The tomb was thus regarded as the tomb of Osiris himself, and
it was furnished with a great stone figure of the god lying on his bier,
attended by the two hawks of Isis and Nephthys; ever after the site was
visited by crowds of pilgrims, who left at Umm el-Ga'ab the thousands of
little votive vases whose fragments have given the place its name of the
"Mother of Pots." This is the explanation of the discovery of the "Tomb
of Osiris." We have not found what M. Amelineau seems rather naively to
have thought possible, a confirmation of the ancient view that Osiris
was originally a man who ruled over Egypt and was deified after his
death; but we have found that the Egyptians themselves were more or less
euhemerists, and did think so.
It may seem remarkable that all this new knowledge of ancient Egypt is
derived from tombs and has to do with the resting-places of the kings
when dead, rather than with their palaces or temples when living. Of
temples at this early period we have no trace. The oldest temple in
Egypt is perhaps the little chapel in front of the pyramid of Snefru at
Medum. We first hear of temples to the gods under the IVth Dynasty, but
of the actual buildings of that period we have recovered nothing but one
or two inscribed blocks of stone. Prof. Petrie has traced out the plan
of the oldest temple of Osiris at Abydos, which may be of the time of
Khufu, from scanty evidences which give us but little information.
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