The First
Dynasty
(from
sequence-
date 70 or a
little before
4800 B.C. to
4500 B.C.).
from which in turn the mastaba and the pyramid were ultimately evolved. The furniture
of the private graves testifies to an alteration in manners. Very few of the objects
characteristic of the earlier people are found. In place of the beautiful and abundant
pottery there will be only one or two jars and bowls, and these of very debased form.
Stone vessels have become commoner, but are far less artistically made; copper is more
generally used for implements and articles of dress; but there are none of the pretty
ornaments on which the early people lavished their fancy and ingenuity. Were there
indeed no other evidence for the art of the First Dynasty than is supplied from this
source it would be considered to be remarkable for nothing but poverty and sheer
stagnation. But the discoveries at Abydos and Hierakonpolis exhibit a very different
picture. These make it clear that the changes which have just been noted are due
to an altered current of taste and feeling, but in no degree to any loss of artistic sense
or technical skill.
T he R oyal T ombs o f the F irst D ynasty (4800 b. c. to 4500 b.c.) and Second
Dynasty (4500 b.c. to 4200 b.c.).
The Royal The magnificent luxury with which the kings of the first two dynasties were sur-
FiStbD^-he rounded is indeed extraordinary. In their tombs at Abydos were found thousands
asty (4800 0f finely worked vessels of such costly materials as crystal, porphyry, diorite, serpentine,
B.c./aiwi00 marble, and rare volcanic rocks, as well as of the commoner limestone, slate, and
DjSSty alabaster. Sometimes these were decorated on the surface with patterns in relief,
(4500 b.c. to an(j often they were inscribed with the name or title of the monarch for whom they
42COB.C.). were ma(je> Metal work is abundant. Khasekhemui used bowls and ewers, plates and
cups of hammered copper; and to his reign also belongs a hoard of votive copper
tools. Gold was common enough to be used for the caps of marble vases and the
plating of copper rods ; it was also worked into pins and bracelets or delicately fashioned
into graceful ornaments. The skill of the jewellers may be seen in the technique of . the
bracelets found in the tomb of Zer; the moulding, soldering, and chiselwork of the gold
beads and plaques show the finished craftsman, and a fine sense of colour is evinced in
the designs with their contrast of amethysts, turquoises, and lapis lazuli. It rarely happens
that such precious ornaments have survived the many chances of theft and plundering;
but in the sceptre of Khasekhemui, made of sardonyx and gold, may be recognized yet
another object of the regalia. The long established art of glazing on stone was now
practised on a more extensive scale, and the numerous votive objects from Hierakonpolis
show its highest perfection. The minor decorative industries, moreover, were cultivated
with assiduous attention and are represented by countless beautiful objects, such as
ivory caskets and toilet dishes, supports of fauteuils, gaming pieces, carved tablets, ivory
slips for inlay, and wands for use in the dance. Everywhere there are abundant signs
of vigorous life and progress; only in one art is there any deterioration, and that is
the ceramic. No fine pottery is any longer made, which is the more curious as the wheel
now comes into use for the first time. But the demand seems to have ceased with the
growing fondness for stone vessels, and the potters of the First and Second Dynasties
were content in the main with reproducing debased copies of the most inferior of the
later Predynastic types. Two new classes of ware may, however, be mentioned. One
is a tasteless travesty of the haematitic polished-red, in which salmon-tinted burnishing
lines are used to produce an ornamental motive upon the light body-ground of the bowl
or vase. The other is probably an importation and has been prematurely nicknamed
| Aegean ’ ; its peculiar decoration is closely allied to that of the white-painted haematitic
ware and of the foreign ‘ black incised,’ and it is best to regard it as the offspring of the
same stylistic tradition.
The greatest advance made in the domain of art during the First and Second
Dynasties has yet to be mentioned. The rudimentary drawings of the Predynastic
people are like those of Bushmen or Red Indians, often spirited but always betraying
the untrained intelligence. Their carving, which is shown at its best in ivory ornaments,
is no whit superior to that of many savages. But the artists of the first two dynasties
breathe a different atmosphere. Sculpture and bas-relief seem to be born in a moment;
the limestone statues will bear comparison with the products of any period, the ivory
figures of men and animals are masterpieces of the carver’s skill, and in the scenes
figured upon the mace-heads and the ceremonial slates may be recognized that command
of form and naturalism of treatment which are henceforward the dominant characteristics
of Egyptian style.
With the First Dynasty, indeed, we have already entered upon familiar ground. The
inscriptions name cities famous in later days, and mention the selfsame deities that
presided in all ages over the fortunes of Pharaoh and his subjects. The pictures and
reliefs show such scenes of warfare as those which appear on the walls of later temples;
the king himself is represented, here triumphing over his foes, there conducting a work of
irrigation, dancing before his god or hunting in the marshlands. This is the life of the
Egyptians, and these are the true beginnings of Egyptian history.
One difficult question arises in connexion with the skeletons from the Royal Tombs
of Abydos. The social position of the owners of the private tombs of El-Amrah, Hou,
and Abydos may be gauged to some extent by the varying degrees of richness in their
funerary equipment, and a rough classification on these lines is given in the Appendix
(pp. 115-117). But to determine the precise standing of the persons who were interred in
the numerous small chambers round or near the central tomb of a king is by no means so
simple. They were certainly closely connected with the Court; but were they merely
domestics or were they nobles of the upper classes ? The available evidence on the point
is unhappily somewhat incomplete, owing to the circumstance that the site had been
despoiled and almost everything displaced before opportunity was given for the genuinely
scientific excavations which were eventually carried out under Professor Petrie, and
which have yielded the material of our series. Some important points, however, have
been ascertained, e.g. that the burials were not those of slaves, for articles of value were
placed in the graves and inscribed stelae were erected over them. One of these
stelae, moreover, gives the extremely important information that the person named Sabef,
for whom it was carved, -was a high official bearing the titles of ‘ governor of the
residence ’ and ‘ friend of the palace,’ and exercising various priestly functions. Again,
many of the inscribed vases, of which fragments were scattered over the ransacked mounds,
had originally been placed in the subsidiary tombs, and on them also the titles of various
court dignitaries occur. There is good reason therefore to suppose that the majority
of the individuals, whose skeletons were found on the site of the Royal Tombs, were
officers of state and high ladies who wished to be buried in the immediate neighbourhood
of the royal master whom they had served.
The Royal
Tombs of the
First Dynasty
(4800
B.C. to 4500
B.c.) and
Second
Dynasty
(4500 B. C. to
4200 B. c.).