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.  It is certain, however, that this temple, which is clearly one of the oldest in Egypt, goes back at least to his time.  Its site is the mound called Kom es-Sultan, “The Mound of the King,” close to the village of el-Kherba, and on the borders of the cultivation northeast of the royal tombs at Umm el-Oa’ab.

Of royal palaces we have more definite information.  North of the Kom es-Sultan are two great fortress-enclosures of brick:  the one is known as Sunet es-Zebib, “the Storehouse of Dried Orapes;” the other is occupied by the Coptic monastery of Der Anba Musas.  Both are certainly fortress-palaces of the earliest period of the Egyptian monarchy.  We know from the small record-plaques of this period that the kings were constantly founding or repairing places of this kind, which were always great rectangular enclosures with crenelated brick walls like those of early Babylonian buildings.

We have seen that the Northern Egyptian possessed similar fortress-cities which were captured by Narmer.  These were the seats of the royal residence in various parts of the country.  Behind their walls was the king’s house, and no doubt also a town of nobles and retainers, while the peasants lived on the arable land without.

[Illustration:  089.jpg THE SHUNET EZ-ZEBIB:  THE FORTRESS-TOWN, About 3900 B.C.]

The Shunet ez-Zebib and its companion fortress were evidently the royal cities of the 1st and IId Dynasties at Abydos.  The former has been excavated by Mr. E. R. Ayrton for the Egypt Exploration Fund, under the supervision of Prof.  Petrie.  He found jar-sealings of Khasekhemui and Perabsen.  In later times the place was utilized as a burial-place for ibis-mummies (it had already been abandoned as a city before the time of the XIIth Dynasty), and from this fact it received the name of Shenet deb-hib,