Since Sa-nekht seems really to have been buried at Bet
Khal-laf, probably Tjeser was, too, and the Step-Pyramid may have been
his secondary or sham tomb, erected in the necropolis of Memphis as a
compliment to Seker, the Northern god of the dead, just as Aha had his
secondary tomb at Abydos in compliment to Khentamenti. Sne-feru, also,
the last king of the Hid Dynasty, seems to have had two tombs. One of
these was the great Pyramid of Medum, which was explored by Prof. Petrie
in 1891, the other was at Dashur. Near by was the interesting necropolis
already mentioned, in which was discovered evidence of the continuance
of the cramped position of burial and of the absence of mummification
among a certain section of the population even as late as the time of
the IVth Dynasty. This has been taken to imply that the fusion of the
primitive Neolithic and invading sub-Semitic races had not been effected
at that time.
With the IVth Dynasty the connection of the royal house with the South
seems to have finally ceased. The governmental centre of gravity was
finally transferred to Memphis, and the kings were thenceforth for
several centuries buried in the great pyramids which still stand in
serried order along the western desert border of Egypt, from the Delta
to the province of the Fayyum. With the latest discoveries in this
Memphite pyramid-field we shall deal in the next chapter.
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