Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

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EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
execution all these pieces are so much like the deposits
found in the cemeteries of Tukh and elsewhere that there
can he no doubt that the tombs of the kings of Abydos, as
well as those of Tukh and other places in Upper Egypt,
belong to the same period of civilization. The tombs of
the kings at Abydos, however, being purely Egyptian (as
the inscriptions found in them prove), it naturally follows
that the civilization brought to light through these tombs
is also Egyptian, and does not belong to another people,
as Petrie at first assumed.
It was, however, not so easy to fix their date. It is true
that the names of many kings were discovered (to those
mentioned above must be added many others), but these
names, bv which the ruler is designated as the god Horus,
are not the same as
the birth names of the monarchs given
bv Manetho and the Egyptian tablet of kings. Fortunately,
three kings are mentioned by their birth names on
two stone fragments found at Abydos, and in these we recognize
the kings Usaphais, Miebis, and Lememses, mentioned
in the native lists, as well as by Manetho. All three
belong to the First Dynasty, that is, to the period before
the builders of the great pyramids, which therefore is also
about the time when the tombs of Abydos were built and
the period to which belong the other similar cemeteries of
Upper Egypt, a date which has been otherwise confirmed.
In the spring of 1897 De Morgan discovered a sixth
royal tomb in
the neighborhood of Naqada, which belonged
to no one less than Menes, whom Egyptian tradition and
the Greek writers placed at the head of all the Egyptian
kings. In contrast to the royal tombs at Abydos, the
tomb of Menes was a separate building constructed entirely
of perforated bricks, a great mastaba, which was ornamented
on the outside with niches in regular order. The tomb
contained five chambers, in the central one of which the
body of the king was laid, while the remaining four were