Antiquities of the same primitive period and even of an earlier
date had been discovered by Prof. Flinders Petrie, as has already been
said, at Koptos, at the mouth of the Wadi Hammamat. But though Prof.
Petrie correctly diagnosed the age of the great statues of the god
Min which he found, he was led, by his misdating of the "New Race"
antiquities from Ballas and Tukh, also to misdate several of the
primitive antiquities,--the lions and hawks, for instance, found at
Koptos, he placed in the period between the VIIth and Xth Dynasties;
whereas they can now, in the light of further discoveries at Abydos, be
seen to date to the earlier part of the Ist Dynasty, the time of Narmer
and Aha.
It is these discoveries at Abydos, coupled with those (already
described) of Mr. Quibell at Hierakonpolis, which have told us most of
what we know with regard to the history of the first three dynasties.
At Abydos Prof. Petrie was not himself the first in the field, the site
having already been partially explored by a French Egyptologist, M.
Amelineau. The excavations of M. Amelineau were, however, perhaps
not conducted strictly on scientific lines, and his results have been
insufficiently published with very few photographs, so that with the
best will in the world we are unable to give M. Amelineau the full
credit which is, no doubt, due to him for his work.
Pages:
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74