The Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty. By W. M.
Flinders Petrie. (Egypt Exploration Fund. 25'.)—Professor Flinders Petrie continues and completes in this Memoir (XXI.) his account of the work on the Royal Tombs of Abydos. A most patient and meritorious work it was, and reflects the greatest credit on Pro- fessor Petrie, with his helpers, Mrs. Petrie, Mr. Mace, and Misses Orme and A. Urlin. Unhappily, they had been preceded by the Mission Amelieeau. Anything more barbarous than the conduct of these so-called explorers cannot be conceived. The details are too painful to quote ; and all this happened in the years 1896.98! Much knowledge that might have been acquired was thus lost. We can only be thankful that so much has been recovered. We cannot pretend to epitomise the result of these researches. They must be studied as they are recorded in these chapters, with their copious illustrations (more than sixty plates). But we may give a brief account of the treasure found in the tomb of King Zer. The workmen found the arm of a mummy with a large gold bead at the end of the wrappings. They left the find untouched, and it was unwrapped in the presence of one of their number in the evening, the gold being weighed against English sovereigns, which were paid over to them. The find remained a secret till the work was finished. Then the Arabic papers copied Professor Petrie's letter to the Times, and great was the grief of the local thieves. The Mission Amelineau had cleared the tomb, but happily had missed this treasure. These were four bracelets in all, the oldest known jewellery in the world. (They are figured in the frontispiece.) An ebony tablet of King Mena shows a bull running into a net exactly as is pictured on the Vapheio Mycenman cups. Diapolis Farm, by the same author, with chapters by A. C. Mace (same publishers, 25s.), gives an account of the explorations in the cemeteries of Abadiyeh and Hu. There is a chapter on the prehistoric age in Egypt. Professor Petrie puts this as 7000- 5000 B.C. Before 7000 there was not, he thinks, any settled population in Egypt, the Nile deposits beginning about this time to give cultivable land. The burials belong to the prehistoric times, and to the historic from the Sixth Dynasty down to the Roman period. Among the illustrative plates we may mention the remarkably interesting " Prehistoric Pottery," and the " Pre- historic Flints,"—these may be compared with kindred objects found in this country and elsewhere.—With these we may mention The Tell el Amarna Period, by Carl Niebuhr (D. Nutt, Is.), the second of a series entitled " The Ancient East." This period belongs to the Eighteenth Dynasty. The earlier Kings of this line had aggrandised Egypt; the later occupied themselves with other things. The outlying possessions suffered from this change of temper. Among the disturbing elements of the time are to be found the Habiri, whom Dr. Niebuhr identifies with the Hebrews. The glimpse that we get of affairs in Canaan and else- where is highly interesting.
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