clay as a writing material, in the age of Menes and his successors,
confirms the conclusion to which the mode of burial points. The culture
of Pharaonic Egypt must have been derived from the banks of the
Euphrates.

That Menes should have been buried at Negada, and not, like the rest of
his dynasty, in the sacred necropolis of his mother-city, is strange.
But we are told that he was slain by a hippopotamus, the Egyptian symbol
of a foe. It may be, therefore, that he fell fighting in battle, and
that his sepulchre was erected near the scene of his death. However that
may be, the other monarchs of the first two dynasties were entombed at
Abydos, The mode of burial was the same as in the case of Menes.

The objects found in the tombs of Menes and his successors prove that
the culture of Egypt was already far advanced. The hieroglyphic system
of writing was fully developed, tools and weapons of bronze were used in
large quantities, the hardest stones of the Red Sea coast were carved
into exquisitely-shaped vases, plaques of ivory were engraved with high
artistic finish, and even obsidian was worked into vases by means of the
lathe. As the nearest source of obsidian to Egypt that is known are the
islands of Santorin and Melos in the Ægean Sea, there must have already
been a maritime trade with the Greek seas. Art had already reached
maturity; a small dog carved out of ivory and discovered in the tomb of
Menes is equal to the best work of later days. Finally, the titles
assumed by the Pharaohs are already placed above the double name of the
king, and the symbols employed to denote them are the same as those
which continued in use down to the end of the Egyptian monarchy.

The first six dynasties are known to Egyptologists as the Old Empire.
Kings of the Fourth dynasty, Khufu, Khafra, and Menkaura, built the