History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria in the Light of Recent Discovery eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 399 pages of information about History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria in the Light of Recent Discovery.

History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria in the Light of Recent Discovery eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 399 pages of information about History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria in the Light of Recent Discovery.

That Aha possessed a tomb at Abydos as well as another at Nakada seems peculiar, but it is a phenomenon not unknown in Egypt.  Several kings, whose bodies were actually buried elsewhere, had second tombs at Abydos, in order that they might possess last resting-places near the tomb of Osiris, although they might not prefer to use them.  Usertsen (or Senusret) III is a case in point.  He was really buried in a pyramid at Illahun, up in the North, but he had a great rock tomb cut for him in the cliffs at Abydos, which he never occupied, and probably had never intended to occupy.  We find exactly the same thing far back at the beginning of Egyptian history, when Aha possessed not only a great mastaba-tomb at Nakada, but also a tomb-chamber in the great necropolis of Abydos.  It may be that other kings of the earliest period also had second sepulchres elsewhere.  It is noteworthy that in none of the early tombs at Abydos were found any bodies which might be considered those of the kings themselves.  M. Amelineau discovered bodies of attendants or slaves (who were in all probability purposely strangled and buried around the royal chamber in order that they should attend the king in the next world), but no royalties.  Prof.  Petrie found the arm of a female mummy, who may have been of royal blood, though there is nothing to show that she was.  And the quaint plait and fringe of false hair, which were also found, need not have belonged to a royal mummy.  It is therefore quite possible that these tombs at Abydos were not the actual last resting-places of the earliest kings, who may really have been buried at Hierakonpolis or elsewhere, as Aha was.  Messrs. Newberry and Gtarstang, in their Short History of Egypt, suppose that Aha was actually buried at Abydos, and that the great tomb with objects bearing his name, found by M. de Morgan at Nakada, is really not his, but belonged to a royal princess named Neit-hetep, whose name is found in conjunction with his at Abydos and Nakada.  But the argument is equally valid turned round the other way:  the Nakada tomb might just as well be Aha’s and the Abydos one Neit-hetep’s.  Neit-hetep, who is supposed by Messrs. Newberry and Garstang to have been Narmer’s daughter and Aha’s wife, was evidently closely connected with Aha, and she may have been buried with him at Nakada and commemorated with him at Abydos.* It is probable that the XIXth Dynasty list-makers and Manetho considered the Abydos tombs to have been the real graves of the kings, but it is by no means impossible that they were wrong.

     * A princess named Bener-ab ("Sweet-heart"), who may have
     been Aha’s daughter, was actually buried beside his tomb at
     Abydos.

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History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria in the Light of Recent Discovery from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.