TABLET OF DEN-SETUI, 4600 B.C.]

It should be noted also that the royal name, Setui, occurs in the lower
part of the tablet, so that there is a strong presumption that the
tablet is of the time of Den-Setui, and the presumption is almost a
certainty when the tablet is compared with some sealings found in its
vicinity. Mr. F. LI. Griffiths has written at length on this important
inscription.*

* Royal Tombs of the first dynasty, Part I: Eighteenth
Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund, London, 1900, page 42.

He thinks that this tablet and two others somewhat similar were the
brief annals of the time, and record the historic events and the names
of government officials. He translates a portion of the inscription as
"Opening the gates of foreign lands," and in another part he reads,
"The master comes, the King of Upper and Lower Egypt." Moreover, he
translates certain signs as "Sheikh of the Libyans," and he identifies
a place named _Tny_ as This, or the capital of the nome in which Abydos
lay.

Of this reign also is an ivory tablet finely polished, but blackened
with burning, which has engraved upon it the oldest architectural
drawing in the world.

[Illustration: 380.jpg architectural drawing, B.C. 4600.]

The inscription on this precious fragment apparently refers to the great
chiefs coming to the tomb of Setui, and a picture of a building in the
middle of the inscription may be taken as representing on the left the
tomb chamber of Den-Setui, with a slight mound over it. The upright
strokes represent the steles outside the tombs, adjacent to which is the
inclined stairway, while on the right is a diagram of the cemetery, with
graves ar-ranged in rows around the tomb, with small steles standing up
over the graves.

A small piece of still another ivory tablet gives an interesting
portrait of Den-Setui. This king flourished about 4600 b. c, so that
this is perhaps the oldest portrait that can be named and dated. It
shows the double crown fully developed, and has an additional interest,
inasmuch as the crown of Lower Egypt was apparently coloured red, while
the crown of Upper Egypt was white in accordance with the practice that
we know existed during the later historic period.

[Illustration: 381.jpg IVORY PANEL OF DEN-SETUI, 4600 B.C.]

Among the many ivory objects found at Abydos is a small ivory panel from
a box which seems to have contained the golden seal of judgment of King
Den.

The engraving o