early
tombs at Abydos were found any bodies which might be considered those
of the kings themselves. M. Amelineau discovered bodies of attendants
or slaves (who were in all probability purposely strangled and buried
around the royal chamber in order that they should attend the king
in the next world), but no royalties. Prof. Petrie found the arm of a
female mummy, who may have been of royal blood, though there is nothing
to show that she was. And the quaint plait and fringe of false hair,
which were also found, need not have belonged to a royal mummy. It is
therefore quite possible that these tombs at Abydos were not the actual
last resting-places of the earliest kings, who may really have been
buried at Hierakonpolis or elsewhere, as Aha was. Messrs. Newberry
and Gtarstang, in their _Short History of Egypt_, suppose that Aha was
actually buried at Abydos, and that the great tomb with objects bearing
his name, found by M. de Morgan at Nakada, is really not his, but
belonged to a royal princess named Neit-hetep, whose name is found in
conjunction with his at Abydos and Nakada. But the argument is equally
valid turned round the other way: the Nakada tomb might just as well be
Aha's and the Abydos one Neit-hetep's. Neit-hetep, who is supposed by
Messrs. Newberry and Garstang to have been Narmer's daughter and Aha's
wife, was evidently closely connected with Aha, and she may have been
buried with him at Nakada and commemorated with him at Abydos.* It is
probable that the XIXth Dynasty list-makers and Manetho considered the
Abydos tombs to have been the real graves of the kings, but it is by no
means impossible that they were wrong.

* A princess named Bener-ab ("Sweet-heart"), who may have
been Aha's daughter, was actually buried beside his tomb at
Abydos.

This view of the royal tombs at Abydos tallies to a great extent with
that of M. Naville, who has energetically maintained the view that M.
Amelineau and Prof. Petrie have not discovered the real tombs of the
early kings, but only their contemporary commemorative "tombs" at
Abydos. The only real tomb of the Ist Dynasty, therefore, as yet
discovered is that of Aha at Nakada, found by M. de Morgan. The fact
that attendant slaves were buried around the Abydos tombs is no bar to
the view that the tombs were only the monuments, not the real graves,
of the kings. The royal ghosts would naturally visit their commemorative
chambers at Abydos, in order to be in