* It was for a long time thought that this hieroglyphic character represented a finger ring, but as it is now positively known that finger rings were not in use until long after the time of Den, this explanation had to be abandoned in favour of the more correct interpretation of a seal cylinder.

The tomb of Azab-Merpaba is a plain chamber, with rather sloping sides, about twenty-two feet long and fourteen feet wide.  The surrounding wall is nearly five feet thick.  The lesser and more irregular chamber on the north is of the same depth and construction, fourteen feet by nine.  This lesser chamber had no remains of flooring; it contained many large sealings of jars, and seems to have been for all the funeral provision, like the eight chambers around the tomb of Merneit.  Around this tomb is a circuit of small private tombs, leaving a gap on the southwest like that of Merneit, and an additional branch line has been added on at the north.

[Illustration:  382.jpg STAIRWAY IN THE TOMB AZAB]

All of these tombs are very irregularly built; the sides are wavy in direction, and the divisions of the long trench are slightly piled up, of bricks laid lengthwise, and easily overthrown.  This agrees with the rough and irregular construction of the central tomb and offering chamber.  The funeral of Azab seems to have been more carelessly conducted than that of any of the other kings here; only one piece of inscribed vase was in his tomb, as against eight of his found in his successor’s tomb, and many other of his vases erased by his successor.  Thus his palace property seems to have been kept back for his successor’s use, and not buried with Azab himself.  In some of the chambers much ivory inlaying was found.

The entrance to the tomb of Azab was by a stairway descending from the east, thus according with the system begun by Den.  On the steps, just outside of the door, were found dozens of small pots loosely piled together.  These must have contained offerings made after the completion of the burial.  The blocking is made by planks and bricks, the whole outside of the planking being covered by bricks loosely stacked, as can be seen in the photograph, the planking having decayed away from before them.  The chamber was floored with planks of wood laid flat on the sand, without any supporting beams as in other tombs.

The tomb of Mersekha-Semempses is forty-four feet long and twenty-five feet wide, surrounded by a wall over five feet thick.  The surrounding small chambers are only three to four feet deep where perfect, while the central pit is still eleven and one-half feet deep, though broken away at the top.  When examined by Professor Petrie few of the small chambers contained anything.  Seven steles were found, the inscriptions of which are marked in the chambers of the plan; and other steles were also found here, scattered so that they could not be identified with the tombs.  The most interesting are two steles of dwarfs, which show the dwarf type clearly; with one were found bones of a dwarf.  In a chamber on the east was a jar and a copper bowl, which shows the hammer marks, and is roughly finished, with the edge turned over to leave it smooth.  The small compartments in the south-eastern chambers were probably intended to hold the offerings placed in the graves; the dividing walls are only about half the depth of the grave.