tombs afterwards worked over by Prof. Petrie and Mr. Mace. Yet most of
the important scientific results are due to the later explorers, who
were the first to attempt a classification of them, though we must
add that this classification has not been entirely accepted by the
scientific world.

The necropolis of the earliest kings of Egypt is situated in the great
bay in the hills which lies behind Abydos, to the southwest of the main
necropolis. Here, at holy Abydos, where every pious Egyptian wished to
rest after death, the bodies of the most ancient kings were buried. It
is said by Manetho that the original seat of their dominion was This,
a town in the vicinity of Abydos, now represented by the modern Grîrga,
which lies a few miles distant from its site (el-Birba). This may be a
fact, but we have as yet obtained no confirmation of it. It may well be
that the attribution of a Thinite origin to the Ist and IId Dynasties
was due simply to the fact that the kings of these dynasties were buried
at Abydos, which lay within the Thinite nome. Manetho knew that they
were buried at Abydos, and so jumped to the conclusion that they lived
there also, and called them "Thinites."

[Illustration: 060.jpg PROF. PETRIE'S CAMP AT ABYDOS, 1901.]

Their real place of origin must have been Hierakonpolis, where the
pre-dynastic kingdom of the South had its seat. The Hid Dynasty was no
doubt of Memphite origin, as Manetho says. It is certain that the
seat of the government of the IVth Dynasty was at Memphis, where the
pyramid-building kings were buried, and we know that the sepulchres
of two Hid Dynasty kings, at least, were situated in the necropolis of
Memphis (Sakkâra-Mêdûm). So that probably the seat of government was
transferred from Hierakonpolis to Memphis by the first king of the Hid