[Illustration: 43. Stele of Djet, First Dynasty.] [Illustration: 44. Mesopotamian seal impressions (right) and Egyptian First Dynasty buildings (left).] [Illustration: 45. “White Temple,” Erech.] [Illustration: 46. Tomb of Hemaka, First Dynasty, Saqqara.] [Illustration: 47. Tomb at Abu Roash.] [Illustration: 48. Recesses with timbers, “White Temple,” Erech.] [Illustration: 49. Wooden coffin, Tarkhan.] [Illustration: 50. Recesses with timbers, Abu Roash.] [Illustration: 51. Map of the Ancient Near East, from the _Westminster Historical Atlas of the Bible_. (_Courtesy of the Westminster Press, Philadelphia._)] Part of the temple land was actually worked by all for all, or again, to put it in the terms of the ancients, by all in the service of the god. This part of the land—not more than one-fourth of the whole in a case we can check—was called _nigenna_-land, a term which may be translated “Common,” since the land involved was cultivated by the community as a whole. A second part, called _kur_-land, was divided into allotments which were assigned to members of the community for their support. A third part, called _Uru-lal_-land, was let out to tenants at a rent amounting to from one-third to one-sixth of the yield. Most of this rent could be paid in grain, but a small part had to be paid in silver. The temple supplied the seed-corn, draft animals, and implements for the cultivation of the Common; and high and low worked every year in the “fields of the god,” repairing the dikes and canals as a _corvée_. The _sangu_, or priest, who stood at the head of the temple community assigned the shares in the communal tasks. He appeared as bailiff of the god and was assisted by a _nubanda_, or steward, who supervised labour, magazines, and administration. Stores of grain which had accumulated were not merely used for seed-corn, nor were they exclusively at the disposal of the priest, to be used for sacrifices and for the sustenance of the temple personnel. The priests, like everyone else, had their allotments to support themselves, and the fruits of communal labour returned in part to the citizens in the form of rations of barley and wool, which were distributed regularly, and extra rations, supplied on feast days.