great chamber was built of firm and
well-dried bricks. In the small chambers along the east side the long
wall between chambers 10 and 5 has crushed out at the base, and spread
against the pottery in the grave 5, and against the wooden box in grave
2. Hence the objects must have been placed in those graves within a few
days of the building of the wall, before the mud bricks were hard enough
to carry even four feet height of wall. The burials of the domestics
must therefore have taken place all at once, immediately after the
king's tomb was built, and hence they must have been sacrificed at the
funeral. The pottery placed in the chambers is all figured in position
on the plan.

[Illustration: 386.jpg STYLE OF KING QA]

Only three steles were found in the grave of Qa, but these were larger
than those of the earlier graves. One of them, No. 48, is the longest
and most important inscription that has come down to us from the first
dynasty. This lay in a chamber on the west side of the tomb. In the
preparation of the stele, the block of stone had been ground all over
and edges rounded. On its surface the hieroglyphs were then sketched in
red ink, and were finally drawn in black, the ground being then roughly
hammered out. There the work stopped, and the final scraping and
dressing of the figures was never accomplished. The reading of the signs
is therefore difficult, but enough is seen to show that the keeper
of the tomb bore the name of Sabef. He had two titles which are now
illegible, and was also "Overseer of the Sed Festival." This scanty
information goes to show how little the official titles were changed
between the days of the first dynasty and the time of the building of
the pyramids. The stele of the king Qa was found lying over chamber;
it is like that found by M. Amelineau, carved in black quartzose stone.
Near it, on the south, were dozens of large pieces of fine alabaster
bowls.

Among various objects found in these chambers should be noted the fine
ivory carving from chamber 23, showing a bound captive; the large stock
of painted model vases in limestone in a box in chamber 20; the set of
perfect vases found in chamber 21; a fine piece of ribbed ivory; a piece
of thick gold-foil covering of a hotep table, patterned as a mat, found
in the long chamber west of the tomb; the deep mass of brown vegetable
matter in the north-east chamber; the large stock of grain between
chambers 8 and 11; and the bed of currants