which, as it occurs before the
time of Mena and the Ist Dynasty, he calls "Dynasty 0." Dynasty 0,
however, is no dynasty, and in any case we should prefer to call the
"predynastic" dynasty "Dynasty I." The names of "Dynasty minus One,"
however, remain problematical, and for the present it would seem safer
to suspend judgment as to the place of the supposed royal names "Ro" and
"Ka"(Men-kaf), which Prof. Petrie supposes to have been those of two
of the kings of Upper Egypt who reigned before Mena. The king
"Sma"("Uniter") is possibly identical with Aha or Narmer, more
probably the latter. It is not necessary to detail the process by which
Egyptologists have sought to identify these thirteen kings with the
successors of Mena in the lists of kings and the Ist and IId Dynasties
of Manetho. The work has been very successful, though not perhaps quite
so completely accomplished as Prof. Petrie himself inclines to believe.
The first identification was made by Prof. Sethe, of Gottingen, who
pointed out that the names Semti and Merpeba on a vase-fragment found
by M. Amelineau were in reality those of the kings Hesepti and Merbap
of the lists, the Ousaphais and Miebis of Manetho. The perfectly certain
identifications are these:--

5. Den Semti = Hesepti, _Ousaphais_, Ist Dynasty.

6. Atjab Merpeba = Merbap, _Miebis_, Ist Dynasty.

7. Semerkha Nekht= Shemsu or Semsem (?), _Semempres_, Ist Dynasty.

8. Qa Sen = Qebh, _Bienehhes_, Ist Dynasty.

9. Khasekhemui Besh = Betju-mer (?), _Boethos_, IId Dynasty.

10. Neneter = Bineneter, _Binothris_, IId Dynasty.

Six of the Abydos kings have thus been identified with names in the
lists and in Manetho; that is to say, we now know the real names of six
of the earliest Egyptian monarchs, whose appellations are given us
under mutilated forms by the later list-makers. Prof. Petrie further
identifies (4) Tja Ati with Ateth, (3) Tjer with Teta, and (1) Aha with
Mena. Mena, Teta, Ateth, Ata, Hesepti, Merbap, Shemsu (?), and Qebh are
the names of the 1st Dynasty as given in the lists. The equivalent of
Ata Prof. Petrie finds in the name "Merneit," which is found at Umm
el-Ga'ab. But there is no proof whatever that Merneit was a king; he
was much more probably a prince or other great personage of the reign
of Den, who was buried with the kings. Prof. Petrie accepts the
identification of the personal name of Aha as "Men," and so makes him
the only equivalent of Mena. But this reading of the