Those that appeared to be of historic value were sorted and classified, and, as a result of minute and extended labours, it is now possible for the reader to see at a glance the principal types of Egyptian pottery from prehistoric times, and to view their relationship as a whole. The diagram exhibits an unbroken series of pottery forms from s.d. 76 to B.C. 4400.
The forms in the first column are those classified according to the chronological notation devised by Professor Petrie, enabling a “sequence date” (s. d.) to be assigned to an object which cannot otherwise be dated. In the second column are forms found in the town of Abydos, and in the last column are those unearthed in the tombs. Most of the large jars bear marks, which were scratched in the moist clay before being baked; some few were marked after the baking.
Some of the marks are unquestionably hieroglyphs; others are probably connected with the signs used by the earlier prehistoric people; and many can scarcely be determined.
A typical instance of these pottery marks is shown in the illustration. These signs appear to be distinctly of the time of Mer-sekha, and the fortified enclosure around the name may refer to the tomb as the eternal fortress of the king. These marks can be roughly classified into types according to the skill with which they were drawn. The first example illustrates the more careful workmanship, and the others show more degraded forms, in which the outline of the hawk and the signs in the cartouche become gradually more debased. It is tolerably certain that what are known as the Mediterranean alphabets were derived from a selection of the signs used in these pottery marks.