Egypt Exploration Fund
collection, shows a very fair type of the figuring of men and animals at
the time of the first dynasty as a survival of the prehistoric manner of
engraving. Here, then, at the very dawn of history, we find a spirited
depiction of the human form, for, rude though it is, there can be no
doubt but that it is a representation of the human figure, and stiff and
ungainly though the action of the drawing be, there can be no doubt as
to the progressive movement intended by the artist. On a sealing, No.
116, is seen the leopard with the bent bars on his back. The shrine upon
the same seal is of the general form, and is like the early huts with
reed sides, and an interwoven palm-rib roof. This is a specimen of an
intermediate manner of workmanship. The most advanced stage of art in
the sealings of the first dynasty, is No. 108. This is the royal seal of
King Zer, B.C. 4700, showing him seated and wearing the crowns of Upper
and Lower Egypt. By his side are the royal staff and his cartouches. It
was workmanship of this character which survived in Egypt almost as late
as Roman times; that is to say, the same style engraving was current in
the Valley of the Nile for forty-six centuries.

A particularly interesting sealing is a representation of two jars with
the flat seals across their tops.

[Illustration: 406.jpg A SEALING SHOWING JARS]

These jars, moreover, are depicted as bound around with a network of
rope in a manner which corresponds with some fragments of rope found
around some jars of this character.

[Illustration: 407.jpg accounts on pottery, B.C. 4600]

A small fragment of pottery originally forming the base of a brown
earthenware dish had inscribed upon it some accounts, and is the oldest
of such business records yet found in Egypt. The exact import of the
figures is not yet entirely intelligible, but they seem to refer
to quantities of things rather than to individuals, as the numbers,
although mostly twenty, are sometimes one hundred and two hundred. This
interesting fragment was found at the tomb of Zet, and thus establishes
the use of arithmetic before 4600 B.C.

The expedition supported by Mrs. Hearst, in the name of the University
of California, has done some useful work at El-Ahaiwah, opposite
Menshiyeh. The main cemetery at this place is an archaic one, containing
about a thousand graves or more, of which about seven hundred had
already been plundered. Between these plundered graves