hoped that some chronological arrangements in groupiogs will be possible

but at present

much

of the

dating is the result of the " scientific imagination," or

guesswork.
pottery,

During the early dynastic times pieces of

which

in shape

and design

recall

some of the

Designs on vessels of the Predynastic Period.

(After J. de Morgan).

EXCELLENCE OF PREDYNASTIC POTTERY

IOI

best examples of indigenous work, appear in the tombs,

but speaking generally, at no time did the Egyptians

of history succeed

in surpassing

predecessors in the potter's

which the

their

The

art.

less

cultured

paintings with

latter decorated their pottery

have

the

all

characteristics of being the production of a people

who

had made some progress in drawing, but their designs

are heavy,

and they are executed in an almost childish

manner, and the

artists of that

With

of perspective.

time had no knowledge

the advent of the conquerors

the potter's art began to languish, and long before the

end of the rule of the kings of the Early Empire

well-nigh ceased to

exist,

at

least as

had

it

far as its con-

nection with funeral rites was concerned.

From

above

the

Egyptians

it

paragraphs

on

fishing,

chiefly

by hunting

and who possessed many of the habits and

manners and customs of

valleys,

predynastic

were an indigenous,

will be seen that they

North African people, who lived

and

the

tribes of

through which flow great

men who

live in the

on plains,

rivers, or

the soil of which has been brought

down from higher

lands by floods caused either by rains or the melting

of the

snow on the mountain ranges situated on them.

They were great workers

fashioning

this

implements of

material

all

kinds

is

in

flint,

into

and their

weapons,

truly marvellous

skill

tools,
;

to

unknown

be

and

they also

possessed great skill in pottery making, which

more

in

is

the

admired because the potter's wheel was

to them.

Thev

built no houses, or at least

PREDYNASTIC GRAVES

102
if

they did no remains of them have been found,

though they probably made habitations of reeds daubed

with mud, or rude shelters, the sides of which were

formed of mud, which, however, was not made into

bricks, for of the brickmaker's art they were ignorant.

They were not

cannibals, and their cemeteries seem to

indicate that they were not a warlike race

of their

position in the scale of civilization and development

can only judge by their attempts at

and

easy to show were not of a high

design,

which

order.

But notwithstanding

it

sculpture

we

is

these facts they succeeded

many ways, and a

which are made known to

in influencing their conquerors in

number

of the peculiarities

us by the inscriptions and other remains of the latter

among them.

people originated
the

The conquerors and

conquered appear to have been totally distinct

and mentally, and as a natural

people, both physically

result there

and

was a

manners,

distinct difference in their habits,

and

customs,

and capabilities

difference cannot be better illustrated

this

than by a few

remarks on their burial customs.

The

earliest graves in the Nile Valley consisted of

shallow hollows

which

away

lies

dug

in

the sandy,

on the edge of the

to the

mud

ground

shingly

deposit and stretches

mountains on each side of the river

such

hollows, though usually round, were extremely irregular

in shape,

and the object of the relatives of the dead

seems to have been to get the body laid away in the

ground with as

little

trouble

and

loss

of time

as

PREDYNASTIC GRAVES

The graves were made

possible.

103

close together, in fact

they were sometimes so close that a body lay partly in

one hollow and partly in another; whether at the period

when such graves were

made it was customary
to delimit them or not
but in

cannot be said,

any

case,

dividing

or

partitions

if

existed, they

have since

The body

disappeared.

was

on

put

ground
on

with

the

its

grave,
side,

left

head

towards the

bare

the
the

in

lying

ever

walls

usually

and

south,

the knees were bent up

on a level with the top

of

the

breast,

and the

hands placed before the

face

round about the

body were placed vessels

of

rude

of

coarse

shapes,

made

earthenware,

wherein funeral offerings

were

laid,

and

graves contain

predynastic

mummy

in the British

Museum. When found the deceased

was lying on his left side.

many

flint

weapons and implements.

Some

bodies were wrapped in the skins of gazelle fastened

together by thongs

of the

same material, and others

PREDYNASTIC GRAVE AT AL-'AMRAH

io 4

were both wrapped in and laid upon mats made of

reeds or rushes.

No

attempt was made to

mummify

the body in the usual sense of the word, and there

no

evidence

preserve

it

to

show

that

efforts

from natural decay

at

made

were
this

is

to

period the

custom of burning the body, wholly or partly, had

i^Siip^s^S
Predynastic grave at Al-'Amrah, near Abyclos. The deceased lying on his left
side, and surrounded by his vases, flint weapons, etc. (Drawn by Mr. Anderson
after M. J. de Morgan).

not been introduced.

In some graves of the period,

but these of course belong to the latter part of

pottery of a better class

is

it,

found, with worked flints

and pendants made of bone and

ivory, etc.,

very few cases metal objects are found.

had no superstructures, and

their

and in a

Such graves

position

in

the

PREDYNASTIC GRAVE AT KAWAMIL

105

ground was probably marked by some simple method,

such as covering them with stones or pebbles, or by
ground, as

sticks placed upright in the

among the

tribes of

is

the

North Africa and the Sudan

case

to the

present day.

tr

In graves of this class metal

Predynastic grave at Kawamil near Abjdos.
objects are found. (Drawn by Mr. Anderson after M. J. de Morgan).

In the second class of predynastic graves excavated

by M. de Morgan, the body having been burnt, wholly

or partly, the remains were

thrown carelessly into a

shallow hollow in the ground

in cases

was completely burnt, the bones

lie

where the body

scattered about in

106
tlie

DISMEMBERED BODIES AND FLESHLESS BONES

grave

great

in

disorder, but

when

it

was only

partly burnt, care was taken to keep the bones of the

hands and the

feet together,

and

to set the head,

was usually severed from the body, by

upon the ground or upon a
body

is

In

stone.

itself,

many

found to have been dismembered, and

which
either

graves the
its

various

ftp?*

Predynastic grave at Kawamil. The bones, having been stripped of their flesh,
were thrown into the grave. (Drawn by Mr. Anderson after M. J. de Morgan).

limbs are disposed in such a

possible space

way

as to

occupy the least

and some graves of the

earlier period

have been found to contain remains of bodies which had

been dismembered.

The remains

of bodies which

had

been burnt were often laid in rectangular earthenware

PREDYNASTIC GRAVES AT KAWAMIL

107

chests or boxes which were provided with covers, but,

bones

as in the case of those buried in graves, the

were scattered about in great disorder

the

objects

which are found with such remains show that this

custom belongs to the end of the predynastic period.
About this time also bodies, though bent up in the

Predynastic grave at Kawamil, near Abydos. The deceased lying on his

(Drawn by Mr. Anderson after
side in a grave lined with bricks.
M. J. de Morgan).

left

position in which the dead were bent in the earliest

predynastic graves, were buried on their backs under

constructions

of earthenware

bowls inverted.

Thus we

of the indigenous

which

resemble

large

see that the funeral customs

Egyptians were quite different from

108

DISMEMBERED BODIES AND FLESHLESS BONES

those of the Egyptians of dynastic times, and that the

graves of the earlier people are entirely different, both

as regards form

Moreover,

the

and

main

position,

divisions

from those of the

of

the tombs

later.

of the

Predynastic grave at Kawa.mil. The body was dismembered, and the flesh
having been stripped off, the bones were thrown into the grave.
(Drawn by Mr. Anderson after M. J. de Morgan).

dynastic

Egyptians,

shaft or corridor,

i.e.,

the

mummy-chamber, the

and the chapel or hall

for offerings,

represent funeral customs and beliefs which were un-

known

to their semi-barbarous ancestors.

It is possible

PREDYNASTIC GRAVES AT KAWAMIL

to assert that the

who

tonibs of the kings

iog

and noblemen

lived during the period of the first four dynasties

are developments of the brick graves, with their recesses

and "pits," which were in use in

late predynastic times,

but the slight similarities observed

more the

are,

most probably,

result of accident than design.

Predynastic grave at Kawamil. The deceased lies on his back, and the flesh
has been stripped from his bones.
(Drawn by Mr. Anderson after M. J. de Morgan).

Of the

religious beliefs

Egyptians but

little

and views of the predynastic

can be

said,

that the living would never have

to the

but

made

it is

self-evident

funeral offerings

dead unless they had believed that they would

RELIGIOUS VIEWS AND BELIEFS

110

live again in
flint

some form or other, and judging from the

weapons and implements found in their graves, we

are no doubt right in assuming that

they thought their dead would

the

inherit

life

which

after

death

would be lived under conditions which resembled those

under which they had lived upon earth. Whether
they had formulated any ideas in the earliest period as
to the existence of a divine

there

is

also that

good reason

power cannot be

for thinking that

said,

but

they had, and

such ideas were not on the level with those

which we are accustomed

to find

are barbarous or semi-savage.

among

peoples

who

III

CHAPTER

II.

Egyptian Chronology.

brief consideration of the

descriptions

of

pre-

dynastic objects given in the preceding pages, and of

the deductions which

may

be fairly made from them,

will convince the reader that

late

it

impossible to formu-

is

any system of predynastic chronology, or even to

assign any dates to the objects themselves, which shall

be other than approximately correct.

referred to fall into

which are declared

we may

two great

The

classes,

to be Palaeolithic

antiquities

namely, those

and those which

rightly assume to be Neolithic.

The remains

declared to be palaeolithic consist of flint implements,

i.e.,

borers and the like, which have been found on

high plateaux in the Nile Valley, and flakes of

flint

which General Pitt-Rivers discovered in situ in the

gravel

stratum at the mouth of the Valley of the

Tombs

of the

Kings

at Thebes.

The great antiquity

of the flint borers, etc., has been doubted, and they

have been declared

or

to belong to the period of the

Xllth Dynasty,

Vlth

but the archaeologist will have

See above,

p. 87.

THE PALAEOLITHIC PERIOD

112

EGYPT

IN

considerable difficulty in believing that in the time of

Xllth Dynasty, when the Egyptians were well

the

acquainted with the art of working in metal, and

when

they possessed beautifully worked and finely-shaped

flint

knives for ceremonial purposes, there were people

living on or near the plateaux close to their towns

were using in daily

life

flint

who

borers and axe-heads of

the types which are the result in other countries of

man's

earliest

represent his

attempts

first

work

to

and which

flint,

step on the ladder of civilization.

In the matter of the flakes of flint which General Pitt-

Rivers found in situ at Thebes there can be no reasonable ground for doubt as to their very great antiquity,
for

and

the knowledge

possessed by this eminent

views must be accepted.

Sir

experience

such matters

in

man were so great that his

Add to this the opinion of

John Evans on the extreme probability

of the

existence of a Palaeolithic Period in Egypt, and that of

M.

J. de

Morgan, both of

upon personal observation

her ancient peoples,

whom
of

base their statements

Egypt and the remains of

and the

case

for

the extreme

antiquity of the flints declared by them to be Palaeolithic

is

complete.

much more

The

neolithic

remains are of a

varied character, and they reveal to us

man

under conditions which must be quite different from

those under which he lived in the Palaeolithic Period.

But although the remains

are so

many and

group them

of neolithic

of such various

chronologically,

except

man

kinds,
in

in

Egypt

we cannot

the

vaguest

EGYPTIAN KING LISTS INCOMPLETE

II3

manner, and when the objects found in the graves of

divided into two

the predynastic period have been

classes,

which may be labelled

" Late

Neolithic

To attempt

reached.

of

Early Neolithic

"

and

the present limit

respectively,

"

knowledge

chronological

"

the

has

period

of

been

gauge the antiquity of such

to

things according to any chronological theory or system

is

When,

useless.

we

times

are

however,

we

arrive

at

dynastic

ground, for the Egyptians

on firmer

themselves have provided us with

data which

will

enable us to arrive at a good general idea of the period

of the duration of their civilization, and with lists of

kings which at least show what opinions on the subject

of their order and succession were held

When

drew them up.

such

lists

the

information

by those who
afforded

by

can be supplemented and corrected by facts

supplied by the monuments, either directly or indirectly,

it is

of the greatest value, but

statements of the

lists

where we have only the

to rely upon,

some caution in

arriving at a decision

must be

has proved that the

lists

must be

understood that, until we have

distinctly

more evidence of a
facts of

exercised, for experience

And

are not infallible.

definite character

on the general

Egyptian history, and more accurate means

finding the
civilization,

date

we

of the

shall

it

starting point

for

of Egyptian

have to be content with a system

of chronology which contains several gaps, and a series

of

minimum

dates for the greater

number

of the reigns

of the kings, and for the beginning of which an exact

VOL.

I.

EGYPTIAN KING LISTS

114

be

cannot

date

The data required

assigned.

for

formulating an accurate system of Egyptian chronology

are these

1.

complete

order of their succession

the reigns
of kings

list

of kings;

A list of the
We have, it is

3.

of the kings.

who ruled during

the

earlier

The

2.

lengths of
true, lists

part

we have no

period of Egyptian history, but

true

of the
definite

statements in them either as to the order in which one

king succeeded the other, or as to the length of each

or

king's reign,
first

in the lists

when the king whose name stands

began to reign we have also lists of
;

Egyptian kings written in Greek which are divided into

years of the reign of each king, and also

number of the
the number of

the years which each dynasty lasted

but these, like

dynasties,

and which profess

the old Egyptian

Now

see.

helping

in

let

lists,

us to

an

far they

may

how

native

contained in the famous

at Turin.

name given

It originally

we

shall

lists

have

are not infallible, as

establish

The most complete

which, as the

us consider what value such

chronology, and

is

to give the

list

accurate

system

of

be trusted.

of kings

known

to us

Koyal Papyrus of Turin, 1

to

it

indicates, is preserved

formed part of the collection

Egypt by M. Drovetti, the French ConsulGeneral in that country, which was offered for purchase
to the French Government in 1818, but was declined,

made

in

copy of the hieratic text is given by Lepsius, Auswahl der

and see Revue Archeologique,
WicMigsten Urkunden, Bll. 3-6
1

vol. vii., Paris, 1850, plate 149.

THE ROYAL PAPYRUS OF TURIN

115

and was afterwards acquired by the king of Sardinia

subsequently

it

was

sent,

l
;

with other things, to Turin,

Museum

of that city

it

found to be broken into scores of

little pieces,

which

but on

arrival in the

its

lay in a heap at the bottom of the box in

The document

been packed.

The nature

character.

is

which

it

was

had

written in the hieratic

of its contents

was

first

recog-

nized by Champollion le Jeune, who, in the Bulletin

Universel

(Nov., 1824),

un

chronologique,

described

as

it

vrai canon royal,"

"tableau

and in

spite of

" Petat presque complet de destruction " of the papyrus,

he was able^

to

collect

between 160 and 180 royal

many were complete, and many were

incomplete, and "un certain nombre se suivent."
The
condition of the papyrus was lamentable, and when
prenomens

Champollion had discovered of what priceless worth

would have been in a complete

it

" miseri frammenti "

must have

state, the sight of its

filled

him with

grief.

In 1826 Seyffarth went to Turin, and undertook to

join the fragments of the papyrus

together,

and he

formed an uninterrupted series of successive reigns,

which, although restored, appeared to be an absolutely
complete Koyal
hieratic

Canon;

character,

as

but his knowledge of

facts

prove,

the

was of a most

limited description, his system of Egyptian decipher-

ment was

faulty,

upon the forms

1

and he seems

to

have relied chiefly

of the fragments for guidance in placing

See Champollion-Figeac in Rev. Arch., vol.

p. 398.

vii.,

Paris, 1850,

n6

seyffarth's "restoration" untrustworthy

we must assume, he believed to be their

Thus he boldly reconstructed a roll
correct positions.
of papyrus of twelve columns or pages, each column

them

in what,

containing from twenty-six to thirty names of gods or

The worthlessness

kings.

Seyffarth's

of

"restora-

tion" was soon recognized, for Kosellini declined to

publish the " restored
his great work,

"

text of the Turin

Papyrus in

and stated plainly that he doubted

if

German were
they had been when the docu-

the fragments as placed by the learned

in the

same positions as

ment was

intact

and he

had

great

difficulty

in

determining what guide and what authority had been

followed by

Seyffarth

in

arrangement of them,

his

because the fragments into which

it

had been broken

were so small that they could not afford any great

indication
originally

"Ma

of

the

arranged.

order
1

in

which

they had

been

opinion was shared

Eosellini's

allora mi nacque, e che

mi fa grande ostacolo, vale a dire, se 1' ordine col quale questi
frammenti sono stati incomposti, sia quel medesimo che esisteva
nelmanuscritto, quando era intero. E da sapersi, che quel prezioso
papiro trovavasi ridotto in si minuti pezzetti, da non poter dare
1

non tacero

il

dubbio che

fin

tnttora

grande indizio dell' ordine successivo in che erano primitivamente

Per lo pill mi solo nome isolate leggevasi su ciascun
disposti.
frammento, e spesso un nome solo di piu frammenti si componeva
e talora, ne raramente, scaturivano delle lacune necessariamente
;

volute dalla deformita delle parti che volevansi ricongiungere.

Resta pertanto ad esaminarsi, se la ricongiunzione delle rotture e

connessione dei carafcteri, abbia potuto servire di guida, e
conseguentamente abbia dato autorita a ristabilire i pezzi in quell'
Lo che, in materia cosi imordine, piuttosto che in un altro.
la

portante,

dovrebbe essere rigorosaroente dimostrato, affinche

il

OPINIONS OF BIRCH AND

late Dr. Birch., 1

by the

who

E.

DE ROUGE

declared that the "extreme

" srnallness of the fragments renders the

mere mechanical

" adaptation of the pieces very problematical,"

there

many

is

evidence that the restoration

places.

More

"restoration" was

its

M. de Bouge, who

117

damaging

erroneous in

is

still

and that

to

Seyffarth's

very strong condemnation by

said,

" le

document, dans

" etat actuel, est sophistique et cela avec

son

une deplorable

" habilete, quoique ce resultat ait ete sans aucun doute,

" bien loin des intentions de

M.

of a controversy between

himself and

SeyfFarth."

On

account

Champollion-

Figeac as to the arrangement of the names of certain

kings in such a

way

as to lead the student to believe

that they followed naturally after those of kings of the

Xllth Dynasty, M. de Bouge

visited Turin,

and having

examined that part of the papyrus with the help of

a strong magnifying glass, he came to the conclusion
that the pieces of papyrus which had been joined by
SeyfFarth did not join naturally, that they fitted badly,
manuscritto cosi ricomposto, acquistasse tutto quel prezzo inestimable del quale potrebbe esser capace. Fincne cid non si
dimostri, avremo per quel papiro una serie di nomi di re, ma
nessuna autorita potra ottenere a ristabilir 1' ordine delle succesPoiche quella piccola parte, ove i nome in tal modo
sion!.
succedonsi, che ben corrisponde all' ordine che ci e noto per altri
monumenti, non vale ad acquistar fede a tutte le altre, nel ricomporre le quali, non si conosca qual guida e quale autorita fosse
seguita dal dotto Tedesco."
(Monumenti Storici, vol. i. pp. 147,
148.)
1

Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature, vol.

London, 1843, p. 204.

Revue Arch., vol. vii. p. 560.

Series),
2

i.

(Second

THE ROYAL PAPYRUS OF TURIN

Il8

and that the

Besides

fibres of the

papyrus

when

this, it is clear,

not match.

the system of decipher-

ment

of hieroglyphics proposed

into

consideration,

that

itself did

by Seyffarth

he could not

himself in his " restoration "

is

have

taken

guided

by the readings of the

names, and finally there seems to be no doubt that in

arranging the fragments of the papyrus he employed the
information which Champollion

and that he

in 1824,

kings in
in the

it

arbitrarily

Jeune had published

made the

to agree as far as possible

Greek

testimony

le

is

lists

order of the

with that given

The above

attributed to Manetho.

sufficient to

show that beyond supplying

the names of a number of kings,

many

of

which do not

occur elsewhere, the Eoyal Papyrus of Turin

present state
affords

is

us no information as to

us the

whose names

its

of no use in our investigations, for it

the

period

beginning of Egyptian civilization, and

give

in

order
it

the fragments of

of

records
it

the
;

succession

it

of

of the

does not
the

kings

we cannot even make use

of

which are inscribed with numbers

" Ces morceaux ainsi reunis sont encore suivis, dans l'arrangeSeyffarth, et sans aucune solution de continuity, par d'autres
fragments qui se trouvaient ainsi necessairement indiquer la tete
de la XIII e Dynastie. Ici l'examen auquel je me suis livre ne me
1

ment

permet pas d'hesiter, le rapprochement est mauvais, les fibres du

papyrus se rencontrent mal, et je crois pouvoir affirmer que les
noms derniers royaux du fragment marque 72 dans le planche
Vll e de M. Lepsius ne sont pas exactement a leur place. Ce
document n'a done a mes yeux aucune espece de valeur, en ce qui
concerne l'ordre respectif des deux families des Amenemhe et des
Sevekhotep (Xlle et XIIIe Dynastie)." Revue Arch., p. 562.

THE TABLET OF ABYDOS

119

and contain the lengths of the reigns of certain kings

stated in months, years, and days, for

which names they apply.

it is

uncertain to

Dr. Birch calculated that

the papyrus

when complete contained the names

about

hundred

three

and

declared, coincided with the three

kings mentioned by Herodotus.

Of the

discovered

ment

1864

in

the

a good idea of the general arrange-

of the Tablet will be gathered from the following

Here we

see Seti

son and successor Rameses

of his predecessors,

own name.

I.,

addressing seventy-five

II.,

him

the

The names on

Roman numerals

accompanied by his

whose cartouches are arranged

chronological order before

the

hundred and thirty

Tablet of Abydos/ which was

by Dumichen in the Temple of Osiris at
is

illustration.

Seti's

he

greatest importance for the study of Egyptian

chronology

Abydos

which,

kings,

thirty

of

the

list

is

in

ended by

are as follows

list

the dynasties to which the kings belong

[i]
1.

Mena.

5.

Hesepti.

2.

Teta.

6.

Merbap.

3.

Ateth.

7.

Semsu(?).

8.

Qebh.

4. Ata.

Bk.

The text was

ii.

1864, p. 81

100.

ff

Abydos, vol.

i.

first published by Dumichen in Aeg. Zeitschrift,

another excellent copy will be found in Mariette,

plate 43.

in brackets are added to indicate

120
[II.]

THE TABLET OF ABYDOS

THE TABLET OF ABYDOS

121

r^:ig*gM;imiTM^&yMfl

The Tablet

of Abydos.

THE TABLET OF ABYDOS

123

[XVIII.]

55. Neferkau-Heru.

66. Neb-pehtet-Ra.

56. Neferka-ari-Ra.

67. Tcheser-ka-Ra.
68. Aa-kbeper-ka-Ra.

[XL]

69. Aa-kheper-en-Ra.

57. Neb-kheru-Ra.
58.

Seankhka-Ra.

[XII.]
59. Sehetepab-Ra.

70.

Men-kheper-Ra.

71.

Aa-kheperu-Ra.

72.

Men-kkeperu-Ra.

73.

Neb Maat-Ra.

74. Tcheser-kheperu-

60.

Kheper-ka-Ra.

61.

Nub-kau-Ra.

62.

Kheper-kha-Ra.

63.

Kha-kau-Ra.

64.

Maat-en-Ra.

75. Men-pebtet-Ra.

65.

Maa-kkeru-Ra.

76.

Ra-setep-en-Ra.

[XIX.]

Men-Maat-Ra.

brief examination of this list sbows that the scribe

arranged in chronological order the names for which

he had room in the space allotted to the

list,

and

made a selection from the names in the

lists which, we may presume, he had before him, but
what guided him in making this selection cannot be
said.
Some think that he wished to commemorate only
that he only

such kings as were great and glorious according to the

opinion prevalent in the

XlXth

Dynasty, and others

that the names of legitimate kings only were given

but

it

is

certain

that the

space

at

the

disposal

of

the sculptor was limited, and that he commemorated

124

THE TABLET OF SAKKARA

only a small number

x.itwn=:ja>ir?M

^*SI

7p5lfea*-j|||

rj^ggnii

n^ssn

assail n^^nii

which

names,

of

appear to have been

chosen

From

random.

at

the

Tablet

of

Abydos we learn the

names of a comparatively large

number

of

kings, and presumably

the

TPg^ttri^Fi^n
n*g*B r^ggun
ri^^H n^SHii
rv*g5]i aaaui

x&mmii

3*m&
n^gra ?&asm
i*es! ryaignaii
r^sa n^s^ii
ryagi5]|

order

no

affords

it

informa-

tion either about the

lengths of their reigns

or the

number

of years

which

their

reigns

together represent.

Of

rv*6ED

a&sayi

but

3gflEBHII

able

5gOi

but

they reigned,

n>@g)
rt*OB)i

which

in

less importance,

of consider-

still

interest,

the

is

rMe^i n^QDii
rs^sa rvaoaii

Tablet of Sakkaka,

r-^dSii r^isaii

time of Eameses

II.,

n^GF3 n^@KBB

and

list

Tvsgiai

a^esi

a^a
aagM r^a^pn
i^SE

>dftyseaafr

:?

which dates from the

of

contains
forty

names

seven

royal

drawn

up,

practically,

in

the

same

as

that

order

employed

in

the

THE TABLET OF KARNAK

Tablets of Abydos. 1
overseer of works,

was found in the tomb

It

who was

s=3 \\

1 (
1

and the most remarkable

fact

about

blunder

is

is

that the

first

the sixth in the Tablet

may be due to carelessness on the

the scribe who drew up the list, or even to a
by the sculptor, but it may be the expression
This

of Abydos.

part of

whose name

it

iwt

Mena, but Mer-ba-pen,

in the list is not that of

or Mer-pe-ba,

of an

and a

also a "royal scribe"

chief reader, called Thunurei

name

125

of an opinion that Mer-pe-ba

was the

first

actual king

of Egypt.

We

have now

to consider the

Tablet of Karnak. 2

This interesting monument was discovered by Burton

near

Ba

the
at

the

sanctuary of

great

temple of Amen-

Karnak, and dates from the period

of

the

it contains a representation
of
XVIIIth Dynasty
Thothmes III. adoring sixty-one of his ancestors,
;

whose names are duly

set

forth in cartouches above

Half of the kings

their figures.

face one

way, and

half the other, but the cartouches are not arranged in

chronological order
described,
1

A portion

does
of

not

another

the reign of Rameses

this

list,

give

list

II.,

is

like the others already

complete

of kings

series

of the

from Abydos, but made

preserved in the British

in

Museum;

copies of the text will be found in Lepsius, Ausivahl, Bl.

Mariette, Abydos, torn.

in 1818,

ii.

plate 18.

It

2, and
was discovered by Bankes

and removed by Mimaut.

The monument

is preserved in the Cabinet des Medailles at

For copies of text see Lepsius, Auswalil, Bl. 1 and Prisse,
Monuments, plate 1.
2

Paris.

THE KING

126

MANETHO

LIST OF

predecessors of Thothnies, and again

it is

not evident

on what principle the selection of the names of the

The

kings was made.

in the fact that

great value of the

gives the

it

names

of

many

list

consists

kings of the

XHIth, XlVth, XVth, XVIth, and XVIIth

Xlth,

and thus

Dynasties,

information which

supplies

From

wanting in the Tablets of Abydos and Sakkara.

the

above paragraphs

it

will be

seen that from the

three selections of kings' names which form the

Lists of Abydos, Sakkara, and

is

Karnak we may

King

collect

the names of more than one hundred kings

who reigned

between Mena or Menes and Kameses

and that

II.,

for

the period which follows the reign of the last-named

king

we

must

seek

information

for

from

other

sources.

Next

to the lists of kings

drawn up

in hieroglyphics

must be mentioned the famous List of Kings which

was divided
the

great

into dynasties,
historical

Egyptian history.

and which formed part of

work

of

Manetho on ancient

This distinguished

at Sebennytus, 1 the Theb-neteret s==5

hieroglyphic inscriptions,

name seems

w^

ii.

i.

and he flourished

to be the

p.

Is.

70

in

the

ed. Didot, p. 511.

i.e.,

"gift of Thoth," or

9 and 28.
See also Bunsen, Egypt's
and Fragmenta Historicorum Gmecorum,

Os.,

et
ff

of the

Greek form of the Egyptian

J^. Ma-en-Tehuti,

Plutarch, De

Place, vol.
vol.

born

Lagus and Ptolemy Philadelphus

reigns of Ptolemy
his

man was

THE WORKS OF MANETHO

He

'Ep/xoSaypos.

scribe,"

described as a "

is

and bore a reputation

I2g

liigli

and

priest

and
draw up in

for great learning,

he was undoubtedly admirably

fitted to

Greek the history of Egypt, and an account of her

and of the manners, and customs, and

chronology,
religious

1. AlyvTTTiafcci.

QvaiKOdv

4.

teal

dynasties

6.

Tlepl ap^aicr/nov

but among

his reputation rests chiefly upon^ the

which we may regard as his history of

of these,

He

Ilepl eoproiv.

7. Ilepl Kaia<JK.evr)<$ Kv<>ia>v\

modern nations
Egypt.

5.

3. 'Iepa Bi/3\os.

BiftXos Ja>#eo?.

2.

eVtTO/x?;.

evaeftelas.

first

His works are

of her people.

beliefs

divided

the

first

the

kings of Egypt into thirty

work dealt with the

section of his

mythological part of the history of Egypt and with the

eleven

first

dynasties

these

of

2QL-X IX. and the

XX. -XXX. Now the principal
Dynasties

List

found

Manetho

of

in

the

the

second

with

third with Dynasties

versions of the King-

are four in number, and they are

" Chronography,"

famous

which was

drawn up about the end of the Ylllth century of our

era

by George the Monk, the Syncellus of Tarasius,

Patriarch of Constantinople,
give an abstract, with

dates,

worlH from

Adam

Manetho

made known

is

and which professed to

to Diocletian.
to us

of the

The

history

of the

oldest version of

by an extract from the

The Greek texts will be found in Bunsen, Egypt's Place, vol. i.

Appendix; Lepsius, Kdnigsbucli, Berlin, 1858; Fragmenta His1

toricorum Graecorum, vol.

VOL.

I.

ii.

ed. Didot, etc.

THE KING LIST OF MANETHO ACCORDING TO

130

Chronicle of Julius Africanus, a Libyan

early in the Illrd century a.d.,

which

who

flourished

preserved in

is

the Chronicle of Eusebius (born a.d. 264, died about

340),

Bishop

Eusebius

Caesarea

of

contains

many

the

interpolations

by

given

version

and

that

preserved in the Armenian rendering of his works

considered by some to be the more correct.

is

Besides

the versions of Africanus and George, commonly called

Syncellus,

Chronicle,"
"

Book

we

have

and

of the

Manetho

Sothis."

as quoted

1.

Menes

I.,

at This.

as
is

the

II.

are as follows

Manetho

" Old

the

called

The above mentioned

King List

by Julius Africanus.

Dynasty

known

another which

still

versions of Manetho's
I.

another

four

as quoted

by Eusebius.
Dynasty

I.,

at This.

JULIUS AFRICANUS AND EUSEBIUS

Dynasty

II.,

131

132

THE KING LIST OF MANETHO ACCORDING TO

Dynasty

IV., at

Memphis.

Dynasty IV.,

1.

Soris

29 years.

2 kings

2.

Suphis

63

Suphis

3.

Suphis

66

4.

Mencheres

63

5.

Katoises

25

6.

Bicheris

22

7.

Sebercheres

8.

Thamphthis

Eight kings in 274

years.

Dynasty

V.,

at

at

Memphis.

years.

Others

(sic)

Seventeen kings
years.

in

448

JULIUS AFRICANUS AND EUSEBIUS

Dynasty VI.,

at

Memphis.

1.

Othoes

30 years.

2.

Phios

53

3.

Metknsuphis

4.

Phiops

5.

Menthesuphis

6.

Mtocris

Dynasty

VI., at

years.

100
1

12

Dynasty VII.,

Mem-

at

....

kings in 203 years.

Dynasty

VII.,

at

Mem-

Four kiDgs

Five

kings

years.

Mem-

in

100

at

Hera-

years.

Hera-

at

Dynasty

IX.,

kleopolis.

kleopolis.

Achthoes

years.

Achthoes
Others

Others

years.

at

phis.

Twenty-seven kings in 146

kings

Mem-

in 75 clays.

Dynasty VIII.

phis.

IX.,

at

phis.

Seventy kings in 70 days.

Dynasty VIII.

Nitocris

phis.

Nineteen

Memphis.

Six kings in 203 years.

Dynasty

133

in

409

Four

kino-8

years.

in

years.

100

134

7HE KING

Dynasty

LIST OF
at

X.,

MANETHO ACCORDING TO
Dynasty

Hera-

kings

in

185

Nineteen

Dynasty XI.,

at Thebes.

Dynasty XII.,
1.

in

185

16 years.

at Thebes.

at Thebes.

Sixteen kings in 43 years.

Sixteen kings in 43 years.

Ammenemes

kings
years.

years.

Dynasty XI.,

Hera-

at

kleopolis.

kleopolis.

Nineteen

X.,

Arnmenemes

16 years.

JULIUS AFRICANUS AND EUSEBIUS

Dynasty XV.,
herds.

of

Shep-

135

I36

THE KING

LIST OF

4.

Amenophthis 21
Amensis
22

5.

Misapliris

6.

Misphrag-

3.

13

MANETHO ACCORDING TO
3.-

Amenophis

21

4.

Miphres

12

5.

Misphrag-

26

uiutliosis

muthosis 26

7.

Tuthmosis

6.

Tuthmosis

8.

Aroenophis

31

7.

Amenophis

31

9.

Oros

37

8.

Oros

36

10.

Acherres

32

9.

11.

Kathos

Achencherses 16

10. Athoris

39
16

12. Cliebres

12

11. Chenclieres

13. Acherres

12

12. Aclierres

13. Cherres

15

14. Arniesses

14.

Armais

15.

Eamesses

15.

Eamesses

16.

Amenopliath 19

16.

Ammenopliis 40

68

Sixteen kings in 263

Fourteen kings in 348

years.

years.

Dynasty XIX.

at

Thebes.

Dynasty XIX.,

at Thebes.

1.

Sethos

51 years.

Sethos

55 years.

2.

Kapsakes

61

Eampses

66

3.

Ammeneph-

Ammeneph-

thes 20
4.

Eamesses

5.

Ammenemnes

6.

Thuoris

thes 40

60
5

Seven kings in 209 years.

Ammenemes
Thuoris

26
7

Five kings in 194 years.

JULIUS AFRICANUS AND EUSEBIUS

Dynasty XX.,

at Thebes.

Dynasty XX.,

*37

at Thebes.

Twelve kings in 135

Twelve kings in 178

years.

years.

Dynasty

XXL,

at Tanis.

Dynasty XXI.,

at Tanis.

1.

Smendes

26 years.

Smendis

26 years.

2.

Psusennes

46

Psnsennes

41

3.

Nephelcheres

Nephercheres

4.

Amenophthis

Amenophthis

5.

Osockor

Osochor

6.

Psinaches

Psinaches

7.

Psnsennes

14

Psusennes

35

Seven kings in 130

Seven kings in 130

years.

years.

Dynasty XXII.

Dynasty XXII.

at

Bubastis.

at

Bubastis.

1.

Sesonchis

21 years.

1.

Sesonchosis

21 years.

2.

Osorthon

15

2.

Osorthon

15

3.

Takelothis

13

3-5.
6.

7-9.

Three others 25
Takelothis

13

Three others 42

Nine kings in 120

Three kings in 49

years.

years.

138

THE KING LIST OF MANETHO ACCORDING TO

Dynasty XXIII.,

at

Tanis

Dynasty XXIII.

at Tanis.

25 years.

1.

Petubastes

2.

Osorthon

Psammus

10

3.

Psammus

10

Zet

31

1.

Petubates

2.

Osorcho

3.

4.

40 years

Four kings

in 89 years.

Dynasty XXIV.,

at Sais.

Bocchoris

Three kings in 44 years.

Dynasty XXIV.,

Dynasty XXV.,

Dynasty XXV.,

in

Sabakon

2.

Sebichos

3.

Tarkos

Sabakon

12 years.

14

2.

Sebichos

12

18

3.

Tarakos

20

Three kings in 40 years.

at Sais.

Three kings in 44 years.

Dynasty

XXVI

at Sais.

1.

Stephinates

7 years.

1.

Ammeris

2.

Nechepsos

2.

Stephinathis

3.

Nechao

3.

Nechepsos

4.

Psainmetichos 54

4.

Nechao

5.

Nechao

5.

Psammetichos 45

6.

Psammuthis

(j

6.

Nechao

7.

Uaphris

19

7.

Psammuthis

17

8.

Amosis

44

8.

Uaphris

25

9.

Psauimeche-

9.

Amosis

42

rites

Nine kings

in

in

1.

8 years.

Dynasty XXVI.,

years.

Ethiopia.

Ethiopia.
1.

44

Bocchoris

6 years.

at Sais.

12 years.

150^ years.

Nine kings

in

163 years.

JULIUS AFRICANUS AND EUSEBIUS

Dynasty XXVII., Persians.
1.

Cambyses

2.

Darius Hys-

6 years.

taspes 36
3.

Xerxes the
Great 21
7 months.

139

Dynasty XXVII. Persians.

,

1.

Cambyses

3 years.

2.

Magoi

7 months.

3.

Darius

36 years.

4.

Xerxes

21

5.

Artaxerxes 40

6.

Xerxes

2 months.
7 months.

4.

Artabanus

5.

Artaxerxes 41 years.

7.

Sogdianos

6.

Xerxes

2 months.

8.

Darius

7.

Sogdianos

7 months.

8.

Darius

19 years.

19 years.

Eight kings in 124 years,

Eight kings in 120 years,

4 months.

4 months.

Dynasty XXVIII.,
Amyrtaeus

at Sais.

Dynasty XXVIII.,
Amyrtaeus

6 years.

Dynasty XXIX.,

Nepherites

2.

Achoris

3.

Psammon-

4.

Nepherites

Four kings

at

Mendes.
1.

Nepherites

2.

Achoris

3.

Psammonthis

4.

Nepherites

4 months.

4 months.

5.

Mouthis

1 year.

6 years.

13

this

6 years.

Dynasty XXIX.,

at

Mendes.
1.

at Sais.

in 20 years,

4 months.

6 years.

13

Five kings in 21 years,

4 months.

THE OLD CHRONICLE

140

Dynasty XXX.,

Dynasty XXX.,

at

Sebennytus.
1.

Nektanebes

2.

Teos

3.

Nektanebos

Sebennytus.

18 years.

1.

Nektanebes

2.

Teos

18

3.

Nektanebos

Three kings in 38 years.

III.

XVI,

The Old Chronicle.

at Tanis.

XVII., at Memphis.
XVIII., at Memphis.

XIX.,

XX.

at

Thebes.

10 years.

Three kings in 20 years.

443 years.

Fifteen kings, or Dynasties

Dyn.

at

Eight kings in

190

Four kings

103

in

Fourteen kings in 348

Five kings in

194

THE BOOK OF THE SOTHIS

IV.

1.

The Book of the

Sothis. 1

141

I42

THE BOOK OF THE SOTHIS

25. Koncliaris

THE BOOK OF THE SOTHIS

52

I43

THE BOOK OF THE SOTHIS

144
75.

Sabakon

VERSIONS OF AFRICANUS AND EUSEBIUS

145

shows that the Old Chronicle and the Book of the

Sothis

are quite useless

because

it

complete

lists

is

for

chronological

that they do

self-evident

as well

dynasties, are out of order.

This

and not a conjecture.

pancies between

the

lists

Eusebius to be explained
Africanus
because

is

clearly the

agrees

it

best

Bunsen was probably

was not

to arrange a

traditions
fact,

not contain

and that the names of the

of the kings,

kings which are in them,

fact

purposes,

some of the

as

a statement of

is

But how

are the discre-

of Julius

Africanus and

The

version

more accurate

of

Julius

of the

two,

monuments, and

with the

right in saying

that his object

system of Annals, but to give the

unaltered, and just as he found them.

In

judging only by the mere forms of the kings'

names which he

gives,

and which (even

after the lapse

of 1600 years, and in spite of the ignorance and carelessness

of subsequent

remarkably correct,

it

are

copyists)

seems pretty certain that he

must have had a copy of Manetho^s

The

version

on the whole

list

before him.

Eusebius was based upon that of

of

Africanus, and he appears to have been

careless

in

copying both names and figures, and the names of

many kings

We

works.

are wanting in the

know from Plutarch

extant copies of his

that

Manetho was a

high-priest and scribe connected with the mysteries in

the temple of Heliopolis, and there

in

compiling the
1

VOL.

I.

is

no doubt that,

work which he had received the

Egypt's Place, vol.

i.

p. 213.

THE AUTHORITY OF MANETHO

146

command

royal

position to

undertake,

to

would

lie

be

in

draw his information from sources whicli

were regarded as authoritative and authentic by his

That his name carried weight, and

brother priests.
that

reputation for learning was very great for

his

centuries after his death,

evident from the fact that

is

impostors endeavoured to obtain circulation for their

own

by issuing them under

pseudo-historical works

We

his name.

have no right

to

blame Manetho

for

the mistakes which his editors and copyists made, and

in considering his list the

wonder

is

that the version of

Julius Africanus agrees as closely as

monumental

numbers are due

the

names, however,

letters

discrepancies

which stood

and as instances of

of the

Xllth and XVIIIth Dynasties.

Siculus
is

(b.c.

interesting,

Some

of

57)

this fact

Herodotus

(b.c.

especially

450) and Diodorus

Egyptian

concerning

of the

that

correct

we may quote those

order,

The evidence

for figures

generally given in

are

chronology

former writer.

by Herodotus

of the information given

doubt, derived from Hecataeus of Miletus, but, as

case also with Diodorus,

own inquiries and

much

observation.

given in each of their works

value, for

of

is,

it is

is,

no

is

the

the result of his

The

list

of kings

on the whole, of

Herodotus apparently merely

writing the names of the

the

in

misreading by the

the

chiefly to

Greek

of the

scribes

The

evidence.

does with the

it

set

little

down

in

kings whose buildings he

passed on the Nile in the order in whicli he saw them,

HERODOTUS AND DIODORUS

and Diodorus

filled liis

I47

history with a large amount of

legendary matter from which, of course, no conclusion

As an

can be drawn.

exception, however,

it

who

noted that the account of the kings

may

be

built the

Pyramids in the IVth Dynasty agrees absolutely with

monuments

the

as regards the

names

of the kings, the

lengths of their reigns, and the order in which they

reigned, and

in several passages Diodorus

correctly

estimates the period of time which had elapsed since

the beginning of the Egyptian monarchy at about 4700

years.
It will be evident
it is

impossible from the

and Greek
shall be

the

from what has been said above that

to formulate

King Lists

any system of chronology which

more than approximately

evidence derived from such

monuments

in hieroglyphics

of individual kings

correct,
lists

and although

and from the

when taken together

is

wonderfully strong in favour of the high antiquity of

Egyptian

civilization generally, it does not enable us to

when we may assume that Egyptian

history began.
The Tablet of Abydos and the versions of Manetho ascribed to Julius Africanus and
Eusebius, and even the worthless Book of the Sothis,
fix

all

the period

agree in

making Mena

to be the first historical

king

See an interesting pamphlet entitled Der Bericht cles Diodor

He comilber die Pyramiden, Berlin, 1901, by Fr. W. von Bissing.
Herodotus,
and
notes
that the
and
pares the accounts of Diodorus
1

former writer says that the pyramids were

inclined planes,

x b} x ^ Tal

built,

by means

of

THE SOTHIC PERIOD

I48

though we now know that he was not the

of Egypt,

first

king of Egypt, but none of these authorities affords the

information which

enable us with

will

certainty to

Nevertheless, attempts

assign a date for his reign.

have been made to obtain some fixed point in the King

Lists from which

it

might be possible to deduce his

and the means employed have been

l

Period

2.

Synchronisms

have

five

3.

to

The Sothic

The Orientation

mentions in the inscriptions

have been submitted

1.

Of the Sothic Period

Egyptian Temples.

of

strict

rising of Sirius on the 27th

thinks

by Sir
that the

day of Epiphi, in the reign

of Pepi-Meri-Ka, took place about B.C. 3192,

and that

the other risings of Sirius mentioned by Brugsch

place about B.C. 1728 and B.C. 270 respectively.
is

Ave

three of these

examination

Norman Lockyer, K.C.B., and he

Pepi-Meri-Ra's name

date,

took

Now

the thirty-sixth on the Tablet

Now in books on Egyptology the period of 1461 years is

termed the Sothic period, and truly so, as it very nearly correctly measures the period elapsing between two heliacal risings
at the solstice (on the beginning of the Nile flood), on the 1st of
Thoth, in the vague year. But it is merely the result of chance
1

'

'

that 365|
cessional

X 4 represents it. It was not then known that the promovement of Sirius almost exactly made up the difference

between the true length of the year and the assumed length of
365 days. It has been stated that this period had not any
ancient existence, but was calculated back in later times. This
seems to me very improbable."
Lockyer, Dawn of Astronomy,
p. 256.
2

64,
3

Mater iaux pour servir a

68

la reconstruction

clit

see also Aeg. Zeit., Bd. xxxvii. p. 100.

Dawn

of

Astronomy

p. 262.

Calendrier, pp. 33,

THE SOTHIC PERIOD

of Abydos, and

Phiops,

a king

i.e.,

to the version of

274

of the

be

either Phios or

is

Vlth Dynasty according

Manetho given by Julius Africanus

and by adding Manetho's

this being so,

years of the

clear that

is

it

I49

first five

dynasties,

i.e.,

Mena

date for

of B.C. 4483.

No

accept this as a definite date, but

of the

+ 302 + 214 +

253

248, or 1291 years to B.C. 3192,

totals

we

arrive at the

one can pretend to

it is

at least useful as

showing that the evidence derived from the use of the

Sothic Period in Egyptian chronology indicates an antiquity for the civilization of Egypt which

some are prepared

to

is

higher than

admit; on the other hand, Mr. Cecil

Torr believes that the Sothic cycle was invented by the

later

very

Greeks at Alexandria, and he thinks that there

little

hope of correcting any dates in history by

reference to the cycles of the phoenix

star, or

is

and the dog-

other things pertaining to the calendar. 2

recent paper

an attempt has been made to

fix

the date

of Usertsen III., a king of the Xlltli Dynasty, by

of two of the

Kahun

In a

means

papyri which mention the rising

of Sirius on the 16th day of the

IVth month of the

winter of the 7th year of the king's reign, and the

festival gifts

and

it is

and

B.C.

which were made on the following day

argued that this took place between B.C. 1876

1872.

It

is

further

argued that between

See Mahler in Aeg.

Memphis and Mycenae, pp. 57 and 60.

Der Zweite Papyrusfund von Kaliun, by L. Borchardt {Aeg.

Zeit, Bd. xxxvii. p. 100

Zeit.,

ff).

Bd.

xxviii. p. 115.

THE SOTHIC PERIOD

150

Usertsen III. and Amenophis

I.,

whose ninth year

(according to a calculation based upon a statement in

respect of Sothis in the Ebers Papyrus) corresponds

with

1545

B.C.

1542, we must only allow

a period of

330 years, and that between the end of the Xllth and
the beginning of the
allow

200 to 210 years in our calculations. 1

from

That assertions of
caution

XVIIIth Dynasty we must only

this kind

evident from the fact

is

same

vestigator, using the

of Usertsen III.

date

must be received with

another in-

that

data, declares that the true

1945

B.C.

is

i.e.,

there

is

difference of about seventy years in the results of the

calculations

But

of the two writers on the subject.

according to Censorinus, the Dog-star, or Sirius, rose on

the
a.d.

the

clay of

first

first

month

of the Egyptian year

139, and therefore the preceding Sothic Period

began in

1322

B.C.

this date is called

by Theon of

Alexandria " the era of Menophres," who has been

identified

by Prof. Petrie

prenomen

is

possibly be
1

" Es

Jahre

v.

spiiter

correct.
das

7.

Now

I.,

whose

this identification

Prof.

Jahr Usertesen's

may

Mahler has asserted

III. als in die

Jahre von

Chr. fallend anzusehen, d. h. inimer noch etwa 100

als

es

Aegyptens, Eduard
A. Z. xxxvii.

with Kameses

Men-peh-Ea, and

ist also

1876-1873

der

am

niedrigsten

greifende

Meyer, in seinen Minimaldaten

Historiker

annahm."

p. 102.

See Nicklin in Classical Review,

vol. xiv. 1900, p.

148; and

Hall, Oldest Civilization of Greece, London, 1901, p. 67.

3
History of Egypt, ii. p. 33
the reader should consnlt
Mr. Torr's Memphis and Mycenae, p. 53 ff., where the unsatisfactory
nature of such calculations is demonstrated.
;

THE SET FESTIVAL

that a Set Festival,

151

the festival which was observed

i.e.,

end of a period of thirty years, which was

at the

cele-

brated on the 28th day of a certain month of Epiphi

in

the

reign

Thothmes

of

in the year B.C. 1470,

III.,

was commemorated

and as a period of about 150

years probably elapsed between the reigns of

II T. 1 and Barneses

the two dates are, more or

I.,

It must, however, be

agreement.

Thothmes

said above, very little reliance

remembered

is to

less, in

that, as

be placed on any

calculations of this kind in attempting to formulate an

exact chronology, especially as authorities, both ancient

and modern, are not agreed as

to the exact date in the

second century of our era when the

Sothic

Period

ended on which they based their calculations.

may

We

note in passing that the date assigned by Prof.

Mahler

to the reign of

1508 to

B.C.

1449,

is

Thothmes

III., i.e.,

from

B.C.

proved to be about half a century

synchronisms of Burna-buriash and

too low by the

Ashur-uballit with Amenophis III. and Amenophis IV.,

as

we have shown below

Prof.

Petrie

Thothmes

in

the arguments adduced by

favour

of

the

effect

III., to

Prof.

Mahler's

that the

date

for

Set Festival

celebrated by Mer-en-Ptah in the second year of his

reign took place B.C. 1206, and the rising of Sirius in

the ninth year of

The Al-Bersheh

Amenophis

tablet,

afford such a " brilliant

which

is

I.

took place' B.C. 1546, do

thought by Professor Petrie to

confirmation of Mahler's astronomical

reckoning," is destroyed, and, as data supplied by it cannot be
verified, is useless for purposes of argument.

THE MISSION OF UNA

152
not

confirm

Prof.

Mahler's

arguments,

because the

calculations by which these dates are arrived at both

the one forwards and the other backwards, from

start,

B.C.

1478, the date adopted

likewise

by

Prof.

Mahler.

This

an unsatisfactory method of arriving

is

at

an

exact system of Egyptian chronology.

In connection with the

mentioned Prof. Petrie's attempt

must

Period

Sothic

be

means

to extract the

of arriving at a date for the reign of Mer-en-Ra, a king

of the

Vlth Dynasty, from the inscription

official

Una, whose labours in the service of his royal

master are so well known.

Una

scription

him

to

this he did,

in a broad boat, he floated

cubits

in seventeen days.

by thirty

cubits,

and quarried the table

in the

hew out

the quarry of Het-nub to

Memphis

of his in-

says that his Majesty Mer-en-Ra sent

alabaster table for offerings

it

Near the end

the

of

month

it

large

and placing

down the

river

The boat measured

to

sixty

and he built the boat, or

raft,

for offerings in seventeen

days

of Epiphi.

Una

then says, n

/www " c=co=] 1=3, i.e., "behold there was no water

t=CO==3
/WWA
on the thesu, i.e., shoals or sandbanks," but notwith-

;w^

standing the

difficulty,

he adds, he brought the boat,

or raft, safely into port at the

of Mer-en-Ra,
this

in

peace.

statement that

in the

month

Pyramid of Khanefer
Petrie

Prof.

when Una

argues from

arrived off

Memphis

of Epiphi the waters of the Nile

1

History ofEgyx>t, vol.

i.

p. 95.

had

SYNCHRONISMS
subsided so greatly that
boat or barge with,

153

was unable

lie

to float

heavy load over the land which

its

had been recently inundated,

for

depth of the

the

water on the land did not permit him to do

all is clear,

and this

Prof. Petrie adds, " This

But

month Epiphi

"fact shows the season of the

from which

by

"round the seasons

"years

it

is

the

in

shifting

each

of the

Sothis

narrates

in that

calendar

period of

1460

possible to get an approximate date for

"the reign of Mer-en-Ka at about 3350

Una

So far

so.

undoubtedly what the words in

is

hieroglyphics indicate.

" age,

the

may show

B.C."

What

month of Epiphi was

the year when he went to

that the

considerably out of place in

Het-nub, but the possibility of deducing any date for

the reigning king from this circumstance
to be seriously entertained for a

Of more

interest,

too remote

moment.

and of much greater value, are the

which

synchronisms

is

can

be

certainly

established

between Amenophis IV., king of Egypt, and Burraburiash,

king of Karaduniyash, 1

between Shashanq
king of

Israel.

I.,

Babylonia, and

or

king of Egypt, and Eehoboam,

Now we know

from the form of the

name Burna-buriash or Burra-buriyash that we are

dealing with a member of the Kassite Dynasty which
ruled over Babylonia, and we also know that the
period

of

their

rule

was about

B.C.

Nabonidus, who reigned from about

This

is

the old Elamite

name

1400,

B.C.

555

of Babylonia.

because
to B.C.

SYNCHRONISMS

154

538, tells us in one of his inscriptions

who was one

alti-buriyash,

that Shagash-

of the Kassite kings, reigned

From the Synchronous Hiswe know that Burra-buriyash was

800 years before him.

tory, col.

5-7,

11.

i.,

a contemporary of Puzur-Ashur, king of Assyria, and

from lines 8

an

we know that Puzur-Ashur

ff.

col.

Nabonidus

ii. ;

after

at

than Ashur-uballit, king of Assyria.

earlier period

Now

lived

also tells us

(Brit.

Mus. 85-4-30,

2,

20-24) that Burra-buriyash lived 700 years

11.

Khammurabi

we have therefore

for the reign of the latter

to fix the period

king before the information

much value to us. Now Ashur-bani-pal, king

Assyria, who reigned from b.c. 668 to 626, says 3

can be of
of

that

Elamite

the

king

Kudur-Nankhundi

invaded

Babylonia 1635 or 1535 years before he himself conquered Susa,

Kudur-Nankhundi invaded Baby2285 or 2185. But it was this same

i.e.,

lonia about B.C.

Elamite power which Khammurabi crushed, 3 and so he

must have lived

after

Kudur-Nankhundi

we may

therefore at the latest place the date of his reign at

about

2200.

B.C.

years after

be

about

moment

then, Burra-buriyash lived

Khammurabi, the date

B.C.

to

If,

1450 or 1400.

We

of his reign

must return

Ashur-uballit, king of Assyria,

Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia,

700

would
for a

who was

vol. v. plate 64, col.

iii.

27-29.

11.
-

Ibid., plate 6, col. 6,

:i

See especially L.

murabi, vol.

iii.

p.

1.

107.

W. King,

236

ff.

Letters

and Inscriptions

of

Kham-

BURRA-BURIYASH AND AMEN-HETEP

IV.

IJ5

one of the successors of Puzur-Ashur, king of Assyria,

and whose date may be fixed by the following facts.

On a slab in the British Museum, No. 44,855,!
he

the great-grandson of

Eamman-nirari

states that

Ashur-uballit

in another inscription

states that he is the son of

3

another

is

Shalmaneser

Bamman-nirari

Tukulti-Ninib asserts that he

Shalmaneser

I.

and iu

I.,

the son of

is

from these three statements

I.

it is

clear

that Ashur-uballit was the great-great-great-grandfather

Now, Sennacherib made a copy 4 upon

clay of an inscription of Tukulti-Ninib which had been
this seal had been carried
cut upon a lapis-lazuli seal
of Tukulti-Ninib.

Babylon by some successful conqueror of Assyria,

off to

and Sennacherib found

the

there after he had vanquished

it

Babylonians and had captured their

city.

know that Sennacherib reigned from about

and he

B.C. 681,

B.C.

We

705 to

us in a few lines added to his

tells

copy of the writing on Tukulti-Ninib's seal that the

lapis-lazuli seal

before

own time

his

have reigned
there
off

is

was carried

Babylon 600 years

therefore Tukulti-Ninib

at least as far

back as

B.C.

during his lifetime, we

1280, and as

is

may assume

about B.C. 1300.

rightly that

But we have

See Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, vol.

1.

27

must

no evidence to show that the seal was carried

Tukulti-Ninib's date

obv.

off to

iv.

f.

Ibid., vol.

i.

Ibid., vol.

iii.

The text

plate

6,

No.

4.

plate 4, No.

will be

found

2.

ibid., vol.

iii.

plate 4, No.

2.

plate 39,

BURRA-BURIYASH AND AMEN-HETEP

156
seen

Askur-uballit

that

was Tukulti-Ninib's

great-great-grandfather, and therefore he

have lived
thus

can hardly

which we must assign

the reign of Ashur-uballit cannot be

1400.

great-

than 100 years before Tukulti-Ninib

less

clear that the date

it is

IV.

Now we know that

than

later

to

B.C.

the Tell el-'Amarna tablet at

Berlin (No. 9) was written to Amenophis IV. by Ashnruballit, therefore these

two kings were contemporaries,

and the date of Amenophis IV. cannot be

We

B.C. 1400.

later

than

have seen above that Burra-buriyash

was a contemporary of Puzur-Ashur, king of Assyria,

the predecessor of Ashur-uballit, and his date may, at
the lowest computation, be fixed at about B.C. 1430

but we know that Burra-buriyash wrote letters to

Amenophis

and therefore we shall be right in

III.,

saying that the beginning of the reign of this king

cannot be

much

later

than

B.C.

1450.

This synchronism

thus well established.

is

The next synchronism

Shashanq
Israel,

I.,

mentioned

to be

of this

synchronism

earliest certain date or event in

battle of Karkar,

Ahab and

is

which took place

This

is

Marti gives

calculated from the

B.C.

his allies were defeated

known

B.C. 950.

Syrian history,

king of Assyria, who reigned from

well

that of

king of Egypt, with Jeroboam, king of

and Piehoboam, king of Judah, about

The date

is

is

i.e.,

the

854; in this battle

by Shalmaneser
B.C.

859

to 825.

II.,

It

that as far back as B.C. 893 nearly all

the date adopted by Wellhausen.

B.C. 930.

Professor

Karl

GYGES AND PSAMMETICHUS

1 57

I.

the principal events in Assyrian history

may

be dated

by the names in the Eponym Canon, and although the

battle of

Karkar

(>-:]]

^| ECU)

=3^

not

*s

tioned in the Bible narrative, the evidence for

is

its

men"
date

as certain as such things can ever be.

Finally,

we may

refer to the

synchronism of Gyges,

king of Lydia, with Ashur-bani-pal, king of Assyria,

and Psammetichus

I.,

We

king of Egypt.

the inscriptions of Ashur-bani-pal

know from

that he waged war

against G-yges, and that G-yges assisted Psammetichus

and there

in his revolt against the Assyrian king,

doubt that these events took place about

is

no

An

B.C. 650.

indirect confirmation of this statement is supplied

by

the Greek poet Archilochos, a contemporary of Gyges,

who mentions

a total eclipse of the sun which took

place at mid-day, and

cally

that

B.C. 648.

this

it

eclipse

has been calculated astronomitook

on

place

April

6th,

In recent years Sir Norman Lockyer has devoted

very considerable time and labour to the working out
of the important

question of the

astronomical basis

upon which ancient Egyptian temples were

and he has arrived

oriented,

at the conclusion that it is possible

to assign dates to the periods

and most venerable of these

when many

edifices

of the largest

were founded.

He

has obtained his results by means of purely astronomical

See Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, vol. v. pi. 2, 1. 95ft\

See H. R. Hall, Ofdest Civilization of Greece p. 254, note 1.
i

THE VALUE OF THE KING

I58

calculations,

LISTS

and they agree generally with the evidence

which may be deduced from the discoveries concerning

the "

New Kace "

and the kings of the

Dawn

which have been made since the

was written.
ness of

many

1st

Dynasty,

of Astronomy

There can be no doubt about the correct-

and

of his assertions as to the refoun cling

reconstruction of the largest of the temples, and

it is

important to note that the dates proposed by him for

the original foundings for certain temples, although at

one time believed by some to be too early,

regarded as probably correct.

may now be

Astronomical evidence

supports the evidence derived from every other source

assigning a remote antiquity to

in

Egyptian
not

civilization

assist

began

but unfortunately

us in formulating

Egyptian chronology with exact

We

may now sum up

deduced from the facts

of

forth

may be

fairly

The King-

above.

whether written in hieroglyphics or Greek, con-

Lists,

tain

does

dates.

the results which

set

it

system

complete

when

the period

omissions

and

conflicting

but

the

when taken

into

statements,

evidence of such Lists as a whole,

consideration with the information on Egyptian history

which
as

is

supplied by the monuments,

generally

King

Lists

correct

the

and quite

may

be regarded

From

credible.

Eoyal Papyrus of Turin

must,

course, be excluded, for the small fragments into

it

was reduced in the box on

pieced together by a

its

way

man whose system

to

the
ul

which

Turin were

of hieroglyphic

decipherment has been universally rejected, and whose

SYSTEMS OF CHRONOLOGY

159

knowledge of the hieratic character was so small as

be useless for the purpose to which he tried to apply
according to the

moreover,

testimony of de

to
it

Rouge,

whose learning and integrity are beyond question, and

whose statement on the subject must be regarded as
no arguments can be rightly based upon the

final,

position of the fragments which

names of kings

The

Dynasties.
logist

the
is

who

first

of the

seem

so-called

to contain the

XHIth and XlVth

which besets the Egypto-

difficulty

tries to assign a date to the reign of

Menes,

king of Egypt according to the Tablet of Abydos,

well illustrated

by the

fact that

Champollion-Figeac

gives as his date B.C. 5867; Boeckh, B.C. 5702; Lepsius,

B.C.

3892; Mariette,

Wilkinson,

B.C.

2320

Of these

4400.

B.C.
;

5004;

Bunsen,

and Brugsch,

B.C.

B.C.

3623;

4455 or

B.C.

whose chrono-

writers the only ones

logical views are to be seriously considered are Lepsius,

Mariette, and Brugsch, between

dates

is

whose highest and lowest

Viewed

an interval of over 1100 years.

in the

light of recent investigations, the date of Lepsius seems

to be too low, whilst that of Mariette, in the

seems to be too high

date for

Menes

we have

same way,

therefore to consider the

arrived at by Brugsch.

This eminent

Egyptologist based his system of chronology upon the

well-known calculation of Herodotus, that the duration

of three consecutive

human

lives represents a century,

and he thought that he could determine approximately

the periods of time which have elapsed between Menes

See Egypt under the Pharaohs, vol.

i.

p. 33.

160

brugsch's chronology

DR.

and the end of the Xllth

Dynasty, and from the

beginning of the XVIIIth Dynasty to the end of the

XXVIth,

means

by

pedigrees of high

system

King Lists

the

of

Egyptian

officials.

and

the

Although

this

open to many objections on the score of

is

inaccuracy in respect of the

dates

of certain events

which may now be fixed with considerable exactness,

has

much

to

recommend

it,

that has been devised;

and

in

is

any

it

on the whole the best

case,

the

which Brugsch possessed of Egyptology

knowledge
in

all

its

branches was so vast, that in a general question of this

kind his opinion carries great weight, and

The present

utmost respect.

to the

is entitled

writer here,

as

elsewhere, has adopted Brugsch's system, with certain

modifications which were rendered necessary by recent

discoveries,

e.g.,

the date of Thothmes III. must be

brought down from B.C. 1600 to between B.C. 1550 and

1500

the interval between the Xlltli and the

XVIIIth

Dynasties, as stated by Brugsch, can hardly have been

so long.

But

in view of our ignorance of the historical

events which took place between the end of the Xllth

and the end of the XVIIth Dynasty,

it

to retain his dating of the kings of the

Middle Empire,

i.e.,

those

of the

Dynasties.

Xlth, Xllth, XHIth, and XVIth

The length

of the

great gaps in Egyptian history,

Vlth

to the beginning of the

the end of the

is

at present

has been well

duration of the two

i.e.,

from the end of the

Xlth Dynasty, and from

XHIth to the end of the XVIIth

unknown

all

Dynasty,

we can now say

is

that

DR. brugsch's
tliey

seem

chronology

161

have been shorter than was assumed by

to

Brugsch, who based his opinion on Manetlio's figures,

which in
obtain

monumental authority

any attempt

to

do so which

we

Until

this section are certainly garbled.

up these gaps,
based upon the Koyal

for filling

is

Papyrus of Turin, or upon the evidence of the unidentified

royal

futile

employ

names which are found on

being

this

for the

so,

more

far

is

it

scarabs, is quite
satisfactory to

Ancient and Middle Empires

computed by Brugsch.

the dates

It must, however, be distinctly

understood that, when Brugsch gives the date

us say, Amen-em-hat
to

I.

for, let

as B.C. 2466, he does not

imply that Amen-em-hat

mean

ascended the throne in

I.

that year, but that his generation falls roughly about

that time,
B.C.

2466.

i.e.,

about thirty years earlier or later than

Similarly, he does not intend his readers to

think that he believed Barneses

have begun to

II. to

reign B.C. 1333, but only in the second half of the

XlVth century

B.C.

It is very important that this fact

should be borne in mind, lest the system of Brugsch be

confused with the systems which assign exact dates to
every Egyptian king, for no exact dates can be assigned

any Egyptian kings before the

to

XXVIth

Dynasty,

although as far back as the beginning of the XVIIIth

Dynasty no greater error than

The Ancient Empire

pire

XVII.

Dynasties XI. to
to

VOL.

fifty

Dynasties

XVI.

the

I.

years

to X.

is

possible.

the Middle

New Empire =

XXVI.

I.

Em-

Dynasties

162

CHAPTER

III.

THE LEGENDARY PERIOD.

The

fact that the ancient

Egyptians of the historical

period attempted to formulate their hazy ideas

cerning the predynastic

period

of their history

con-

and

made known to us by certain of the

versions of the King List of Manetho, which have been
The statements
preserved by George the Syncellus.
its

duration

which

is

refer to this period that are

well as the

numbers

gods, kings, ghosts,

prove that those

of years

etc.,

his

the materials from which

King List had no

ledge of the duration of the

now

quite

mixed

legend

that

clear

XlXth Dynasty
into

correct

its

and

tradition.

history

even in the

had long

confused

know-

Predynastic Period in

or even of the early Dynastic Period,

Egypt
is

which the gods, demi-

are alleged to have reigned,

who drew up

Manetho compiled

found in them, as

time

and
of

it

the

since degenerated

mass

of

hopelessly

According to George the Syncellus

the Egyptians possessed a "certain tablet called the

"Old

Chronicle, containing

thirty

dynasties

in

113

DIVINE DYNASTIES
"descents, during
"

The

first

the

163

long period of 36,525 years.

series of princes

was that of the Auritae,

"the second was that of the Mestraeans, and the third

" of Egyptians."

follows

The reign

of

the

gods was

as

Hephaistos,

to

whom

" is assigned no time, as he

"is apparent both by day and by night."

Helios, the son

of Hephaistos, reigned 30,000

years.

Kronos, and the other twelve gods, reigned 3984

years.

Demi-gods, eight in number, reigned 217 years.

The 30 dynasties of kings reigned 2324 years, and

thus we get a grand total of 36,525 years for the
duration of the Predynastic and Dynastic Periods in

Egypt.

The Syncellus goes on

to say that the period

of 36,525 years equals 25 times 1461 years,

and that

" relates to the fabled periodical revolution of

it

" zodiac

among the Egyptians and Greeks, that

the

is, its

" revolution from a particular point to the same again,

"which point

is

the

first

" that equinoctial sign

minute of the

which they

"is explained in the Genesis of

"

call

first

degree of

the Earn, as

Hermes and

it

in the

Cyrannian books."

For the Greek text see Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorwn, ed.

Bunsen, Egypt's Place, vol. v. p. 689
and Cory,
Ancient Fragments, London, 1832, p. 89 ff.
1

Didot, p. 534;

DIVINE DYNASTIES

164

According to Ensebius

the

duration of the Pre

dynastic and Dynastic Periods was as follows

I.

DYNASTY OF DEMI-GODS
[I.

Demi-gods

165

PREDYNASTIC KINGS

l66

Egypt

into

possibly they came,

above, from the East by

Of such

Nile Valley.

number

found, and a

and probably

to be,

way

as

has been said

of the upper part of the

chiefs or kings traces

of

have been

tombs which have been declared

are,

sepulchres have been

their

excavated during the years 1900 and 1901 at Abydos.

With

these

we may not now

was certainly a successor

sign which expressed his

Khent, who
The
Menes.

class that of

of

name

Mena, or
rjTh

period, identified with the epithet

was, at a very early

rfljj

applied to the

god Osiris as "chief" of Amenti, and in the

Dynasty, and probably
of the

we

earlier,

XIX th
tomb

find that the

king Khent was regarded as that of the god.

Possibly the earliest king of the group was

Te

or

De,

name being the hand cr^.

With
this king must also be mentioned two monarchs who
reigned over Upper Egypt who were called Be, or Eo,
<o, and Ka, t_j : From the evidence now forthcoming
the symbol of his

Ave are justified in

saying that long before the unification

of the rule of the Nile Valley under

Egypt,

i.e.,

Mena, Upper

the country from the Fayyiim on the north

about Silsila on the south, and Lower Egypt,

to

i.e.,

the Delta and a small portion of Middle Egypt, existed

two entirely distinct and independent kingdoms.

as

The kingdom
that

of

is to say, it

Lower Egypt was probably the

seems to have been inhabited by the

See Petrie, Royal Tombs, Part

of king;

Ka

older,

ii.,

plate 13.

have been found.

Jars and sealings

THE FOLLOWERS OF HORUS

67

descendants of the aboriginal north-east African race

Shemsu Heru,

who were conquered by

the

" Followers of Horus/'

the founders of the historical

kingdom which had

This fact

is

Iin
period

i.e.,

its

or

beginning in Upper Egypt.

proved by the use of the word Suten

the Egyptian language

originally the

of

suten was the

"

the

historical

king of Upper

Egypt," and the king of Lower Egypt was called

Bat

or

Net

a word which has been conjectured to

U^k,

be of Libyan origin.

group

the

It is

4!sR> which means

worthy of note that in the

"King

South and

of the

North," the sign for "king of the South" precedes

Now

that of "king of the North."

gradually the word

suten gained the meaning of king, par

signification which the word Net or

The

acquired.

fact

that

excellence, a

Bat never

the Egyptians themselves

always regarded their country as composed of two

kingdoms,

i.e.,

Upper and Lower Egypt,

is

proved by

the two crowns which are usually united on the heads

of their sovereigns.

The crown

represented by the sign

because of

its

"white

/(,

of

Upper Egypt was

and was called hetchet,

" colour,

and the crown of Lower

According to the version of the^Old Chronicle given by Eusebius

dynasty of the gods was
followed by a long succession of divine kings who reigned for
1

(see Cory, Ancient Fragments, p. 92), the

It is possible that Bites

13,900 years the last of these was Bites.
has some connection with Beit, and if this be so, he probably
;

represents the dynasty of Lower Egypt.

EARLY ROYAL TITLES

l68

Egypt was represented by the sign \J and was

called

TESHERTj because of

its

" red "

colour

united

the

crowns were represented by Yf a sign which has been

,

" Pschent," the correct

commonly but erroneously read

reading being, of course, " Sekliet."

of the

dynastic

period were

Egyptian kings

never tired of calling

themselves "Lord of the two lands,"

which we now know must

title

doms

or east
earliest

refer to the

South and North, and not

of the

and west banks of the Nile.

dynastic

title

two king-

to the

atebui,

Moreover, in the

times the king of

already distinguished by the

^37

Egypt was

all

j^,,

i.e.,

"lord of

the city of the goddess Nekhebet," and " lord of the

city of the goddess Uatchet,"
polis

i.e.,

and Bato," which were held

tive cities of the

" lord of Eileithyiato be the representa-

The idea

South and the North.

of the

union of the South and the North was symbolically

expressed by the

hieroglyphic

^fivj

which was

in-

tended to represent the tying together of the papyrus

and

lotus,

plants which typified the South and the

North respectively; the sign

" union of the

the

thrones

of

is

two lands," and

seated

statues

read
is

of

"SAM

taui,"

i.e.,

found engraved on
kings.

instance of its use occurs on a vase of

The

King Besh,

first
i.e.,

Kha-sekheni (Kha-sekhemui),'the Betchau of the King

According: to some " Sekhmet."

KINGS OF
and

Lists,

is

it

LOWER EGYPT

of such interest that a drawing of

reproduced on page 208, Vol.

is

We
of

I.

it

have already stated that of the independent kings

i.e.,

Te

De, and Ee, and Ka; of certain of the early

in-

Upper Egypt the names

or

l6g

of three are known,

dependent kings of Lower Egypt we have a most

interesting record on a
in the

Museum

of

monument which

Palermo in

Sicily,

preserved

and of which an

account has been written by Signor A.

interesting

The inscriptions upon this monument or

show that when complete it probably contained a

Pellegrini.
stele

of the festivals celebrated in

list

is

gods by kings

Dynasty;

it

who reigned

is

honour of various

before the end of the

Vth

important to remember in considering

what follows that

this

monument

Vth Dynasty, and

that

it is

itself dates

from the

not removed from the pre-

dynastic period by an interval of time greater than 500

In the uppermost register occur the following

years.

names of predynastic kings

name

who

is

is

of

Lower Egypt, and each

followed by the hieroglyphic for a seated king

wearing the crown of Lower Egypt )J only on

his head.

See a.

1.

2.

>^ 2^ ^

Lj

Tesau.

See Quibell, Hierakonpolis, plate 38.

See Archivio Storico Siciliano, Nuova Serie, anno xx., Palermo,

1896; and see Naville, Les plus Anciens Monuments (Recueil,
2

torn. xxi.).

LOWER EGYPT

KINGS OF

170

Tau.

Thesh.

4.
35:

5.

6.

<

>

<&a

7.

When

Neheb.

-^

Uatch-nae.

Mekha.

and exactly where these kings reigned cannot

be said, but

it

seems certain that they were independent

kings of Lower Egypt

Mena, or Menes.

who reigned

before the time of

i7i

CHAPTER

IV.

THE ARCHAIC PERIOD OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY,

I.E.,

THE FIRST THREE DYNASTIES.

The

writers of histories of

of Egyptian

history before

Egypt and

summaries

of

1894 were compelled

to

begin their narratives by stating briefly or otherwise

that our knowledge of the history of the 1st, Ilnd, and

Illrd Dynasties was limited to the names of the kings

which were derived from the King

Lists,

and from a

few monuments of the Ilnd and Illrd Dynasties

of

monument whatsoever was known.

however, a number of excavations have

the 1st Dynasty no

Since that year,

been made in Upper Egypt by Messrs.

J. de

Morgan,

Arnelineau, Petrie, Quibell, Garstang, and others, and

these have resulted in the discovery of the tombs of
several of the kings

and

officials

of the 1st

Dynasties, as well as of a large

number

poraneous objects,

and

slabs,

M.

J.

ivory

de

and

i.e.,

stelae, vases

ebony

objects,

Morgan excavated

etc.

and Ilnd

of contem-

jars,

At

sculptured

Nakada,

a very large tomb, which

EARLY DYNASTIC KINGS

172

was

that of a king whose Horns

clearly

CW

now read Aha, and

a sign

name was

Abydos he was

at

fortnnate enough to secure objects inscribed with the

^^ Ten

Horus names of the new kings Tcha

Den

^,

Atchab

It

and Semerkha

At Abydos, M. Amelinean discovered the tomb

early dynastic king
R

t,

Khent

rjTh

or

**-=>.

of the

and that of Per-ab-sen

a king of the Ilnd Dynasty, already well known,

/VWW\

and also objects inscribed with the names of some

of the

The next discovery in point

of importance was that made at Hierakonpolis in 1897
by Mr. Quibell, who found there, in the lowest strata
of the mound of the temple of the city, remains of
objects inscribed with the Horns names of two kings,
above-mentioned kings.

i.e.,

Nar-mer

e#\>

monuments by the

Kha-Sekhem

(or

who

is

also distinguished on his

appellation

of

Kha-Sekhemui)

" Scorpion,"

QYY,

and

whose

name was Besh. The name of the latter

king was discovered by M. Amelinean, but it was mispersonal

read Ti.-

Later, Prof. Petrie excavated the tombs of

several of the kings above-mentioned, and the

a king whose personal

but whose Horus name

name was Mer-Neit

is

See page 16.

See

J.

Xl

of

"^^i-

unknown, and the tomb of a

king whose Horus name was

tomb

Qa

and

de Morgan, Recherches, Paris, 1897,

also the

p. 243.

EARLY DYNASTIC KINGS

tomb

whose personal name was Tcheser

of another king

^J^
kings
called

In 1901 he discovered

173

relics of the

predynastic

Ke and Ka, and of the early dynastic monarch

Sma in the same year Mr. Garstang discovered
;

the

tombs

The

cine

of

two

kings

the

to

the

of

position

which

in

Dynasty.

Illrd

the

above-

mentioned kings had to be placed in the scheme of

Egyptian

was

chronology

by

both

indicated

the

extremely archaic character of the objects which were

found in their tombs, and by the occurrence of the

names Per-ab-sen

Merpeba

Dynasty, and
is

Atchab, and who

Merbap

is

AW/vw

*<^3l

a king; of the Ilnd

}\

whose Horus name

clearly to be identified

Merbapen, a king
according to the King List of
or

important contribution to the identification

was next made by

other names

Prof.

further
of

Sethe,

succeeded in proving that the king whose

with

Dynasty,

of the 1st

Abyclos.

the

who

name was

written on the objects from Abyclos with the signs

r^j

was none other than the king whose name was written
in later times with the characters

was read " Hesepti "

scribes of the

signs for
,

it

was

or

and

at once clear that the

XlXth Dynasty had

fv/v/1

misread the hieratic

and had transcribed them wrongly by

and that the true reading of the king's name was

1

This identification was first made by Prof. Sethe.

Aegyptische Zeitsclirift, vol. xxxv. p. 1 ff.

EARLY DYNASTIC KINGS

174
" Semti "

was the

and not " Hesepti."

first

to identify

The same scholar also

a third king, who has since

been shown to be the same as Semerkhat mentioned

king of the Abydos List who

above, with the

has

hitherto been called " Semen-Ptah," and represents the

The

of Manetho's List.

^efie/jb^lrrjq

fourth king

Qa

identification of the

with Qebeh has been shown by Prof.

although Herr Sethe

Petrie's excavations to be correct,

wrong deduction, and by a

arrived at his result by a

monument of king Qa
king Khent, who has already

confusion of the sign hhent on a

with the name of the

been mentioned.

It is true that the sign

posed
of three libation vases
r

which

" qebhu," but

is

difficulty is that

the

v V V

fwP[

the

(A (A (A

is

com-

reading
& of

explanation of the

true

king Qa's personal name was Sen

11

which the scribes of the XlXth Dynasty misread as

"

qebh

four

"

kings

We
are

may now

note that the names of

thus identified.

Herr Borchardt read a paper

that

Aha Q^X,

In the year 1897,

who

the king

which he declared

in

Nakada which was excavated by M.

J. de

none other than Mena, or Menes, the

It

is

interesting to note tha t in the

have the form ^4$C)

volume,
2

f^^Vl

1
j

see

the tomb

built

my

at

Morgan, was

first

historical

XVTIIth Dynasty we
Book of the Bead, text

p. 145.

Sitzungsbericlite cler Konig. Preuss.

Berlin, G-esammtsitzung

Akad. der Wissenschaften zu

von 25 November, 1897, pp. 1054-1058.

(Ein neuer Konigsname der Ersten Dynastie.)

AHA AND MENA

On

king of Egypt. 1

an ivory plaque now preserved in

the National Egyptian

boat, birds,

175

and other

Museum

objects,

at Cairo are figured a

and in the top right hand

corner occur the Horus and personal names of the king

who had

The Horus name,

made.

it

already well known, but the

follows

the

after

signs

Borchardt as " Men,"

signs j^,

i.e.,

personal

jk

there can be little doubt, for they must

South, Lord of the North

that

"

the sign which

but

with a royal name

is

"Mena"
and

of the sign

Wiedemann.

is

its

it

e -?

is

"Lord

of the

not absolutely

them has been

That we are dealing

probable, but that the sign which

expresses this supposed royal

or

i-

follows

rightly transcribed as " Men."

"Men"

name which

Of the meaning of the

be equivalent to or represent Jw^>

certain

Aha, was

was read by Herr

C^h

i.e.,

name

is

the equivalent of

improbable; another explanation

been given by

signification has

M. Naville

in a learned paper (Recueil, torn, xxi.,

105) has discussed the matter at great length, and

p.

he entirely rejects the idea that we have on the ivory

plaque the name of Mena, and especially the identification of king

Q\

with Mena.

On

he thinks that the sign in question

the other hand,

is

men"

uumu
t

According to Prof. Petrie the tomb discovered by J. de Morgan

is not that of Aha but of Nit-hetep, the wife of Mena.
Royal Tombs, Part ii., p. 4.
1

at

Nakada

Proc. Soc. Bill. Arch., 1898, p. 113

ff.

MENA

FIRST DYNASTY.

176
but explains

its

[B.C. 5400

signification in an entirely different

manner.
Last of

Sma

is

now known

the early dynastic kings

all

and

it is

possible that he

immediate predecessor of Mena, for his name

tioned on some objects of Nit-hetep

was the
is

<==,

men-

who

His tomb was discovered by

was the wife of Mena.

Prof. Petrie,

to us

who found

in

some ivory pots and

it

covers, a basalt slab, etc.

FEOM

FIEST DYNASTY.
1-

Mena,

known

^Tl

M f=l

or

to us,

King List

and the
"

title

4w>

of Abydos,

"king

wri i cn

M^9.

*s

of the

Egypt

South [and]

given to him in the

shows that he was lord of

Egypt; whether he was the

first to

all

bring the origin-

independent kingdoms of the South and North

under one sceptre cannot be said

very probable, for
the

Mena,

or Menes, is the first dynastic king of

king of the North

ally

a]

THIS.

first

Morgan

all tradition

king of Egypt.

definitely,

unites in

but

and

is

making him

In the year 1897, M.

excavated a large

it

J.

important tomb

de
at

Nakada, which, judging from the inscriptions found

upon the objects therein, was built for a king whose

B.C.

MENA AND AHA

MOO]

Horus name was

Aha QX,

and whose personal name

has been declared to be Men,

This tomb

is

Mena, or Menes.

the magnetic north of 15 E.

about 175

is

i.e.,

rectangular in shape, and the larger sides

make an angle with

length

1 77

feet,

and

its

Its

width 88 feet

it

contains twenty-one chambers, six at each side, two at

each end, and

five

which occupy the middle portion of

The central one of the five probably formed

the mummy-chamber the walls are built of unburnt

the tomb.

mud

bricks, Nile
floor

On

having been used for mortar.

the

of the chambers the remains of stone and clay

jars, etc.,

were found in great abundance, and

that

the

all

sepulchral

vessels

were

seems

it

broken

either

immediately before or at the time of burial, and

clear that certain parts of the

The

fire.

tomb had been

found in this tomb

objects

flakes of flint, flint knives

it

is

set

on

consisted

of

and scrapers, a sandstone

mortar, about eighty red earthenware vases, the mouths

had been fastened by means of clay cones

upon which the royal seal had been rolled, large
of which

numbers of
textile

vases,

etc.,

in

yellow clay, fragments of

fabrics (burnt), a lion,

dogs, fish,

a needle, a

kohlstick, fragment of a ring, statuettes, vases, bracelets, etc.,

seals,

in ivory, shells from the

Eed

Sea, cylinder

beads made of green paste, and several vases and

vessels

made

of hard stones of various kinds.

Anion o-

these objects was a fragment of an ivory plaque, on

1

p.

The

160

full list will

be found in

J.

de Morgan, Recherches, 1897,

f.

VOL.

I.

MEN A AND AHA

178

which were inscribed figures of

boat, etc.

[B.C. 4400

birds, animals,

a general idea of the design

gathered from the following

upon

men, a

it*will

be

which has

illustration

been traced from that given in the Recherches of M. J.

de Morgan.

We

have already discussed the reading of

Horus and personal names

the

of the king

which are

given in the top right hand corner of the plaque, and

have stated that the identification of

Ivory plaque inscribed with the names and

Menes depends

or

entirely

Aha

titles of

upon the

fact

with

Men a

king Aha.

whether the

hieroglyphic character which occurs beneath the signs

m.

is

men

as a proper

ummu
i

name

and whether

or not

no

it is

final

to be considered

decision can, of

course, be arrived at in the matter until further in-

formation
1

It

is

forthcoming.

can hardly be

it- ,

It
as

is,

unfortunately,

M. Jequier suggested.

still

DEEDS OF MENA, OR MENES

B.C. 4400]

extremely doubtful

name

the

Mena which

or

king of Egypt

name belong

to

from

the

dead

works

The

The

Herodotus,

of
:

demi-gods the

"consisted of eight kings.

" Thinite

dynastic

comparatively late period.

Manetho, and Diodorus are of interest

the

first

most of the scarabs which bear the

extracts

" After

in various

exist

contemporaneous with the

collections are

following

any of the objects inscribed with

if

Men

of

179

First

Dynasty

was Menes the

first

he reigned sixty-two years, and perished by

"a wound

Manetho,

received from an hippopotamus."

in Cory, Ancient Fragments, p. 94.

"To

this they

" raygned

ad besides yt the

first

king yt ever

was named Menes, under whose governaunce

" all ye lande of Aegypte except the province of

"

Thebes

was wholly covered and overwhelmed with water, and

" yt no parte of the ground

" called Myris

was then

"from the sea

is

Menes the

"make

firste

reporte)

"gayned

all

" situated

lyes above the poole

to be sene

which poole

into

7 dayes sayling."

(Translation by B. R.).
"

which

Herodotus

ii.

4.

Kinge of Aegypt

(as the pryests

by altering the course of the

that grounde whereon the City

ryver,

Memphis

is

the floud being wonte before time to have

"his course fast by the sandy mountayne which lyeth

1

According to Chassinat, the Natves of Manetho

^v^.

\^

MML

of the

Travaux, vol. xix. p. 23

2

"At London.

Egyptian inscriptions;

the "

Khu

see Recueil

ff.

Printed by Thomas Marshe, 1584."

"

cle

THE BUILDING OF MEMPHIS

l8o

" towarde Lybia.

" the
"

MOO

[B.C.

This Menes therefore damminge uppe

bosome of the ryver towards the south Kegion

havinge cast uppe a pyle, or bulwarke of Earth much

"after an hundred Furlonges above the City, by that

"means dryed the

" forsake
"

old Chanell, causinge the ryver to

and abandone his naturall course and runne

randame ainiddest the

To which damme

hills.

at

also the

" Persians that rule in Aegypte even at this day have a

" dilligent eye

"

yearely fortifyinge and repayringe the

same wyth newe and fresh Earth,

" if

Through the which

by fortune the ryver stryvinge

" course, should happily

" were in

daunger

" the selfe same

" in

Aegypt

make

to bee

Menes

(after yt

to recover his olde

a breach, the city

Memphis

By

overwhelmed with water.

firste

bearinge rule and authority

by turning ye streame of Nilus he

" had made dry ground of that where erst the ryver had
" his passage) in the

"itselfe founded

and

same plot of land was the

erected,

which

(as well

city

may

bee

" seene) stands in the straight and narrow places of the

" countrey.

"

(for

More than

this,

Eastward Memphis

is

to the

North and West

bounded by the course of the

" river) hee caused to be drawne out of the ryver a large

"

and wycle poole

" temple in

beinge also the founder of Vulcans

Memphis, one of the fayrest buildinges and

" of chiefest

fame in

Herodotus

99.

ii.

all

(Translation by B.

"After the gods, 1 (they

1

the countrey of Aegypte."

say,)

R,

fol.

Menis was the

946.)
first

king

According to Diodorus the gods and demi-gods reigned in Egypt

and men for 15,000 years see Bk. I. 44.

for about 18,000 years,

TETA-ATHOTHIS

B.C. 4366]

He

" of Egypt.

l8l

taught the people the adoration of the

"gods, and the manner of divine worship;

" their beds

" and was

how

to

adorn

and tables with rich cloths and coverings,

the

"sumptuous way

brought in a delicate and

that

first

Diodorus

of living."

i.

(Booth's

45.

translation.)

"

One

of the antient kings, called Menas, being set

"upon and pursued by

" lake of Meris,

" took

his

own

dogs,

where a crocodile

him up and

carried

(a

was forced
wonder

him over

to be told)

to the other side,

"where, in gratitude to the beast, he built a

" called

it

" adored as gods, and dedicated the lake to

and breed in.

to be

them

Where he built a

and

city,

and commanded crocodiles

Crocodile,

" place to feed

into the

for a

sepulchre

"for himself with a four-square pyramid, and a labyrinth

"greatly

admired by everybody."

Diodorus

89.

ii.

(Booth's Translation.)

2-

2j]|

Teta, or

||;

(jg]

A-Tehuti,

A0CO0LS.

Teta, the Athothis of Manetho,

to

is

generally admitted

have been the son and successor of Menes

this
us.

with

name, however, no monument of him

is

under

known

to

According to Prof. Petrie, 1 we are to identify

Teta the king

name M. Amelineau
1

whom

he

calls

rightly reads
Royal Tombs,

p. 5.

Zee, but whose

Khent.

It

may,

THE GOD ON THE STAIRCASE

182

[B.C. 5366

suggested that the king whose

however, be

name was Nar-mer

^^ T

is

to be identified

whether this identification be correct or not,

Horns

with Teta;
it is

quite

certain that he lived in the early part of the period of

objects bearing his name,

that of Semti,
the

and the work on the

of the 1st Dynasty,

the rule

is

though more archaic than

not so archaic as that of Aha.

known evidence

points to the fact that he

All
is

dynastic and not a predynastic king, and as on his

monuments he wears the crown

of the

South and the

crown of the North, he was certainly a successor and

The

not a predecessor of Menes.

the principal
Quibell,

who

monuments
in the year

ancient temple

number

Among

of

of

these must

of this king belongs to Mr.

1898 excavated the

early

site of

the

and discovered a

Hierakonpolis, 1

important

of finding

credit

dynastic

monuments.

be specially mentioned the great

mace-head, the sculptures of which he has figured on

Plate

XXVI b.

Here we

of his work.

see the king, in

the character of Osiris, within a shrine which rests on

a flight of steps, seated on a throne, wearing the crown
of the North, and holding the
flight of steps,

Semti,

is

is also

in his hand.

This

depicted upon a plaque of

evidently intended for the staircase of the

tomb

of Osiris,

Dead.

which

flail

By

mentioned in the Booh of the

the side of the throne are two fan-bearers,

which

is

See Hierakonpolis, Part

Kora al-Ahmar.
2
See page 15, and Booh

I.,

London, 1900.

of the Dead, vol.

i.,

Its

modern name

p, xxxv.

is

B.C. 4366]

THE MACE-HEAD OF NAR-MER

<?

183

MONUMENT OF NAR-MER

184

and behind are a personage called

sandal-bearer,
front

On

"

the royal

and three attendants bearing staves

men bearing

are

Tliet

[B.C. 4366

standards,

goats,

cattle,

XX Vic.)

another mace-head (see Plate

we

in
etc.

see the

king, wearing the crown of the South, holding a plough

in his hand,

and followed by fan-bearers

described

by the signs

(?)

reason he has been

called the "

more importance, however,

which

is

of a class

here illustrated

and

-|fi|

is

for

Scorpion King."
the green

is
it

^g

he

here

which

Of

slate object

forms the finest example

which has been much discussed and described

during recent years.

The use

of such objects,

which

are peculiar to the period of the 1st Dynasty, is un-

known, but many suggestions have been made concerning

it.

all

the

Cairo,''

Mr. F. Legge has published reproductions of

known examples

in London, Oxford, Paris,

and, after a very careful study, has come to the

conclusion

that in shape they

survival of a special form

may

of shield

used in actual warfare, and,

be a ceremonial

which was never

" ancilia "

the

like

Rome, may have been preserved

On

and

for

ritual

of

reasons.

the other hand, following Mr. Qnibell, Professor

Petrie

maintains

ceremonial

that they

survivals

of

the

are

highly ornamented

slate

palette*

used

in

Judging by the character of the work on these mace-heads,

Nar-mer and the Scorpion King are one and the same person.
2
It was first described by its finder, Mr. Quibell, in Aegyptische
1

Zeitsclirift, vol.
3

xxxvi. p. 81

ff.

Proceedings 80c. Bibl. Arch., vol. xxii. p. 125

ff.

B.C. 4366]

Green

MONUMENT OF NAR-MER

slate object of

unknown

use bearing the

(Obverse.)

name

of king Nar-mer.

185

B.C. 4366]

Green

MONUMENT OF NAR-MER

slate object of

unknown use bearing

(Reverse.)

the

name

187

of

king Nar-mer,

MONUMENT OF NAR-MER

B.C. 4366]

189

predynastic times on which to grind paint

view that might be put forward

libation vase stands,

But

high.

at present

all

which were

described

and

as guesswork,

Two

sandal-bearer,

prisoners,

ions

object

may

thus

be

Below these we have the

and

Lower Egypt, followed by

preceded

by the

personage

by four men bearing

already mentioned, and

^s^f

perhaps safest to

is

Hathor heads and the name Nar-

the Horus standard.

standards

it

The

king, wearing the crown of

Thet,

to be carried shoulder

Obverse.

that they were

such statements can only be regarded

by the word "Reliefs."

the

another

such objects, as Mr. H. E. Hall has done, 2

describe

mer on

is

in front of these are

two rows of decapitated

and near them

" great door."

is

boat,

and the signs

In the largest division are two

with greatly elongated and intertwined necks

being

lassoed

register

is

by

two

attendants.

a bull, symbolizing

broken into a

fortified village,

the

In
king,

the

lowest

which has

and having thrown down

On

we have at
the top the two Hathor heads and the king's name as
before.
Below this, wearing the crown of the South,
is a standing figure of the king, who is about to smite
with his uplifted mace an enemy whom he is grasping
a foe

is

about to gore him.

Note on a Qarved

the reverse,

Slate, Proc. S. B. A. vol. xxii., p. 140.

Oldest Civilization of Greece, p. 320.

3
Thought by Naville (Recueil de Travaux, torn. xxi.
though apparently without reason, to be Nar-mer's wife.

p.

118),

MONUMENT OF NAR-MER

190

by the hair he
;

is,

not easy to

the king

his nose

enemy

king's

explain.

hawk

is

a scene which

is

drags the head of a

same Asiatic type

prisoner, of the

whom

accompanied by his sandal-

as usual,

Above the

bearer.

[B.C. 4366

as that of the

man

about to smite, by a rope attached to

is

behind the head

has been read as

is

TTTTTT

a group of flowers, which

i.e.,

6000, and the whole

Design from a limestone vase of the " Scorpion King " (Nar-mer ?).

scene has been interpreted to

is

that the god

bringing to the king 6000 prisoners.

register are represented

two men in

Yet another important object

is

mean

Horus

In the lowest
terrified

of the reign of

flight.

Nar-mer

the limestone vase with figures of hawks, scorpions,

a bow,

etc.,

upon
1

it

in relief. 1

See Quibell, Hieralionpolis, plate

19.

ATETH OR ATA

B.C. 4333]

igi

According to Manetho, Athotliis,

"reigned fifty-seven years;

"

Memphis, and

"physician."

left

lie

son of Mena,

tlie

built the

palaces

at

the anatomical books, for he was a

This

(Cory, Ancient Fragments, p. 96.)

information seems to receive proof from a statement in

made

the Ebers Papyrus that a pomatum, which was

from the claw of a

some dates boiled together

made

8(k0

Ateth

in oil in a saucepan,

was

or
'

Ktvxevns.

Ateth, or according

and

who was

for Teta's mother,

3.

ass,

and the hoof of an

clog,

to

called

Shesh

MEU

name

of Ateth no

monuments

Under

of this king are

known, but the result of recent excavations seems

prove that the king whose Horus
is to

be identified with him.

partly excavated by

'

Manetho, Kenkenes, was the

son of Teta, and he reigned thirty-one years.

the

Ata

name

is

Tcha

to

"^

His tomb at Abydos was

M. Amelineau, who gave

it

the

name of the Tomb of the " Serpent King " M. J. de

Morgan printed a plan of it in his last volume, 2 and
Prof. Petrie in 1900 continued the work which M.
;

Amelineau had begun.

"

chamber twenty
1

feet

It is described

wide and thirty

feet long,

with

See Joachim, Das aelteste Buck ueber Seilhunde, Berlin, 1890,

p. 106.
2

"as a large

See J. de Morgan, Becherclies, 1897, pp. 235

ff.

ATA OR UENEPHES

ig2

"smaller chambers around

it

at

its

[B.C. 5300

the whole

level,

" bounded by a thick brick wall which rises seven and a

" half feet to the roof,

and then three and a half feet more

" to the top of the retaining wall."

in the

M. Amelineau found

tomb a beautifully cut calcareous stone

inscribed with the

name Tcha surmounted by

and two small ebony

figures, the

workmanship. 2

ebony

of ivory and

of

most

Prof. Petrie found fragments

relief in

veined marble, and jar

Horus name followed by Ath

sealings with the king's

jl,

lion,

tablets inscribed with the king's

name, a portion of a

a hawk,

one representing a

woman, and the other the head of a

exquisite

stele

which may be his personal name. 3

It

may

noted in passing that Kenkenes, the name which

be
is

given to the king by Manetho, must be a corruption of

one of his names.

4.

^j

(J

Ata, Ovevi^.

Ata, the fourth king of the

known

to us

recently,

theory has

according to which he

is

not

from the monuments under this name

however,

whose tomb

1st Dynasty,

is

at Abyclos

been

to be identified with the

was excavated by

See Royal Tombs, p. S.

" Morceaux ravissants cle sculpture archa'ique."
See Royal Tombs, plates 13, 18, 19, etc.

put forward
king

Prof. Petrie,

(J. cle

Morgan.)

PYRAMIDS BUILT AT COCHOME

B.C. 4300]

and who
Xl

known by

is

^x.

The

name

his personal

T93

of Mer-Nit,

chamber of the tomb

central

is

about

twenty-one feet wide and thirty feet long, and around

it

are walls

which vary in thickness from four

four feet four inches

floor,

seems to have had a wooden

it

feet to

the remains of which show signs of having been

The

burnt.

which bears the name of Mer-

large stele

Nit was found " lying near the east side of the central
chamber."

The name Mer-Nit,

Neith," or " loving Neith,"

for it

shows that the cult of this famous goddess held a

of the period of the 1st

fortunate that

time.

it

Dynasty

which were applied

According

it

in the early part

however, un-

is,

He

raised

cit., p.

of the

name

Memphis which was

Egyptian kings at that

"

Uenephes reigned

In his time a great plague raged

(Cory, op.

transcription

to

Manetho,

to

"through Egypt.
" chome."

Egypt

occurs without any of the ordinary

" twenty-three years.

the pyramids near Co-

96.)

Cochomeis the Greek

of the great cemetery of

situated in the desert of Sakkara,

^
and was called by the Egyptians Ka-qain
^g^
It

one of

of considerable interest,

is

position of great importance in

titles

" loved

i.e.,

has often been

Pyramid

at

which Ata

declared

that the

1|\

famous Step

Sakkara was included among the buildings

is

said to have built, but

it is

now known

that this pyramid was built by Tcheser, a king of the

Illrd Dynasty.
1

VOL.

I.

Royal Tombs,

p. 11.

TEN-SEMTI, OR HESEPTI

194

or *A

4voh
r^^i
^2

iwi ^

'

A"

Semti,

tlie fifth

[B.C. 4266

Semti.

king of the 1st Dynasty,

has been long known under the name of

which

Hesepti,

Abyclos under
Tew,

it is

the Horus

occurs

the

in

the form

4^

Tablet of

tjttt

all(i

>

documents from which'

clear that the

name of Semti

Manetho compiled his King List were drawn

up by scribes who thought that this was the correct
way of reading one of his names, for his transcription
was

Ovaafydis

however,
are
:

FFffF

satisfactorily

incorrect

transcriptions

shown that the signs

of

the

old

cursive

or

and that the true reading of the name

On

here given,

Ten

has,

It

it.

r^s)

" Semti."

is

upon

based

now been

forms of
is

certainly

we have the Horus name

Den, and

TO

the ebony tablet, of which a drawing-

in another part of

" Kins; of the South,

Semti

name

of Semti, and

"

these facts indicate

we may

and

that

it

of a king

occurs the title

kino- of the

Ten

is

North,

the Horus

therefore consider

Ten

The tomb of
by M. Amelineau, who found

and Semti as one and the same person.

Semti was discovered
the

that
1

It

was

massive
first

walls

of

the

large

See

J.

in

published by Professor Petrie in Royal Tombs,

plate 15.
a

chamber

de Morgan, Recherches, 1897,

p. 232.

SEMTI DANCING BEFORE HIS GOD

B.C. 5266]

it

had been covered with wooden panels,

195

and that

the pavement consisted of large slabs of red granite

it

was

in

it,

excavated by Prof.

finally

and

workmen

in

had

of important

plaques,

Ebony

etc.

thrown

Ten,

out

of

the

also

name

Horus

tablet of the royal treasurer

Hemaka

king Tex dancing'before

was

it,

who found
Aruelineau's

large

number

fragments of ivory and ebony

objects,
1

which M.

rubbish

the

Petrie,

of the

king,

with a representation of

Osiris.

found impressed by means of cylinder seals

upon the clay sealings of

fragments of vases,

etc.

vases,

Of

all

and inscribed upon

the objects found in

tomb the most important seems to be the ebony

tablet which has been already referred to, and which
this

is

now

in

the British
1

Museum

Royal Tombs,

(No. 32,650).

p. 11.

The

SEMTI DANCING BEFORE HIS GOD

196

and scenes upon

inscriptions

are

it

groups by means of a vertical line

name Ten

the Horns
" royal

the

number

side

chancellor

by

we have

left

side with the

Hemaka

"

divided into two

on the

[B.C. 4266

~V

JJ

name

of

and

of hieroglyphic signs, the meanings of

which

cannot, at present, be said to have been satisfactorily

To the extreme

explained.

right

the

is

sign

for

" year "

and in the uppermost register we see the

figure of a god,

who

is,

no doubt,

crown of the South, and holding a

Osiris,
flail

wearing the

in his hands,

seated upon a throne within a shrine which

is

set at

Before the

the top of a staircase or flight of steps.

King Semti, who wears the crowns

of the South and North united, and who is dancing his
back is towards the god, and in his left hand he holds
god

is

the figure of

the paddle

and in the right the

side of the king is the sign

this

sign,

as

equivalent to

word

for "

On

A, which

dancing

" (ab)

act

dancing before him.

is

out, 1

is

the determinative for the

in other words,

of worship
It

each

inscribed thrice, and

Mr. H. E. Hall has pointed

performing an

is

3)

flail

King Semti

before his

god by

was no uncommon thing

for

kings to dance before their gods, and as examples of

who observed
Usertsen I., who danced
the kings

In

plate

1.

J.

J. Tyler's

this

custom we may mention

before the god

Amsu

Wall Drawings and Monuments

of

or Min,
El Eab,

THE PYGMY

B.C. 4266]

and Seti
and a

I.,

still

who danced

PEPIS TEXT

I.,

Nekhebet

where

custom will be found

it is said,

between the thighs of Nut

is

197

before the goddess

earlier allusion to the

in the text of Pepi

" Pepi)

IN

" danceth for the god, and

who

" before his great throne."

is

He who (i.e.,
the pygmy who
"

maketli glad the heart

We

know

that the early

dynastic kings sometimes sent officials to the land of

the pygmies to bring back examples of the

enjoy themselves by

might

that they

dance before them,

and

See Recueil de Travaux,

/WVW\
<0

people

seeing

them

in early times, at least, kings

torn. vii. p. 162, line 401.

11

by

little

<*=&

See the inscription of Her-khuf at Aswan, edited and translated

Sohiaparelli, Atti

Erman

del R.

Accademia dei Lincei, Rome, 1893,

and Erman,
Z.D.M.G., Bd. 46, p. 574 ff.
AegypHsche Zeitschrift, Bd. xxxi. p. 66. Her-khuf quotes a letter
which his king Pepi II. has sent to him, saying, "Thou hast said in
this thy letter that thou hast brought a terik (pygmy) living of the
pp. 22-53;

in

dances of the god from the land of the

pygmy whom

who

is

like

unto the

the divine chancellor Ba-ur-Tet brought from Punt

ca^
in the

spirits,

time of A&sa.

AA/WV\

/WW\

j^/wwvx

|^)3

SCO]

ig8

THE FINDING OF THE LXIVTH CHAPTER

whom

attempted to gain the favour of the gods

To

worshipped by dancing before them.

the second register

Hennu

of the

is

what appears

and

boat,

it

is

[B.C. 5266

they

the left of

an early form

to be

difficult to

see

why

this

should occur on the tablet below the representation of

a religious ceremony of dancing, if the king Semti

not

in

some way connected with the ceremonies

was
in

know the Hennu boat played a most

prominent part.
Under the name of Semti and
we

which

Hesepti the king

is

mentioned in various passages of

the Booh of the Dead, 1 and in one place the occurrence

of his

name

is

of special significance.

In the Kubric to

the shorter version of the LXIVtli Chapter we are told

that the composition was " found in the foundations of

"the shrine of Hennu by the chief mason during the

" reign of Hesepti,"

and though we have no exact idea of

what the word "found" here means,

clear that in

it is

the reign of this king an important revision or discovery

in connection
the

with the literary history of the Booh of

Dead took

place.

quoted the narrative of

are

the

high

priest

II.

Kings,

Hilkiah

version

of

the

See

said

my

'

xxii.

unto

8,

be

where we

Shaphan

of the

the

law in the

must note that the shorter

LXIYth Chapter

Chapter of knowing the

p. 285.

We

may perhaps

of the good king Josiah

"I have found the book

house of the Lord."

parallel

told that in the reign

Scribe,
"

As

is

entitled

"The

Chapters of Coming Forth by

Chapters of Coming Forth by Day, text, p. 145, and

OF THE BOOK OF THE DEAD

B.C. 4266]

Day

'

I99

and we are no doubt correct

in a single Chapter,"

assuming with Chabas that even at that early

in

period the Booh of the

of compositions,

comprise

priests,

vision

To meet

want the LXIVth

this

shortened form was drawn up by the

its

command and

probably under the royal

in

series

which should

that a short chapter,

a want.

Chapter in

so lengthy a

the essential parts of the whole work, was

all

to be

felt

Dead was

super-

any case there must have been some good

name in connection
the Eubric, and we may assume

reason for mentioning Hesepti's

with the chapter in

that certain important religious ceremonies were either

first

Now,

established or confirmed during his reign. 1

the Egyptians ascribed not only certain portions of the

Book of

the

Dead

to

books of Medicine.

the reign of Hesepti, but also

Thus

in the

Ebers Papyrus

copy of a prescription for driving

disease from the limbs of a

man

is

-out

the

the

ukhedu

given according " to

"a book which was found under the feet of the god
"Anubis in the city of Letopolis, and was brought to
" the king of the South and North Hesepti."
And in a
medical papyrus

added to the

Berlin

effect that

book was taken

1

at

to his

after

further

is

Hesepti was dead the

Majesty Sent

See also the Rubric to Chapter

information

CXXX.

now Sent was

in the Sai'te

the

Recension

of the Booh of the Dead.

2
3

See Joachim, op. cit., p. 185.

See Brugsch, Recueil de Monume7its Egyptiens,

ii. plates 85-107

Brugsch, Notice raisonnep. d'un traite medical, Leipzig, 1863 and
Chabas, Melanges, Ser. I., Paris, 1862, p. 55 ff.

200 MEDICAL WORKS IN

fifth

THE FIRST DYNASTY

king of the Unci Dynasty and reigned

Semti, and

after

we must

[B.C. 4233

many

years

therefore understand that

Sent came into the possession of a medical work which

had once belonged

his

to

According to Manetho, Usaphais

son

of

and

Uenephes,

(Cory, op.

cit.,

(Hesepti)

reigned

was the

twenty

years.

p. 96.)

D
6.

he

Semti.

predecessor

great

MER-PEBA,

1$,

Mie(3t<;.

Merpeba or Merbapen jXjK ( ^5r *o

the sixth king of the 1st Dynasty,
to

Atchab,

name

of

Mer-peba.

seems

have occupied an important place in the

historical traditions

the Horus

'

the

known

to the scribes of

XVIIIth and XlXth Dynasties,

for the

Tablet of Sakkara begins with his name.

His Horus name

side with it

is

Atchab, and

side

by

he styles himself on his jar-sealings, "king

of the South, king of the North."

The tomb

of this

king at Abydos seems to have been partly excavated

by M. Amelineau, but
Professor Petrie,

who

it

was

finally

cleared out

by

discovered numbers of fragments

of vases, jar-sealings, plaques of ivory for inlaying, etc.,

Horus and personal names.

The

a plain chamber, with rather sloping

sides,

inscribed with his

tomb

is

about twenty-two

feet

the surrounding wall

long
is

and fourteen

nearly five

entrance to thei tomb was by a

feet

feet

thick

wide
;

.the

stairway descending

HU OR NEKHT

B.C. 4200]

from

the

planks

of

wooden

The

wood,

and

posts.

The

96).

chamber
the

roof

was

with

floored

supported by

was

According to Manetho, Merpeba, or

twenty-six

reigned

Miebis,
p.

east.

201

(Cory,

op.

cit.,

Merpeba succeeded Semti

that

fact

years

or

Hesepti was proved by Prof. Sethe from the inscription on

which his name

the

made

is

here
other

duly

indicated,

7.

Denkmaler

4!R
^ ^

or

forth

set

Die

that

of

in

the manner

as

well

as

which
his

in

by
are

article

geschicM-

dlteste

Aegypter.

tier

?U
M
JJ

considerations

entitled

lichen

king

latter

follow

to

NEKHT.

SEMSU,

2e/jLenty)j<;.

In the Tablet of Abydos the royal name which follows

that of Merpeba

represented by a divine, bearded figure,

is

who wears
ankles,

a garment

which reaches down

and holds in his hands the sceptre

now the Greek transcription

buted to Manetho is Se/xe/Ai/r^?, and
doubt that

to

it

Egyptian priests

of his day.

See Royal Tombs, pp. 12,

S^fe
5.

Aegyptische

of this sign attri-

there

is

no reason

represents nearly its reading by the

plate

to his

The modern reading

of

17, 19, 20, 38, 39, etc.

Zeitsclirift,

Bd. 35,

p.

2,

ancj.

Royal

Tombs,

202

FIRST DYNASTY.

HU OR NEKHT

the sign proposed by Liebleiu

"

Sem

[B.C. 4200

" Sem-en-Ptah/'

is

i.e.,

upon the view

priest of Ptah," wliicli is based

that the figure in the cartouche at the head of this

paragraph has some connection with the god Ptah.

But

this can hardly be correct,

and we have reason

for

assuming that the priests who drew up the King List

for Seti I.

were puzzled by the sign, which they found

documents from which they compiled the

in the

and that they caused the mason

to cut

List,

on the wall the

hieroglyphic which they thought represented the ancient

It is possible

sign.

"Semsu"

word
I

1\

Vv

and the

born,

nix

"Semsem,"

or

HV

that they connected

like,

word meaning
from

it

with the

oi-

chief, eldest, first-

which

"Sem-

Manetho's

empses" could easily be derived, and the sign given

in the

King List

The view
of the

will

of Mr.

bear this reading very well.

H. E. Hall

XlXth Dynasty

is

that the

understood the

old documents as being equivalent to

which

of

base

case,

ing of a

sign,

Horus name
1

Manetho's

form

rests

(Royal Tombs,

^H

p. 12).

to

the reading

must

on

is

the

misread-

represent

who succeeded Merpeba.

See Oldest Civilization of Greece, p. 75

archaic form of

the

given by Manetho

"

and that sign

of the king

sign in

and that this word

form " Semempses

of the

any

in

" Shemsu,"

is

scribes

the

But

the resemblance of the

Q was pointed out by Mr. F.

L. Griffith

PLAQUE OF HU OR NEKHT

B.C. 4200]

203

what was that sign?

According to Mr.

sign which the

of the

scribes

XlXth Dynasty

"Shenisu" was nothing more nor

form of the hieroglyphic MS

"Hu"

or

Hall, the

read

than an archaic

less

which may be read either

"Nekht," a view which was based upon an

examination of the inscribed ivory tablet, the text of

which

is

here reproduced. 1

To the

Ivory plaque inscribed with the names and

right

titles of

Hu

is

or

the sign for

Nekht (Semstt

?).

year,

and close by are figures of the Sektet and

Atet boats, which

in the

call to

Pyramid Text

of Thoth,

of

mind the forms

Unas

2
;

of them as given

between them

an ape

To the

and the legend

of the vertical line

is

we have the names and

First published in Royal Tombs, plate 12.

Recueil de Travaux, torn.

iii.

left

titles of a

p. 219, lines 292, 293.

THE TOMB OF HU OR NEKHT

204

[B.C. 4200

,0

king,

4!aF)

m*L> followed by the sign

an

evidently

"Nekht," that

by the
,

etc.,

to

is

scribes of the

i.e.,

"Semsu"

of M(,

form

archaic

say, the king's

XTXth and

or "

i.e.,

which

"Hu"

later Dynasties, read

Semsem." From the jar-sealings,

Nekht was Semerkha,

Hu

or

T *-
Semerkha,

Hu, or

of

or

name, which was,

we learn that the Horus name of king

The tomb

is

at

Abydos,

is,

according to Prof. Petrie, about forty-four feet long

and twenty-five

feet wide,

over five feet thick

it

and

is

was

surrounded by a wall

floored with planks

of

wood, which M. Amelineau found to be charred, and he

thought that the whole tomb had been burnt.

Among

the stelae found in this tomb were two of dwarfs, and

the bones of dwarfs were found in two chambers

copper bowl which was found in another chamber

the

is

the

only large piece of metal-work that has been preserved.

Prof. Petrie notes that the space near the entrance to

the tomb was

filled to

the

depth of three feet with

sand saturated with ointment, and that the scent of

was

when

so strong that

cutting

be smelt over the whole tomb.

Merpeba's son
" In

his

(Cory, op.

"

away the sand

it

it

could

According to Manetho,

Semempses reigned eighteen

years.

reign a terrible pestilence afflicted Egypt."

cit., p.

96.)
1

Pvoyal Tombs, plate 13.

QA-SEN OR QEBH

B.C. 4166]

^^

8.

Sen,

the

of

1st

of

Dynasty,

M J fj

Qebh, the
no

or

last

monuments

king
are

known, hut recent excavations have resulted

in the discovery of

of objects

which

a considerable

are

inscribed

number

with the

Horus and personal names of a king who

the Horus

name

4^

i.e.,

Under the name

205

of Qebl

M. Amelineau,
in the course of his work at Abydos, excavated a tomb in
which he found a stele inscribed with the name Qa,
must be

identified with him.

Jar sealing of King Ql-Sen (Qebh).

i.e.,

the Horus

later, in or
2

tablet"

name

of a king at that time

unknown

near the tomb Prof. Petrie found an ivory

inscribed with the same

de Morgan, Recherclies, 1897, p. 231.

See

Royal Tombs, plate 12, No.

J.

Horus name, but

2.

side

206

THE SECOND DYNASTY

by

were the signs j^^

side with it
"

translated

King

of the

1)

[B.C. 5166

which are

to be

South, king of the North,

Sen was the personal name

In the
the king whose Horus name was Qa.

Sen."
of

Thus we

learn that

second cartouche given at the top of this paragraph

which

will be noticed that the sign pJ,

occurs,

and

as

we know

that king

Qa

Semempses, on the throne of Egypt,

that Sen and

seems as

if

Qebh

are one

read "Qebh,"

succeeded Hu, or
is

it

pretty clear

and the same king. 1

the scribes of the

drew up the King List

is

for Seti I.

it

It

XlXth Dynasty who

were as much puzzled

by the archaic or cursive sign which they read Qebh as

they were by the sign which they probably read
or

Shemsu, and

that,

Semsem

having no exact knowledge of the

history of the old period to guide them, they wrongly

transcribed the archaic sign for

by

jy

According to

Manetho, Bieneches, the son of Semempses, reigned

(See Cory, op.

twenty-six years.

cit.,

p. 96.)

SECOND DYNASTY. FBOM

i.

hh

b ES h,

,,,

THIS.

m caa cjiwi

Netee-baiu (Sakkara), Betchau (Abydos),

Netek-baiu, the

first

BoijOos.

king of the Ilnd Dynasty, was

and his tomb was excavated

buried at Abydos,
1

Royal Tombs,

p. 23.

in

KHASEKHEMUI-BESH

B.C. 4133]

2.0J

1896-97 by M. Amelineau, 1 who found

to

it

be

building about two hundred and sixty feet long, and to

contain at least fifty-seven chambers

the tomb had

neither been burnt nor plundered, and therefore

many

objects of great archaeological value were found in

The earthenware vases

grapes, etc.

contained wheat,

laid over their

cylinder seals

paragraph

name upon them.

them 2 we see that

king's

upon

in the first cartouche at the

is

are the signs

v

head of this

v\

the equivalent of the signs

which are enclosed within a plain oval

c=s?5aa
.

On

(^)

^
;

beneath

each side of this oval we

have the Horus (and Set?) name of the king

given in the form here represented, and

clear, in spite

of

what was

subject, that this

Sekhemui.
see
.

the

first

dried

mouths and impressed with

bearing the

impressions

the

name

them

figs,

it.

they were not closed by means of conical

which were

the

it

but by pieces of clay of irregular shapes

stoppers,

From

in

added

We

name

is

is

said on the

first

to

it

be read

Kha

In fuller forms of the name we

Je*-

Jm^

and

the

hieroglyphics

have now recovered the Horus name of

king of the Unci Dynasty, and also the name

which he adopted as king of the South and North,

but neither of them in any way represents the name
1

2
3

Les Nouvelles Fouilles d'Abyclos, 1897, pp. 41, 45.

See J. de Morgan, Recherches, p. 243.

See Revue Critique, December 13, 1897,

p.

437

ff.

THE SECOND DYNASTY

208

"Betchau" which

is

given in the second cartouche, or

the Greek form of the

Thanks, however,

made

[B.C. 4133

name supplied by Manetho.

to the

at Hierakonpolis

sible to give the ancient

very successful excavations

now

pos-

form of the name Betchau.

In

by Mr. Quibell,

the course of his excavations on the

it

site

is

of the old

Design on a granite vase of King Besh, showing the earliest use of the
symbol of the union of the two countries of Egypt, etc.

temple at K6m-al-Akhmar Mr. Quibell found a consi-

number of objects, vases, pottery, flints, etc.,

and among them were some fine stone vases which were
derable

name and titles of the king. In the

accompanying drawing J we see on the right the usual

inscribed with the

First published in Hierakonpolis, plate 37.

KHASEKHEMUI-BESH

B.C. 5133]

emblem

"year"

for

20g

which, taken together with the

three signs to the left of

has been thought to mean,

it,

" year of the fighting with the northerners."

see the vulture goddess, the dweller in

Next we

Nekheb, with one

claw resting upon the sign Q, and the other upon the
stalks of the

two plants, the lotus and papyrus, where

they are tied together and represent the union of the

two countries, South and North.

The scene

together the stems of the two plants

by the sign

later times

here depicted there

is

Shen, which represents a

is

represented in

and that this

no doubt.

and in

seal,

of tying

what

is

Inside the sign

name,

i.e.,

else

Betchau; to the

r-^

than the king's personal

left is his

Horus name Kha-

sekhem, which becomes Kha-sekhemui when

of

Q,

later times typifies

the sun's path, or orbit, are the signs " Besh"

which can be nothing

is

Horus and Set appear above the standard.

figures

Thus we

had certainly three

Neter-baiu, Kha-sekhemui, and Besh.

see that in very early times the king

names,

viz.,

Among

Kom-al-Akhmar worthy

the objects found at

of special note are the granite door jamb,

slate seated statues of the

known.

in front of the feet, is

them we

I.

king

Upon
the

these are, of course, the

the bases of both statues,

Horus name, and around

see a line of " slain enemies in various distorted

VOL.

is in-

Horus name, and the limestone and

scribed with the

earliest statues

which

See'^Hieral-cmpoUs, plate 2.

THE FIRST CARTOUCHE

210

"attitudes, and on the front

"

'

The

enemies 47,209.' "

is

[B.C. 5133

the register of 'northern

features

and general treatment

of the statues by the sculptor shows that his art had,

that early period, arrived at a very high state of

at

As

perfection.

was the

first

far as

we now know, Neter-baiu,

king who caused his name

Figui-es of slain enemies

(Kha-sekhem).

slate statue of King'

Quibell, HieraJconpoJis, plate xl.

either in an oval or in a ring, and

the oval grew out of the ring,

too long to be enclosed in
"

it is

when

it.

chasm

easy to see that

the names became

During his reign

of the earth opened near Bubastus,

"persons perished/'

(Cory, op.

Besh

According to Manetho,

Boethos reigned thirty-eight years.

" a

to be enclosed

on the pedestal of the

From

or Besh,

cit.,

p. 98.)

and many

HETEP-SEKHEMUI AND RA-NEB

B.C. 5100]

Hetep-Sekhemui.

2.

The

existence of this king

statue No.

given

is

at

above,

is

made known

by

has been found upon fragments of

has been read Hetep-ahaui ==> v v

South and North

His name

but this

impossible form which has no meaning.

of the

to us

and his Horus name, which

Cairo,

stone bowls, 1 etc., discovered at Abydos.

king

211

is

an

His name as
yet,

unknown

U j5| J

Ka-kau,

is,

as

to us.

3.

Ea-neb.

*$|

Kaie%co<;.

The Horus name

to us

his

by the

name

Tablets

as

of

made known
the Cairo Museum, and

of this king, Ra-neb, is

statue^

No. 1 in

king of the South and North by the

Abydos

and

Sakkara.

According

Manetho, Kaiechos "reigned thirty-nine years,

" under

him the

to

and

Memphis, and Mnevis in

" Heliopolis, and the Mendesian goat, were appointed to

"be gods"

bulls Apis in

(Cory,

op.

cit.,

See Royal Tombs, Part

p.
ii.,

98).
plate

Wiedemann has
8, p. 26.

RULE BY WOMEN LEGALIZED

212

already referred

to the statement of Aelian

[B.C. 5066

that the

worship of Apis was established by Mena, or Menes,

but

seems pretty certain from Manetho that some

it

development of the worship of Apis, and perhaps of

Mnevis

also,

Ka-kau.

must have taken place during the reign of

The Mendesian

goat,

or ram, is of course

the Earn of Mendes, Ba-neb-Tattu.

'

"

^b^ ^z^

in very ancient times

which was connected

u n
la Is

/vn

'

<3

with the

worship of Osiris.

4.

Ba-enNETER, BivwSpLS.

The Horus name

us by the statue No. 1 in

name

as king of the

made known to
the Cairo Museum, and his

as the successor of
at Cairo,

and

is

The

Ka-kau

is

position of this king

indicated by the statue

confirmed by the fact that En-neter

name over

inscribed his

is

South and North by the Tablets

Abydos and Sakkara.

of

king

of this

that of Ea-neb (Ka-kau) on

a stone bowl found at Abydos, a fragment of which

now

in the British

Manetho,

to

" in his time

(No. 35,556).

According

" Binothris reigned forty-seven years,

it

" the imperial

1

Museum

is

and

was determined that women might hold

government."

AegypUsche Geschichte,

p. 164.

(Cory, op.
2

Hist.

cit., p.

98.)

Animaliwm,

x. 11.

UATCHNES AND PER-AB-SEN

B.C. 5033]

of

1^1

'

Of

or

1^ CLlHj uatchnes t^

9-

'

whose name

this king,

213

supplied by the Tablets

is

Abydos and Sakkara, nothing

known except

is

that,

according to Manetho, " he reigned seventeen years."

(Cory, op.

98.)

cit., p.

6.

The tomb

4aR
of

whom

Per-ab-sen.

Per-ab-sen was discovered

by M. Amelineau, 1 and
king for

~~

"O

it

Per-ab-sen whose name

Abydos

tolerably certain that the

is

was made

it

at

to be identified

is

with the

given by the priest Skeri on

is

The recently discovered inscriptions show that his Horus name was Sekhem-ab, and
that Per-ab-sen, the name by which he is generally
known, is his Set name. They occnr side by side, thus
This king is commonly known by his

the door of his tomb.

%j

Set name, and

it

seems as

name

times the Set

into his prenomen.

chral

stele

'

was made

massive sepul-

Museum.

bearing the legend

are also known.

of a king

bearing his

in the British

if in later

Set

name

Jar-sealings
[/wwv*>]

Jfa

See Le Tombcau d' Osiris,

Royal Tombs, plate 29.

p.

25

is

Nouvelles Fouilles, 1897-9S.

THE SECOND DYNASTY

214

|J|

7.

(J

[j]

This king's name

or

is

|^

[B.C. 4000

(e>] Senta

or

Sent,

found on the Tablets of Abydos

and Sakkara, and also on contemporaneous monuments.

The

priest Sheri

( (

mentions the name both of

king Sent and of his successor on the door of his tomb, 1

and slabs from

British

it

now preserved

Museum 3

also record his

said in the Berlin Medical

certain medical papyrus,
all

under the

city of

name. 4

Papyrus

to

and in the

Sent

is

also

have revised a

which had been found

first

of

god Anubis in the

feet of a statue of the

Sekhem

(Letopolis) during the reign of Semti, or

According to Manetho, " Sethenes reigned

Hesepti.

" forty-one years."

8.

(Cory,

oj). cit.,

^| f UJ

The name
steatite

Oxford

at

the king

of

cylinder.

p. 98.)

Ka-Ra, Xaiprp.
furnished

is

by a green

According to Manetho,

"reigned seventeen years."

(Cory, op.

cit., p.

" Chaires
98.)

See Maspero, Gu'de

Lepsius, Ausivahl, plate

See No. 1192.

Other contemporaneous monuments are mentioned by Wiede-

mann,

clu

Visiteur au

tie

Boulaq, pp. 31, 32.

op. cit., p. 170.

See Brugsch, Recueil, torn.

Leipzig, 1863.
6

Musee

9.

See El-Kab, Plate xx., No. 29.

ii.

plate

99 (page 15,

line

2)

NEFER-KA-RA AND NEFER-KA-SEKER

B.C. 4000]

The name

Manetho

of

name

NEFER-KA-RA, NefapxepT]?.

by the Tablet of

of this king is supplied

Sakkara, and that he

is

identical with the

there can be

at least,

little

doubt

Nephercheres

no monuments of him are known, and no

According to

Manetho, he reigned " twenty-five years.

"

it is

said the Nile flowed with

" days."

10.

(Cory, op.

4y

tit., p.

(^"lul

The name

under this

but,

of the reign are forthcoming.

details

215

In his time

honey during eleven

98.)

NEFER-KA-SEKER, ^W&>xp<?.

of this king is supplied

by the Tablet of

Sakkara, and as the latter part of the Greek name,

H

cror^pz?, is clearly

the equivalent of Seker

assume that the king Nefer-ka- Seker

^^, we

is to

with the Sesochris of Manetho's List.

be identified

According to

Manetho, Sesochris reigned "forty-eight years.

"height was
(Cory, op.

five

tit.,

cubits,

p. 98.)

better,

reading of the latter statement

version of Eusebius, where

height was
1

" Nilum fluviurn

aiunt."

(Eusebius.)

diebus

His

and his breadth three cubits."

The

" five cubits

may

is

it

and probably correct,

given by the Armenian

is

said that the king's

and three hand breadths."

xi.

melle

aqua

permixto fluxisse

THE THIRD DYNASTY

2l6

[BC. 3966

Hetchefa.
Traces of this king's name are found on the Tablet of

Sakkara, and the

Eouriant

from the

whether Hetchefa
of

Manetho cannot

12-

name

full

Boyal
is to

is

given by Brugsch and

Papyrus

but

Turin,

at

be identified with the Xevepys

at present be said.

M Qi1l]

Tchatchai, or

M QjHjQ

Bebi.

For

this king,

whether we read his name Tchatchai,

according to the Tablet of Abydos, or Bebi, according

to the

Tablet of Sakkara, the King List of Manetho

has no equivalent whatsoever in this place

poraneous monument

is

no contem-

known.

THIRD DYNASTY. FROM MEMPHIS.

1.

4^ f^^

Li]

Neb-ka

ffi0^7U

Neb-ka-Ra.

The name
according

to

of the first king of the Illrd Dynasty,

Manetho,

is

Ne^pcocf)))^,

and

probably right in assuming that this king

identified with the

Neb-ka

we
is

to

are

be

of the Tablet of Abydos,

THE STELE OF THE FAMINE

B.C. 3900]

Neb-ka-Ea.

i.e.,

According to Manetho, the dynasty

was begun by Necherophes consisted of nine

wliicli

kings

217

Necherophes " reigned twenty-eight years.

In

" his time the Libyans revolted from the Egyptians, but
" on account of an unexpected increase of the

"submitted through

2.

(Cory, op.

fear."

moon they

cit ., p. 100.)

^| (^>J Tche ser, or ^| (w

f) Tcheser-

is

given by the

SA, ToaupO^os.

The

first

form of this king's name

Tablet of Abydos, and the second

Sakkara

what

is,

by the Tablet of

Horus name

apparently, his

by the now famous Stele of the Famine,

discovered

is

given

which was

on the Island of Sahal by the late Mr.

Wilbour in

and by the

1889,

objects

which were

found in the tomb of the king, discovered in 1901,

at

Bet-Khallaf <~^

in

Upper Egypt.

we have the
read

c^~>,

the province

in

Famine

In the

after the

Horus name

portion

Museum
the
1

of
at

rocks

his

tomb now

"golden

Tcheser

found on the

preserved in

Magluira,

biblischen

(text), p. 1, Leipzig, 1891.

First Cataract.

to be

the

Koyal

and also in the inscriptions on

Wadi

See Brugsch, Die

title,

v=^ <~>

of the king is also

Berlin,
at

next

G-irga

following

which are

Horus," comes the cartouche

the

Stele

signs

Neter kha, and

of

sieben

The Island

which
Jalire

der

have

been

Htingersnoth

of Jsr- ov J^Li is in the

THE STEP PYRAMID

2l8

by M. Benedite. 1

copied

[B.C. 3900

Of Tcheser Manetho

He

" Tosortlirus reigned twenty-nine years.

" Asclepins

by the Egyptians,

He

ledge.

built

for his

house

" greatly patronized literature."

The

inscriptions

tell

us

The Step Pyramid

skill

as

cit., p.

about

100.)

Tcheser's

at Sakkara.

a physician or as a lover of literature, but

Manetho's

"hewn

and

stones,

(Cory, op.

nothing

is called

medical know-

hewn

of

says,

statement

that

"

he

built

house

of

stones" received remarkable confirmation from

the excavations which were carried out by the Prussian

General Minutoli, in 1819, 2 in the "Step Pyramid"

at Sakkara.
1

This pyramid was built by Tcheser to

See Eecueil de Travaux,

Beise

zum Temp el

torn. xvi. p. 104.

des Jupiter

Ammon,

p.

296

ff

THE TOMB OF TCHESER

B.C. 3900]

serve as

the

tomb, and

liis

large

is

it

2ig

certainly the oldest of all

buildings which have

successfully resisted

the action of wind and weather, and destruction by the

The

hand of man.

pyramid are

steps of the

six in

number, and are about 38, 36, 344, 32, 31, and 29^
in height; the width of each step

The lengths

feet.

from six to seven

of the sides at the base are

and west, 396

and south, 352

feet

actual height

about 197

is

is

east

feet

feet

north

and the

In shape this pyramid

feet.

oblong, and its sides do not exactly face the cardinal

is

points.

The arrangement

pyramid

is

of the

quite peculiar to

the walls, doors,

chambers inside the

itself,

and the remains of

some of the chambers prove

etc., of

that they must have formed fine examples of the art

and

skill

of the decorator of funeral

buildings.

Mr. Garstang has discovered at Khallaf a tomb

must be that

of the

king,

it

As

which

seems that his body

can never have been buried in this pyramid.

Tcheser

must have been an able and a mighty king, and from

the fact that the Eoyal

Papyrus of Turin, as both

Wiedemann

have noticed, begins a new

and Krall

paragraph with his name,

it

seems as

if

his

reign

In this tomb were found bowls and dishes of diorite, alabaster,

etc., copper implements, worked flints, alabaster tables
for offerings, etc.
The tomb contains a staircase which, passing
under an archway, leads down to eighteen underground chambers,
1

porphyry,

at a depth of 90 feet

Catalogue, p.

7.

from the top

of the mastaba.

king of the Illrd Dynasty called Hen-Nekht.

2

Garstang,

Mr. Garstang also discovered the tomb of another

Aegyptische Geschichte,

p. 172.

Grundriss der altorientalischen Geschichte,

p. 18.

THE THIRD DYNASTY

220

inaugurated a new era

worthy of
Tcheser

divine

any

in

honours

[B.C. 3866

case,

he was esteemed

the

Xllth Dynasty.

in

mentioned in the Westcar Papyrus with other

is

Khufu (Cheops), Nebka, Seneferu, 1 etc.

In Manetho's King List Tosorthrus is followed by

kings, e.g.,

the names (3) Tyreis, (4) Mesochris, and (5) Soyphis,

who

said

are

to

have reigned seven, seventeen, and

sixteen years respectively, but of these kings no details

whatsoever are narrated, and up to the present the

monuments have supplied no information in respect of

them. In the Tablet of Abydos the king who is made
to follow Tcheser-sa is Teta,

we

find Tcheser-Teta,

and

in the Tablet of

which name seems

Sakkara

to be a fuller

form of the Teta of the Tablet of Abydos.

Teta, or

4w
^ ^

V=^

fl

'

Tcheser-Teta.
In

form of

the

name given

the

in

the second

cartouche we have, no doubt, the base of the Greek

transcription of the
calls

ToGepraaLs, and of

that he
op.

is

cit.,

of the king

whom Manetho

whom we know

nothing, except

name

said to have reigned nineteen years.

p.

100.)

It

is

interesting

to

(Cory,

that

note

Eusebius, in the Armenian version, says that the six

(not seven) other
1

kings wdio followed Tosorthrus

Erman, Die Marclien

des

Papyrus Westcar, plates

i.

iii.

iv.

did

HUNI OF THE PRISSE PAPYRUS

B.C. 3766]

nothing worthy of mention, and

it is

221

quite conceivable

when chronographers found nothing to say about

kings they quietly omitted their names from the KingFollowing the name
Lists which they were compiling.
that

of Tosertasis in Manetho's List comes that of Aches,

who

is

said to have reigned forty-two years,

and

possible that he is to be identified with the king

name

is

it

is

whose

given from the Palermo Stele by Brugsch and

Bouriant in their Livre

Rois

cies

(p.

3)

under the form

of
4.

jy|

Qjojl ]

Ahtes, "A xv ,.

The name of the next king which occurs in the

Tablet of Abydos is Setches, and it is probable that

who

the king

reigned

Sephouris by Manetho,

5.

thirty
is to

4^ (^^"^

P ]

is,

Hum.

follows Setches in the

is

Tablet of

Nefer-ka-Ba,

name of the king who

and who is called by Manetho

clearly, the basis of the

reigned twenty-six years,

Kep(j)6p7]<i

called

Fetches, HifyovpK.

Abydos, and which precedes Seneferu,

which

is

be identified with him.

Nefer-ka-Ba,

The name which

and

years,

in

the

Tablet of Sakkara,

however, the

HUNI OF THE PRISSE PAPYRUS

222

name which precedes Seneferu

Prisse

Papyrus

mentioned, and

(pi.
it

is

2,

11.

is

8)

7,

also said there that

we may

therefore assume that

are one

and the same person, and

first

in the

two names are

and that Seneferu hecame the ruler of

clear

Now

Huni.
the

[B.C. 3766

Huni

all

died,

the land

Huni and Nefer-ka-Ka

it

is

in

any case

from Manetho's King List that Seneferu was the

king of a new dynasty.

The

total of the years of

the reigns of the kings of the Illrd Dynasty

is,

accord-

ing to Manetlio, 214 years.

END OF

6ILBERT AND RIVINGTON,

LTD., ST.

VOL.

JOHN

I.

HOUSE, CLERKENWELL,

E.C.

Books on Egypt and Chaldaea.

A New

Series by E. A. WALLIS BUDGE, Litt.D., Keeper of

Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities in the British Museum, Author
of "First Steps in Egyptian," "The Egyptian Reading-Book,"
&c, &c, and L. W. KING, M.A., Assistant in the Department of
Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities in the British Museum, Author
of "First Steps in Assyrian."
Uniform. Crown 8vo, 2 s 6d. net
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EGYPTIAN RELIGION

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LANGUAGE

Easy Lessons
By L. W. King, M.A.

Cuneiform Inscriptions.

in

THE BOOK OF THE

VII., VIII.
DEAD.
English Translation of the Theban Recension, with
Supplementary Chapters, Hymns, &c, and nearly 400 Vignettes which do not appear in the larger edition published
in 1897.
By E. A. Wallis Budge, Litt.D.

Vols. VI.,

An

The

above

followed by

volumes

are

now

ready,

MESOPOTAMIAN MAGIC; A
and Witchcraft.

By

L.

THE ROSETTA STONE.

and

will

be

Study of Babylonian Sorcery

W. King, M.A.
By

E. A.

Wallis Budge,

Litt.D.

LONDON

KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER &

Co., Ltd.

Paternoster House, Charing Cross Road

By

Budge, M.A.,

E. A. Wallis

HISTORY OF ESARHADDON

Litt.D.

(Son of Sennacherib), King

Translated from the Cuneiform Inscripof Assyria, B.C. 681-668.

Post 8vo, 10s. 6d.
{Trubner's
tions in the British Museum.
Oriental Set ies.)

ARCHAIC CLASSICS:

Assyrian Texts, being Extracts from

the Annals of Shalmaneser II., Sennacherib, and Assur-Bani-Pal,

Sm. 4to, Js. 6d.
with Philological Notes.

ST.

MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL.

in the Coptic Texts,

THE BOOK OF GOVERNORS:

of

Thomas, Bishop of Marga.

Three Encomiums

Imperial 8vo, i$s. net.

with a Translation.

The

Historica Monastica

8vo,

2 vols.

FIRST STEPS IN EGYPTIAN. Demy

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net.

Svo, gs. net.

AN EGYPTIAN READING BOOK FOR BEGINNERS.

Demy

Svo, 15^. net.

THE EARLIEST KNOWN COPTIC PSALTER.

The

Text in the Dialect of Upper Egypt. From the Unique Papyrus

Codex Oriental 5000 in the British Museum. With two collotype
Imperial 8vo, 15^. net.
Strictly limited to 350 copies.
facsimiles.

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD. A New

Edition.

In 3

Demy

vols.

and

Complete

8vo.

The Complete Egyptian Texts of the Theban Recension of

I.
The Book of the Dead, printed in hieroglyphic type.
Vol. II. A Complete Vocabulary to The Book of the Dead, con-

Vol.

taining over 35,000 References.

An English Translation of the Theban Recension of The
Book of the Dead, with an Introduction containing Chapters on
the History, Object and Contents of the Book ; the Resurrection ;
the Judgment ; the Elysian Fields the Magic of The Book of
This volume is illustrated by three large facthe Dead, &c.
similes of sections of papyri, printed in full colours, and 18 Plates
illustrating the palaeography of the various recensions of The
Book of the Dead from B.C. 3500 to A.D. 200.
Price of the Complete Work (3 vols.), 2 10s.
Text and Vocabulary (not sold separately),
Price of Vols. I. & II.

Vol. III.

iar.

Price of Vol. III.

Translation

(may be sold separately), 1

5*. net.

LONDON

KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER &

Co., Ltd.

Paternoster House, Charing Cross Road

BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

3 9999 06561 169 9

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