Egyptian gods of the dead, Seker and
Khentamenti, both of whom were afterwards identified with the Busirite
god Osiris. Abydos was also the centre of the worship of Anubis, an
animal-deity of the dead, the jackal who prowls round the tombs at
night. Anubis and Osiris-Khentamenti, "He who is in the West," were
associated in the minds of the Egyptians as the protecting deities of
Abydos. The worship of these gods as the chief Southern deities of the
dead, and the preeminence of the necropolis of Abydos in the South, no
doubt date back before the time of the Ist Dynasty, so that it would
not surprise us were burials of kings of the predynastic Hierakonpolite
kingdom discovered at Abydos. Prof. Petrie indeed claims to have
discovered actual royal relics of that period at Abydos, but this seems
to be one of the least certain of his conclusions. We cannot definitely
state that the names "Ro," "Ka," and "Sma" (if they are names at all,
which is doubtful) belong to early kings of Hierakonpolis who were
buried at Abydos. It may be so, but further confirmation is desirable
before we accept it as a fact; and as yet such confirmation has not been
forthcoming. The oldest kings, who were certainly buried at Abydos, seem
to have been the first rulers of the united kingdom of the North and
South, Aha and his successors. N'armer is not represented. It may
be that he was not buried at Abydos, but in the necropolis of
Hierakonpolis. This would point to the kings of the South not having
been buried at Abydos until after the unification of the kingdom.

That Aha possessed a tomb at Abydos as well as another at Nakada seems
peculiar, but it is a phenomenon not unknown in Egypt. Several kings,
whose bodies were actually buried elsewhere, had second tombs at Abydos,
in order that they might _possess_ last resting-places near the tomb
of Osiris, although they might not prefer to _use_ them. Usertsen (or
Senusret) III is a case in point. He was really buried in a pyramid at
Illahun, up in the North, but he had a great rock tomb cut for him in
the cliffs at Abydos, which he never occupied, and probably had never
intended to occupy. We find exactly the same thing far back at the
beginning of Egyptian history, when Aha possessed not only a great
mastaba-tomb at Nakada, but also a tomb-chamber in the great necropolis
of Abydos. It may be that other kings of the earliest period also had
second sepulchres elsewhere. It is noteworthy that in none of the