advance in arts and crafts. One of the most striking examples of
this fact is the introduction of metal working mentioned above
and the consequent placing of both flint and copper in the grave,
--the division of grave furniture into practical objects and
ceremonial objects, which is the foundation for the use of
symbolic objects in later times.

The advance in arts and crafts not only suggests new ideas of the
necessities of the spirit, but it provides the necessary
technical skill for the more effective satisfaction of all the
needs of the dead. This takes, first of all, the form of
supplying a place for the burial, which furnishes greater
security to the body and a better communication between the
living and the dead.

From the First Dynasty, say from 3300 B.C. down, as soon as the
Egyptian had mastered the use of mud-brick and wood, we gain the
certainty of an idea which could only be guessed at in the
primitive period. A place is provided above the grave at which
the living could meet the spirit of the dead with _periodical_
offerings of food and other necessities. In the life after death,
spirit food and drink, once used, ceased to be, just as in life
on earth, and had to be renewed from day to day, lest the spirit
of the dead suffer from hunger and thirst. One of the great
developments of the first six dynasties looked to the provision
of these daily necessities.

The invention of writing was immediately utilized. About the
beginning of the First Dynasty writing was invented for
administrative and other practical purposes. Gravestones, bearing