Since then much more information has come to light. M. de Morgan’s second volume of “Recherches sur les Origines de l’Égypte” contains a summary of the discoveries made by M. Amélineau at Abydos, together with an account of the great royal tomb found by M. de Morgan himself at Naqada. M. Amélineau’s finds are recognised as being chiefly of the first three dynasties, and on an ivory plaque from the royal tomb of Naqada, Dr. Borchardt has pointed out the name of Menes himself.
The objects from this tomb are now exposed in the museum at Ghizeh, and it is interesting to observe that the pottery, the slate palettes, and the flint knives are distinctly of the later type of Ballas.
It has, then, become now fairly clear that the earliest known inhabitants of Egypt were a tall, fair race akin to the modern Kabyles. They buried their dead in a contracted position with the head to the south, and in the earliest times either mutilated the dead before burial, or kept the bodies for a long time before the final burial. The relative dates of the different varieties of their tombs can be made out, and the graves with mutilated bodies found at Naqada are much earlier than those at Abydos containing the names of I-II dynasty kings. At some period which we cannot yet date, even on the rough scale of Libyan pottery, another race or races entered the country, bringing with them writing, the practice of mummification, the art of building in brick with recessed panels, and perhaps, as M. de Morgan suggests, metals. Thus was formed the Egyptian people of historic times.
18. A point that has not been explained is the different position of the bodies in the open graves and in the stairway tombs. In the former, the head lies south; in the stairways and in the graves of Medum, it is to the north.
The burials, too, under the large pots which we call majūrs, are not understood, nor is their exact period known. As they were found in the later cemeteries of Ballas, El Kab, and Kom el Ahmar, but not at Naqada, it seems likely that they belong to the later division of the Libyan period, viz., after the Egyptian invasion, perhaps even after the time of Menes. But to which race, if to either, is not clear.
CHAPTER III.
MIDDLE KINGDOM CEMETERY.
19. Inside the town walls, never outside, were found a few examples of a distinct type of tomb, with underground brick arches, pottery akin to that of the usual XIIth dynasty, but not identical with it, and stone vases of distinctive shapes. The types of pottery are shown in [Pl. X], 1-28, the alabaster vases in [X], 1-6.
In [Pl. XXIV] some walls in broken line are seen which cut through the walls of three mastabas, which last are shown in dead black. The tombs in question lay parallel with these walls, some within the square chambers, some also outside; and the walls are, roughly, parallel with the great walls of the town. The method of construction seems to have been as follows: An oblong excavation, about 6 m. long by 2 wide and 3 m. deep, was made in the gravel. About half the length of this was needed for the tomb; the other half formed a rough sloping staircase for the workmen. The sides of the grave were built of brick walls, and these were covered by an arch of brick about 1·50 m. high. In this the body was laid at full length, on the left side, the head to the north; in front of the body was a great mass of pottery. The interest of this set of tombs lies in the bearing they may have on the question of the date of the wall, for if it be granted that these are probably of the early XIIth dynasty (as the pottery suggests), then we have early XIIth dynasty tombs inside, and tombs of the reign of Amenemhat III outside the walls. (There were, however, two tombs inside the walls in which the remains of the pottery were much like those in the tombs outside.) Now there is a stela from El Kab, to which Dr. Spiegelberg calls my attention (published in Stobart, Egypt. Antiq., [Pl. I]), which states that Amenemhat III restored the walls at El Kab which Usertesen II had built. What walls these were the stela does not state, but the evidence from the pottery would support the idea that they were the great town walls. And if this be so, the common pottery of the Middle Kingdom can now be split into two sections, between which the reign of Usertesen II will form the dividing line.