chisel of the time of Zer, very
similar to those used in the early prehistoric ages. The same continuity
from prehistoric to first dynasty times is shown in the shape of the
copper pins dating from Zer, Den, Mersekha, and Qa.

[Illustration: 401.jpg MISCELLANEOUS COPPER OBJECTS]

At various times quite a considerable number of articles relating to
intimate daily life has been discovered. An exceedingly fortunate find
was that of an ivory comb of crude but careful workmanship, and which,
even after the lapse of sixty-seven centuries, has only lost three of
its teeth. This comb, according to the inscription on it, belonged to
Bener-ab, a distinguished lady, whose tomb has been already mentioned,
and who was either the wife or the daughter of King Mena of the first
dynasty.

Of the class of domestic objects is the primitive but doubtless quite
effective corn-grinder shown in the illustration. This was found in
an undisturbed tomb in the Osiris temenos, where also was a strangely
shaped three-sided pottery bowl, similar in shape to a stone bowl of the
same period, but otherwise unknown in antiquity. This three-sided bowl
may be regarded as a freak of the workman rather than as having any
particular value along the line of evolution of pottery forms; and it
is interesting to note that bowls of this form have been quite recently
made by the modern English potters in South Devonshire, as the result of
the inventive fancy of a village workman.

During the course of the excavations at Abydos many thousands of
fragments of pottery were collected.

[Illustration: 402a.jpg IVORY COMB, B. C. 4800]

Those that appeared to be of historic value were sorted and classified,
and, as a result of minute and extended labours, it is now possible for
the reader to see at a glance the principal types of Egyptian pottery
from prehistoric times, and to view their relationship as a whole. The
diagram exhibits an unbroken series of pottery forms from s.d. 76 to
B.C. 4400.

[Illustration: 402b.jpg CORN-GRINDER AND THREE-SIDED BOWL]

The forms in the first column are those classified according to the
chronological notation devised by Professor Petrie, enabling a "sequence
date" (s. d.) to be assigned to an object which cannot otherwise be
dated. In the second column are forms found in the town of Abydos, and
in the last column are those unearthed in the tombs. Most of the large
jars bear marks, which were scratched in the moist clay before b