od. Upon this a shrine was probably erected. This
was the ancient shrine of Nekhen, the cradle of the Egyptian monarchy.
Close by it were found some of the most valuable relics of the earliest
Pharaonic age, the great ceremonial mace-heads and vases of Narmer and
"the Scorpion," the shields or "palettes" of the same Narmer, the vases
and stelas of Khasekhemui, and, of later date, the splendid copper
colossal group of King Pepi I and his son, which is now at Cairo. Most
of the 1st Dynasty objects are preserved in the Ashmo-lean Museum at
Oxford, which is one of the best centres for the study of early Egyptian
antiquities. Narmer and Khasekhemui are, as we shall see, two of the
first monarchs of all Egypt. These sculptured and inscribed mace-heads,
shields, etc., are monuments dedicated by them in the ancestral shrine
at Hierakonpolis as records of their deeds. Both kings seem to have
waged war against the Northerners, the _Anu_ of Heliopolis and the
Delta, and on these votive monuments from Hierakonpolis we find
hieroglyphed records of the defeat of the _Anu_, who have very
definitely Semitic physiognomies.

On one shield or palette we see Narmer clubbing a man of Semitic
appearance, who is called the "Only One of the Marsh" (Delta), while
below two other Semites fly, seeking "fortress-protection." Above is a
figure of a hawk, symbolizing the Upper Egyptian king, holding a rope
which is passed through the nose of a Semitic head, while behind is a
sign which may be read as "the North," so that the whole symbolizes the
leading away of the North into captivity by the king of the South. It
is significant, in view of what has been said above with regard to the
probable Semitic origin of the Heliopolitan Northerners, to find the
people typical of the North-land represented by the Southerners as
Semites. Equally Semitic is the overthrown Northerner on the other
side of this well-known monument which we are describing; he is being
trampled under the hoofs and gored by the horns of a bull, who, like the
hawk, symbolizes the king. The royal bull has broken down the wall of a
fortified enclosure, in which is the hut or tent of the Semite, and the
bricks lie about promiscuously.

In connection with the Semitic origin of the Northerners, the form of
the fortified enclosures on both sides of this monument (that to whose
protection the two Semites on one side fly, and that out of which the
kingly bull has dragged the chief on the othe