dotus
and other ancient writers. For several centuries these accounts were
accepted as the basis of authentic history. With the rise of the science
of Egyptology, however, search began to be made for some corroboration
of the actual existence of Mena, and this was found in the inscriptions
of a temple wall at Abydos, which places Mena at the head of the first
dynasty; and, allowing for differences of language, the records of
Manetho relating to the earlier dynasty were established. Mena was
therefore accepted as the first king of the first dynasty up to the very
end of the nineteenth century.

As a result of Professor Petrie 's recent investigations, however, he
has been enabled to carry back the line of the early kings for three or
four generations.

The royal tombs at Abydos lie closely together in a compact group on a
site raised slightly above the level of the surrounding plain, so that
the tombs could never be flooded. Each of the royal tombs is a large
square pit, lined with brickwork. Close around it, on its own level,
or higher up, there are generally small chambers in rows, in which were
buried the domestics of the king. Each reign adopted some variety in the
mode of burial, but they all follow the type of the prehistoric burials,
more or less developed. The plain square pit, like those in which the
predynastic people were buried, is here the essential of the tomb. It
is surrounded in the earlier examples of Zer or Zet by small chambers
opening from it. By Merneit these chambers were built separately around
it. By Den an entrance passage was added, and by Qa the entrance was
turned to the north. At this stage we are left within reach of the early
passage-mastabas and pyramids. Substituting a stone lining and roof for
bricks and wood, and placing the small tombs of domestics farther away,
we reach the type of the mas-taba-pyramid of Snofrui, and so lead on to
the pyramid series of the Old Kingdom.

[Illustration: 361.jpg PLAN OF THE ROYAL TOMBS AS ABYDOS]

The careful manner with which all details of a burial were supervised
under the first dynasty enables the modern Egyptologist, by a skilful
piecing together of evidence, to reconstruct an almost perfect picture
of the life of Egypt at the dawn of civilisation. One of our most
valuable sources of information is due to the fact that, in building the
walls of the royal tombs, there were deposited in certain parts within
the walls objects now technically known