Chapter XV: Part 15

FOREIGN IMPORTS. Vessels of this large size certainly imply a corresponding importance of commerce. We have noted already the foreign imports into Egypt; and others imply more distinctly a sea intercourse. From S.D. 33 down to S.D. 68 there is found black pottery with incised basket-work patterns [page 238] filled in with white. It is always rare, only occurring in less than 1 per cent. of the graves, and in only one case was there more than a solitary example. It is entirely disconnected from the Egyptian types, but it is closely akin to pottery found on the north of the Mediterranean, in Spain (Ciempozuelos), in Bosnia, and in the earliest town of Troy. At the close of the prehistoric age the black pottery of the late Neolithic city of Knossos is found in the lowest levels of the temple at Abydos. And in the royal tombs of the first dynasty there many vases and pieces have been found which are clearly of the earliest age of painted Ægean pottery. Considering that the bulk of the trade must have been for perishable goods--oil and skins from Crete and Greece, corn and beans from Egypt--it is not to be expected that a great amount of breakable pottery would pass and be preserved in burials. There are, moreover, some tallies left to us besides the northern pottery. Throughout the later prehistoric age emery was regularly in use for all the grinding and polishing of stone vases and of carnelian beads; and so common that one excelsior spirit in search of a tour de force had even cut a vase out of block emery, as being the hardest known material. This emery, so far as we know, must have come from Smyrna. Again, the gold of the first dynasty contains a large amount of silver. This points to its source from the Pactolus region, where electrum was found, rather than from Nubia, where the gold is free from silver.

CONNECTION OF THE SHIPPING. When we look at the evidence of the ships themselves we see that it points to their having been used at sea rather than on the Nile. It is impossible to row a ship up against the Nile stream, which runs at three miles an hour, and sailing or towing is the only way to go southward in Egypt. But in only one instance is a ship with a sail represented, while there are many dozens of figures of rowing vessels. The galley has always been the type of business ship on the Mediterranean. All through the classical wars the rowing galley was the mainstay of power. The Homeric catalogue of ships, the Phœnician coinage, the Assyrian sculptures, the Greek fleets, the Carthaginian navy and its destroyers of Rome, the pirates of Liburnia and Lycia, down to the Venetian fleet and the French galleys of a couple of centuries ago, all show the dominance of the oar.

(1) Slate palettes on which paint for rubbing round the eyes was
ground; (2) adze heads and harpoons, the harpoons at the sides
being of bone, the others of copper; (3) beautifully flaked flint
knife; (4) serpent amulet of stone; (5) maces of quartzose rock,
very effective weapons; (6) forked lances of flint; (7) combs of
ivory; (8) vases carved from hard stone; (9) black incised pottery,
a foreign import into early Egypt.
]

[Sidenote: Port Ensigns Carried]

The nature of the standards upon poles carried by the ships has been variously interpreted. We can distinguish the elephant, bird on a crescent, and fish; the two or four pair of horns, the bush, and the branch; the rows of two, three, four, or five hills; the crossed arrows, and the harpoon, besides other forms which we cannot identify. The question is, what view will account for these most completely? Some have thought they were emblems of gods, and that the boats were sacred to divinities; but there are many which cannot be thus explained. Others have thought that they indicated tribes; but the rarity of repetitions, and the absence of any duplicates together, are against this. Marks of personal ownership have been suggested; and this is not impossible, as they might be well dedicated to special gods. But the prominence of the groups of hills as signs agrees best with their being marks of the ports from which they hailed; the divine emblems would naturally be those of the god of the port, the number of hills would be very likely to distinguish different ports, the elephant, the bush, or the fish might well be the mark of a port. And the parallel in later times of such being distinctive ensigns for ports--as in the ensign of Gades found in the Red Sea--agrees to this usage. The carrying of a port ensign in an age of independent city-states was equivalent to a national flag in later times; and it was essential for showing friends or foes.

We have dwelt at length on the detail of this shipping, as it is the most important subject for showing the extent and character of the early civilisation. It takes two to trade as well as to quarrel; and these large ships were not rowed about the Mediterranean unless there was a paying trade to be done on those coasts, a people civilised enough to produce goods that were wanted and to require foreign stuff in exchange, and a society stable enough to enable goods to be stocked in bulk and traded without any serious risk of fraud or force.

[Sidenote: Ingenuity of the Hunters]

[Sidenote: Mode of Ostrich Hunting]

HUNTING. The main occupation represented in the prehistoric paintings is hunting. The bow and arrow was used. The bow was a single piece of wood, painted red and covered with zigzag white lines; the arrow was of reed, with a point several inches long of hard wood. The forked lance of flint was also a favourite weapon [p. 238]; it was inserted at the end of a wooden shaft, which was controlled by a long thong of leather ending in alabaster knobs which kept it from entirely flying from the fingers. Thus the lance could be thrown by a man in ambush to cut the legs of a gazelle, while, if it missed, it was jerked back by the elastic thong, and so saved from breaking the delicate edge of flint. These forked lances are found throughout nearly all the prehistoric time; and they continued in use in North Africa till the Roman Age, when Commodus borrowed thence their use for hunting the ostrich. This lance retained by a thong was the parallel to the favourite harpoon used in fishing. Another mode of hunting was the trap. This is represented as being formed of pointed splints or stakes, lashed together like spokes of a wheel, with the points around a central hollow. Such traps to catch the legs of animals are used now in Africa, and an example was found at the Ramesseum, dating perhaps from the twentieth dynasty. Sticks or clubs were used in hunting and in fighting.

There has been much speculation as to the significance of the
standards carried by the most ancient of the Egyptian vessels, as
recorded on pottery and elsewhere. Some examples of these standards
are here given. The most reasonable supposition is that these
devices indicated the port from which the vessel sailed.
]

FIGHTING. The earliest representation of fighting is on a vase of the white slip on red, at the beginning of the prehistoric age. On that a man with long, wavy hair appears to be spearing another man in the side. Later, there are the fighters on the Hierakonpolis tomb, at about S.D. 63. On this hooked sticks are used, and the fighters are clad with a spotted animal’s hide on the back. One man has been killed, and another is hard pressed, fallen on one knee. To save himself from blows he has taken off the hide and is holding it up, thus anticipating the use of the shield. It seems likely that the Egyptian shields of hide stretched on a frame of sticks were directly copied from this use of the hide that was otherwise worn on the body. In another group a black man is holding three red captives bound with a black cord, while two red men approach him to deliver their kindred.

[Sidenote: Fighting with Maces]

The weapons mostly found are the stone maces [page 238]. These were sharp-edged discs in the earlier age, a form which is very effective in a mixed fight, as it cannot be turned aside like a battleaxe, but must cut in whatever direction it falls. These maces were usually made of porphyry and other quartzose rocks. The mace used in the later age was of a pear shape, and this form was continued into the historic times, and perpetuated in the conventional scene of the king striking an enemy, even in the latest times. The handle holes in these maces are very small, and this shows that probably the handles were dried thongs of hide. Nothing else would be sufficiently tough and elastic. The flint dagger was probably also used, and certainly the copper dagger. A very fine example of this, dated to S.D. 55 or 60, is wrought with a quadrangular blade, giving the utmost strength and lightness, a better design than that of any daggers of the historic times.

The earliest representation of fighting, at the beginning of the
prehistoric age, shows a man with long, wavy hair, spearing another
man in the side. Later, are fighters on the Hierakonpolis tomb,
using hooked sticks and clad in piebald hides of animals.
]

TOOLS. Tools of metal begin with small, square chisels of copper at S.D. 38. The intermediate examples have not been found till we reach a fine large chisel of copper at the close of the prehistoric. Adzes of copper [p. 238] begin at S.D. 56, or earlier, and increase in size down to historic times; they continued to be the favourite tool of the Egyptians for both wood and stone working until Greek times. Borers are usually tapered, to work in soft material. Needles of copper appear as early as S.D. 48, and the fastening pins of copper begin with the very earliest graves of S.D. 30.

Flint working was the greatest artistic industry of the prehistoric age. The surfaces were not merely reduced by haphazard flaking, but the flints were ground into form, and then reflaked in a marvellously regular manner with uniform parallel grooves [page 238]. The finishing of the edges by deep serrations of the fineness of forty to the inch, and the chipping out of delicate armlets of flint, show also the same astonishing skill and perfection of hand work. The Scandinavian flint chipping used to be regarded as the most perfect, but the Egyptian work entirely surpasses it in regularity and boldness.

STONE VASES. Hard stones were largely employed for making vases [page 238]. In the earlier age tall, cylindrical forms were used, and in the later age barrel forms. The earlier material was usually basalt, but syenite, porphyry, alabaster and limestone were also used. The later materials included slate, grey limestone, breccia, serpentine, and diorite. The hollowing out of these vases was by grinding, but the outside was entirely formed by chipping and polishing without rotary motion. The perfect regularity of the forms, and the fine taste shown in the curves of the outlines, as well as the hardness of the material, place the vase working higher than any work of the historic times.

[Sidenote: 1,000 Forms of Pottery]

POTTERY. Pottery was greatly developed, although the wheel was not used, and all the forms were entirely modelled by hand and eye without mechanical guidance. The outlines are true and fine, the circularity is astonishingly regular, although all the trimming and polish runs vertically; and it was as easy in such a mode of building to make oval, doubled, or square forms, all of which are found. The specially later pottery is the decorated, with brown-red lines on a hard buff body. The forms are clearly copied from those of the stone vases; and the patterns are derived from the fossils and veins in the stone, or from the cordage net in which the vases were slung for carrying. Next appear aloes and other bushes, and figures of ships, which we have already noticed. Rows of ostriches and of hills are also favourite designs.

Other pottery of this ware, but not decorated, has a curious type of projecting ledge, wavy up and down, for handles. Beginning at S.D. 40 as a globular vessel, the type narrows to an upright jar; by S.D. 60 the handles dwindle, becoming united around it as a wavy band of pattern; by S.D. 70 the jar at last becomes a cylinder; by S.D. 75 the band becomes a mere line; and then after S.D. 80--in the first dynasty--the jar dwindles to a rough tube like a thumbstall. The contents of such jars similarly deteriorate. At first, perfumed ointment was put in them, then it was covered with a layer of mud to retain the scent; the mud increased until it was merely scented mud, then only plain mud was used, and lastly they were left empty. Beside many other forms of this hard ware there was also a long series of types in a rough brown pottery, which passed on into the ordinary pottery of the first dynasty. As there are over a thousand different forms of this prehistoric pottery known, and their study has been the key to the whole arrangement of that age, this subject is a very wide one, which we have barely noticed here.

The later pottery of the prehistoric period is characterised by
brown-red lines on a hard buff body. The forms and decorations have
been copied from earlier stone vases, and from the nets in which
they were carried.
]

[Sidenote: A Constant Personal Possession]

SLATE PALETTES. A constant personal possession was the slab of slate upon which the green malachite or red ochre was ground for colouring around the eyes. Usually a brown pebble crusher accompanies it; and the dead often have a little leather bag of malachite in the hands. These slate palettes begin with a plain rhomb form, probably derived from the natural cleavages of the slate rock. Well-formed animal figures were also carved as slate silhouettes; the deer, hippopotamus, and turtle are the oldest, and the fish also comes into the earlier age. The double bird type begins with the second age, and all the types continuously degrade by repeated copying until their original form is quite indistinguishable at the close of the prehistoric age [page 238].

PERSONAL OBJECTS. Ivory carving is common, mainly for long combs to fasten up the hair. These usually have an animal on the top of them; but they only belong to the earlier age, suggesting that the hair was worn shorter in the second period. Decorated tusks of ivory are also early; they were fastened on to leather work, probably to close the openings of water skins. Ivory spoons belong only to the second period, as likewise do the forehead pendants of shell.

Amulets of animal forms were frequent in the second period. They are generally cut in stone, carnelian, serpentine, porphyry, and coloured limestones. The forms are the bull’s head (which continued in use into historic times), the hawk, serpent [p. 238], frog, fly, scorpion, claw, vase, and spear head. The meanings attached to them are quite unknown.

Games are found, as shown by the ivory draughtsmen, the small balls or marbles, the stone gateway and ninepins [page 242], the figures of lions and hares, and the throwing slips for obtaining a count as with dice.

[Sidenote: What the People Wore]

CLOTHING. The clothing of men was, at most, the kilt of linen, or an animal’s hide put over the body. Often only a belt was worn, with three narrow strips hanging down in front. A usual covering was a belt with a sheath attached to it to hold up the genitals. With the pleated kilt was also worn a belt having apparently a jackal tail hung behind. On some figures there is merely a double rope round the waist. These various forms may belong to different peoples and periods; but there are hardly enough examples to prove any distinctions, as the varying circumstance of the figures, captive and conquered, resting and working, rich and poor, in heat and in cold, may easily have led to the different dress that we see. Women are represented with a white linen petticoat from the waist to the feet. Leather was a favourite material for clothing, as well as for bags. It was painted with patterns, and decorated with beads, reminding us of the North American work.

[Sidenote: The Oldest Capital of Egypt]

DECAY OF CIVILISATION. All of this civilisation gradually decayed; the pottery is seen becoming coarser, good work dying out in rougher copying, new types seldom appearing, cheaper and poorer objects being more usual. There is ground, however, for supposing that at some time in this age there was a central rule at Heliopolis. There are many traditions of a principality there, which must certainly have been before the dynasties. The sacred emblem preserved in the temple was the shepherd’s crook, _haq_, which served for the title of “prince” in all later times; the other sacred emblem was the whip, and these two were the royal emblems of Osiris. The title of the nome was “the princes’ territory,” and this capital retained in later ages the reputation of being the centre of learning and theology. And on the fragment of the early annals known as the “Palermo Stone” there is shown a long row of kings of Lower Egypt before the dynasties; these cannot have ruled at Memphis, as that was a new foundation by Menes.

These ninepins, the gate to play through, and the porphyry balls
were all found in a child’s grave.
]

[Sidenote: History as Reflected in Mythology]

[Sidenote: End of Prehistoric Times]

HISTORY IN MYTHOLOGY. Of the breakup of this civilisation we may trace some relation in the mythology. After Isis had recovered the body of Osiris, and the worship of the Osiris and Isis tribes had revived again from the Semitic invasion of Set worshippers, Set again attacked the Osiris worship, and scattered the body of Osiris into fourteen parts in different places. This refers probably to the distribution of parts of the body to different districts, when it was cut up in the funeral ceremonies, according to prehistoric usage. These parts of Osiris were kept at sixteen nomes in Egypt in historic times, six in the Nile valley and ten in the Delta, probably the original nomes of the country. The civil discord implied in this persecution must have weakened the land; and then came the attack by the hawk worshippers from the south. In the legend of Horbehudti, or Horus of Edfu, we read that the crocodiles and hippopotami (animals of Set), attacked him, and his servants, armed with metal weapons, smote and conquered them, slaying 381 before the city of Edfu. Then the worshippers of Horus allied themselves with the sun worshippers, and “Horbehudti changed his form into that of a winged sun disc,” and “took with him Nekhebt the goddess of the South and Uazet, the goddess of the North, in the form of two serpents, that they might destroy their enemies in the bodily forms of crocodiles and hippopotami.” That is to say, the Horus, Ra, and serpent goddess tribes were all allied to attack the domination of the Set tribe. They gradually drove them back, and “Set went forth and cried out horribly”; he was finally struck down at _Pa-rehehu_. “Thus did Horbehudti, together with Horus, the son of Isis, who had made his form like unto that of Horbehudti.” That is to say, the rest of the Horus worshippers joined the Horus-Ra party.

The final battle and expulsion of Set was at Zaru on the eastern frontier of Egypt. This, in mythological form, seems to give the history of the driving out of the Semitic population of the later prehistoric age, by the dynastic race descending from Upper Egypt, at the close of the prehistoric period. An actual result of this war, all through later times, was the multitude of towns named Samhud, or “United to Behudti,” marking the allies of the Horus party.

HISTORICAL SLATE PALETTES. Of the period of the conquest by the dynastic races, which closed the prehistoric age, there is an invaluable series of monuments carved on slate. These carved slates are the elaborated outcome of the slate palettes used for grinding the face paints throughout the prehistoric age. A similar elaboration of a simple article is familiar in modern times in the snuff-box. A plain receptacle of bone or wood was decorated, plated, made of silver and of gold, inlaid with diamonds and painted with the costliest miniatures, and yet--it was but a snuff-box. So the plain slip of slate was carved into animal outlines, had animals scratched on it, then signs in relief upon it, and at last was covered with the most elaborate carvings, and yet--it was but a paint grinder, and had always the pan for colour carved on it, exactly of the shape of the pans on the painters’ palettes of that age. Every stage can be shown, from a formless slate to an artistic scene in relief. There are many stages to be seen in the artistic development.

A. In the prehistoric age are the scratched outlines.

B. The well-incised elephant is as early as S.D. 33-41;
and with it are those signs in low relief.

C. The high relief sign is of S.D. 60-63.

D. On the boat slate, the drawing is much more detailed than on the
boats of the Hierakonpolis tomb of S.D. 63. We can hardly
separate this from the work of the artistic new-comers, and it may
well be about S.D. 70-75.

E. The animal slate seems to be next, as the treatment of the
lion’s hair is unlike the following.

F. The four-dog slate, being a coarser but more elaborated design
of the same type, may well be next.

G. The hut slate shows for the first time the arrangement of lion’s
mane as on the ivory lions of King Zer.

H. The gazelle slate shows the same treatment more advanced.

J. The towns slate shows the wiry detail of muscles, beginning to
appear in archaic manner.

K. The bull slate has the same style carried out fully and finely.

L. The Narmer slate has a less forcible and smoother treatment of
the bull, and brings us down to touch with the historic times.

The figures can be seen in Capart’s “Primitive Art in Egypt,” where they may be identified by these letters, corresponding to the paragraphs above: A, B, figures 61, 62; C, 63; D, 169; E, 171-2; F, 173-4; G, 170; H, 177-80; J, 175-6; K, 181-2; L, 183-4.

RACIAL TYPES. These slate carvings not only show the art of the time, but they present the different races and the details of their life, more fully than we find them for many centuries later. We see six different types of physiognomy in the early remains, and learn how complex the racial history must be at the most remote period accessible to us.

A. The _aquiline_ type is that of the principal prehistoric race, closely like the Libyan on the west and the Amorite on the east. When mixed with negro it produced the exact type of a European-Negro mulatto. Probably equal to the Libyan. [See Heads 1 to 4 on next page.]

This map of Egypt shows Egypt in three of its early periods. (1)
The earliest centres of culture were at the places where parts of
Osiris were preserved in the prehistoric age, here named. (2) The
second period is shown by other centres being placed in the right
geographical order, all here numbered I to XIX, following down each
branch of the Nile. (3) The third period is when other centres were
inserted in the lists in the wrong order, here numbered 8 to 20.
These three stages of Egypt’s history are all before the monarchy.
]

Numbers 1 and 2 are the aquiline type, similar to 3, the Libyan,
and 4 the Amorite. 5 is the curly hair type, 6 the sharp-nosed
type, 7 the short-nosed type, 8 the forward beard type, 9-11 the
straight-faced type of dynastic conquerors. 12 is King Khafra of
the Pyramid age, reverting to the original type of 1 and 2.
]

B. The _sharp-nosed_ type, firstly, with the hair in a pigtail, bringing stone vases as tribute, and sometimes dressed in long robe; secondly, with bushy hair and armed with spear, throw-stick, mace, bow and arrows. Probably the Arabian mountain race mixed with Libyan. See figure 6 on this page.

C. The _curly hair_ type, with plaited beard, conquered and destroyed by type B. Probably from North Syria, by sculptures there. See figure 5 on this page.

D. The _forward beard_ type, with close-cut hair; much like the figures on early Naukratite vases. Probably a coast people of Libyan connection. See figure 8 on this page.

E. The _short-nosed_ type, a variety of D, apparently belonging to the Fayum. Fig. 7.

F. The _straight-faced_ type of the dynastic conquerors. See figures 9-11 on this page.

All of these different peoples were in continual mixture and struggle during the few centuries before the first dynasty. Looking to the tribal hints given by the mythology, it seems probable that:

A represents the early Osiris and Isis worshippers; B the first
dominance of Set; C the second irruption of Set; D and E the allied
Osiris and Isis worshippers of the Delta and coast who helped to
expel Set; and F the hawk Horus worshippers, who took the lead in
driving out B and C by alliance with A, D and E.

[Sidenote: Earliest Promise of Greatness]

DYNASTIC RACE. The most essential difference between the prehistoric and the dynastic people is in their artistic capacity. The earlier peoples, though highly skilled in mechanical detail and handling, were yet very crude in their copying of any natural forms. But as soon as we reach the dynastic race we find that there is an artistic sense and power in their work, which puts even the roughest of it far above all that had gone before. The earliest examples of their sculpture appear to be the colossal figures of the god Min, found at Koptos. These are of the most primitive style possible, the limbs scarcely marked off from the trunk, and no details of form attempted. But on the side of each there is a patch of hammer-work outlining some figures, perhaps a copy of embroideries on a skin pouch hung at the side. These are figures of a deer’s head and pteroceras shells on one, swordfish, shells, and standards of the god on another, and the same objects, together with an ostrich, elephant, hyena, and calf on the third. All are but roughly hammered round, yet the spirit and correct forms of the animals are of an entirely different order from anything that had yet appeared in Egypt. The promise of all the artistic triumphs of thousands of years to come is clearly seen in these decorations of the rudest statues known.

[Sidenote: Mystery of Dynastic Race]

The source of this dynastic race can only be inferred. Though marked off from the earlier inhabitants by their artistic taste, and by their use of hieroglyphic writing, we know so very little of the early history of any other lands near Egypt that we cannot yet trace any link to their original source. On looking in various directions, it seems at least clear that they do not belong to the southern tribes, to which they have no resemblance; nor can we suppose that the Libyans, who appear to be one with the prehistoric people, would also supply a race so different in face and in habits. The north and Syria seem barred by the earliest centres being at Abydos and Hierakonpolis in the south of Egypt, from which they conquered the north.

These animal figures were wrought by hammering around on the
surface of the colossal statue of the god Min, found at Koptos, and
show the beginning of the wonderful art of Ancient Egypt. It is the
work of the earliest dynastic people, who have passed beyond the
stage of making rude scratches on walls and on pottery, and have
arrived, as the figures of the ox and the hyæna prove, at a real
conception of the methods of sculpture.
]

[Sidenote: The Way the Conquerors Came]

Lastly, no source seems open except the East, the road from which joined the Nile at Koptos. It is there that the earliest statues have been found, and the decoration on those comprises the swordfish and pteroceras shell belonging to the Red Sea. Such seems to have been the road of the dynastic race into Egypt; but the origin of that race yet awaits research. There are undoubtedly some Babylonian elements in their culture, and somewhere at the south end of the Red Sea lay Punt--the “divine land” of the Egyptians. Thus we are tempted to look to some migration from Southern Arabia, whence also may have proceeded the kindred Sumerian culture, a few centuries later. From this centre in Pūn, or Punt, it may have conquered and colonised Egypt, and then later passed on up the Red Sea to the coast of the Pœni and their later Punic colony--Phœnicia and Carthage. Such is a pleasing co-ordination, but whether we shall ever recover the evidence to prove or disprove it hangs upon the chance of the past and the activity of the future.

CONQUEST OF EGYPT. The conquest of Egypt spread down from the south to the north. The earliest centres were Abydos and Hierakonpolis. Probably Edfu was as important, or more so; but the great Ptolemaic temple there being still complete, the remains of the earliest kingdom are sealed beneath its pavements. The conquest must have been a gradual process; it is described as such in the myth, many times and in many successive places was Set defeated and repelled. And the probability is that tribal war of such a kind would only gradually transfer district after district from one holder to the next. We know how in England the conquest occupied three centuries, from the Saxon landing to the first Saxon king of all the land. So it may well have been in Egypt.

[Sidenote: Kings Before History]

We read in Manetho of ten kings of Thinis (Abydos) who ruled for 350 years before the first dynasty of kings of all Egypt. And we know, from the fragment of the Palermo Stone, that at least thirteen kings of Lower Egypt were recorded before the first dynasty. It is obvious from this, and from the probabilities of the conquest, that there were Kings of Upper Egypt before the first dynasty; and there is no reason for not accepting this statement of Manetho as being equally correct with his account of the first dynasty, which we can verify. Of the actual course of the conquest, one fragment of carved slate has preserved the record. Seven towns are represented upon it, each attacked by one animal of the standards of the allies. These towns may be tolerably identified by comparing the hieroglyphics placed within them with the names known in historic times. The upper row of four towns seem to be Mem in the Fayum, Hipponon, Pa-rehehui, and possibly Abydos; and the lower three towns were probably in the delta, though there are the uncertainties of two northern similar names.

[Sidenote: Graves of Unknown Kings]

DYNASTY O. The contemporary remains that appear to belong to this age of the Kings of Abydos (which we may call Dynasty O) are the tomb chambers and funeral objects in the royal cemetery at Abydos. The plan of that cemetery shows a sequence of each later tomb being placed next to the previous tomb, and generally a receding further back into the desert as time went on. Now, in front of the tomb of Zer, the second king of the first dynasty, there are three large tombs alike, and four lesser ones. As objects of Mena, the first king, were found here, the other tombs are presumably those of six kings before the first dynasty, by their position. The actual objects found in these tombs are all of a more archaic style than those of Mena or any later king. The tombs themselves are all lesser and simpler than those of Zer and later kings. And the names of kings found here are all without the vulture and uræus title, but with only _neb neb_, the double lordship of Egypt. The whole of the evidence, therefore, goes to show that we have six tombs of the Thinite kings before Menes.

The names of these earlier kings, so far as we trace them, are Ka, Ro, Zeser, Zar, Nar, and Sma. Of these, Nar, or Narmer, has the most important remains--part of an ebony tablet, and an alabaster jar from his tomb, and the great slate palette, a great mace head, with scene of a festival, and an ivory cylinder, from Hierakonpolis. The next in importance is Zar, or the “Scorpion King,” of whom there is a great carved mace head, and also some vases. The objects of the carvings appear to be celebrations of the _sed_ festival; this appears originally to have been the slaying of the king every thirty years, making him Osiris, one with the god, while his daughter was married to the new king. By the time of these carvings, it appears that the king took the place of Osiris in the ceremonials, and his successor masqueraded as the new king, and was henceforth the crown prince--the heir to the kingdom.

A record of the festival of Narmer, a king of Abydos, who reigned
before the first dynasty of kings of all Egypt. It indicates that
when the festival of his own death was celebrated, in accordance
with the ancient custom of killing the king every thirty years to
make him one with Osiris the god, no fewer than 120,000 captives,
400,000 oxen, and 1,422,000 goats were offered. The numerical
system is here seen to be complete up to millions.
]

[Sidenote: Planting and Building]

There were brought to the festival of Narmer 120,000 captives, 400,000 oxen, 1,422,000 goats; and the system of numeration was as complete before Menes as it was in any later time. The other mace head of King Zar shows part of the festival, and also the ceremony of the king hoeing the bank of a canal, probably at the inundation. We see the reclamation of the land, with men busy embanking the canals, and cultivating a palm tree in an enclosure of reeds, while they lived in reed huts with plaited dome tops, and used boats with a very high, upright stem. The carved slate palette of Narmer shows him grasping the chief of the Fayum, prepared to smite him, a scene which was repeated for five thousand years in all the Egyptian triumphs. The metal water-pot and sandals are carried behind the king by his body servant. On the other side of the palette is the king going to a triumphal ceremony, preceded by the scribe, _thet_, and four men of different types bearing the standards of the army, possibly connected with the four territorial divisions of the army found under Ramessu II. Before them lie ten slain enemies, with their heads cut off and put between their legs. The carving of the detail, and particularly the muscular anatomy of the king’s figure, is extraordinarily fine and firm, and as true as any work of later time.

WRITTEN HISTORY. Having now dealt with the history as drawn from the remains which have come to light, we now enter from this point on the continuous written history, which has come down from hand to hand without a break to our own times, during over seven thousand years. This history was compiled by the high-priest and scribe Manetho of Sebennytos in the Delta, and only a fragment of his work has been preserved on its full scale; but three later writers have given epitomes of it, and it is on their lists that we have to depend. These are Julius Africanus (221 A.D.), Eusebius (326 A.D.), and George the Syncellus (792 A.D.).

[Sidenote: The Men Who Handed Down the Story]

[Sidenote: An Ancient Historian and His Figures]

Unfortunately, much confusion has been caused by scholars not being content to accept Manetho as being substantially correct in the main, though with many small corruptions and errors. Nearly every historian has made large and arbitrary assumptions and changes, with a view to reducing the length of time stated. But recent discoveries seem to prove that we must accept the lists as having been correct, however they may have suffered in detail. A favourite supposition has been that the dynasties named were arbitrary divisions of later times; but the earlier lists also show such divisions as far back as the eighteenth dynasty, and kings founding a dynasty used to copy the titles of the founder of the previous dynasty, showing that the change was recognised at the time.

Another idea has been that the dynasties were contemporary. But, on the contrary, in the overlapping of the tenth and eleventh and also the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth dynasties, we can trace that Manetho was very careful to cut off from one dynasty all the time which he allows to another. As regards the general character of the whole length of time, we can show that Manetho’s version in 271 B.C. at Sebennytos was the same as that given to Herodotus two hundred years earlier at Memphis. Herodotus was told that from Menes to his time were 330 kings, and the totals of Manetho are 192 + 96 + 50 to Artaxerxes = 338, so that, in spite of corruption in detail, the totals seem to have been correctly maintained.

In earlier times we can compare Manetho with the fragments of the Turin papyrus, written in the eighteenth dynasty; and here, in one of the most disputable points--the kings of the thirteenth dynasty--the average of eleven reigns legible in the papyrus is 6½ years, and Manetho states sixty kings in 453 years, or 7½ years’ average. The general character of a great number of short reigns in this age is quite supported. Then in the eighteenth dynasty there is a rising of Sirius in the movable calendar, in the twelfth dynasty another rising of Sirius, and some seasonal dates, and in the sixth dynasty are two seasonal dates. [Owing to the ignoring of leap year, the Egyptian months shifted round the seasons in 1,460 years; hence any seasonal date can only recur once in 1,460 years, and fixes an absolute date in that cycle.] All of these agree with Manetho; and though the seasonal dates are vague, they at least show that there is not an error of several centuries in the total. In the earliest times there is the account of the first dynasty, the names and succession of which are verified by the sculptured lists in the nineteenth dynasty and by the actual graves of the kings. Every accurate test that we can apply shows the general trustworthiness of Manetho, apart from minor corruptions.

This carved slate palette of King Narmer shows him grasping the
chief of the Fayum, prepared to smite him, a scene which was
repeated for five thousand years in all the Egyptian triumphs. The
sculpture shows anatomical treatment for the first time in art.
]

[Sidenote: Material for History of Early Times]

It is naturally a question what sort of material existed for an accurate history of the early times. The fragment of annals known as the Palermo Stone was engraved in the fifth dynasty, and it recorded the principal events of all the years back to the beginning of the kingdom, a thousand years before, the height of the Nile for every year, the length of every king’s reign and of interregnum to the exact days. With such a record of the most remote times carefully maintained we have every reason to suppose that the high-priests and sacred scribes had adequate information as to the general course of their history. And we can see by the Turin papyrus how in the eighteenth dynasty there was a full historical list of all the kings, with their length of reigns, dynasties, and summations of numbers and years at each of the large divisions. Thus it is proved that there were historians at various periods who compiled and edited the history, and so provided a solid groundwork for later writers, such as Manetho.

A part of early annals known as the Palermo Stone. Each compartment
contains the events of one year, with the height of the Nile in
cubits stated below it. The lower right division records: “Building
of a ship 170 feet long, and of 60 ships 100 feet long. Conquest
of negroes, bringing 4,000 men, 3,000 women, and 200,000 cattle.
Building a wall of the palaces of King Sneferu. Bringing 40 ships
of cedar (from Syria).” The left division reads: “Making 35 hunting
lodges and 122 tanks for cattle. Building a ship of cedar 170 feet
long, and two other ships of 170 feet. 7th census of cattle.”
]

[Sidenote: The Witness to Early Civilisation]

The materials that we have for studying the civilisation of the early dynasties are the royal tombs and steles, the tablets of the annals, the sealings of officials, the inscribed stone bowls, glazed pottery, ivory, and wood, the rock steles of Sinai, fragments of buildings of the second dynasty and onward, the steles of private persons and their graves.

[Sidenote: In the Kings’ Tombs]

ROYAL TOMBS. The tombs show that brickwork was familiar on a large scale. The prehistoric houses and tomb chambers were by no means slight. The town at Naqada has house-walls about two feet thick, and a town wall nearly eight feet thick. The brick-lined tombs are sometimes as large as 8 ft. by 12 ft. The kings’ tombs of Dynasty O are about 10 ft. by 20 ft. Those of Narmer, Sma, and Mena are about 17 ft. by 26 ft., with walls 5 ft. to 7 ft. thick. Under Zer there is a great extension; the brick pit is 39 ft. by 43 ft.; it contained a wooden chamber 28 ft. by 34 ft., and it was surrounded by many rows of graves--318 in all. The later tombs of the first dynasty are less imposing. At the end of the second dynasty the tomb of Khasekhemui consisted of fifty-eight chambers covering a ground 223 ft. long and 40 ft. wide. The sizes of bricks were between 9 in. and 10 in. long, half as wide, and under 3 in. thick, in the prehistoric and through the first and second dynasties. Wood was used on a large scale. The royal tombs show beams for framing of about 10 in. wide and 7 in. deep, and 18 ft. or 20 ft. long, and these beams supported chamber sides and floors formed of planks 2 in. or 3 in. thick. The roof was made of similar beams, covered with boards and mats, which sustained 3 ft. or 4 ft. of sand laid over the tomb. Such was an extension of the roofs of poles and brushwood which were laid over the prehistoric tombs, and over the lesser tombs of the officials of the early kings. The sign for royal architect in the earliest inscriptions is that of a carpenter, the “two-axe man.”

The stone steles were of limestone in the first dynasty, and in the end of the first dynasty the steles of Oa are of black quartzose stone. Those of Perabsen in the second dynasty are of very tough syenite. The carving of all these is in high relief, finely and boldly cut in a simple, clear style. At the end of the second dynasty a stone-built chamber appears for the first time; the blocks have naturally cloven surfaces so far as possible, and the rest of the faces are dressed with a flint adze. Of the same reign of Khasekhemui there is a granite door-jamb with signs in high relief. Granite had already been wrought flat for pavements in the previous dynasty, at the tomb of Den.

[Sidenote: Egypt’s Annual Record]

[Sidenote: The Honour that Kings Died for]

TABLETS OF ANNALS. The greater part of the inscriptions of this age are on small square tablets of ebony and of ivory, which were found in the royal tombs. These each have a hole in the top corner, and the sign of a year--the palm stick--down the side, as there is by the side of the entries of the events of each year on the early annals. They thus appear to be each the record of a year, and to have been strung together by the corner holes. There has not yet been any authoritative study of the meaning of these earliest inscriptions, which are very difficult to understand, owing to the transitory condition of ideographs having not yet yielded to syllabic usage. We can, however, glean many points about the civilisation from them. The towns were fortified with battlemented walls. The shrines were small sanctuaries, with a large court in front, like the temple courts of later times. At the entrance to the court were two tall poles, apparently with flags, which later developed into the row of masts with streamers in front of the pylon. The great festival at the close of each thirty years was one of the most important, already noticed here under Narmer. The sanctuary for it had two shrines back to back, each with a flight of steps, apparently for Upper and Lower Egypt. The dancing of the new king, or the crown prince as king, before the old Osirified king in the shrine, was one of the main events of the feast. The types of temple furniture were already fixed in the forms which lasted for several thousand years; the barks of Harakhti are shown with the same hangings at the prow, and are double--for the E. and W.--as in the temple of Sety I. Large bowls of electrum were offered in the temples by the king. Wild cattle were hunted by trap nets, as was done much later in Greece. And there is shown a long road, with resthouses and palm-trees, leading up to the great temple in the reign of King Zer.

The greater part of the inscriptions of the first dynasty are on
small square tablets of ebony and of ivory. These each have a hole
in the top corner, and the sign of a year--the palm stick--down the
side. They thus appear to be each the record of a year, and to have
been strung together by the corner holes. They were found scattered
in the tombs.
]

[Sidenote: Officers of the Empire]

SEALINGS. The clay sealings of officials show much of the organisation of the country. The oldest titles, under Zer, are the “Commander of the Inundation” and “Commander of the Cattle.” In the reign of Zet we find a “Commander of the Elders” and “Archon,” or chief of the city; also the temple property, or “Inheritance of the Chief God,” is named. Under Merneit and Den there is a prince (_ha_). The vizier was “Commander of the Centre,” probably the major domo of the Court, and also “Over-head of the Commanders.” There are further named a “Royal Sealer of the Vat of Neit,” the “winepress of the north,” and a “Deputy of the Treasury.” In later reigns there is an “Over-head” of a city. And under the second dynasty the titles are “Royal Sealer of all Deeds,” “Scribe of Accounts of Provisions,” “Sealer of Northern Tribute,” “Collector of Lotus Seed,” and “Chief Man Under the King.” These titles are from but a very small part of the bureaucracy, only those whose seals were affixed to the royal provision which was placed in the tomb; but they suffice to show the regular organisation of the government at that age.

Much exact knowledge of the life of ancient Egypt is derived from
the clay seals of high officials. The oldest known titles are those
of “Commander of the Inundation.” The seal here is that of the
“Southern Sealer of all Documents of King Sekhem-ab,” 5100 B.C.
]

STONE VASES. The stone vases for the royal palaces were cut in many kinds of hard rock. The rarer kinds are rock crystal, serpentine, and basalt; limestones, porphyry and syenite were more usual; and the commonest materials were metamorphic rocks formed from volcanic ash verging into slate, dolomite, marble, and alabaster. These materials were mostly selected for their beauty. The red porphyry is the rarest, being only known in a bowl of the time of Mena, and two prehistoric pieces. Black porphyry with very large detached white crystals belongs only to the age of Mena. Pink granite, blue-grey volcanic ash, the quartz crystal, and the pink limestones are all very beautiful materials. The hardness does not seem to have been aught but an attraction, as the finest work is always put on the best materials; whereas the soft alabaster and slate did not seem to challenge any great amount of care. The working of the inside was always done by grinding with blocks, sometimes having first removed the axis by a tube drill hole. The outside was dressed by chipping, hammer-dressing, and hand polishing; sometimes done by circular motion on a block, but often by crossing work by hand. The readiness with which oval forms were made shows how little depended on circular motion.

Brickwork was common in the houses and tomb-chambers of the
prehistoric period, and in the time of the kings of Abydos the
building of the tombs was greatly extended. Here are seen the
brick partitions to contain offerings, around a wooden chamber
now destroyed. Beyond this all round were 318 graves of the royal
servants.
]

[Sidenote: Two-Colour Glazing]

The use of glazing had been already invented early in the prehistoric age, as far back as S.D. 31; but it was only applied to beads and small amulets. The earliest glazed pottery vase known is of Mena, and this has his name in violet glaze inlaid in the green glazed body. Glazed vases continued to be made throughout the first and second dynasties, but became rarer, and they have not been found revived till much later times. But ivory and wood were largely used for carved objects, sometimes of elaborate design. One of the most distinguishing points of the age of the early kings was the minute carving in imitation of leafage and basket-work, which was mainly done in slate, but also in wood. The fragments which remain show most elaborate patterns worked out with minute attention to detail. Nothing of the same kind is known in any other age.

[Sidenote: Remains of the Oldest Sculpture]

MONUMENTS. There are but few monumental remains from these early dynasties. The great rock-cut scene of Semerkhet conquering a Bedawy chief in Sinai is the main example. The figures are only summarily cut in the natural face of the sandstone; but the truth of the outline is better than in any of the more pretentious work of later times in that region. The scene of Sanekht--early third dynasty--is much poorer, and that of his successor, Zeser, is scarcely legible, the work is so rude and slight. The private tablets which were put over the graves around the royal tombs show that the fine work was limited to a small number of royal artists in the first dynasty, and that there was no general school of able men such as arose in later times. The figures and hieroglyphics are rudely hammered out, and the drawing is but clumsy. There is seldom more than just the name of the deceased. By the time of Den many are distinguished as the _Akhu-ka_, the “glorious soul”; while there is also a class apparently named “people of King Setui, daughter of the captive”--_i.e._, slaves born of captives taken in his wars.

There are but few monumental remains from the early dynasties. The
great rock-cut scene of Semerkhet, of which this shows a part, is
the main example. The figures are only summarily cut in the natural
face of the sandstone; but the truth of the outline is better than
in any of the more pretentious work of later times in the same
region.
]