At this point occurred the possibility of finding a solution of the
question in the objects found in the royal tomb of Neggadeh. For the
report of the excavations at Neggadeh was more exact than that of the
excavations at Abydos; and the whole contents of the tomb of Neggadeh
had been kept together and preserved in a separate room in the Grizeh
Museum. The possibility became a reality. One of the principal objects
of this royal tomb was found to bear the ordinary as well as the Horus
name of the king--a fact which had escaped the fortunate discoverer.
The object is a small ivory plate with incised representations of
funerary offerings before the king. Animals are being sacrificed to
him; jars full of beer and other things are being offered. The figure
of the king, in front of a hanging mat, is not preserved; but the
upper corner still remains with the two names, which were written
above the figure. First, there is the same Horus name which occurs on
all the inscribed objects of this tomb and which may be translated
"The Warrior." Beside the Horus name in a sort of cartouche is the
title "Lord of Vulture and Serpent Crown" (Lord of Upper and Lower
Egypt), and beneath the title the sign which represents a
checkerboard, and has the syllabic value Mn. There can therefore be no
doubt that the king buried in the royal tomb of Neggadeh, of whom we
had only known the Horus name "The Warrior," had also the name Mn.
Now, there is no other known Egyptian king who could be identified
with this name Mn than the first king of the first Manethonian
dynasty, called Menes by the Greeks. It is impossible here to go into
the philological basis of the identification of Mn and Menes. The
final conclusion is this: In Neggadeh, we have before us the tomb of
the oldest king of whom the Egyptians had preserved any memory, and
whom they considered the founder of the Egyptian monarchy.

In consideration of the importance of the questions involved, a short