found in any other tomb.*

* Professor Petrie's arguments, although home out by the
evidence that he produces, have from time to time been
criticised. M. Naville, for example, endeavours to prove
that the buildings in the desert are not literally tombs,
but rather temples for the cult of their Ka; and that there
ought not to be kings anterior to Mena, particularly at
Abydos: "Narmer" is really Boethos, the first king of the
second dynasty. According to M. Naville, Boethos, Usaphis,
and Miebidos are the only kings as yet identified of the
early time. M. Naville also suggests that Ka-Sekhem and Ka-
Sekhemui are two names for one king.

[Illustration: 366.jpg EBONY TABLET OF KING AHA-MENA]

From the time of Mena has come down to us an ebony tablet, as shown in
the illustration. This is the most complete of the inscriptions of this
king, and was found in two portions in the tombs marked B 18 and B 19.
The signs upon the tablet are most interesting. On the top line, after
the cartouche of Aha-Mena, there are two sacred boats, probably of
Sokaris, and a shrine and temenos of Nit. In the line below is seen a
man making an offering, and behind him is a bull running over undulating
ground into a net stretched between two poles, while at the end,
standing upon a shrine, is a bird, which appears to be the ibis of Thot.
A third line shows three boats upon a canal or river, passing between
certain places, and it has been reasonably conjectured that the other
signs in this line indicate these places as being Biu, a district of
Memphis; Pa She (or "the dwelling of the lake"), the capital of the
Fayum; and the Canal of Mer, or Bahr Yusef. So far this tablet
contains picture signs, but the fourth line gives a continued series of
hieroglyphics, and is the oldest line of such characters yet discovered.
Mr. F. LI. Griffiths translates these characters as "who takes the
throne of Horus."

In the north-west corner of the tomb, a stairway of bricks was roughly
inserted in later times in order to give access to the shrine of Osiris.
That this is not an original feature is manifest: the walls are burnt
red by the burning of the tomb, while the stairs are built of black
mud brick with fresh mud mortar smeared over the reddened wall. It is
notable that the burning of these tombs took place before their re-use
in the eighteenth dynasty; as is also seen by the re-built doorway of
the tomb