At this point, an epoch-making discovery of Dr. Sethe, privat-docent at the University of Berlin, placed the whole matter at a single stroke on a comparatively sure foundation.  He pointed out that the inscriptions on a few unassuming potsherds from Abydos contained not only Banner names of old kings, but also their ordinary names.  These names were not inclosed, as later, in cartouches, and even contained many unusual spellings; but they were still too clear to be misunderstood.  Sethe succeeded in identifying the names of the fifth, the sixth and the seventh kings of the first Manethonian dynasty, called by the Greek authors Usaphais, Miebais and Semempses.  Thus it became extremely probable that all these newly discovered objects were from the first dynasty, but still not absolutely certain; for the three names occurred only on fragments of vases, and absolutely nothing was known of how these fragments were found.  The proof that they belonged to the other objects was wanting.  A very skeptical investigator might still have said that the other objects were older, that the potsherds had only fallen accidentally into ruined tombs of an older period; or he might have said quite the contrary, that the potsherds were older than the tombs.

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.