the prehistoric cemeteries; that
the two kingdoms existed throughout unchanged is hardly probable.

According to the somatologist Elliott Smith, the most important change
in the physical character of the people of Upper Egypt, in the entire
range of Egyptian archaeology, took place at the beginning of the
dynastic period; and he accounts for this by the mingling of the Lower
with the Upper Egyptian population, consequent on the uniting of the two
countries under one rule. From remains of the age of the IVth Dynasty he
is able to define to some extent the type of the population of Lower
Egypt as having a better cranial and muscular development than that of
Upper Egypt, probably through immigration from Syria. The advent of the
dynasties, however, produced a quickening rather than a dislocation in
the development of civilization.

It is doubtful whether we possess any writing of the prehistoric age. A
few names of the kings of Lower Egypt are preserved in the first line of
the Palermo stone, but no annals are attached to them. Petrie considers
that one of the kings buried at Abydos, provisionally called Nar-mer and
whose real name may be Mer or Beza, preceded Menes; of him there are
several inscribed records, notably a magnificent carved and inscribed
slate palette found at Hieraconpolis, with figures of the king and his
vizier, war-standards and prisoners. To identify him with Bezau
(Boethos) of the IInd Dynasty runs counter to much archaeological
evidence. Sethe places him next after Menes and some would identify him
with that king. Another inscribed palette may be pre-dynastic; it
perhaps mentions a king named "Scorpion."

The earliest dynasties.

_The Old Kingdom._--The names of a number of kings attributable to the
Ist Dynasty are known from their tombs at Abydos. Unfortunately, they
are almost exclusively Horus titles [HRG: tyw-O33], in place of the
personal names by which they were recorded in the lists of Abydos and
Manetho; some, however, of the latter are found, and prove that the
scribes of the New Kingdom were unable to read them correctly. Important
changes and improvements took place in the writing even during the Ist
Dynasty. The personal name of Menes [HRG: mn] is given by one only of
many relics of a king whose Horus-name was Aha, "the Fighter." Doubts
have been expressed about the identification with Menes, but it is
strongly corroborated by the very archaic style of the remains. The name
of Aha