In chamber 2 of the tomb of Khasekhemui were also found six vases of dolomite and one of carnelian. Two of these are shown in the illustration, and each has a cover of thick gold-foil fitted over the top, and secured with a double turn of twisted gold wire, the wire being sealed with a small lump of clay, the whole operation resembling the method of the modern druggist, in fastening a box of ointment. Near these vases were found two beautiful gold bracelets; one, Number 3, is still in a perfect condition; the other, Number 4, has been, unfortunately, crushed by the yielding of the wall of the tomb in which it was deposited. [Illustration: 391.jpg GOLD-CAPPED VASES AND GOLD BRACELETS] Each royal grave seems to have had connected with it two great steles. Two, for instance, were found in the tomb of Merneit, one of which, however, was demolished. There were also two steles at the grave of Qa. So far only one stele had been found of Zet, and one of Mersekha, and none appear to have survived of Zer, Den, or Azab. These steles seem to have been placed at the east side of the tombs, and on the ground level, and such of them as happened to fall down upon their inscribed faces have generally been found in an excellent state of preservation. Hence we must figure to ourselves two great steles standing up, side by side, on the east of the tomb; and this is exactly in accord with the next period that we know, in which, at Medum, Snofrui had two great steles and an altar between them on the east of his tomb; and Rahotep had two great steles, one on either side of the offering-niche, east of his tomb. Probably the pair of obelisks of the tomb of Antef V., at Thebes, were a later form of this system. Around the royal tomb stood the little private steles of the domestics, placed in rows, thus forming an enclosure about the king. Some of Professor Petrie's most interesting work at Abydos was commenced in November, 1902. In the previous season a part of the early town of Abydos had been excavated, and it was found that its period began at the close of the prehistoric age, and extended over the first few dynasties; the connection between the prehistoric scale and historic reigns was thus settled. The position of this town was close behind the site of the old temples of Abydos, and within the great girdle-wall enclosure of the twelfth dynasty, which stands about half a mile north of the well-known later temples of Seti I. and Ramses II. This early town, being behind the temples, or more into the sandy edge of the desert, was higher up; the ground gently sloping from the cultivated land upward as a sandy plain, until it reaches the foot of the hills, a couple of miles back. The broad result of these new excavations is that ten different temples can be traced on the same ground, though of about twenty feet difference of level; each temple built on the ruins of that which preceded it, quite regardless of the work of the earlier kings.