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 the company of the great Osiris,
and ghostly servants would be as necessary to their Majesties at Abydos
as elsewhere.
It must not be thought that this revised opinion of the Abydos tombs
detracts in the slightest degree from the importance of the discovery of
M. Amelineau and its subsequent and more detailed investigation by Prof.
Petrie. These monuments are as valuable for historical purposes as
the real tombs themselves. The actual bodies of these primeval kings
themselves we are never likely to find. The tomb of Aha at Nakada had
been completely rifled in ancient times.
The commemorative tombs of the kings of the Ist and IId Dynasties at
Abydos lie southwest of the great necropolis, far within the bay in the
hills.
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