MANUAL
EGYPTIAN ARCHEOLOGY.
MANUAL
OF
Egyptian Archaeology
AND
6utbe to lire Stubo of Antiquities in djgujt.
^Off 7W.E KS£ OF STUDENTS AND TRAVELLERS.
BY
SIR G. MASPERO, D.C.L., Oxon.,
MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE; PROFESSOR AT THE COLLEGE HE FRANCF. J
DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF THE SERVICE OF ANTIQUITIES IN EGYl'T.
TRANSLATED AND ENLARGED BY
AGNES S. JOHNS.
SIXTH ENGLISH EDITION.
fflSaill) fffirrr li?unt»rrtJ ant) „-ffort8=ttttoo Hlustrattons.
NEW YORK: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS ^Q A****
LONDON: H. GREYEL AND CO.
1914
PRINTED BY
HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD.,
LONDON AND AYLESBURY,.
ENGLAND
PREFACE
TO THE SIXTH EDITION.
TO put this book into English, and thus
to hand it on to thousands who might
not otherwise have enjoyed it, has been to me
a very congenial and interesting task. It
would be difficult, I imagine, to point to any
work of its scope and character which is better
calculated to give lasting delight to all classes
of readers. For the skilled archaeologist, its
pages contain not only new facts, but new
views and new interpretations ; while to those
who know little, or perhaps nothing, of the
subjects under discussion, it will open a fresh
and fascinating field of study. It is not enough
to say that a handbook of Egyptian Archaeology
was much needed, and that Professor Maspero
has given us exactly what we required. He
has done much more than this. He has given
us a picturesque, vivacious, and highly original
volume, as delightful as if it were not learned,
and as instructive as if it were dull.
VI PREFACE TO THE SIXTH EDITION.
"As regards the practical side of Archaeology,
it ought to be unnecessary to point out that
its usefulness is strictly parallel with the use-
fulness of public museums. To collect and
exhibit objects of ancient art and industry is
worse than idle if we do not also endeavour to
disseminate some knowledge of the history of
those arts and industries, and of the processes
employed by the artists and craftsmen of the
past. Archaeology, no less than love, ' adds a
precious seeing to the eye ' ; and without that
gain of mental sight, the treasures of our
public collections are regarded by the general
visitor as mere ' curiosities ' — flat and stale for
the most part, and wholly unprofitable."
Thus wrote Miss Amelia B. Edwards in the
preface to the first English edition of this book,
published in 1887.
Since then the book has passed through
other editions. Every year, almost every
month, fresh material is found for the study of
Egyptology and fresh light is thrown upon it
by the progress of excavation, exploration, and
research. Hence it follows that in the course
of a few years the standard textbooks require
considerable addition and modification if they
PREFACE TO THE SIXTH EDITION. Vll
are to be of the greatest value to students, who
must always start from the foremost vantage
ground. Each edition in succession was there-
fore carefully corrected by the English editor,
Miss Kate Bradbury ; and Sir Gaston Maspero
himself revised the work, suggesting or sanction-
ing any modifications or changes with his un-
failing courtesy and care.
Since the last edition was issued in 1902 new
material has been acquired in great abundance.
Our knowledge of the earliest developments of
Egyptian archaeology has been consolidated
and extended by further careful and prolonged
study of the primitive remains that have come
down to us, with results that have widened our
perspective and extended our knowledge of
Egyptian history. The discovery of valley
temples has necessitated some changes in the
chapters on tombs and temples. It has there-
fore been decided to retranslate the book, re-
modelling it where absolutely necessary, and
introducing new material, but preserving its
main characteristics untouched.
The claims on Sir Gaston Maspero as Direc-
tor-General of the Service of Antiquities in
Egypt forbade any idea of asking him to
viii PREFACE TO THE SIXTH EDITION.
supply the additional matter, although he has
most kindly assented to the production of the
new English edition.
Where any serious additions have been
made, the sources of information have been
indicated as far as possible in a footnote, and
for references to the predynastic and Thinite
periods the English editor is alone responsible.
A short table of the principal epochs of
Egyptian history has been added.
Many aspects of Egyptian archaeology have
necessarily been passed over. In a book of
this size it is impossible to deal adequately
with the palaeography, the early relations with
Nubia, and the Mediterranean peoples, nor yet
with the difficult problems of the origin of the
Egyptians. This work of Sir Gaston Maspero
still remains the handbook of Egyptian
archaeology, and to render it too bulky would
be to deprive it of much of its usefulness
and charm.
For the new illustrations I have to thank
Dr. Hogarth and Mr. Leeds for their kind
assistance in procuring photographs of objects
in the Ashmolean Museum ; Dr. Guterbock
for an excellent photograph of the Akhenaten
PREFACE TO THE SIXTH EDITION. IX
statue ; and Dr. Flinders Petrie, the Deutsche
Orient Gesellschaft, and the Egypt Exploration
Fund for their courtesy in allowing me to
reproduce illustrations published by them.
A. S. Johns.
Cambridge, 191 3.
CONTENTS
TAGE
Preface v
List ok Illustrations xiii
The Principal Epochs of Ancient Egyptian History . xxiv
CHAPTER I.
ARCHITECTURE— CIVIL AND MILITARY.
i. Private Dwellings 2
2. Fortresses 28
3. Public Works 41
CHAPTER II.
RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
1. Materials and Principles of Construction . . 53
2. Temples 72
3. Decoration 107
CHAPTER III.
TOMBS.
1. Mastap.as. 130
2. Royal Tombs and Pyramids 148
3. Tombs of the Theban Empire : the Rock-cut Tombs 169
xi
XIV
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
1 1(5. PAGE
20. Central pavilion of house, in form of tower, second
Theban period ......
2 1. Ceiling pattern from behind Medinet Habu, Twentieth
Dynasty .......
21. Ceiling pattern similar to one at El Bersheh, Twelfth
Dynasty .......
23. Ceiling pattern from tomb of Aimadua, Twentieth
Dynasty .......
24. Wall-painting, palace of Tell el Amarna. W. M. F
Petrie ........
25. Part of painted pavement, palace of Tell el Amarna
\V. M. F. Petrie
26. Plan of private house, Tell el Amarna. W. M. F
Petrie ........
27. Door of a house of the Old Kingdom, from the wall of
tomb of the Sixth Dynasty ....
28. Facade of a Fourth Dynasty house, from the sarcophagus
of Khiifu Poskhii ......
29. Plan of second fortress of Abydos, Eleventh or Twelfth
Dynasty .......
30. Walls of second fort at Abydos, restored .
31. Facade of fort, from wall-scene, Beni Hasan, Twelfth
Dynasty .......
32. Plan of main gate, second fortress of Abydos
33. Plan of south-east gate, second fortress of Abydos
34. Plan of gate, fortress of Kom el Ahmar
35. Plan of the walled city at El Kab
36. I Man of walled city of Kom Ombo
37. Plan of fortress of Kummeh ....
38. Plan of fortress of Semneh ....
39. Section of the platform at A, B, of preceding plan .
40. Syrian fort .......
41. The town walls of Dapur .....
42. City of Kadesh, from bas-relief, Ramcsseum
43. Plan of the pavilion of Medinet Habu .
44. Elevation of pavilion, Medinet Habu .
45. Canal and bridge of Zaru, from bas-relief, Karnak .
46. Cellar, with amphorae .....
47. Granary ........
48. Plan of Pithom
49. Store-chambers of the Ramesseum
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
XV
tlo.
50-
51-
52.
53-
54-
55-
56.
57-
58.
59-
60.
61.
62.
63-
64.
6.5-
66.
67.
68.
69.
70.
71-
72.
73-
74-
75-
76.
77-
78.
79-
80.
81.
82.
83-
PAGE
King inaugurating public work. Carved mace head,
Oxford ........ 44
Dyke at Wady Gerraweh . . . . . -47
Section of dyke at Wady Gerraweh . . . -47
Quarries of Silsilis ....... 49
Draught of Hathor capital in quarry of Gebel Abu Fedah 50
Bas-relief from one of the stelae of Aahmes, at Turah,
Eighteenth Dynasty . . . . . 51
Masonry in temple of Seti I. at Abydos . . • 57
Temple wall with cornice . . . . . -58
Niche and doorway in temple of Seti I. at Abydos . . 58
Pavement of the portico of Osiris in temple of Seti I.,
Abydos ........ 59
Corbelled arch, temple of Seti L, Abydos . . -59
Hathor pillar, Abu Simbel . . . . .60
Pillar of Amenhotep III., Karnak . . . .61
Sixteen-sided pillars, Karnak . . . . .62
Fluted pillar, Kalabsheh . . . . . 63
Polygonal Hathor-head pillar, El Kab . . -63
Column with square die . . . . . .64
Column with campaniform capital, Ramesseum . . 64
Inverted campaniform capital, Karnak . . -65
Compound capital ....... 66
Ornate capitals, Ptolemaic . . . . .66
Lotus-bud column, Beni Hasan . . . . .66
Lotus-bud column, processional hall, Karnak,
Thothmes III. . . . . . . -67
Column in aisles of hypostyle hall, Karnak . . .68
Palm-leaf capital ....... 69
Hathor-head capital, Ptolemaic . . . .69
Campaniform and Hathor-headed capital, Philae . . 70
Section of hypostyle hall at Karnak, showing the ar-
rangements of the campaniform and lotus-bud
columns ........
Plan of temple and valley temple of Pyramid of Khafra,
Gizeh . ........
The temple of the Sun at Abu Gurab, reconstructed
Southern temple of Amenhotep III. at Elephantine
Plan of temple of Amenhotep III. near El Kab
Plan of temple of Hathor, Deir el Medineh .
Plan of temple of Khonsii, Karnak ....
71
75
79
83
84
85
86
XVI
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FIG.
84. Pylon with masts, from a bas-relief in the temple of
Khonsu, Karnak ......
85. The Ramesseum restored, showing the rise of the ground
86. Crypts in the thickness of the walls round the sanctuary
of Denderah .......
87. The pronaos of Edfu, as seen from the top of the eastern
pylon .....
88. Plan of the temple, Edfu
89. Plan of temple of Karnak in the reign of Amenhotep II
90. Plan of hypostyle hall, Karnak
91. Plan of great temple, Luxor
92. Plan of the island of Philae
93. Plan of speos, Kalaat-Addah, Nubia .
94. Plan of speos, Gebel Silsileh
95. Plan of the Great Speos, Abu Simbel .
96. Speos of Hathor, Abu Simbel .
97. Plan of temple of Hatshepsut, Deir el Bahari
98. Plan of temple of Seti L, Abydos
99. Crio-sphinx from Wady es Sabuah .
100. Couchant ram, with statuette of royal founder
avenue at sphinxes, Karnak
101-10G. Decorative designs from Denderah
107. Two Nile-gods, bearing lotus-flowers and libatk
108. Dado decoration, hall of Thothmes III., Karnak
109. Ceiling decoration, from tomb of Bakenrenf (Bocchoris)
Saqqara, Twenty-sixth Dynasty
1 in. Zodiacal circle of Denderah
hi. Frieze of uraei and cartouches ....
112. Wall of a chamber at Denderah, showing the arrange
ment of the tableaux ....
113. Obelisk of Senusert I., Heliopolis
114. Obelisk of Senusert I., Begig, Fayum
115. Table of offerings, Karnak
116. Limestone altar ....
117. Wooden naos, Turin Museum .
1 iS. A mastaba ......
119. False door in mastaba, from Mariette's Les Mastabahs
120. Plan of forecourt in mastaba of Kaapir
121. Plan of forecourt in mastaba of Neferhotep
122. Door in facade of mastaba ....
123. Portico and door, from Mariette's Les Mastabahs
restored
TAOE
87
88
89
90
9i
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
98
99
102
106
106
108
109
109
no
1 1 1
"5
117
122
123
124
125
126
131
133
133
!34
134
J34
LiSt OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XVlt
FIG. PAGE
124. Plan of chapel in mastaba of Khabiusokari, Fourth
Dynasty . . . . . . . . 135
125. Plan of chapel in mastaba of Ti, Fifth Dynasty . . 135
126. Plan of chapel in mastaba of Shepsesptah, Fourth
Dynasty 135
127. Plan of chapel in mastaba of Am, Saqqara, Fourth
Dynasty 135
128. Plan of chapel in mastaba of Thenti II., Fourth Dynasty,
Saqqara ........ 136
129. Plan of chapel in mastaba of the Red Scribe, Fourth
Dynasty, Saqqara . . . . . .136
130. Plan of the mastaba of Ptahhotep, Fifth Dynasty,
Saqqara . . . . . . . .137
131. Stela in tomb of Merruka, Fifth Dynasty, Abiisir . 138
132. Wall scene of funerary offerings, from mastaba of
Ptahhotep, Fifth Dynasty ..... 140
133. Wall painting, funeral voyage, mastaba of Urkhuu,
Gizeh, Fourth Dynasty ..... 142
134. Wall scene from mastaba of Ptahhotep, Fifth Dynasty 142
135. Plan of serdab in mastaba at Gizeh, Fourth Dynasty . 143
136. Plan of serdab and chapel in mastaba of Rahotep at
Saqqara, Fourth Dynasty . . . . . 144
137. Plan of serdab and chapel in mastaba of Thenti I., Saq-
qara, Fourth Dynasty ...... 144
138. Section showing shaft and vault of mastaba at Gizeh,
Fourth Dynasty . . . . . . .145
139. Section of mastaba, Saqqara, Sixth Dynasty . . 146
T40. Wall painting of funerary offerings, mastaba of Nenka,
Saqqara, Sixth Dynasty ..... 147
141. Plan of royal tomb, time of Menes, First Dynasty,
Nagada ........ 149
142. Tomb of Senna, with panelled east wall, Denderah, Sixth
Dynasty ........ 150
143. Plan of tomb of King Qa, Abydos, First Dynasty . 151
144. Stela of King Perabsen, Abydos, Second Dynasty . 152
145. Royal tomb, Bet Khallaf, superstructure . . .153
146. Section of royal tomb, Bet Khallaf .... 154
147. Step pyramid of Saqqara ..... 155
148. Pyramid of Medum ...... 156
149. Section of passage and vault in pyramid of Medum . 157
150. Section of the Great Pyramid. W. M. F. Petrie . 159
b
xviii List of Illustrations.
KIG. A PAGE
151. Plan and section of the pyramid of Unas . . 163
152. Portcullis and passage, pyramid of Unas . . .164
153. Section of the pyramid of Unas . . . -165
154. Mastabat el Faraiin ...... 167
155. Section of "vaulted" brick pyramid, Abydos . . 170
156. Section of "vaulted" tomb, Abydos . . .170
157. Plan of tomb, Abydos . . . . . . 171
158. Thcban tomb with pyramidion, from scene in a tomb . 171
159. Theban tomb with pyramidion, from wall painting . 172
160. Section of apis tomb, time of Amenhotep If. . . 172
161. Tombs in cliff opposite Assuan . . . . 173
162. Facade of tomb of Khnumhotep, Beni Hasan, Twelfth
Dynasty . . . . . . . . 174
163. Facade of tomb, Assuan . . . . . . 175
164. Plan of tomb of Khnumhotep, Beni Hasan . .176
165. Plan of unfinished tomb, Beni Hasan . . . 177
166. Funeral procession and ceremonies, from wall paintings,
Thebes 178
167. Plan of tomb of Rameses IV. . . . . .184
168. Plan of tomb of Rameses IV., from Turin papyrus . 184
169. Plan of tomb of Seti I. ..... . 185
170. Wall painting of the fields of Aalii, tomb of Rameses III. 187
171. Wooden model of sailing boat, Beni Hasan, Twelfth
Dynasty ........ 192
172. Wooden model and servants working, Beni Hasan,
Twelfth Dynasty . . . . . . 193
173. Pestle and mortar for grinding colours . . . 195
171. Comic sketch on ostracon. New York Museum . . 197
175. Vignette from the Book of the Dead (Sai'te period) . 198
176. Vignette from the Book of the I had, from the papyrus
of Hunefer ....... 199
177. Part of scene on a wall of the pre-dynastic tomb of
Hierakonpolis ....... 200
1 78-9. Scenes from the tomb of Khnumhotep at Beni Hasan,
Twelfth Dynasty . . . . . -203
180. Scene from a tomb painting in the British Museum,
Eighteenth Dynasty ...... 204
181. Funerary repast, tomb of Prince Horcmheb, Eighteenth
Dynasty ........ 205
182. From wall painting, Thebes, Ramesside period . . 207
183. From wall scene in tomb of Horemheb . . . 209
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
XIX
FIG.
184.
185.
186.
187.
188.
189.
igO.
191.
192.
193-
194.
195-
196.
197"
199.
200.
201.
202.
203.
204.
205.
206.
207.
208.
209.
210.
211.
212.
213-
214.
215-
216.
217.
218.
219.
220,
221.
222,
223.
From wall scene, Ramesseum .....
Archers, represented on walls of Medinet Habu .
Phalanx of Egyptian infantry, Ramesseum
Hittite battalion, Ramesseum .
Pool and palm-trees, from wall painting in tomb of
Rekhmara .......
Scene from tomb of Rekhmara, Eighteenth Dynasty .
Scene from mastaba of Ptahhotep, Fifth Dynasty
Palestrina mosaic .....
Sculptor's sketch, from Old Kingdom tomb
Sculptor's sketch, from Old Kingdom tomb
Sculptor's correction, Medinet Habu, Rameses III
Bow drill ......
Sculptor's trial piece, Eighteenth Dynasty .
8. Ceremonial palette of King Narmer, archaic period
Hierakonpolis .....
King Khasekhemui, limestone, Third Dynasty
Rahotep, Third Dynasty, from Medum
Nefert, wife of Rahotep, Third Dynasty, from Medum
Panel from tomb of Hesi .
The Great Sphinx of Gizeh
King Khafra, Fourth Dynasty .
Cross-legged scribe at the Louvre
Cross-legged scribe, from Saqqara
Sheikh el Beled, Old Kingdom
Head of Sheikh el Beled
Wooden statue of a woman, Old Kingdom
The kneeling scribe, Old Kingdom
A bread-maker, Old Kingdom .
The dwarf Nemhotep, Old Kingdom
One of the Tanis sphinxes
Statuette of Akhenaten, painted limestone
Head of Seti I., bas-relief
The god Anion, and Horemheb
Head of a queen, Eighteenth Dynasty
Head of Horemheb ....
Queen Ameniritis .....
The goddess Taurt. Sai'te work
Hathor-cow in green basalt, Sa'ite work
Squatting statue of Pedishashi, Sa'ite work
Head of a scribe, Sa'ite work
Old Kingdom
rAGE
209
210
211
211
212
213
214
215
219
220
220
221
224
232
233
234
2 35
236
238
243
246
247
248
2 49
250
251
252
253
255
2 59
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
XX
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FIG.
224. Colossus of Alexander II.
225. Statue of Horus, Graeco Egyptian
226. Group from Naga .
227. Slate palettes, predynastic and First Dynasty
228. Flint knife, predynastic
229. Flint teeth for sickles
230. Girdle tie of Isis
231. Frog amulet .
232. Lotus column amulet
233. Sacred eye or uzat .
234. Scarab .
235. Stone vases, predynastic and First Dynasty
236. Impression of cylinder-seal. First Dynasty
237. Perfume vase, alabaster
238. Perfume vase, alabaster
239. Perfume vase, alabaster
240. Perfume vase, alabaster
241. Kohl-jar
242. Black-topped pottery
243. Red burnished pottery
244. Pottery fish, predynastic
245. Red pottery with basket-work designs, pr
246. Vase painted to imitate mottled stone
247. Decorated vase, predynastic
248. Black incised pottery, predynastic .
249. Lenticular ampulla of Mykena?an type,
Dynasty .....
250. False-necked vase ....
251-3. Decorated vases, pottery
254. Parti-coloured glass vase, bearing name
mes III. .....
255. Lenticular ampulla, parti-coloured glass
256. Parti-coloured glass vase .
257. Glass goblets of Nesikhonsu
258. Hippopotamus in blue glaze
259. Glazed ware, from Thebes
260. Glazed ware, from Thebes
261. Cup, glazed ware ....
. Decoration of interior of small bowl,
Dynasty .....
263. Lenticular vase, glazed ware, Sai'te period
edynastic
Eighteenth
of Thoth-
Eighteenth
PAGE
269
27O
272
2 74
275
276
278
278
278
279
279
282
283
284
284
284
285
285
286
287
288
288
289
289
290
291
291
292
297
297
298
298
299
300
300
301
301
302
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XXI
fig. rAGE
264. Tiled chamber in step pyramid of Saqqara . . 3°3
265. Tile from step pyramid of Saqqara .... 304
266. Tile inlay, Tell el Yahudieh, Twentieth Dynasty . 304
267. Tile inlay, Tell el Yahudieh, Twentieth Dynasty . 304
268. Inlaid tiles, Tell el Yahudieh, Twentieth Dynasty . 305
269. Tile of relief, Tell el Yahudieh, Twentieth Dynasty . 305
270. Tile in relief, Tell el Yahudieh, Twentieth Dynasty . 306
271. Ivory spoon, combs, and hairpins, predynastic . . 307
272. Tusk carved with human face ..... 307
273. Carved ivory from Hierakonpolis .... 3°8
274. Ivory spoon .....••• 3°9
275. Wooden statuette of officer, Eighteenth Dynasty . 310
276. Wooden statuette of priest, Eighteenth Dynasty . 311
277. Wooden statuette of the Lady Na'i .... 312
278-9. Wooden spoons, for perfume or unguents . . 313
280-1. Wooden spoons for perfume or unguents . . 314
282-3. Wooden spoons for perfume or unguents . . 315
284-5. Wooden spoons for perfume or unguents . . 316
286. Wooden spoon for perfume or unguents . . • 3X7
287-9. Chests 3l8
290. Construction of a mummy-case, wall scene, Eighteenth
Dynasty 3*9
291 . Mask of coffin of Rameses II., tempo, Twenty-first Dynasty 32 2
323
326
328
329
330
330
33i
33i
332
333
334
335
336
34°
34°
341
342
292. Mummy-case of Queen Aahmesnefertari .
293. Panel portrait, Graeco-Roman. National Gallery
294. Carved and painted mummy canopy .
295. Mummy-couch with canopy, Graeco-Roman
296. Mummy-sledge and canopy ....
297. Inlaid chair, Eleventh Dynasty . .
298. Inlaid stool, Eleventh Dynasty
299. Royal chair of state, wall painting, Rameses III.
300. Women weaving, wall scene, Twelfth Dynasty .
301. Man weaving, wall scene, Twelfth Dynasty
302. Border pattern in cut leather-work, Twenty-first
Dynasty .......
303. Bark with cut leather-work sails, Twentieth Dynasty
304. Bark with cut leather-work sails, Twentieth Dynasty
305. Bronze jug .......
306. Bronze jug, seen from above ....
307. Lamp, Graeco-Roman period ....
308. Bronze statuette of Takushet ....
XXll LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FIG. PAGE
309. Bronze statuette of Horus ....
310. Bronze statuette of Mosu ....
311. Bronze lion from Horbeit, Saite period
312. Gold worker, wall scene .....
313. Gold cup of General Tahuti, Eighteenth Dynasty
314. Silver vase of Thmuis .....
315. Silver vase of Thmuis .....
316. Ornamental vase in precious metal, wall painting
Twentieth Dynasty .....
317. Crater of precious metal, wall painting,- Eighteenth
Dynasty . . .
318. Hydria of precious metal, wall painting, Eighteenth
Dynasty .......
319. Enamelled cruet, wall painting, Eighteenth Dynasty
320. Enamelled cruet, wall painting, Eighteenth Dynasty
321. Gold centrepiece of Amenhotep III., wall painting
322. Crater of precious metal, wall painting, Eighteenth
Dynasty .......
323. Crater of precious metal, wall painting, Eighteenth
Dynasty .......
324. Ewer of precious metal, wall painting, Eighteenth
Dynasty .......
325. Signet-ring with bezel .....
326-9. Bracelets, First Dynasty ....
330. Gold cloisonne pectoral, Dahshur, Twelfth Dynasty
331. Mirror of Queen Aahhotep ....
332. Bracelet of Queen Aahhotep ....
333. Bracelet of Queen Aahhotep ....
334. Diadem of Queen Aahhotep ....
335. Bold uu'kli necklace of Queen Aahhotep
336. Pectoral of Queen Aahhotep, bearing cartouche of
of Aahmes I.
337. Poniard of Queen Aahhotep ....
338. Poniard of Queen Aahhotep ....
339. Battle-axe of Queen Aahhotep ....
340. Funerary bark of Queen Aahhotep .
341. Ring of Rameses II. .....
342. Bracelet of Prince Psar .....
343
344
346
34 7
350
351
35i
35i
35*
352
353
353
354
354
355
355
357
35«
359
360
361
362
362
363
&3
3'J4
366
367
368
369
THE PRINCIPAL EPOCHS OE ANCIENT
EGYPTIAN HISTORY.
PREDYNASTIC PERIOD.
This ended with Menes, who united the kingdoms of the North and
of the South.
PROTO-DYNASTIC PERIOD.
Thinite : First and Second Dynasties. Steady development and
organisation of the country.
MEMPHITE : Third Dynasty.
OLD KINGDOM.
Memphite : Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Dynasties. — An age of power-
ful Pharaohs, builders of the Pyramids.
A period of weak government and civil strife followed. A Theban
family finally secured the chief power and gradually reunited the country.
MIDDLE KINGDOM.
Theban: Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Dynasties. — Egypt
highly prosperous. The feudal system fully developed under powerful
Pharaohs. Nubia subjugated.
A period of civil war under the Fourteenth Dynasty was followed by
the Hyksos domination of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Dynasties.
NEW KINGDOM, circa 1600-1080 B.C.
Theban : Seventeenth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth
Dynasties. — The great period of Asiatic Conquest and Empire was
under the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties.
Egypt gradually declined under the later Ramessides (Rameses IV.-
XII.) of the Twentieth Dynasty, and the Empire fell to pieces under
the Twenty-first (Tanite) Dynasty.
FOREIGN DOMINATION, circa 950-666 B.C.
Twenty-second, Twenty-third, Twenty-fourth, and Twenty-fifth
Dynasties. — Libyans and Ethiopians in turn occupied the throne, the
seat of government being successively at Bubastis, Tanis, and Sais.
LATE EGYPTIAN PERIOD, 666 525 B.C.
Saite : Twenty-sixth Dynasty. — A time of prosperity under native
Pharaohs, and reversion to ancient conventions of art in Egypt.
PERSIAN DOMINATION, 525-408 B.C.
Twenty- seventh Dynasty. — The Persian monarchs reigned as
Pharaohs.
The Twenty-eighth, Twenty-ninth, and Thirtieth Dynasties were
Egyptian, but they only maintained their partial independence by the
aid of Greek mercenaries, and were finally reconquered by Persia.
Alexander the Great took possession of Egypt 332 B.C.
xxiv
EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY.
CHAPTER I.
ARCHITECTURE— CIVIL AND MILITARY.
THE earlier archaeologists, when visiting Egypt,
concentrated their attention upon tombs and temples,
and manifested little or no interest in the existing
remains of private dwellings and fortified buildings.
Yet few countries have preserved so many relics of
their ancient civil architecture, and within the last
few years systematic excavations have been carried
out with excellent results. Setting aside towns of
Roman or Byzantine date, which till recently were
standing almost intact at Kiift, Kom Ombo, and
El Agandiyeh, considerable portions of ancient Thebes
are still standing to the east and south of Karnak.
At Memphis there are large mounds, the core of
which is formed by houses in good preservation. Yet
earlier are the remains at Abydos, where the plans
of the Thinite town have been made out, and where
vestiges of the primitive huts still exist.
At Kahun the remains of a whole provincial town
of the Twelfth Dynasty have been laid bare. In the
royal town of Tell el Amarna of the Eighteenth
Dynasty much important work has already been
I
2 ARCHITECTURE— CIVIL AND MILITARY.
done, and its streets and houses are now in process of
being excavated.
At Tell el Maskhutah the granaries of Fithom are
standing ; at Tanis and Bubastis Sai'tic and Ptolemaic
towns have been excavated. A long list might be
made of less-known localities where ruins of private
dwellings may be seen, which date back to the
Ramessides, and even to the earliest dynastic period.
With regard to fortresses, Abydos itself can furnish
two, of which one undoubtedly dates back to the
earliest dynasties. The ramparts of El Kab, Kom el
Ahmar, El Hibeh, Kuban (opposite Dakkeh), of
Heliopolis, and of Thebes are standing, and most
of them have been carefully excavated.
I. PRIVATE DWELLINGS.
The soil of Egypt, periodically washed by the in-
undation, is a black, compact, homogeneous mud,
which, when dry, acquires the hardness of stone ; from
time immemorial it has been used by the fellahm in
constructing their houses. The poorest huts of the
present day are little more than a rudely shaped mass
of this mud. A rectangular space 8 or 10 feet in
width and 15 or 16 feet in length is enclosed by
wicker-work made of palm-branches coated both
inside and out with a layer of mud. As this coating
cracks in the drying, the fissures are filled in, and
another coating of mud is added until the walls
attain a thickness varying from 4 to 12 inches.
Finally the hut is roofed in with palm-branches and
straw, covered with a layer of beaten earth. The
height varies. Usually the ceiling is so low that to
BRICK-MAKING. 3
rise suddenly is to run the risk of knocking one's
head, while in some huts the roof is as much as 7 feet
from the ground. There is no window of any de-
scription to admit light and air ; occasionally there is
a hole in the middle of the roof to let out the smoke,
but this luxury is by no means universal. The
remains of huts of the primitive period show that
this method of building of the modern Egyptian is
an inheritance from his remote ancestors of the time
of the earliest dynasties. At Abydos, where the
royal tombs of the First Dynasty have been found,
enough vestiges of the ancient town remain to prove
that the earliest dwellings of the Egyptians were
similar to those of the fellahin of to-day.
It is not always easy at the first glance to distin-
guish between the huts that are made of wattle and
daub and those built of crude brick. The ordinary
Egyptian brick is made of mud, mixed with a little
sand and chopped straw, moulded into oblong bricks
and dried in the sun. Building operations are begun
by a man digging up the ground on the selected site.
One set of men carry off the clods he turns up and
heap them together, while another set knead them
with their feet and reduce them to a homogeneous
mass of mud. When the paste is sufficiently kneaded,
the master workman runs it into moulds of hard wood.
The bricks are carried off by an assistant and laid
out in rows some distance apart to dry (fig. 1). A
careful workman will leave them in the sun for six
hours or even a whole day, after which the bricks are
stacked in such a manner that the air can circulate
freely among them, and so they remain for a week
ARCHITECTURE— CIVIL AND MILITARY.
or two before they are used. Frequently, however,
the bricks are merely dried for a few hours in the sun
and used while they are still moist. Notwithstanding
this casual treatment, the mud is so tenacious that
the brick does not easily get out of shape ; the outer
face disintegrates owing to atmospheric conditions,
but inside the wall the bricks remain intact, and are
still separable from each other. A good modern
workman will easily turn but 1,000 bricks a day,
and after a week's practice he will reach 1,200,
1,500, or even 1,800. The ancient workman, whose
EQEZ) C3--
czy En )
■F? S ■csrli
CZJ r^l /■ I
EZ3m r
mcnrrr—
i
c2>
Fig. I. — Brickmaking, from Eighteenth Dynasty tomb-painting,
tomb of Rekhmara.
tools were the same as those of the present day, must
have obtained equally good results.
The ancient mould in general use for medium-sized
bricks measures 87 x 43 x 5-5 inches, and for the
larger bricks, 15-0 x y\ x 55 inches, although both
larger and smaller moulds have been discovered.
Bricks from the royal brickyards are occasionally
stamped with the cartouche of the reigning sovereign,
those from private factories are marked with one or
more conventional signs in red ink, a print of the
moulder's finger or the maker's stamp. The greater
number have no mark. The ordinary burnt brick
docs not appear to have been in common use before
FOUNDATIONS OF HOUSES. 5
the Graeco-Roman period, although some are known
of Ramesside times. Glazed bricks are occasionally
found in the Delta ; one of these, now in the Cairo
Museum, is inscribed in black ink with the name of
Rameses III. In that instance the glaze is green,
but other fragments are blue, red, yellow, or white.
The nature of the soil does not admit of deep
foundations. On the surface there is a shallow bed of
made earth which, except on the site of large towns,
is of no depth. Below this there is a very dense
humus intersected by narrow veins of sand, and
below this again— at the level of infiltration — there is
a bed of mud, more or less liquid according to the
season. At the present day the masons are content
to dig through the made earth and to commence
operations as soon as they reach virgin soil : if this
should be too deep down, they lay the foundations
about 3 feet below the surface. The Pharaonic
Egyptians did likewise : 1 have never found any
ancient dwelling where the foundations went deeper
than 4 feet, and this was exceptional ; in most cases
the depth does not exceed 2 feet.
In many cases no trenches were dug ; the ground
was merely levelled, and probably well watered to
increase the consistency of the soil, and the bricks
were then laid on the surface. When the buildine
was finished the scraps of mortar, the broken bricks,
and all the accumulated rubbish of building material
would form a layer about 8 inches to a foot
deep round the base of the buildings, the buried
portion of the walls thus taking the place of founda-
tions. When the house was to be built on the site
6 ARCHITECTURE— CIVIL AND MILITARY.
of an earlier one fallen into decay or accidentally
destroyed, it was not considered necessary to raze
the old walls completely. The mass of ruin was
levelled to an even surface, and the new building was
begun several feet higher than its predecessor : thus
every town is built on one or more artificial mounds
which are sometimes as much as 80 or 90 feet in-
height.
Greek historians attribute this peculiarity to the
sagacity of the kings, more particularly of Sesostris,
who, they imagined, desired to place their palaces
beyond reach of the inundations. Some modern
authors have described the method by which they
believe this was effected ; that massive brick plat-
forms were constructed at regular intervals, arranged
in cross lines, the interstices filled with earth and
rubbish, and the city built on this gigantic chess-
board. Wherever I have excavated, more especially
at Thebes, I have found nothing that answers to this
description. The so-called platforms that intersect
each other below the later buildings are merely the
vestiges of earlier houses which are themselves resting
on the remains of yet more ancient buildings.
Architects were not deterred by the shallowness of
the foundations from boldly erecting lofty buildings ;
in the ruins of. Memphis there are walls standing from
30 to 40 feet in height. The only precaution taken
was to thicken the walls at the base and to vault the
floors (fig. 2). The wall thickness for a low building
was about 16 inches, but for a house of several stories
it would be as much as 3 or 4 feet. Large beams
embedded at intervals in the brickwork consolidated
PLAN OF TOWNS.
and bound it together. The ground floor was fre-
quently built of stone carefully worked, and brick
was relegated to the upper stories. Limestone from
the adjacent hills was the only stone systematically
employed for this purpose. The fragments of sand-
stone, granite, and alabaster mixed with it were
generally brought from some ruined temple. The
Egyptians of those days had no more scruple than
those of the present time
in despoiling their ruined
and neglected monuments.
The houses of an ancient
Egyptian town were clustered
round its temple, and the
temple stood in a rectangular
enclosure to which access
was obtained through im-
posing gateways in the sur-
rounding brick wall. The
gods dwelt in fortified
mansions or redoubts, to
which the people of the
place might fly for safety in the event of any sudden
attack upon their town. Such towns as were built
all at one period by prince or king were fairly
regular in plan, having wide paved streets at right
angles to each other, with a stone channel down the
middle to carry off water and drainage, and the
buildings in line (fig. 3). Cities whose growth had
been determined by the chances and changes of cen-
turies were characterised by no such regularity. Their
houses stood in a maze of blind alleys, and narrow,
Fig. 2. — House with vaulted
floors, against the northern
wall of the great temple of
Medinet Habu.
8 ARCHITECTURE— CIVIL AND MILITARY.
dark strangling streets, with here and there the
branch of a canal, almost dried up during the greater
part of the year, and a muddy pond where the cattle
drank and the women came for water. Somewhere
KAHUN
: ffifMFM GET
J=l
23
Fig. 3. — Plan of three-quarters of the town of Hat-Hotep-Seniisert
(Kahiin), built for the officials and workmen employed in con-
nection with the pyramid of Senusert II. at Illahun. The work-
men's quarters are principally on the western side. Walnut,
Ka/imi, ar.d Gurob, W. M. F. Petrie.
in each town was an open space shaded by sycamores
or acacias, and hither on market-days came the
peasants of the district two or three times in the
month. There were waste places where rubbish and
refuse were thrown to be quarrelled over by vultures,
hawks, and dogs.
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE.
9
The poorer classes lived in hovels which, though
built of brick, were little better than the huts of the
fellahin. At Karnak in the Pharaonic town, at Kom
Ombo in the Roman town, at Medinet Habu in the
Coptic town, the frontage of dwellings
of this class rarely exceeds 12 or 16 feet
in length. They consist of a ground
floor, with occasionally one or two
living-rooms above.
The richer classes, shopkeepers,
small officials, and foremen, were better
housed. These houses were built of
brick, and were rather small, but they Fig. 4.— Plan of
contained some half-dozen rooms, house, Medinet
Habu.
which communicated by means of
doors that were usually arched over. Some few of
the houses were two or three stories high. Frequently
they were separated from the street by a narrow
courtyard, at the back of which was a passage with
chambers opening from it on either side (fig. 4).
More often the court was sur-
rounded on three sides by
chambers (fig. 5), while yet
more often the house fronted
directlv on to the street. In
the latter case the facade con-
F'g- 5-— Pan of house, sisted of a high wall, painted or
Medinet Habu. , . . . , .
whitewashed, surmounted by a
cornice. Even in better houses the only ornamen-
tation of the outer walls consisted of angular grooving
surmounted by representations of two lotus-flowers
joined together at the neck (see figs. 27, 28). There
IO
ARCHITECTURE— CIVIL AND MILITARY.
was no opening except the door and possibly a
few small windows (fig. 6). Even in unpretentious
houses the doorway was often of stone, the door-
posts projected slightly
beyond the level of the
wall, and over the lintel
was a painted or sculp-
tured cornice. Having
crossed the threshold,
one passed successively
through two small and
dark apartments, the
second of which opened
into the central court
(fig- 7)- The- best rooms
in the houses of the
wealthier citizens were
sometimes lighted through a square opening in the
centre of the ceiling supported on wooden columns.
In the Twelfth Dynasty town
of Kahun the shafts of these
columns rested on round stone
bases. They were octagonal, and
about io inches in diameter.
The larger houses possessed
a reception hall at the rear with
a shady colonnade on the south
side, while the principal hall
was colonnaded and had a tank
about 14 inches square in the centre sunk in the stone
pavement (fig. 8). Even the poorer houses at
Kahun contained a stone tank, and there is evidence
Fig. 6. — Facade of a house toward
the street, New Kingdom.
Fig. 7. — Plan of central
court of house, second
Theban period.
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE.
I I
that this luxury was universal, except among the
poorest, in houses of the Old Kingdom. At Tell el
Amarna an elaborate bath with water supply has
been found in the house of a high official of the
Eighteenth Dynasty, and other indications bear
witness to the excellent hygienic and sanitary
arrangements known in ancient Egypt.*
In the poorer houses the family crowded together
in one or two rooms during the winter, and slept out
on the roof under mosquito-nets in summer. On the
Fig. 8.— Restoration of the hall in a Twelfth Dynasty house.
lllahun, Kahun, and Gnrob, W. M. F. Petrie.
roof also the women gossiped and cooked. The
ground floor included store-rooms, barns, and stables.
Private granaries were usually built in pairs (fig. n)
in the same long, conical shape as the State granaries,
of brick, carefully plastered with mud inside and out.
In the walls and floors of their home the people
would make hiding-places, where they could secrete
their treasures — nuggets of gold and silver, precious
stones and jewellery — both from thieves and tax-
collectors. Wherever a second floor existed, the
* L. Borchardt, Mittheilungen Orient. GescllscJiaft., No. 50, 1912.
12 ARCHITECTURE— CIVIL AND MILITARY.
arrangement of rooms was almost exactly the same
as on the ground floor. The upper rooms were
reached by an outside staircase, very steep and
narrow, with small square landings at frequent
intervals. The rooms were oblong, and the door
ordinarily afforded the only means for lighting and
ventilation. In cases where windows were opened
on to the street, they were mere irregular, un-
Fig- ?•— Wall-painting in a Twelfth Dynasty house, Kahun. Below
is a view of the outside, above is a view of the inside of the
building. Illahun, Kahun, and Gurob, W. M. F. Petrie.
symmetrical air-holes near the ceiling, provided with
a grill of wooden bars and closed with a wooden
shutter. The floors were bricked or paved, or more
frequently consisted of beaten earth. The walls were
sometimes whitewashed, sometimes decorated with
bright colours, red and yellow, or painted with
familiar domestic scenes (fig. 9). The roof was flat.
At Kahun it consisted of beams of wood, thatched
FIREPLACES.
13
and plastered with mud both inside and out. Some-
times it was furnished with one or two ventilators,
the mulkafs of modern Egyptian dwellings, and
generally there was
a washhouse on the
roof, and a small
sleeping - chamber
for the slaves or
the guards (fig. 10).
The household
fire was on the
ground floor. The
hearth was hol-
lowed out of the
earthen floor,
usually to one side
of the room, and the smoke escaped through a hole
in the ceiling ; branches of trees, charcoal, and dried
cakes of ass or cow dung were used for fuel. At
Abydos, in the primitive Thinite town, clustered
round the Temple
of Osiris, were
found pottery
hearths, in which
charcoal was burnt
— in one of them
the cinders were
still lying.
The mansions of
Fig. 10. — Box representing a house
(British Museum).
Fig. 11. — Mansion with granaries, from the
tomb of Anna, Eighteenth Dynasty.
the great and wealthy covered a considerable area ;
they generally stood in the midst of a garden or
of a courtyard planted with trees, and like the
M
ARCHITECTURE — CIVIL AND MILITARY.
houses of the middle classes crenellated walls turned
a blank front to the street (fig. u). Thus the
domestic life was secluded and concealed, and the
pleasure of watching the passers-by was sacrificed to
the advantages of not being seen. The door was
approached by a flight of two or three steps or by a
portico supported on columns (fig. 12), and adorned
with statues (fig. 13), which gave it a monumental
appearance, and indicated the social importance of the
family ; or again it consisted of a pylon similar to
those at the entrance of the temples. The interior
Fig. 12. — Portico of mansion,
second Theban period.
Fig. 13. — Portico of mansion,
second Theban period.
Wall-Paintings, Tell el Amarna.
almost resembled a small town divided into quarters
by irregular walls. In some cases the dwelling-house
stood at the farther end ; while the granaries, stables,
and domestic offices were distributed in different parts
of the enclosure.
We have the remains of some houses at Tell el
Amarna, and of the palace of Akhenaten of the
Eighteenth Dynasty, and with their aid, guided by
two of the numerous pictures or plans preserved in
tombs of that period, we can gain a very fair idea of
MANSIONS.
15
the mansions of the great Egyptian nobles and of high
officials.
The first of the pictorial plans that we will examine
represents a Theban house, half palace, half villa
^t^»ti^»tilWl#Jilf
:|flHTlTtfii$l#llfl$llllfmlffiiwwlijrg
'XXXXJLrrizrxrx A A a a i-n-> iiimmuillll Art > ilu.unniiiiii A--rtr-.hm J. J-i<
Fig. 14. — Plan of a Theban house with garden, from Eighteenth
Dynast}1, tomb-painting.
(figs. 14, 15). The enclosure is rectangular, surrounded
by a crenellated wall. The principal entrance opens
upon a road bordered with trees, by the side of a
canal or a branch of the Nile. The garden is
i6
ARCHITECTURE — CIVIL AND MILITARY.
symmetrically divided by low slone walls. In the
centre is a large trellis supported on four rows of
small columns, to right and left are four pools stocked
with ducks and geese, two leaf)' conservatories, two
summer-houses, and avenues of sycamores, date-palms
and dom-palms. At the back facing the entrance
Fig. 15. — Perspective view of the Theban house, from Eighteenth
Dynasty tomb-painting.
is the house, two-storied and of small dimensions,
surmounted by a painted cornice.
The second plan is taken from one of the tombs of
Tell el Amarna itself (figs. 16, 17). The house repre-
sented here, in the original picture stands at the end
of a garden, surrounded by store-houses. It represents
the palace of Ai, son-in-law to Akhenaten, who himself
FACADES OF MANSIONS.
17
in turn became King of Egypt. In front of the
entrance to the palace there is an artificial pool of
water with sloping sides protected by a curb, and
with two sets of steps leading down to it.
The building itself is a rectangle, the facade wider
than the sides. In the centre is a great doorway
which opens into a courtyard or wide passage
flanked by stone
chambers. Two
small chambers
arranged sym-
metrically at
each corner of
the back wall
contain the
staircases that
lead to the ter-
raced roof. This
outer building
forms the frame
to the actual
dwelling -house.
The facade has
a portico of eight columns, and is divided in the
centre by the pylon. Passing through this doorway,
one entered a sort of central passage divided by
two transverse walls with doors in them so arranged
as to form a series of three courts. The central
one was flanked with chambers, the first and third
opened right and left on smaller courts in which
were the stairs leading to the roof. This central
dwelling was the private dwelling of the king, or
Fig. 16. — Part of the palace of AY, from tomb-
painting, Eighteenth Dynasty, Tell el Amarna.
iS
ARCHITECTURE— CIVIL AND MILITARY.
the great nobles, where only the family and intimate
friends had the right of access. The number of
stories and the arrangement of the facade differed
according to the caprice of the owner. The frontage
was generally a plain wall. Sometimes it was
divided into three parts, with the middle division
projecting, in which case the two wings were
colonnaded on each story (fig. 18) or surmounted
Fig. 17. — Perspective view of the palace of Ai', Eighteenth Dynasty,
Tell el Amarna.
by an open gallery (fig. 19). The central pavilion
occasionally has the appearance of a tower which
dominates the rest of the building (fig. 20). The
facade is often decorated with slender wooden
colonnades that support nothing, but serve to relieve
the severe aspect of the exterior. The decoration
of the inner walls was generally very simple. They
were usually whitewashed or colour-washed and
bordered with a polychrome band, but in some
WALLS AND CEILINGS.
19
instances they were elaborately painted with pictured
scenes. The ceilings were sometimes white, some-
Fig. 18. — Frontage of house, second Theban period.
times decorated with geometric patterns (fig. 21),
parti-coloured squares (fig. 22), or other conventional
Fig. 19. — Frontage of house, second Theban period.
designs very similar to those in the tomb ceilings
(fig- 23)-
20
ARCHITECTURE— CIVIL AND MILITARY.
Fig. 20. — Central pavilion
of house, in form of
tower, second Theban
period.
So far we have followed the pictured plans. We
can now turn to the actual remains of the ruined
palace of Akhenaten * at Tell
el Amarna. A long double
mud wall on the east extended
the full length of the palace
next the high road. In the
centre this facade was broken
by a great pylon with a chariot-
way and two footways by which
the palace was entered. To right and left were two
chambers. At the south of
the enclosure was an immense
hall measuring 423 x 234 feet,
containing 542 mud pillars
52 inches square, and com-
municating with five smaller
halls. Here the pillars were
whitened and the ceilings were
painted with vine-leaves and bunches of grapes on a
yellow ground. The palace is
a mass of ruins. The stone has
been removed by the villagers
for their own use, but against
the enclosing wall on the north-
east are substantial remains of
the queen's pavilion, including
a large hall 21 feet x 51 feet,
where is the well-known painted
floor. Thence a door leads to an open colonnaded
court. In the centre was a well 15 feet deep covered
* W. M. Flinders Petrie, Till el Amarna, 1894.
Fig. 21. — Ceiling pattern
from behind Medinet
Hatu, Twentieth Dyn-
asty.
Fig. 22. — Ceiling pattern
similar to one at El Ber-
sheh, Twelfth Dynasty.
PALACE OF TELL EL AMARNA.
21
with a canopy supported on beautiful columns and
surrounded by a sculptured curb. Behind it are the
remains of a sakkieJi, or water-wheel. The passages
surrounding it open into cubicles, and here at last
we arrive at the sleeping-chambers of the ancient
Egyptians. They measure 6x8 feet, and at the
end of each is a sleeping-bench 2 feet wide by 6 feet
long and 30 inches from the ground. Another bench
at the side forms
a table or seat.
Many of the
pavements are
painted. The lime-
stone columns are
inlaid with coloured
glazes, the edges of
which have been
gilt. Wall painting
was largely used.
Above the ordinary
dado, painted in
red, white, and
blue, were various
Fig. 2-
-Ceiling pattern from tomb of
Aimadua, Twentieth Dynasty.
scenes. One is thoroughly
domestic. Single figures placed at intervals include
a servant sweeping the floor with a palm-brush
(fig. 24), and a cook who has left his wig behind,
carrying two stands with bowls containing a joint
of meat and some cakes. On the Juxrem walls
there are servants with cattle, a canal, a lake, lotus-
plants, and sailing-boats. Elsewhere was a family
group of the king and queen with their atten-
dants and children. Religious scenes abound, and
22
ARCHITECTURE — CIVIL AND MILITARY.
the inevitable representations of bound captives also
appear.
The finest pavement, which was almost perfect, was
painted on a carefully prepared surface (fig. 25). It
represented a tank of fish and lotus surrounded by
groups of plants and flowers. Above these birds
hovered, and calves and young cattle moved about
among them. A black border round the tank repre-
Fig. 24. — Wall-painting, palace of Tell el Amarna. W. M. F. Petrie.
sented the Nile mud, while the plants were growing
on yellow sand. The whole design was most charm-
ing. The pavement, alas ! was wantonly destroyed in
191 2 by a native from the neighbouring village.
Some houses in the open desert were also excavated.
They belonged to wealthy middle-class officials, and
are of better quality than the houses of the Twelfth
Dynasty of Kahun. They vary much in detail, but
HOUSES OF TELL EL AMARNA.
23
the same important characteristics can be observed in
all (fig. 26).
The approach to the house (a) was often up a flight
of shallow steps, usually on the north, never on the
south, and led to a room or possibly an open porch.
Entering the house there is a lobby (y) where the
Fig. 25. — Part of painted pavement, palace of Tell el Amarna.
W. M. F. Petrie.
doorkeeper probably slept, and which leads into the
columned loggia(L), well protected from the sun. There
is a small room beyond (o). The centre of the house,
and apparently the family sitting-room, is the square
hall (h). It often has a bench or mastaba on one side.
In front of this is the fire. There was no central
hole in the roof, and the wide door may have afforded
the only light, but it must be remembered in consider-
24
ARCHITECTURE— CIVIL AND MILITARY.
ing Egyptian architecture that in that land of sun-
shine a small opening will afford ample light for a
large chamber. These are the public rooms. The
remainder of the house divides into four parts, the
master's room, and women's quarter; the men-servants'
quarter ; store rooms ; and the staircase and cup-
boards. The room
marked C is appar-
ently the master's
bedroom. D and E
were probably used
by the women for
living and cooking,
and they never lead
outside the house.
The quarters for the
men-servants have no
communication with
the women's quarters
except inone instance.
There is a large hall
for their use, I, and a
stone tank. J and K
may be sleeping-
rooms for the married
men. The staircase (s) is sometimes winding, and
cupboards are arranged to fill in the spaces around
and below it. The houses are enclosed in an outer
wall. It was in a public building near by that the
Tell el Amarna cuneiform tablets were discovered.
These tablets bear the correspondence between Syria
and the king of Egypt, and were discovered acciden-
Fig. 26. — Plan of private house, Tel
el Amarna. W. M. F. Petrie.
HOUSES UNDER THE NEW KINGDOM. 25
tally by fellahin in search of sebakh. The cuneiform
scribe employed for the correspondence apparently
lived close at hand.
The town of Tell el Amarna is now in process of
being excavated.* At present two streets, roughly at
right angles with each other, have been laid bare.
These contained official houses built for the great
court officials, the high priest, the chief architect, and
others. Some of the walls still remain standing; to a
considerable height. The houses are not so important
as the Palace of Ai', nor are the gardens so large, but
they agree with the plans of smaller houses pictured
in the tombs of the officials. The arrangement of
the garden, the position of the house, and of the
offices and stables are the same. The pool has not
yet been found, but the well, with part of a large
sJiaduf beside it is there, the garden beds, the summer-
house surrounded by trees, the vegetable and herb
gardens can be clearly traced, while in the stables the
discarded harness was still lying. The house has
the portico, the entrance hall, and two other halls, the
stairs to the roof, the sleeping-chamber, or sometimes
two, the bathroom, and the entrance door itself, so
placed at right angles to the main passage, that
visitors approaching could not command a view
through the house — an arrangement we also observe
in the houses of the middle classes just described.
Thus of the domestic buildings of the second
Theban period we have a very remarkable amount of
remains. The lamps made in the form of houses,
* L. Borchardt, Miltheilungen Orient, Gesellschaft., Nos. 34, 1907,
and 50, Ocl. 191 2.
26
ARCHITECTURE— CIVIL AND MILITARY.
which are found in such large numbers in the Fayum,
date only from Ptolemaic and Roman times ; they
serve to show that
the same methods of
IB II II II i building prevailed
IKMSW^ then as under the
2
■1
. \ 8| <;. '-. ^r- <_ y?/v?'y???00£?^?^??^v
Eighteenth and
Nineteenth Dyn-
asties.
As regards the
domestic architec-
ture of the Old
Kingdom, the actual
remains are few.
Vestiges of the
poorer houses of the
Old Kingdom were
found at Koptos.
There the brick
flooring was raised
above the damp of
the basal clay, by
being laid on rows of
inverted cylindrical
pots of rough ware.
There is evidence
Kig. 27.— Door of a house of the Old that previous to the
Kingdom, from the wall of a tomb of T, , ~
the sixth Dynasty. Lourth Dynasty ex-
tensive use was
made of wood. The flooring planks of a royal tomb
of the First Dynasty at Abydos were placed on
17-inch beams, and the ceilings also of some of
MODELS OF HOUSES.
27
the royal tombs were supported on great wooden
beams nearly 20 feet in length. The stone roofing
in several mastabas at Saqqara of the Fifth Dynasty
is carved to imitate a roofing of beams.
To judge from the wall scenes, a large use seems to
have been made of coloured matting laced to a frame-
work, both for ceilings and inner walls ; good examples
of the latter use may be seen represented in the tomb
of Ptahhotep. Roofs of the Middle Kingdom at Beni
'""[HP"'"1
[HflfilllllliilffllMIII-
JddJUU
j.^jiiwiiiJEz:
it... -I ehh ' 'l ■ J
E3i rw vr w w w w w w w w vm wi "^ EZ3J ^^
en
rs
HUH
Zl CSi
r?^
Fig. 28. — Fa9ade of a Fourth Dynasty house, from the sarcophagus
of Khufu Poskhu.
Hasan are painted to represent ceiling beams with
matting stretched between. The stelas, tombs, and
coffins of the Old Kingdom occasionally furnish us
with drawings that show us the doorways of the
period (fig. 27), and a sarcophagus of the Fourth
Dynasty, that of Khufu-Poskhu, is carved to resemble
a house (fig. 28). From humbler graves of the Old
Kingdom come a number of models of houses in
rough pottery.* There is a great variety, ranging
from mere huts of one or two rooms to the house of
* W. M. Flinders Petrie, Rifeh, 1907.
28 ARCHITECTURE— CIVIL AND MILITARY.
five rooms enclosed in a courtyard with high crenel-
lated walls. The columned portico in front is almost
invariable. The outside staircase to the roof is rarely
absent, sometimes straight, sometimes winding ; there
are the vinlkafs, the barred windows, the water tanks,
and houses of two stories ; on the roof are the small
chambers, sometimes elaborated with colonnades ;
all as we have seen them under the Theban
dynasties, and even the separate chambers, apart from
the main building but within the enclosure, begin to
appear.
2. FORTRESSES.
The greater number of the towns, and even most
of the larger villages, were walled. On the carvings
of the archaic period we find them represented as
oval or round enclosures, strongly fortified. After
the union of the whole country under the dynastic
sovereigns this jealous guarding of individual towns
was still a necessary consequence of the geographical
characteristics and political constitution of the country.
Against the Bedouin it was necessary to block the
gorges leading to the desert ; while against their king
and their neighbours the great feudal lords fortified
the towns in which they dwelt and those villages on
their domains that commanded the mountain passes
or the easily navigable parts of the river.
The earliest fortresses arc those of Abydos, El Kab,
and Semneh. Abydos was situated at the commence-
ment of a road leading to the oases, and contained
the celebrated sanctuary of Osiris. The renown of
this temple attracted pilgrims, while the situation of
FORTRESSES. 29
the town brought merchandise thither. The pros-
perity and wealth that accrued from these two sources
exposed the city to incursions of Libyans, and it
possessed two strongholds. The older of the two
formed practically the core of the mound called
locally the Kom es Sultan or " Mound of the King."
Until recently the fort was remarkably perfect, but
much of it has now been destroyed. It was a
parallelogram of crude brick 410 feet long by 223 feet
broad. The greater axis was from north to south.
The principal entrance was in the west wall, not far
from the north-west corner ; and there were two of
less importance, one on the south and the other on
the east. The walls on the east side were from 24
to 36 feet high, having lost some of their original
height, and they were about 6 feet thick at the top.
They are not built in uniform courses, but as at
El Kab two methods of building are employed, which
are easily distinguishable. In the first the layers of
bricks are strictly horizontal, in the second they are
slightly concave and form a flattened arch of which
the extrados rests on the ground. These two methods
) are regularly alternated. The object of this arrange-
ment is obscure ; it is said, however, that it takes the
weight of the upper courses off the lower ones, and
also that this construction is specially fitted to with-
stand earthquake shocks. Whatever the date of the
walls, the fortress is extremely ancient, for as early
as the Fifth Dynasty the noble families of Abydos
invaded the enclosure, filling it with their tombs to
the extent of depriving it of all strategic value. A
second fortress, now called the SJiuuet ez Zebib, was
30 ARCHITECTURE— CIVIL AND MILITARY.
built some hundred metres to the south-east about
the time of the Twelfth Dynasty, and replaced the
stronghold of Kom cs Sultan, but under the Rames-
sides it narrowly escaped sharing" its fate. It was
only the sudden decline of the town that saved it
from being equally choked with tombs and funerary
stelae.
The Egyptians in early times possessed no engines
Fig. 29. — Plan of second fortress of Abydos, Eleventh or Twelfth
Dynasty.
capable of breaking down massive walls. They had
only three methods of forcing a stronghold ; by
escalade, sapping, or forcing the gates. The plan
adopted by their engineers in building the second
fort is admirably adapted for protection against these
three modes of attack (fig. 29). The walls are long
and straight, without towers or projections of any
kind ; they measure 430 feet in length on the east
and west sides, and 255 feet on the north and south.
The foundations rest directly on the sand, and no-
THE SECOND FORTRESS OF ABYDOS.
31
Fig. 30. — Walls of second fort
at Abydos, restored.
where are they more than a foot below the surface.
The wall (fig. 30) is of crude brick laid in horizontal
courses. It has a slight batter, is solid without loop-
holes of any sort, and is
panelled outside with vertical
angulated grooves similar to
those on buildings of the
Thinite period and Old King-
dom. The present height is
2)6 feet, and when perfect it
cannot have exceeded 40 feet,
a height which would amply
suffice to safeguard the garri-
son against any escalade by
portable ladders. The thick-
ness of the wall is about 20 feet at the base, and
about 16 feet at the top. The upper part is entirely
destroyed, but figured representations (fig. 31) show
that such walls were sometimes left plain and some-
times crowned
with a continuous
cornice and a nar-
row,low, crenellated
parapet, the mer-
lons of which were
generally rounded,
rarely square. The
path round the
ramparts, although narrowed by the thickness of the
parapet, cannot have been less than 13 or 15 feet
wide. It extended without a break round the four
sides, and was reached by narrow staircases hidden
^TJ-
7LI2^p#
a
Fig. 31. — Facade of fort, from wall-scene,
Beni Hasan, Twelfth Dynasty'.
32
ARCHITECTURE — CIVIL AND MILITARY.
Fig. 32. — Plan of main gate,
second fortress of Abydos.
in the masonry and now destroyed. There was no
foss, but, as a protection against sappers, a crenellated
covering wall was erected some 10 feet in front of
the main wall. This second
wall was about 16 feet high.
These precautions were suffi-
cient to guard against sapping
and escalade, but the gateways
remained as so many gaping
breaches in the fortifications.
They formed the weak point
on which attack and defence
alike were concentrated. The fortress at Abydos
had two gateways, the main one situated near the
cast end of the north front (fig. 32). A narrow
opening (a), closed by massive wooden doors, marked
the place in the covering wall. Behind it was a
small place d' amies (is), constructed in the thickness
of the main wall, and behind this a second door (c)
as narrow as the first one. When
the foe had forced this door, in face
of the besieged posted on the walls,
who would rain projectiles on him
in front and on both sides, he had
yet further perils to face. He had
to cross an oblong court (d) hemmed
in between the walls, and two
counter forts built out at right
angles. Here, completely exposed to the attacks of
the defenders, he would have to force a postern
gate (e), placed intentionally in the most inaccessible
corner. The principle on which these gates were
Fig. 33.— Plan of
south-east gate,
second fortress
of Abydos.
WALLED CITIES.
33
k
&
>r
Fig. 34.— Plan of
gate, fortress of
Kom el Ahmar.
constructed is practically the same everywhere, but
they vary slightly according to the wishes of the
engineers. At the south-east gate of the fortress of
Abydos (fig. 33) the place darmes
between the two walls is omitted,
and the court is constructed entirely
in the thickness of the main wall.
At Kom el Ahmar, opposite El Kab,
the block of brickwork in which the
door is cut projects boldly (fig. 34).
Various posterns disposed at irregular intervals facili-
tated the movements of the garrison and enabled
them to carry out a variety of sorties.
The same system of fortification employed for
fortresses was also
employed for the
defence of towns.
Everywhere, at
Keliopolis, at San,
at Sai's, and at
Thebes, the walls
are straight, without
towers or bastions :
they form either a
square or an elon-
gated parallelogram,
without foss or out-
posts. The thick-
ness of the walls, which varies from 35 to 70 feet,
renders such precautions unnecessary. The jambs
and lintels of the gates, or at any rate of the principal
ones, were of stone, sculptured with historical scenes
3
Fl'g- 35-— Plan of the walled citv at El Kab.
34
ARCHITECTURK — CIVIL AND MILITARY.
some years ago,
but at
and inscriptions, as, for instance, the door at Ombos,
which Champollion saw yet in situ, and which dated
from the reign of Thothmes III.
The oldest and best preserved walled city in Egypt,
El Kab, dates back to the beginning of Egyptian
history ; the remains of the oval enclosure of pre-
dynastic days can still be traced within the outer
walls of the later fortress (fig. 35). This great
stronghold was partially washed away by the Nile
the beginning of the
nineteenth century it
formed an irregular
quadrilateral enclo-
sure measuring 2,100
feet in length by
about one-sixth less
in breadth. The
south front is con-
structed on the same
principle as Kom es
Sultan, sections of horizontal layers of brick alternating
with others where they are concave. On the north
and west the layers undulate regularly without a break
from end to end of the walls. The walls are 38 feet
thick, and average 30 feet in height. Stairways
constructed in the thickness of the walls, and also
spacious ramps, lead to the top. The enclosure
contained a considerable population, and within the
wall on the north side is a cemetery of the earliest
type of graves. The temples were grouped together
in a square enclosure, concentric with the outer wall,
and this second enclosure served as a keep where the
Fig. 36. — Plan of walled city at Kom
Ombo.
FORTIFIED HEIGHTS.
35
garrison could still hold out long after the rest of the
camp had fallen into the hands of the enemy.
The rectangular plan, though excellent in flat
country, was not always adapted for hilly country.
When the site to be fortified was on a height, the
Egyptian engineers understood well how to adapt the
line of defence to the slope of the ground. At Kom
Ombo (fig. 36) the walls exactly follow the outline of
the isolated mound on which the town is perched.
Their eastern front is
broken by irregular pro-
jections that roughly
suggest the modern
bastion. At Kummeh
and Semneh in Nubia,
where the Nile emerges
from the rocks of the
second cataract, the ar-
rangements are still
more skilful, and show
Fig. 37. — Plan of fortress of
Kummeh.
real genius. Senusert
(Usertesen) III. had there fixed the Egyptian frontier:
the fortresses he constructed were intended to bar
the waterway against the vessels of the negroes of
the south.
At Kummeh, on the right bank, the position is
one of great natural strength (fig. 37). Upon the
rocky, precipitous hill an irregular square was
enclosed measuring about 200 feet each way. Two
long salients or elongated bastions were constructed,
one on the north to command the road leading to the
gate of the fortress, and the other on the south to
36
ARCHITECTURE — CIVIL AND MILITARY.
guard the course of the river. The covering wall is
13 feet in front of the main wall, and follows its
lines except at two points, the north-west and south-
east angles, where it has two bastion-like projections.
On the opposite side of the river at Semneh the
position is not so favourable. The east side is pro-
tected by a sheer cliff that descends perpendicularly
to the river, but the other sides are only too easy
of access (fig. 38). On
the top of this cliff a
wall about 50 feet
high was built, but
on the other side
towards the plain the
wall was over 80 feet
in height, and bristled
with counterforts (a,
b), 50 feet long by
30 feet wide at the
base, and 13 feet at
the top. These were
placed at irregular intervals according to the re-
quirements of the defences ; they had no parapets,
and took the place of towers. They added much
to the security of the fortress as they commanded
the access to the top of the walls, and enabled
the besieged to direct a flank attack against the
enemy if any attempt was made to force the main
walls. The interval between these counterforts is
calculated so that the archers could sweep the whole
intervening space with their arrows. Both curtains
and salients are in crude brick, with large beams
Fig. 38.— Plan of fortress of Semneh.
SE.MNEH.
37
built horizontally into the mass. The outer face is
in two sections, the lower one almost vertical, the
upper one sloping at an angle of about 70 degrees,
an arrangement which made it extremely difficult if
not impossible to
scale the walls. The
whole of the en-
closure inside the
walls was filled in
after the fashion of
a tPrrP fifriti almost Fig- 39- -Section of the platform at a, b,
a Une-pltin almost of preceding plan.
to the level of the
ramparts (fig. 39). Externally the covering wall of
dry stone was separated from the main building by
a foss 100 to 130 feet wide ; it followed the general
line of the main wall with considerable accuracy, and
varied from 5 to 10 feet in height according to the
situation. On the north
J it was cut by the wind-
f ing pathway leading to
the plain. These arrange-
ments, clever as they were,
could not save Semneh
from falling into the hands
of the enemy ; a large
gap on the south side
between the two salients
the spot where the final
Fig. 40. — Syrian fort.
nearest the river marks
assault was carried by the enemy.
The great Asiatic wars of the Eighteenth Dynasty
which secured for the victorious Pharaohs their
eastern empire taught the Egyptians new methods
38
ARCHITECTURE — CIVIL AND MILITARY.
of fortification. The nomads of southern Syria
erected small forts to which they could retreat when
threatened with invasion (fig. 40). The Canaanite
and Hittite cities,
such as Ascalon,
Dapur, and Merom,
were surrounded by
massive walls, gene-
rally built of stone,
and flanked by
towers (fig. 41).
Cities built on plains,
such as Qodshu
(Kadesh), were en-
trenched behind a
Fig. 41. — The town walls of Dapur.
double foss filled with water (fig. 42). The Pharaohs
introduced into the Nile valley some of these new
types, whose value they had learnt during their
campaign. From
the beginning of the
Nineteenth Dynasty,
the eastern frontier
of the Delta, the;
weakest point of
Egyptian defences,
was protected by a
series of block-
houses similar to
those of Canaan.
Not content with appropriating the actual thing, the
Egyptians also adopted the name and called these
watch-towers by the Semitic name of magadilu
Fig. 42. — City of Kadesh, from bas-rcliel,
Ramesseum.
MEDINET HABU.
39
(migdols). Brick did not appear to be sufficiently
strong for towns exposed to incursions of Asiatics,
and the walls of Heliopolis and Memphis were now
cased in stone. Nothing now re-
mains of these new fortifications,
and we should be forced to turn
to pictured representations to
learn the appearance of these
migdols, were it not that, owing
to royal caprice, we possess a
model in a place where we
should least expect to find it —
in the Theban necropolis.
When Rameses III. planned his funerary temple
(figs. 43, 44) he decided to commemorate his Syrian
victories by giving it a military appearance. On the
eastern side is a battlemented covering wall of
Fig. 43. — Plan of the
pavilion of Medinet
Habii.
Fig. 44. — Elevation of pavilion, Medinet Habu.
stone, which averages 13 feet in height. In the
middle of the wall is the gateway, protected by a
huge quadrangular bastion. This is 6 feet 8 inches
broad, flanked by two small oblong guardrooms,
40 ARCHITECTURE — CIVIL AND MILITARY.
the roofs of which are about 3 feet higher than
the coping of the ramparts. Having entered this
gateway, we arc actually face to face with a migdol.
Two blocks of masonry, themselves the basement of
towers, enclose a court which is narrowed by succes-
sive projections of the masonry. These blocks are
finally united by a building two stories high, which
forms a lofty gateway. The eastern faces of the
towers are on a sloping substructure about 16 feet
high. This was built with two objects in view, first
to increase the strength of the wall at a point where
it was possible to sap it, and also because projectiles
flung from the battlements would rebound against the
slope and keep assailants at a distance. The total
height is about 70 feet, and the breadth in front
rather more than 80 feet. The buildings situated
behind and at the sides of the gateway were destroyed
in ancient times. The details of the decoration are
adapted to the character — half religious, half triumphal
— of the building. It is, however, improbable that
real fortresses were decorated with brackets and bas-
reliefs similar to those we see here on the walls of the
guard-rooms. Such as it is, the so-called pavilion of
Medinet Habu is a unique example of the perfection
to which the Pharaohs had brought military archi-
tecture.
After the time of Rameses III. we are left almost
entirely without examples of fortified buildings.
Towards the end of the eleventh century B.C. the
high priests of Amen repaired the walls of Thebes,
of Gebclevn, and of El Hibeh. The territorial
division of the country which took place under the
BRIDGES.
41
successors of Sheshonk compelled the princes of the
nomes to increase the number of their strongholds.
The campaign of Piankhi on the borders of the Nile
was a series of successful sieges, but there is nothing
to lead us to suppose that the art of fortification had
made any sensible progress at that time. When the
Greek Pharaohs took the place of the native rulers
they probably found fortifications similar to those
constructed by the engineers of the Eighteenth and
Nineteenth Dynasties.
3. — PUBLIC WORKS.
In such a country as Egypt a permanent system of
roads is unnecessary ; the Nile is the natural highway
for commerce, and the top of the *y,
embankments and the footpaths
that intersect the fields are amply
sufficient for foot-passengers, for
cattle, and for the transport of
goods from village to village.
Ferry-boats for crossing the river,
fords wherever the canals were
not too deep, and permanent
causeways placed across water
furrows, completed the system. pigg .,
Bridges were rare ; up to the
present time we only know of
one in ancient Egypt ; and whether that one was
long or short, built of wood or of stone, supported on
arches or formed of a single span, we know nothing.
Under the walls of Zaru it crossed the canal that
separated the eastern frontiers of the Delta from the
Canal and
bridge of Zaru, from
bas-relief, Karnak.
42
ARCHITECTURE — CIVIL AND MILITARY.
desert regions of Arabia Petraea. On the Asiatic
side the bridge was protected by a fort (fig. 45). Thus
the maintenance of means of communication, which is
so costly an item among modern nations, played a
very small part in the annual budget of the Pharaohs ;
they were responsible for
only three important ser-
vices, that of storing, of
irrigation, and of mining
and quarrying.
Taxes were collected
in kind, and Government
officials were paid on the
Fig. 46. — Cellar, with amphorae.
same system. Monthly distributions were made to
the workpeople of corn, oil, and wine, while from end
to end of the social scale, each functionary, in return
for his services, received cattle, stuffs, manufactured
goods, and certain quantities of copper or precious
metals. It was, therefore,
necessary that the fiscal
authorities should have
command of vast store-
houses for the reception
of the taxes demanded of
the people. Each class
of goods had its separate
quarter walled in, and pro-
tected by vigilant guards. There were large stables
for the cattle ; cellars where the amphora,- were piled
in regular layers or hung in rows on the walls (fig. 46),
each with the date of the vintage written on the side ;
and oven-shaped granaries where the grain was
Fig. 47. — Granary.
STOREHOUSES.
43
poured in through a shuttered opening in the roof
(fig. 47), and taken out through a trap near the
ground.
At Thuku (identified with Pithom by M. Naville)
the store - chambers are
rectangular (a, a. fig. 48), of
various sizes, and have no
direct communication with
each other : the wheat was
both put in and taken out
at the top. At the Rames-
seum the thousands of
ostraca and of jar-stoppers
scattered over the place
prove that the ruinous
Dl *" \
* 1 1
4
llv^X— «
WpP
O
XI" **
brick buildings immedi-
Fig. 48.— Plan of Pithom.
ately behind the temple contained the stores of wine
belonging to the god. These chambers are long
vaulted passages placed closely side by side, and
were originally surmounted by a platform (fig. 49).
Fig. 49. — Store-chambers of the Ramesseum.
Philee, Ombos, Daphnae, and most of the frontier
towns of the Delta possessed store-houses of this kind,
and many more will be discovered when a systematic
search is made for them.
44
ARCHITECTURE— CIVIL AND MILITARV.
The system of irrigation has not greatly changed
during the course of centuries. Some new canals
have been cut, others have slightly changed their
course, while a larger number have been silted up,
owing to the negligence of the proprietor, but the
general scheme and
methods of irriga-
tion are the same.
They do not de-
mand much skilled
labour. Wherever
I have been able
to examine the
ancient canals, I
have found no trace
of masonry, either
at the commence-
ment or even at
the weak points of
their course. They
are mere ditches
from 20 to 70 feet
wide ; the earth
flung out during
the work of exca-
vating, and thrown
to right and left formed irregular sloping banks from
7 to 14 feet high. An early bas-relief, now at Oxford,
shows one of the kings of the archaic period, in full
state, pick in hand, breaking the sod for a new canal
or some other public work, while an attendant holds
a basket (fig. 50).
Fig. 50. — King, wearing the
upper Egypt, attended by fan-bearers,
inaugurating some public work. Part
of carved mace head, Oxford.
IRRIGATION. 45
The ancient canals were generally straight, but
occasionally some slight irregularity in the ground
would turn them out of their course, and they would
form immense curves. The dykes that traverse the
plain, intersect the canals at intervals and divide the
valley into basins, which retain the water during
the months of the inundation. These dykes are
generally of earth, though sometimes of baked brick,
as in the province of Girgeh. The embankment at
Kosheish is very exceptional ; it is constructed of
worked stone, and was made by Menes, the first king
of the First Dynasty, for the benefit of his new city
of Memphis. This system of dykes began near
Silsilis, and extended to the sea, keeping close to the
Nile throughout its course, except at Beni Suef,
where it threw out an arm in the direction of the
Fayum. It crossed the rocky barrier of the Libyan
mountains near Illahun by a narrow and sinuous
gorge, which possibly was artificially deepened and
then widened into a fanlike network of many ramifi-
cations. The inundation retreated after having
watered the province, and the water nearest the Nile
returned by the way it came, while the remainder
found its way into a series of lakes, the largest of
which is known to-day as the Birket el Karun. If
we are to believe Herodotus, the matter was by no
means so simple. King Moeris desired to establish a
reservoir in the Fayum to regulate the uncertain
supply of water from the inundation, which was called
after him Lake Moeris. Did the inundation prove
insufficient, the water in the lake could be let loose
to the required extent and maintain the flood at the
46 ARCHITECTURE— CIVIL AND MILITARY.
height required for middle Egypt and the western
Delta. Another year, if the flood proved too great,
Moeris could absorb the overplus and retain it till the
flood subsided. Two pyramids crowned with colossal
figures, one representing the king who constructed
the lake and the other his wife, were situated in the
middle of the lake. So says Herodotus, and he has
puzzled engineers and geographers. How was it
possible in the Fayum to find a site for a piece of
water not less than 90 miles in circumference ? The
best accredited theory of our day was that of Linant,
that it was situated at the base of the Libyan
mountains between Illahun and Mcdinet el Fayum ;
but recent excavations have proved that the supposed
embankments are modern, and probably do not date
back more than 200 years. If Herodotus ever visited
the Fayum it must have been in the summer, when
the whole district has the appearance of a huge lake.
What he mistook for the borders of the lake were the
embankments that divide the basins and afford com-
munication between the various towns. Major Brown
has lately shown that the nucleus of " Lake Moeris "
was the Birket el Karun. It was known to the
Egyptians as Miri, the Lake ; from this the Greeks
derived their Moiris, a name extended also to the
inundation of the Fayum.
I do not believe in the existence of an artificial
lake. The only works of that class attempted by the
Egyptians are less pretentious ; these are the stone
barriers constructed at the mouth of the ravines
that descend from the mountains into the plain. One
of the most important was observed in 1855 by Dr.
STORAGE OF WATER.
47
Schweinfurth, about six miles and a half to the south-
west of the baths of Helwan, at the entrance of Wady
Gerraweh (fig. 51). It answered two purposes — it
stored up water for the
workmen engaged in the
neighbouring alabaster
quarries, and it broke the
power of the torrents that
rush down from the desert
after the winter rains. The
ravine measures about 240
feet in width, and the sides
40 to 50 feet in height. The
dam was constructed of three
successive layers making a
total thickness of 143 feet.
There was first a layer of
clay and rubbish from the
hillside (a), then a piled-up mass of large blocks of
limestone, and finally a facing wall of worked stones
backed the whole on the east side (b). Each layer of
stone was narrower than the one below it, and the
whole dam formed a sort of
Fig. 51.— Dyke at Wady
Gerraweh.
Fig. 52. — Section of Dyke at
Wady Gerraweh.
" 'mk ^mmense staircase. Thirty-
™ two of these steps still
steps still
exist out of the original
thirty-five, and about one-
fourth of the barrage is still standing at the two
ends, though the centre has been swept away by the
torrent (fig. 52). A similar barrier transformed the
lower part of Wady Genneh into a small lake whence
the miners of Sinai procured their water supply.
4-8 ARCHITECTURE — CIVIL AND MILITARY.
Most of the localities from which Egypt obtained
her metals and valuable stone were difficult of access,
and the mines would have proved useless had not the
Egyptians constructed roads and rendered life more
possible for those who laboured there. The route to
the quarries of Wady Ilammamat where diorite and
grey granite were obtained was provided at intervals
with cisterns hewn in the rock. Some meagre springs
ingeniously husbanded and stored in these cisterns
made it possible to establish whole villages at the
quarries and also at the emerald mines on the borders
of the Red Sea. Hundreds of voluntary workers, as
well as slaves and condemned criminals, lived there
in misery under the command of a dozen taskmasters,
and under the brutal control of mercenary soldiers,
either Libyans or negroes. The slightest revolution
in Egypt, an unsuccessful war, or any political trouble
would for a time put an end to this unnatural exist-
ence ; the labourers would desert, the Bedouin would
harry the colony, the guards in charge of the convicts
would return to the valley of the Nile, and the work
would be abandoned.
The choicest materials such as diorite, basalt, black
granite, porphyry, green or yellow breccia were only
sparingly used for architectural purposes, as it was
necessary to organise regular expeditions of soldiers
and workmen to procure them, and they were reserved
almost exclusively for sarcophagi and valuable statues.
The quarries of limestone, sandstone, alabaster, and
red granite which supplied the ordinary material for
temples and funerary monuments were found in the
Nile valley, and were therefore easily obtained. When
QUARRIES.
49
im<
the vein intended to be worked formed one of the
lower strata of the mountain, tunnels and chambers
were excavated often to
a considerable distance.
Square pillars of the rock
left standing at intervals
supported the roof, and
stelae carved in the most
conspicuous places re-
corded for posterity the
names of the kings and
engineers whocommenced
and carried on the work.
Several of these quarries
when exhausted or aban-
b^^&jfcl
^>>
<-> 4
«r I
,-^^C
Fig. 53. — Quarries of Silsilis.
doned were turned into chapels; the Specs Artemidos
for instance, which was dedicated by Hatshepsut,
Thotmes III., and Seti I. to Pakhet, the local goddess.
4
So
ARCHITECTURE— CIVIL AND MILITARY.
The most important limestone quarries are at Turah
and Massarah, almost opposite Memphis. This stone
was in great request for sculptors and architects, and
was in fact one of the finest materials employed for
statuary. Strong as it is, it lends itself marvellously
to the most delicate requirements of the chisel, it
hardens by exposure and soon acquires a creamy
colour very restful to the
eye. At Silsilis there are
vast beds of sandstone,
and these were quarried
in the open (fig. 53).
There we find escarp-
ments from 40 to 50 feet
high worked from top to
bottom with the pick, or
sometimes divided into
stages to which access is
afforded by steps scarcely
wide enough for a man.
The walls are grooved
with parallel lines, some
horizontal, some sloping
from left to right or from
rieht to left in such a fashion as to form blunted
chevrons, enclosed in a rectangular frame of grooves
an inch, or an inch and a half wide, and 9 or 10
feet in length. These are scars left by the scratching
of the tools of the ancient workman, and show the
method he employed to obtain his blocks. They were
sketched out on the rock in red ink, sometimes in
the form in which they were to appear in the projected
Fig. 54. — Draught of Hatlior capital
in quarry of Gebel Abu Fedah.
QUARRYING AND TRANSPORT OF STONE. 51
building. The members of the Commission d'Egypte
copied the diagrams and squared designs of several
capitals in the quarries of Gebel Abu Fedah (fig. 54).
These outlines having been drawn, the vertical incisions
were made by means of a long metal chisel driven in
perpendicularly or obliquely by powerful blows from
a mallet. The horizontal detachments were effected
solely by bronze or wooden wedges inserted in the
direction of the rock strata. The first working of the
block was often done before it was detached from the
rock ; thus at Assuan we see an immense length of
granite which is probably an unfinished obelisk, and
Fig. 55- — Bas-relief from one of the stelae of Aahmes, at Turah,
Eighteenth Dynasty.
at Tehneh there are drums of columns only half
disengaged.
Transport was effected in various ways. At Assuan,
at Silsilis, at Gebel Sheikh Herida, and at Gebel Abu
Fedah the quarries are literally washed by the waters of
the Nile, and the stone was merely rolled from its place
on to the barges. At Kasr es Said and at Turah,
localities some distance from the river, boats were
brought to the foot of the cliff by means of canals
constructed for the purpose. Where it was impossible
to arrange for transport by water, the stone was loaded
upon sledges drawn by oxen (fig. 55) or even dragged
by gangs of workmen with the help of rollers.
CHAPTER 11.
RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
As the earliest dwellings we know of the Egyptians
were made of wattle and daub, so were the temples of
the primitive period. An attempt was made to give
them some dignity of appearance. A few posts in
front marked off a small enclosure, on either side of
the doorway were two high masts, and over the door
protruded four curved objects ; what they were we
cannot identify from the few representations that are
all we have to guide us. A carving of the time of
Menes, first king of United Egypt, shows a small
sanctuary that lacks even this decoration, but it is
surrounded by a palisade, and inside the enclosure
are the masts and also a symbol of the goddess Neith,
to whom doubtless the building was dedicated.
This primitive method of temple building was soon
superseded. The Egyptians early acquired the art of
building in stone, and by the time of the Pyramid
builders they had carried it to the highest perfection.
The Pharaohs desired to build eternal divelliiig-places
for the gods, and for this purpose stone appeared to
be the only material sufficiently durable to withstand
the attacks of men and the ravages of time.
52
STONE BLOCKS. 53
I. MATERIALS AND PRINCIPLES OF CONSTRUCTION.
It is a mistake to suppose that the Egyptians used
only large blocks for their buildings. The size varied
greatly according to the purpose for which they were
intended. Architraves, drums of columns, lintels, and
door jambs were sometimes of very considerable
dimensions. The largest architraves known, those
above the central aisle of the hypostyle hall at Karnak,
average 30 feet in length. Each one represents a
solid block of 40 cubic yards and weighs about 65
tons. Generally, however, the blocks are not larger
than those in ordinary use among ourselves. They
vary from 3 to 4 feet in height, from 3 to 8 feet
in length, and from 18 inches to 6 feet in breadth.
Some temples are built throughout in one kind of
stone, but more frequently materials of various kinds
and quality are associated, although in unequal pro-
portions. Thus the main buildings of the temples of
Abydos are of very fine limestone, while in the temple
of Seti I. the columns, architraves, jambs, and lintels,
all those parts where limestone might not be suffi-
ciently strong, are in sandstone, and in the temple of
Rameses II. they are in sandstone, granite, and
alabaster. Similar combinations are to be seen in the
temples of Karnak, Luxor, Tanis, Deir el Bahari,
Gizeh, and Memphis. At the Ramesseum, at Karnak,
and in the Nubian temples, where all these materials
are combined, the columns rest on a solid foundation
of crude brick. The stones were dressed more or less
carefully according to the position they were to
occupy. When the walls were of medium thickness
54 RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
the)' were well wrought on all sides. When the wall
was thick the core consisted of blocks roughed out as
nearly cubic as possible and piled together, while the
gaps between them were filled in with chips, pebbles,
or mortar. The casing stones were carefully wrought
on the upp2r and lower sides as well as on the face,
while at the back they were roughed with the pick to
hold the mortar. The largest of these blocks were
used for the lower courses, a very necessary precaution,
as the architects of the Pharaonic period afforded
almost as shallow foundations for the temples as they
did for houses and palaces. At Karnak the founda-
tions of the walls, columns, and obelisks are barely
7 to 10 feet in depth ; at Luxor, on the side close
to the river, the walls rest on a gigantic substructure
of three courses of masonry, each of them about 2h
feet in height. At the Ramesseum the course of
dried brick which supports the colonnade does not
appear to measure more than 7 feet. These
depths are very insignificant, but the experience of
ages has proved them to be sufficient. The hard
compact humus which everywhere forms the soil of
the Nile valley is so contracted by the annual subsi-
dence of the inundation that it is rendered almost
incompressible. The weight of the masonry gradually
increased as the building progressed, and thus the
maximum of pressure was attained and a solid basis
secured. Wherever I have bared the foundations of
the walls, I can testify that they have not shifted.
This is the case even at Karnak, which I examined
after the fall of the columns in 1899.
It was customary at the building or rebuilding of
FOUNDATIONS AND FOUNDATION DEPOSITS. 55
a temple to place deposits under the foundations con-
sisting of small squares of the building materials and
models of the tools employed. Also a number of
amulets, which were probably intended to secure by
magic the safety of the temple. These foundation
deposits are generally found in a layer of clean sand,
and marvellously fresh and uninjured. Many of the
objects are inscribed with the name of the royal
founder of the temple, and it was by means of its
intact foundation deposits that one of the ruined
temples to the south of the Ramesseum was identified
as that of Queen Tausert of the end of the Nineteenth
Dynasty, although all its walls were razed to the
ground. Among the glazed objects found in this
deposit were scarabs, plaques, models of offerings,
besides many beads. The metal objects include adze,
knife, axehead, hoes, and chisels, made in thin sheet
copper. There were also jars and cups, an ebony
cramp, and a model corn-grinder. The foundation
deposits of the Eighteenth Dynasty temple at Deir el
Bahari furnished numerous models of workmen's tools,
including the wooden centrings used in construct-
ing brick vaulting. These were neatly inscribed in
blue ink with the cartouche of the foundress Hat-
shepsut. Two deposits at the western entrance of this
temple afford evidence of a ceremony customary at
the foundation of a temple.* An animal was slain
and the flesh laid on a floor of clean sand over which
the blood was allowed to drip ; vessels containing
unguents and wine were smashed and their contents,
* Earl of Carnarvon, Five Years Exploration at Thebes, Oxford
University Press, 19 12.
56 RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE
together with grains of corn, were poured into the
cache in addition to the offering of flesh and blood.
The system of construction employed by the ancient
Egyptians in many points resembles that of the
Greeks. The stones are often placed with dry joints
without binding of any sort, the masons trusting to
their weight to keep them in position. Sometimes
they are held together by metal cramps of copper or
lead or, as in the temple of Seti at Abydos, by dove-
tails of sycamore wood, marked with the royal
cartouche. Elsewhere they are bound together by
mortar laid on more or less thickly. The specimens
of mortar I have hitherto collected are of one or other
of three kinds. The first is white and easily reduced
to a powder, being merely lime, the second is grey
and rough to the touch, a mixture of lime and sand,
the third owes its reddish appearance to pounded
brick-dust mixed with the lime and sand. The
judicious use of these methods enabled the Egyptians
to rival the Greeks in the skilful laying of regular
courses of even blocks with the vertical joints sym-
metrically alternated. If the work is not always
equally good the fault must be attributed to the
imperfect mechanical means at their disposal.
Outer walls, party walls, and secondary facades
were usually perpendicular, and the building materials
required for them were raised by a huge lifting jack
placed on the top. The walls of pylons, of principal
facades, and sometimes even of secondary facades
were built with a batter of varying slope. For their
construction inclined planes or ramps were erected and
heightened as the building progressed. Both methods
MASONRY. 57
were equally dangerous. However carefully the blocks
were protected there was great risk of damaging the
edges and corners or even of breaking the blocks in
pieces. They almost always required some re-work-
ing, and in order to avoid waste, the workman would
actually insert pieces of stone in places that had been
badly chipped, or he would bevel the end, making the
joint sloping instead of vertical. If a stone was too
short or not high enough, the difficulty was met by
inserting a supplementary slab, or again a stone that
was too large was allowed to overlap and fill a
corresponding gap in the course above or below it
(fig. 56). These expedients, at
first designed to remedy acci-
dents, degenerated into habitually
careless ways of working. The
masons who had inadvertently Fi 56.— Masonry
drawn up too large a block did temple of Seti I. at
, , . . . Abydos.
not trouble to lower it again,
but adjusted it by one of the expedients just men-
tioned. The architect did not give sufficient attention
to superintending the working or the laying of the
blocks and would allow the vertical joints to come
immediately over each other for two or three courses.
When utilising materials from ruined edifices he
would not trouble to work them into shape ; round
shafts of older columns were thus mixed with rect-
angular blocks in the walls of the Ramesseum.
The main building completed, the facing was
worked smooth, the joints were re-worked and
washed over with a coating of cement or stucco,
coloured to match the masonry, which concealed the
l_rz
-L \
v
Lh
1
in
58
RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
HMRllianUOW Wi- T*V\W*
Fig- 57- — Temple
wall with cornice.
imperfections of the original work. The walls rarely
end abruptly, they are bordered by a torus round
which a sculptured ribbon is entwined, and crowned
_ either with the splayed cornice
surmounted by a flat band (fig. 57),
or, as at Semneh, by a square
cornice, or, as at Medinet Habu,
by a line of battlements. Thus
framed they have much the ap-
pearance of huge panels without
projections and almost without
openings. Windows, always rare in Egypt, are
here mere air-holes, intended to give light to the
staircases, as in the second
pylon of Horemheb at
Karnak, or else on festival
days to support the orna-
mental woodwork. The
doorways afforded little
relief to the flat surface
of the building (fig. 58)
except when the lintel
was surmounted by a flat
band and cornice. The
pavilion at Medinet Habu
is the solitary exception,
and has real windows,
but it was constructed
on the model of a Syrian
Fig. 5S. — Niche and doorway in
temple of Scti I. at Abydos.
fortress and can only be quoted as an exception.
The floor of the court and chambers consisted of
rectangular paving stones arranged with considerable
VAULTING.
59
Fig. 59. — Pavement of the
portico of Osiris in temple
of Seti I. at Abydos.
regularity except in the inter-columnar spaces. Here,
hopeless of adapting them to the curved line of the
bases, the architects fitted in fragments of stone
without order or method (fig.
59). Vaulting,* which was
customary in dwelling-houses,
was scarcely ever employed
in the temples. It is, how-
ever, to be found at Deir
el Bahari, and in the seven
parallel sanctuaries at Abydos.
Even in these instances it is
effected by corbelling. The corbel is formed by
three or four horizontal courses, each of which pro-
jects beyond the preceding one, until the two sides
meet. The rough curve thus obtained is then
chiselled into the
form of an arch
(fig. 60). The roof
is usually formed
of large stone slabs
placed closely to-
gether ; when the
space between the
walls was not too
great, a single row
of slabs covered it,
but when this was not possible the roof supports
had to be placed at intervals varying in number
according to the space to be covered. Architraves
The earliest true arch known in Egypt is in a mastaba at Bet
Khallaf of the Second or Third Dynast}'.
Fig. 60. — Corbelled arch in temple
of Seti I. at Abydos.
6o
RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
resembling immense stone beams were laid across
the supports and formed a framework on which the
roofing slabs were laid.
There were two types of these supports, the pillar
and the column. Some of these are monoliths.
The pillars of the great granite temple at Gizeh
measure 16 feet in height by 4^ feet in width, and the
red granite columns found scattered among the ruins
of Saqqara, Bubastis, Memphis, and Alexandria,
range from 20 to 26 feet in height and
are all cut in one piece. But columns
and pillars are commonly built in
courses, which are often irregular, like
those of the walls that surround them.
The great columns of Luxor are not
even solid, two-thirds of the diameter
are filled up with yellow cement which
has lost its strength and crumbles
between the fingers. The capital of
the column of Taharka at Karnak is
thor pillar, composed of five courses of stone, each
AbiiSimbel. . ,. , T1 ,
about 4"b inches high. 1 he upper and
most projecting one is composed of twenty-six stones
the points of which converge towards the centre and
are held in place solely by the weight of the square
die above it. The same carelessness we have already
observed in the workmanship of the walls also occurs
in the workmanship of the pillars and columns.
The quadrangular pillar, with parallel or slightly
sloping sides, and with or without base or capital,
appears frequently in Memphite tombs. It occurs
also at Medinet Habu, and at Karnak in what is
PILLARS.
61
The sides are
known as the processional hall
frequently covered with
pictures or hieroglyphic
inscriptions, and the
principal face of the
pillar has a special
scheme of decoration.
There are stems of
lotus or papyrus on the
pillar-stelae of Karnak,
a Hathor head sur-
mounted by the sistrum
of the goddess at the
smaller speos of Abu
Simbel (fig. 61), a
standing figure of
Osiris in the first court
at Medinet Habu, and
of Bes at Denderah
and Gebel Baikal. At
Karnak, in the chapel
that was probably con-
structed for Horcmheb
from the ruins of a
sanctuary of Amen-
hotep II. and III., the
pillar is capped by a
cornice, separated from
the architrave by a
shallow abacus (fig. 62).
By cutting away the
four edges the pillar is rendered octagonal and by
Fig. 62. — Pillar of Amenhotep 111.,
Karnak.
62
RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
again removing the eight edges it becomes sixteen-
sided. Some pillars in the tombs of Assuan and
Beni Hasan are of this type, as well as in the
processional hall of Karnak (fig. 63) and in the
funerary temples of Deir el Bahari.
Besides the types thus regularly evolved there arc
others of abnormal derivation, pillars with six, twelve,
- , W^W m ~~ ~- ~~~^~'' Tfjsfc
fig- 63. — Sixteen-sided pillars, Karnak.
fifteen, or twenty sides, or verging on a perfect circle.
The pillars of the portico of the temple of Osiris at
Abydos end the series. Here the main part of the
pillar presents a curvilinear section scarcely broken
by the plain band at the top and bottom which is
of the same diameter. Frequently the sides are
slightly fluted ; and sometimes, as at Kalabsheh, the
COLUMNS.
63
flutings are divided by four fillets into four groups of
five (fig. 64). The polygonal pillar has always a
broad, low disc-shaped plinth.
At El Kab it has a Hathor head Iz *
projecting from the face of the
pillar near the top (fig. 65), but
almost everywhere else it ends
in a simple square abacus which
joins it to the architrave. Thus
treated it bears some likeness to
the Doric column and explains
why Jomard and Champollion,
in the first ardour of discovery,
called it proto-Doric, a title for
which there is little justification.
The column does not rest
immediately upon the ground.
It always has a plinth similar to that of the poly-
gonal pillar, a solid disc intended to distribute the
weight. This base is generally
plain, or ornamented at most
with a line of hieroglyphs, it
is sometimes flat, sometimes
rounded off at the edge.
The principal variants of the
column resolve themselves into
fourclasses: ist,the column with
campaniform or bell - shaped
capital,on which is carved either
lotus or papyrus in flower or bud ; 2nd, the column
with lotus-bud capital ; 3rd, the column with palm-leaf
capital ; 4th, the column with Hathor-head capital.
Fig. 64. — Fluted pillar,
Kalabsheh.
Fig. 65. — Polygonal Hathor
headed pillar, El Kab.
64
RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
I. Column with Bells I/aped Capital. — The shaft is
generally plain or simply sculp-
tured with inscriptions or bas-
reliefs. Sometimes, however, as
at Medamot, it is compounded of
six large and six small columns
alternated. During Pharaonic
times the lower part swelled out
slightly in bulbous form and was
decorated with curvilinear tri-
angles in
imitation of the large
Fig. 66. — Column with
square die.
leaves that sheathe the sprouting
plant. The curve is so calculated
as to equalise the diameter at
the base and at the top. In the
Ptolemaic period the bulb
often disappeared, owing prob-
ably to Greek influence: the
columns that surround the
first court of the temple at
Edfu rise straight from their
plinths. The shafts invariably
contract cither from the bulb
or immediately from the base,
and end above in three or five
superimposed flat bands. At
Medamot, where the shaft is
clustered, the architect evidently
considered that a single tic did
not appear sufficient to secure Fig. 67.— Column with campa-
the cluster of twelve columns,
inform capital, Ramesseum.
and he has marked out two other rings of fiat bands
CAMPANIFORM CAPITALS.
65
at regular intervals. Round the neck of the bell-
shaped capital is a row of leaves similar to those at
the base, and from these spring stems of lotus and
papyrus in flower and bud. The height of the capital
and its projection vary according to the taste of
the architect. At Luxor the campaniform capitals
measure nh feet in diameter at the base, \J\ feet
at the top, and ii| feet in height. At Karnak
in the hypostyle hall the height is
12^ feet, and the greatest diameter
2 [ feet. A square die surmounts the
whole. This is fairly low, and almost
completely masked by the curve of the
capital. In rare instances, as in the
small temple of Denderah, the die is
higher, and on each face is sculptured
in relief a figure of the god Bes
(fig. 66).
This column with campaniform
capital is most usually employed in
the central aisles of hypostyle halls, Fig. 68.— Inverted
as at Karnak, the Ramesseum (fig. 67), campaniform
' . ). capital, karnak.
and Luxor ; but it is not confined to
that purpose, and it is to be seen in the porticoes of
the Fifth Dynasty valley temples at Abusir, and
those of Medinet Habii, Edfii, and Philae. A very
curious variant is to be seen in the processional hall
of Thothmes III. at Karnak, where the campaniform
capital is reversed as well as the shaft itself (fig. 68);
the smaller end of the column rises from the plinth
and the largest part is at the top. This ungraceful
arrangement met with no success, and we find no
5
r.
' 71
66
RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
trace of it elsewhere. Other novelties were happier,
especially those that enabled the artist to introduce
decorative elements derived from the flora of the
Fig. 69. — Compound
capital.
Fig. 70. — Ornate capitals,
Ptolemaic.
Nile valley. As we approach the Ptolemaic period
we find the capitals decorated with groups of dates
and of half-unfolded blossoms (fig. 69), while under
the Ptolemies and Caesars the capitals
became wreaths of flowers and leaves
symmetrically arranged and painted in
the brightest colours (fig. 70). There is
a great variety of designs ; at Edfti,
Ombos, and at Philae one might imagine
that the artist had vowed never to repeat
the same pattern on the same side of
the portico.
II. Column with Lotus-bud Capital. — It
is probable that this column originally
represented a bundle of lotus-stems, the
F'g- 7'-— buds tied together round the neck by
Lotus-bud & . ,
column, Beni four or five bands to form the capital.
The columns of Beni Hasan consist of
four rounded stems (fig. 71), while those of the
Labyrinth, the processional hall of Thothmes III.,
and of Medamot consist of eight stems with projecting
ridges on the face of the column (fig. 72). The foot
LOTUS-BUfr CAPITALS.
67
of the column is bulbous and adorned with leaves ;
the top is bound with three or five bands. From the
lowest of these descends a moulding of three vertical
bands in the space between each pair of stems and
forms a kind of fringe round the upper part of the
column. A surface thus
broken up is not well
adapted for hieroglyphic
decoration, and therefore
the projections were gradu-
ally done away with and
the surface left plain. In
the hypostyle hall at Gurneh
the shaft is divided into
three sections : the middle
one is plain and covered
with sculptures, while the
upper and lower divisions
are formed of clustered
stems. In the temple of
Khonsii, in the lower parts
of the hypostyle hall of
Karnak, and in the portico
of Medinet Habu, the whole
shaft is plain ; the fringe Fig. 72. -Lotus-bud column,
under the bands is retained, processional hall of Thothmes
111., Karnak.
however, and the existence
of the stems is indicated by a slight ridge in the
intervals between the bands (fig. y$). The capital
also became degraded. At Beni Hasan it is gracefully
fasciculated from top to bottom. In the processional
hall of Thothmes III. at Luxor and at Medamot a
68
RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
circle of small pointed leaves and channellings sur-
rounds the base and impoverishes the effect ; the
capital is little more than a truncated and fluted
cone. In the hypostyle hall at Karnak, at Abydos,
the Ramesseum, and at Medinet Habu, the flutings
are superseded by a variety
of ornamentations, triangular
leaves, hieroglyphic inscrip-
tions or bands bearing car-
touches flanked with uraei,
which fill the space thus left
vacant. The abacus is not
concealed as in the cam-
paniform columns.butstands
out boldly and bears the
royal cartouche.
III. Column with Palm-
leaf Capital. — This column
rises direct from its plinth,
and tapers regularly and
slightly to the top. It
supports a crown of palm-
Column in aisles of branches springing from the
hi'postyle hall, karnak. r a °
band, their heads curving
under the weight of the abacus (fig. 74). This
column, well known in work of later date, is now
shown to be of very early origin. The funerary
temples attached to the pyramids of the Pharaohs
of the Fifth Dynasty at Abusir have been excavated,
and many columns of this type have been found. It
is very charming and graceful. At Abusir, below
the central palm-branch, there falls from the fivefold
PALM-LEAF AND HATHOR-HEAD CAPITALS. 69
74.— Palm-leaf
capital.
band a short loop, which may represent the cord by
which the Egyptian climbs the
palm. The plinth is low and some-
what flat ; above the capital there
is a cubical block of stone.
IV. Column with Hathor-liead
Capital. — We find examples of the
Hathor-headed column dating from
ancient times, as at Deir el Bahari,
in the temples both of the Eleventh
and Eighteenth Dynasties ; but this
order is best known in buildings of
the Ptolemaic period, as at Contra
Latopolis, Philas, and Denderah.
The shaft and base present no
special characteristics, they resemble those of the
campaniform columns. The capital
represented Hathor, the woman's
head with the heifer's ears, carved
in high relief on each side of a
square block. Her hair, bound
over the brows by three vertical
bands, falls behind the ears and
over the shoulders. Each head
supports a fluted cornice, on which
stands a naos flanked by two
volutes and crowned by a shallow
abacus (fig. 75). Thus four Hathor-
heads form the capital of the
'lap^Klte"^ column. Seen from a distance the
whole structure recalls one of those
sistra represented! in "religious 'bas-reliefs held in the
7o
RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
hands of queens and goddesses. It is in fact a
sistrum ; but the usual proportions have been dis-
regarded— the handle is enormous, while the upper
part of the instrument is immeasurably reduced.
This design proved so popular that it was unhesi-
tatingly combined with elements borrowed from other
orders. The four heads of Hathor placed above a
campaniform capital furnished Nectenebo with the
composite type employed in his
pavilion at Phila; (fig. j6). The
combination cannot be said to be
very satisfactory ; nevertheless, seen
in position it is less ugly than it
appears in drawings.
Shafts of columns were regulated
by no fixed rules of proportion or
arrangement. The architect could, if
he wished, assign equal heights to
columns of very different diameters,
and, without regard to any considera-
tions apart from those of general
Fig. 76.
form and Hatlior-
headed capital, harmony, he could design the various
Philae. . 1111
parts on whatever scale he pleased.
The dimensions of the capital bore no fixed relations
with those of the shaft, and the height of the shaft
in no way depended on the diameter of the column.
At Karnak the dimensions of the campaniform
columns of the hypostylc hall are as follows: the
capital is 10 feet high, the shaft is rather less
than 55 feet high, and measures 11 feet 8 inches
in diameter near the base : at Luxor the capital is
ni feet high, the shaft 49 feet high, and n\ feet
IRREGULAR PROPORTIONS OF COLUMNS.
71
round the bulb. At the Ramesseum shaft and
capital measure 35 feet, round the bulb 6| feet.
There is a similar irregularity in the arrangement
of the architraves ; their height is determined by
the taste of the architect or the necessities of the
building. So also with the spacing of columns. Not
Fig. 77.— Section of hypostyle hall at Karnak, showing the arrange
ments of the cam pan i form and lotus-bud columns.
only do the intercolumnar spaces vary greatly in dif-
ferent temples and chambers, but in some instances,
as in the first court of Medinet Habii, they vary in
the same portico. This was the case when the
various architectural types were employed separately,
when they were associated in the same building ; it
was not considered necessary to give them fixed
/2 RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
proportions in harmony with each other. In the
hypostyle hall of Karnak the campaniform columns
support the highest part, and the lotus-bud columns
are relegated to the lower aisles (fig. jj). In the
temple of Khonsu there are halls where the lotus
column is the highest, and others where the cam-
paniform columns are the loftiest. At Medamot
all the columns that still remain are of uniform
height. Egypt never had definite orders of archi-
tecture such as Greece possessed. Her architects
attempted all possible combinations to which the
elements of the column lent themselves, but without
assigning to them such definite proportions, that,
given one member of it, it would be possible to
deduct even approximately the dimensions of the
remaining parts.
2. TEMPLES.
Most of the famous sanctuaries, Denderah, Edfii,
Abydos, were founded before Menes by the Servants
of Horns. It is probable that originally they were
mere huts, but they were rebuilt, remodelled, and
added to by successive generations till nothing re-
mained of the primitive design to show us what it
was like. The funerary temples of the Memphite
kings have actually been excavated, and furnish
abundant examples of the' religious architecture of
the great pyramid period.
Senefeni, last king of the Third Dynasty, built his
pyramid at Medum, and on the cast wall is his
small temple, built entirely of limestone. It consists
of a passage, a chamber, and finally a court, where
VALLEY TEMPLES. 73
>
stood two stelae nearly 14 feet high, flanking a lime-
stone altar. The whole is plain, without decoration
or inscriptions. There are traces of a walled cause-
way leading to it from the plain.* The temple was
much visited during the Eighteenth Dynasty by
scribes, who left graffiti recording their admiration
of the building and their belief that Seneferu had
raised it for himself and his queen.
The ruined funerary temple of the second pyramid
of Gizeh, that of Khafra, was completely excavated
in 1 9 10, and the plan recovered. f The builders of
the pyramids brought their materials by boat during
the inundation to the foot of the hill, where a quay
was constructed to receive them, and the weighty
stones were then dragged up a sloping causeway to
the building site. The pyramid and its temple com-
pleted, it appears that a gateway that was also a
temple was built on the quay, and the cause-
way covered in, thus connecting the upper temple
with its complement below. Ramps were also con-
structed by which the high quay or terrace could be
approached from the valley after the water had sub-
sided. The valley temple would be of great impor-
tance to visitors arriving by water during the inunda-
tion, and it was provided with everything necessary
for the cult of the dead.
The temple of the second pyramid has been com-
pletely ruined, but the valley temple is almost perfect,
the well-known granite temple that stands about 50
* W. M. F. Petrie, MedCim.
f U. Holscher, Das Grabdenkmal des Konigs Chephren, Ernst vgn
Sieglin Expedition, 1912.
74 RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
*
yards to the south of the sphinx. It was discovered
in 1853, and partially excavated. In 1910 the facade
was relieved of the 30 feet of sand under which it
was buried ; the causeway that connects it with the
upper pyramid temple was also cleared, and the
entire group can now be studied as a whole, flanked
by the great sphinx, which probably represents
Khafra himself guarding his temples and pyramid
by the magic power possessed by a sphinx.
The main axis extends from east to west. The
core masonry of the valley temple is of fine Turah
limestone ; the casings, pillars, architraves, and every
part of the building visible from below was constructed
of great blocks of red granite or alabaster. The
facade was plundered in ancient times, and little of the
casing remains. Mounting one of the two ramps (fig.
78) that led to the quay, the visitor was confronted by
a building that externally resembled a mastaba.
The sloping walls were unbroken save by two doors
near the north and south corners of the facade.
These doors were guarded on both sides by sphinxes,
over 25 feet in length, of which only the substructures
now remain. In front of the facade in the centre
was a naos, which closed with double doors, and
probably contained a statue of the Pharaoh. The
granite doorways were inscribed, but most of the
blocks have disappeared. The plan of the interior
is very simple. Both doors communicate with a
vestibule, which opens into a hall in shape of the
letter T, supported by sixteen square granite pillars
16 feet high. At the south-west corner of this hall
there is a recess, in which are six niches in two rows
GRANITE TEMPLE OF KIIAFRA.
75
Pyramid of Khafra
Pyramid enclosure
chambers for statues
of the pyramid
Fig. 78. — Plan of temple and valley
temple of the Pyramid of Khafra,
Gizeh. — Borchardt, Das Grabdenk-
mal dcs K'dnigs Chephren.
By permission of Messrs. Hinrichs.
y6 RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
one above another. The transverse corridor which
unites them is provided with small openings for
ventilation, a very necessary arrangement, as here
doubtless were stored the lights, oils, sacred vessels,
and other requirements of the cult. At the north-
west corner of the great hall there is a chamber built
entirely of alabaster, which has hitherto been called
the porter's lodge, but which has only the same
scanty ventilation as the magazines. The roof is
reached by ramps.
The great hall is lighted by oblique openings
constructed in the angle of the roof and the top of
the walls. The floor, like that of the vestibule, is of
alabaster. There are no inscriptions, bas-reliefs, or
paintings, and yet the walls produce as great an
impression as the most richly decorated temples, the
result of severe simplicity of outline, and exactness
of proportion, combined with the grandeur of solid
blocks of granite. A mass of fragments of broken
statuarv, and a careful examination of the flooring
under the alabaster by the members of the Sieglin
Expedition, have shown that round this hall was ranged
a series of twenty-three seated statues of Khafra,
more than life-size. Most of them were in alabaster,
others were in mottled blue-grey diorite and in greenish
metamorphic schist.
The causeway is of plain limestone, lighted by
small apertures at regular intervals. It measures
1,308 feet in length, and opens at the top end into
the upper temple. On the left was a small chamber,
which may have been a doorkeeper's lodge, and on
the right was the vestibule (kinked on the north side
PYRAMID TEMPLE OF KHAFRA. 77
by store-chambers. Two halls in succession led to
the great court. Two very deep, narrow cells,
apparently serdabs (cf. p. 143), communicated with the
first of these halls by two small slits. The great open
court was surrounded by a passage, and all round its
walls at regular intervals were doorways that opened
into it, five on each long wall, and three at each end.
These doorways were painted with hieroglyphic in-
scriptions in green and blue, and between each was
an Osiride figure, presumably a portrait of Khafra.
The surrounding passage opened on the west side
into five deep and narrow chambers, each of which
probably contained a statue of the king, as similar
recesses for statues have been found in the mortuary
temples of the Fifth Dynasty. Behind was a series
of magazines or storerooms. Against the western
wall was the sanctuary, with the niche for the false
door and stela, in its place parallel to the eastern
wall of the pyramid.
At the south-west corner there was a second
entrance, for the convenience of those who approached
the temple from the high ground, with chambers for
the doorkeeper. The work of the upper temple was
similar to that of the lower one ; the walls were cased
with granite over a core of limestone. The great
granite columns of the upper temple are destroyed,
but the pavement of the second hall still shows the
cavities where they stood.
The valley temple of Menkaura was never finished
according to the original plan. The work was
probably stopped by the death of the king, but
magnificent statuary had been prepared, and was
7% RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
found in 1909 by Dr. Reisner during his excavations
there.
The temples of the three pyramids of the Fifth
Dynasty at Abusir have also been excavated.* The
facade of the valley temple is lightened by a
columned portico. Inside, the heavy pillars of the
Fourth Dynasty give way to the graceful polygonal
or palm-leaf columns. The covered causeway leads
to the upper temple. Here the arrangements are in
the main similar to those of Khafra. There are the
halls and courts, the side entrances, the narrow cham-
bers for statues, and the sanctuary the Holy of Holies
against the west wall. In some cases ramps lead
from one court to another, and within the enclosing
wall are dwellings for the priests. The decorations
are elaborate. The walls of the upper and lower
temples, and of the long covered passages, are finely
sculptured, and the ceiling of the pillared hall in the
temple of Ne-user-ra is covered with gold stars on a
blue ground.
It was known from the inscriptions that certain
kings of the Memphite dynasties had erected special
temples to the sun-god. The hieroglyph determina-
tive that followed the name of these temples showed
an obelisk on a high platform or base. At Abu
Gurab, near Abusir, the place of one of these sun-
temples has been recovered— namely, one built by
King Ne-user-ra of the Fifth Dynasty (fig. 79). It
consists of two courts ; the principal one on the
western side is a rectangular enclosure, held up by a
L. Borchardt, Grabdcnkmal des Kimigs Salutre. Dcutscli-Oricnl.
Gesellsdiaft.
TEMPLE OF THE SUN.
79
Strong retaining wall. Under the pavement traces
have been found of brick buildings, levelled in pre-
paring the foundations. The temple axis runs from
east to west, the entrance being in the middle of the
east wall. Covered passages and chambers sur-
rounded the courts. A square mastaba-shaped
structure with sides sloping at an angle of 14 degrees
rW-3
,-;.
<^7
F'g- 79-— The temple of the Sun at Abu Gurab, reconstructed.— From
A Handbook of Egyptian Religion (A. Erman). By permission of
Messrs. Constable & Co.
occupied the place of the sanctuary, towards the
western end of the court. It was cased below with
granite, above with fine limestone, and on it un-
doubtedly stood the obelisk, the symbol of the sun-
god himself. Access to this was afforded by a stair-
case inside the base. In the courtyard below, directly
opposite the entrance, but near the obelisk on its
80 RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
truncated pyramid, stands a flat, rectangular altar,
4 feet high, formed of five alabaster blocks. The
main walls are built of yellow limestone faced with
slabs of white. In many parts the walls are finely
sculptured with scenes in relief, some of them relating
to the overflowing fertility and fecundity of fields and
flocks due to the beneficent might of the sun, of
which the produce is offered him in turn by personified
figures of each season.
North of the altar is a channelled platform slightly
raised above the pavement level, the channels deepen-
ing towards the east, which was probably a place of
slaughter for sacrificial victims. Opposite to it, at
the east end, are nine (originally ten) great basins cut
in quadrangular blocks of alabaster.
Somewhat to the south of the temple outside the
retaining wall were found the remains of a boat, the
sacred boat of the sun, about 100 feet long, for use in
the solar ceremonies. It was constructed of brick
and wood. The wood has rotted away, but the
brickwork of the boat is easily visible and re-
cognisable. Such is the temple constructed in honour
of the sun by Ne-user-ra within a short distance of
his own pyramid and funerary temple. It is a type
of building previously unknown to us.
Some scattered remains of temples of the Twelfth
Dynasty in Nubia, the Fayum, and at Sinai, are not
sufficient to prove whether they merited the praises
lavished on them in contemporary inscriptions.
Much of the masonry of the ruined temple of ihe
Eleventh Dynasty at Deir el Bahari is extremely
good. It is finely jointed and laid in regular courses
THE SANCTUARY. 8l
of deep and shallow blocks alternately, similar to the
splendid masonry of the Twelfth Dynasty at Dahshur.*
The temples of the Theban kings, of the Ptolemies,
and of the Caesars are many of them intact, and easy
to be reconstructed by those who study them on the
spot. At first sight they seem to present a great
variety as to arrangement, but on a closer examina-
tion they are found to conform to a single type. The
sanctuary, as we saw it in the primitive temples, is
still there, but it has gathered round it an assemblage
of courts and chambers. The sanctuary is a small,
low, and dark chamber, inaccessible to all except
Pharaoh and the priests. A sacred bark with its
tabernacle of painted wood standing either on a
pedestal, in a niche in the wall, or on a block of
stone, contained the image or symbol of the god, and
on certain days an image of the animal sacred to him,
or even a living animal. These sanctuaries were
fitted with a metal framework into which double
doors were inserted, closed with wooden bars, and
jealously sealed. The sacred bark was taken out on
stated days to be carried in procession round the
town and then returned to the sanctuary. The
directions for the elaborate daily ceremonies are
carefully set forth to prevent any possibility of
mistake. A temple might contain nothing more
than this single chamber, and yet be as much a
temple as the most complex building, but it rarely
happened, at any rate in the larger towns, that the
people would be content to provide the deity with
* Naville, The Eleventh Dynasty Temple at Deir el Bahari, vol. i.
Egypt Exploration Fund, 1910.
6
82 RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
such bare necessaries. Storehouses for sacrificial and
ceremonial objects, for flowers, perfumes, stuffs, and
precious vases, were crowded round the divine house.
In front of the block thus formed were built one or
more colonnaded halls, where priests and devotees
assembled. Before these was an open court sur-
rounded by colonnades to which the crowds had
access, and which was entered by a gateway flanked
by two towers, in front of which were placed two
statues or obelisks. Round the whole was an
enclosing brick wall, and an avenue of sphinxes
that lead up to the entrance provided ample room for
the great processions on feast days. Any Pharaoh
who desired could add a hall even more sumptuous
than those of his predecessors, and his example
would in turn be followed by his successors. Thus
from reign to reign the original sanctuary became
more and more surrounded by halls and courts,
pylons and porticoes. Whether the result of vanity
or of piety, the temple expanded till the work was at
last stopped for want of space or money.
The less elaborate temples were often the most
beautiful. This was the case with the temple of
Amenhotep III. on the island of Elephantine, of
which drawings were made by members of the French
expedition at the end of the eighteenth century,
before its destruction in 1822 by the Turkish governor
of Assuan. The best preserved of these, the southern
one (fig. 80), had only one hall, in sandstone, 14 feet
high, 31 feet wide, and 39 feet long. The walls,
which were straight and surmounted with the usual
cornice, stood on a stone basement some 8 feet high.
THE SIMPLER TEMPLES.
83
This platform was surrounded by a parapet breast-
high. Round the temple was a colonnade, composed
of seven square pillars on each side without capital
or base. At each end were two lotiform columns.
Pillars and columns rested on the parapet, except at
the east end, where a set of ten or twelve steps
enclosed between walls the same height as the
parapet led up to the cella. The two columns
at the head of the steps were more widely spaced
than those at the other end, and in the wide
Fig. So. —Southern temple of Amenhotep III. at Elephantine.
opening a richly decorated doorway was visible.
There was a second door at the other end under
the colonnade. Later, during the Roman period,
advantage was taken of this arrangement to modify
the plan. The intercolumnar spaces at the end were
filled up, and thus an additional chamber was ob-
tained, rough and without decoration, but sufficient
for the requirements of the cult. The temples of
Elephantine recall the peripteral temples of the
Greeks, and this resemblance to one of the well-
known forms of classical architecture perhaps ex-
84
RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
plains the admiration manifested by the French
savants on first seeing them.
The temples of Mesheikh, El Kab (fig. 8i), and
Sharona are more elaborate. At El Kab there is
a hall of four columns (a), a chamber (b), supported
by four Hathor pillars, and in the end wall facing the
doorway a niche (c) ap-
proached by four steps.
The most complete speci-
men we possess of these
small sanctuaries belong-
ing to provincial towns is
of the Ptolemaic period,
the temple of Hathor at
Deir el Medineh (fig. 82).
The length is double the
breadth, the walls slope
inwards and are bare of
ornament on the outside
face, with the exception
of the doonvav, which
projects and is covered
with sculptured scenes.
The interior is in three
parts : a portico (b) of two
campaniform columns, a pro-naos (c), reached by a
set of four steps and divided from the portico by
a wall the height of a man. This is ranged between
two campaniform columns and two pilasters with
Hathor capitals ; finally there is the sanctuary (d),
flanked by two small cells (E, E), lighted by two
air-holes in the roof. The roof is reached from the
Fig. 81. — Plan of temple of
Arnenhotep III. near El Kab.
TEMPLE OF KHONSU, KARNAK.
85
southern angle of the portico by a staircase lighted
by a window (f) from the outside. This is merely
a temple in miniature, but the various parts are so
finely proportioned that it is difficult to imagine any-
thing more graceful and charming.
As much cannot be said for the temple built by
the Pharaohs of the Twentieth Dynasty to the south
of Karnak, in honour of the god Khonsii (fig. 83), but
although the style may
not be beyond reproach,
the plan is so distinct
that one is inclined to
adopt it as the type
of the Egyptian temple
in preference to others
more majestic or graceful.
On analysis it resolves
itself into two parts
separated by a thick wall
(A, a). In the centre of
the smaller part is the
Holy Of Holies (B), open Fig. 8^-Plan of temple of Hathor,
J v. y r Ueir el Medineh.
at both ends and entirely
isolated from the rest of the building by a
passage (c), 10 feet in width ; to right and left are
small dark chambers (D, d) ; behind a hall of four
columns (E), on which open seven other chambers
(F, f). This was the house of the god, and the only
communication from without was by two doors (G, g)
in the central wall (a, a), which opened on a hypo-
style hall (h), greater in breadth than in length, and
divided into three aisles. The central aisle rests on
86
RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
A
four campaniform columns 23 feet in height ; the side
aisles have only two lotiform columns 18 feet high.
The central portion is 5 feet higher than the side
aisles. Advantage was taken of this difference in
height to secure light. In the space between the
upper and lower roofing windows with stone mullions
were inserted, through which
the light filtered. The court (j)
was square, surrounded by a
double colonnade. The entrance
to this hall was by four lateral
posterns, and by an immense
gateway between two quad-
rangular towers, with sloping
fronts. This pylon (k) measures
105 feet in length, 35 feet in
width, and 60 feet in height. It
contains no chamber, but a
narrow staircase, which leads
straight to the lintel of the
gateway, and from there to the
summit of the two towers. The
Fig'r8J;TPla,Vof lTple faces of these towers are lined
ot Khonsii, Karnak.
with four angulated grooves up
to a third of their height, corresponding with as many
square holes worked through the block of masonry.
In these grooves great wooden masts were placed,
made of beams jointed into each other, strengthened
at intervals by a species of clasp, and fastened by
wooden clutches fixed in the square holes. Near
the top fluttered pennants of various colours (fig. 84).
Such was the temple of Khonsii, and similar to it
Q © © ©0 © j|
,P © © © O G Q
l^j © © © 0 r|:
THE GREAT TEMPLES.
87
in the main lines were the majority of the greater
temples of the Theban and Ptolemaic periods : Luxor,
the Ramesseum, Medinet Habu, Phila?, Edfu, Den-
derah. Half in ruins as they are, their very aspect
is strangely overpowering and alarming. As the
Egyptian divinities elected to be enshrouded in mys-
tery, the plan of the building was so arranged as to
lead gradually from the glare of the outside world
to the darkness of their abode, On first entering
there were vast spaces -
where sun and air could
freely enter. The hypo^
style hall was shaded in
twilight, the antechamber
to the sanctuary was yet
more dim, while beyond
in the farthest recesses of
the temple almost com-
plete darkness reigned.
The Sensation Of aloofness Fig. 84.— Pylon with masts, from
produced by this gradual * bas".re!lef iv\ Lhe temPle of
1 J ° Khonsu, Karnak.
loss of light was aug-
mented by artifices in the construction of the build-
ing. The halls were not on the same level. The
floor rose in proportion to the distance from the
entrance (fig. 85), and there were always steps to
be mounted in passing from one part to another.
The difference in level was not more than 5 feet
3 inches in the temple of Khonsu, but it is com-
bined with a lowering of the roof which is very
noticeable. From the pylon to the wall at the
farthest end the height of the roof decreases in pro-
88 RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
gressive stages : the peristyle dominates the first
hypostyle ; this overtops the sanctuary, while the
second hypostyle and the end chamber are yet lower.
The effect is very noticeable when seen from the
summit of one of the pylons ; the roofs of the dif-
ferent halls sink lower and lower to the surrounding
wall, like a series of wide steps. The architects of
the Ptolemaic period introduced some important
modifications. They contrived secret passages and
crypts in the thickness of the wall, where the priest
could conceal the treasure of the god (fig. 86). They
also erected chapels and oratories on the roof, where,
screened by the high parapets, they could unseen
Fig- 85.— The Ramesseum restored, showing the rise of the ground.
perform the mysteries of the death and resurrection
of Osiris.
The sanctuary had hitherto had two entrances
opposite each other, they left but one ; the colonnade
that extended across the back of the court — or where
the court did not exist, on the facade of the temple-
now became a new court, the pronaos. The outer
row of columns is retained, but it is connected by a
wall surmounted by a cornice that reaches to about
half the height of the shafts, and prevented the outer
throng from seeing what was taking place beyond
(fig. 87). This hall is supported by two, three, or
even four rows of columns, according to the size of
PTOLEMAIC TEMPLES.
89
the rest of the building. For the rest, a comparison
of the plan of the temple of Edfu (fig. 88) with that
of the temple of Khonsii will show how little
Fig. 86. — Crypts in the thickness of the walls round the sanctuary
at Denderah.
they differ from each other. Thus equipped the
building sufficed for all the requirements of the cult.
When it was enlarged, as a rule neither the sanctuary
nor the chambers surrounding it were altered, but
9o
RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
the outlying parts, the courts, hypostyle halls, and
pylons. Nothing serves better than the history of
the temple of Amon at Thebes to illustrate the pro-
ceedings of the Egyptians under such circumstances.
It was founded by Senusert (Usertesen) I., probably
on the site of a yet earlier temple. Both Amen-
Fig. 87. — The pronaos of Edfu, as seen from the top of the
eastern pylon.
emhat II. and Amcnemhat III. did some work there,
and the Pharaohs of the Thirteenth and Four-
teenth Dynasties presented statues and tables of
offerings. In the seventeenth century before our era
it was still intact, when Thothmes I., enriched as he
was by foreign conquest, resolved to transform it.
THE TEMPLE OF KARNAK.
91
In front of the temple, as it then existed, he first
added two halls, preceded by a court and flanked by
separate chapels ; then three pylons at intervals, one
behind the other. The whole presented the appear-
ance of a rectangle placed crossways against another
of vast dimensions. Thothmes II. and Hatshepsut
covered the walls built by
their father with bas-reliefs,
but added little to his work.
Hatshepsut, however, in order
to place her obelisks between
two of the pylons, broke
down part of the southern
wall and destroyed sixteen of
the columns that stood there.
Thothmes III. began by alter-
ing certain parts, which no
doubt he considered unworthy
of his god : the first pylon
and the double sanctuary,
which he constructed of the
red granite of Syene ( Assuan).
To the eastward he built
some chambers, of which the
most important, now called
the processional hall, served during processions as
a station and resting-place for the sacred bark. He
surrounded the whole with a stone wall and excavated
the lake on which the sacred barks floated on feast
days ; then, with a sudden change of axis, he erected
two pylons facing southwards. In doing this he
destroyed the correct proportions which up to that
Fig. SS. — Plan of temple, Edfu.
92
RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
..feftSfaL
time had existed between the main building and the
facade. The outer enclosure was too wide for the
first pylon, and did not properly accord with the new.
Amenhotep III. corrected this defect; he built a
sixth pylon, which was more massive and therefore
better suited to the facade.
The temple might now have
been considered complete ; it
surpassed in size and bold-
ness of execution anvthing
that had hitherto been at-
tempted (fig. 89). But the
Pharaohs of the Nineteenth
Dynasty attempted yet more.
They only constructed one
hypostyle hall (fig. 90) and
■ O C C A
c3' ™
1 ■ ■• ^ — 1 i ^ .
^••^coocoooooo. t-T7| £^J j
Fig. 89. — Plan of temple of Karnak in the reign of Amenhotep III.
one pylon, but the hypostyle is 170 feet in length
by 329 feet in breadth. In the centre is an avenue
of twelve campaniform columns, the highest that
have ever been employed inside a building ; in the
side aisles, which are lower, there is a whole regiment
of lotiform columns, 122, drawn up in battle array of
nine files. The roof of the central portion is 75 feet
the Temple of karnaK.
93
^ >- v «. v. ^ i •. y ;
LI . t t. t G t u (.
— n ir
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J
high, while the pylon stands about 50 feet higher
still. During a whole century three Pharaohs laboured
to bring the hypostyle hall to perfection. Rameses I.
conceived the plan, Seti I. finished the building,
Rameses II. almost completed the decorations. The
Pharaohs of the subsequent dynasties endeavoured
to secure some vacant spaces on the columns, where
they could inscribe their names and share the glory
of the three founders ;
but they went no farther.
Arrested at this point
the building seemed in-
complete ; a final pylon
and a colonnaded court [J
were still wanting.
Nearly three centuries
elapsed before any
attempt was made to
supply them. Finally
the Bubastites decided
to commence the colon-
nades, but their work Flg- 9°-
was feeble and their
resources limited. Taharka the Ethiopian for a time
imagined that he was capable of rivalling his great
predecessors, and he devised a hypostyle hall even
But his measurements
the columns of the central aisle were
placed too far apart to support a stone roof: they
support nothing, and only remain to bear witness to
his incompetency. Eventually the Ptolemies, con-
forming to the traditions of the native Pharaohs,
23 EE
351
— i-
-Plan of hypostyle hall,
Karnak.
larger than the ancient one.
were wrong ;
94
RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
» •»• .Of J .
[•••• • O ~ 9 [
j e • a • • • j *
applied themselves to the work ; but the revolts in
Thebes interrupted their projects : the earthquake of
the year 27 B.C. overthrew part of
the temple, and the pylon remained
for ever unfinished.
The history of Karnak is that of
other great Egyptian temples. By
studying them on the spot one
learns the reason of the irregularities
that are to be found in them. The
plan is always practically the same,
and their growth is produced in the
same manner; but the architects did
not always foresee the importance
to which their work would attain,
and the site chosen by them in some
cases did not admit of a normal
development. At Luxor (fig. 91)
the building progressed methodically
under Amenhotcp III. and Seti I.,
but when Rameses II. wished to
add to what had been done by his
predecessors, an easterly bend of
the river obliged him to deviate in
the same direction. His pylon is
not parallel with the boundary wall
of the last court of Amenhotep III.,
and his colonnades form a distinct
F.g.gi.-Planofgrct ,e wkh lhe genera] axis of the
temple, I.uxor. & D
previous work. At Philae (fig. 92)
the deviation is even greater. Not only is the larger
pylon out of line with the smaller one, but the two
• » » ■ ' r \
II c
Irregularity of plan.
95
southern colonnades diverge considerably, and natur-
ally they do not accord with the pylon. This is not
the result of negligence or of deliberate intention.
The original plan was as regular as could be devised
by any designer,
however devoted
to symmetry ; but
it could not be
adapted to the re-
quirements of the
site, and the archi-
tects, therefore,
could not do other-
wise than make the ]\
best of the irregu-
larities to which
they were con-
demned by the
nature of the
ground. This
necessity often in-
spired them in the
happiest fashion.
Philae shows with
what skill they
could evolve
beauty and charm from this unavoidable disorder.
The idea of rock-cut temples must early have
occurred to the Egyptians. They carved out the
mansions of the dead in the mountain side. Why
did they not also do the same for their gods?
Nevertheless, the earliest temples we know con-
Fig. 92. — Plan of the island of Philae.
96
RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
structed entirely in the rock do not date back farther
than the early reigns of the Eighteenth Dynasty.
These temples are generally to be found where the
belt of cultivated land is narrowest, near Beni Hasan,
at Gebel Silsileh, and in Nubia. All varieties of the
temples described above are found in the speos,
more or less modified by local conditions. The
Speos Artemidos is approached by a pillared portico,
and it contains only a square chamber with a niche
at the back for the god-
dess Pakhet. At Kalaat-
Addah (fig. 93) a narrow,
roughly worked facade (A)
faces the river, and is
reached by a steep flight
of steps ; immediately be-
hind this is a hypostyle
hall flanked by two re-
cesses (c), then a sanctuary
of two stories (d). The
chapel of Horemheb (fig.
94) at Gebel Silsileh is
composed of a gallery
parallel to the Nile, resting on four massive pillars
cut out of the living rock ; and of a chamber opening
out of the gallery at right angles. At Abu Simbel
the entrance to the temples is cut actually in the
face of the cliff. The front of the great temple
(fig. 95) is carved to resemble a sloping pylon, with
a cornice, and guarded, as usual, by four colossal
seated figures and by smaller statues ; but here the
colossi are almost 66 feet high. Inside the entrance
Fig. 93. — Plan of speos, Kalaat-
Addali, Nubie.
ROCK-CUT TEMPLES.
97
is a hail, 130 feet long by 60 feet broad, which takes
the place of the ordinary peristyle. Eight Osiride
statues are backed by as many columns, and appear
to be supporting that part of the mountain. Beyond
this is a hypostyle hall, a transverse gallery that
isolates the sanctuary, finally the sanctuary itself
between the chapels and the other members of the
triad. Eight crypts at a lower level than the central
nave branch out at unequal intervals to right or left
^^iiiip
■11
Up IB
l ../*v . --
-'A L.. 1 t:-,--,-:- , ...>.. -Tv #■■;■;<■
lifer3* n pi r
Fig. 94. — Plan of speos, Gebel Silsileh.
of the peristyle. The entire area from the threshold
to the back of the speos measures 180 feet.
The speos of Hathor, some hundred feet to the
north, is of smaller dimensions. The facade is
adorned with standing figures, four of which repre-
sent Rameses, and two his wife Nefertari. There is
neither peristyle nor crypt (fig. 96), and the chapels
are placed at the two extremities of the transverse
passage instead of being in line with the sanctuary ;
the hypostyle hall has six Hathor columns.
Where space permitted, only a portion of the
temple was sunk in the rock, and the front was
7
98
RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
Fig- 95-
constructed of blocks of stone in the open, thus
forming a hemi-speos. At Derr the peristyle only
is in the open ; while at
Beit el Wally the pylon
and court, at Gerf Hossein
and Wady es Sabua the
pylon, the rectangular
court, and the hypostyle
hall are all outside. The
most celebrated hemi-
speos is at Deir el Bahari,
in the Theban necropolis,
which was built by Queen
Hatshepsut as her funer-
ary temple (fig. 97). The
sanctuary and two ac-
companying chapels were
excavated in the mountain about 100 feet above the
valley level. The whole temple is situated on the
lower slopes of a great bay in
the mountains. It consists
of a forecourt with colonnades
at the far end to right and
left. A broad ramp ascends
from the middle of this court
to the second court, which
also has colonnades at the
west end, supported on square ^
pillars and covered with Fig. 96.— Speos of Hathor,
, , a 1 Abii Simbel.
sculptured scenes. A second
ramp leads to the upper terrace and colonnades,
and through a granite gateway we reach the main
Plan of the Great Speos,
Abii Simbel.
DEIR EL BAHARI.
99
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IOO RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
court. Here, on the left, is the covered court where
sacrifices were offered to the deceased queen, and on
the right is another court, in which stands the altar,
one of the very few found in situ in -Egypt. It is rect-
angular, made of fine limestone, and measures 16 feet
by 13 feet. A flight of ten steps on the western side
leads to the top, which is 5 feet above the pavement,
and surmounted by a heavy cornice. Here we have
the cliffs towering above us, and we enter the mountain
itself, passing a variety of chambers and recesses, and
finally reach the sanctuary. The temple is surrounded
by a retaining wall, finely worked in limestone blocks.
The colonnades of the first court were planted with
a variety of trees, of which vestiges still remain.* At
the south-west corner a shrine of Hathor is hewn out
of the rock ; in front of it are two colonnades, the
foremost of which is supported on sixteen-sided
columns and square Hathor-headed columns.
A causeway from the plain and an avenue of
sphinxes led to the temple. At its lower end stood
Hatshepsut's valley temple. f Never finished, it was
begun on the same plan as the upper temple. An
outside wall 20 feet in height encloses an upper and
lower court, divided by a colonnaded terrace. The
terraced temple was regarded as showing great
originality, and it was not till 1903 that the model
that inspired it was excavated. Close to the temple
of Hatshepsut, on the south side, is a smaller temple
" E. Naville, The Temple of Deir el Bahari. Egypt Exploration
Fund.
', f Earl of Carnarvon, Five Years' Exploration at Thebes. Oxford
University Press.
ELEVENTH DYNASTY TEMPLE, DEIR EL BAHARI. 101
constructed by Mentuhotep II. of the Eleventh
Dynasty.* The forecourt does not exist, but we have
the broad ramp flanked by colonnades leading up to
a platform artificially shaped and squared. Here is
the entrance to the temple, a granite gateway leading
into an open court, surrounded by a colonnade of
1 50 octagonal columns. In the open court are still
the remains of a large structure, faced with limestone
and topped by a heavy cornice. It is 70 feet square
and 10 feet high. This was the base of the brick-
built pyramid, which the Abbot papyrus refers to
as existing here. It did not contain the sepulchral
chamber, and it is the only instance known of a
pyramid enclosed in the funerary temple. Another
granite doorway at the back of the covered hall leads
into an open columned hall, the space for which has
been hewn out of the cliff, and this again opened into
a hypostyle hall of eighty columns.
A sloping passage from the open court leads down-
wards into the rock, and at a distance of 500 feet
opens into a granite-lined chamber containing an
alabaster shrine. The wooden double doors and
their metal fittings have disappeared, but here we
have at length reached the sanctuary. The temple
is in ruins with the exception of the rock-cut
chambers. The work is very fine, and the rock is
everywhere masked with blocks of sandstone or of
limestone.
The polygonal columns, of which there are such
extraordinary numbers, are eight-sided, instead of
* E. Naville, The Eleventh Dynasty Temple at Deir el Bahari, vol. i.
Egypt Exploration Fund, 1910.
102
RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
sixteen-sided, as in the neighbouring temple. During
the Eighteenth Dynasty the building was invaded by
a Pharaoh, probably Thothmes III., who constructed
at the north end a chapel to Hathor, and cut a shrine
for her in the rock. The shrine remained forgotten
and untouched for many centuries till its discovery
in 1906. It was a
vaulted chamber,
containing the
carved figure of a
cow, the sacred
animal of the god-
dess Hathor. Both
cell and cow have
been removed to
Cairo, where they can be studied
at leisure in the Museum.
The Egyptians had another
type of temple that may rank
between the hemi-speos and
the detached temple. This is
the temple that backed on
to the mountains without
entering it. The great granite
temple at Gizeh and the temple
of Seti I. at Abydos are two good examples of
this kind. The first has already been described
(p. 73). The area of the second (fig. 98) was cut
out of a compact low belt of sand which divides
the desert plain. The temple was buried almost
to the roof on the west and north sides, the walls
scarcely rose above the ground level, and the stairs
Fig. 98. — Plan of temple
of Seti I., Abydos.
ABYDOS. 103
that led to the roof led also to the top of the hill.
The front of the temple that stood out clear had
nothing peculiar about it — two pylons, two courts,
and a shallow portico with square pillars. But
from this point the arrangements were unusual.
Instead of one hypostyle hall there were two,
separated from each other by a wall with seven
doors ; neither of them have a central nave, and the
sanctuary opens immediately on to the second of
them. 'J he sanctuary is of the usual form, oblong
with a door at each end ; but the small chambers,
which in other instances surround it, are here placed
side by side in a line with it, two to the right and
four to the left. Moreover, they have corbelled
vaulting, and their only means of lighting is by the
door. Behind the sanctuary we find similar peculiari-
ties. The hypostyle hall abuts on the end wall, and
the various chambers attached to it are irregularly
disposed to right and left. As though this were
not enough, an entire wing, consisting of a court,
a columned hall, some passages and dark recesses,
stands out square from the main building on the left
flank, with nothing to balance it on the right. These
irregularities are explained by an examination of the
site. Behind the hypostyle hall at the rear the hill
is very shallow, and actually slopes aw.ay. Had the
usual plan been adopted, the cliff must have been cut
away, and the building would have lost the charac-
teristic desired by the founder, of a temple built
against the cliff. Several years later when Rameses II.
built a memorial temple for himself a few hundred
yards to the north-west, he carefully avoided his
104 RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
father's example ; his temple, built on the summit
of the hill, had ample room, and the usual plan was
carried out.
Most temples, even the smallest, are surrounded by
a wall forming a quadrilateral enclosure. At Medinet
Habu this wall is of sandstone, low and crenellated ;
but this is a whim which is in accord with the rest of
the building. Elsewhere the doorways are of stone,
and the walls of dried brick are built in wavy courses.
The enclosing walls were not intended to shut off the
temple or to conceal from the eyes of the profane
the ceremonies carried on there, but they marked the
limits of the divine house and served at need to
repulse any enemy whose cupidity might be aroused
by the accumulated treasures of the temple. The
avenues of sphinxes, or, as in the case of Karnak,
a series of pylons graduated in size, led from the
gates of the enclosing wall to the various entrances
to the building, and they also formed wide roads for
triumphal processions. The remainder of the en-
closure was occupied partly by stables, cellars, and
the granaries of the priests, and partly by private
dwellings. As in Europe in case of foreign invasion,
the population crowded round the churches and
monasteries, so in Egypt they hurried to the temples
to share the protection afforded the god by the terror
of his name and the strength of his ramparts. At
first a wide space was reserved by the side of the
walls and the pylons, but as the population steadily
increased, this space became gradually filled up with
houses, which were even built against the walls.
In the course of centuries these houses were so
PRECINCTS AND AVENUES. 105
frequently destroyed and rebuilt that many of the
temples were at last partially buried in the accumula-
tion of rubbish, and were much lower than the
surrounding buildings. Herodotus mentions this fact
with reference to Bubastis, and an examination of
the various sites proves that the same thing hap-
pened with many of them. At Ombos, Edfu, and
Denderah, the only wall round the city was that of
the god, while El Kab possessed two enclosing walls,
that of the city and that of the temple. The latter
formed a keep to which the garrison retired as a last
resort. At Memphis and at Thebes there were as
many keeps as temples ; but at Thebes these sacred
fortresses, at first separate and surrounded by their
own group of houses, were from the close of the
Eighteenth Dynasty connected with each other by
avenues of sphinxes. The most usual of them was
the andro-sphinx — the human-headed lion ; but there
was also the crio-sphinx — the lion with the ram's
head (fig. 99) ; and in places where the local cult
rendered such substitution appropriate, there were
kneeling figures of rams holding a figure of the
sovereign between their forelegs (fig. 100). The
avenue from Luxor to Karnak was composed of
these various types. This road is a mile and a
quarter in length, and it bends in various directions ;
but this must not be considered a proof that the
Egyptians disliked symmetry. The two temple
enclosures were not orientated in the same direction,
and avenues traced perpendicularly from each of
them could never have met ; they had to be turned
from their original direction. We may conclude by
io6
RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
saying that the people of Thebes saw almost as
much of their temples as we see at the present day.
The sanctuary and its immediate surroundings were
closed to all who did not belong to the highest order
Fig. 99. — Crio-sphinx from Wady es Sabiiah.
of the priesthood ; but they had access to the en-
closure, to the courts, and to the hypostyle hall ;
some were even allowed to penetrate farther into the
A
Fig. IOO. — Couchant ram, with statuette of royal founder, restored,
avenue of sphinxes, Karnak.
temple, according to their rank in the civil or
religious hierarchy, and they were able to admire
the achievements of their architects almost as freely
as we admire them to-day.
DECORATION. 107
3. DECORATION.
Ancient tradition asserts that the earliest Egyptian
temples contained no sculptured figures, no inscrip-
tions, no material symbols. The temple of Seneferu
is entirely plain. The valley temple of Khafra is
plain with the exception of the doorways of the
facade, although it contained magnificent statues.
The upper temple also appears to have had only the
same scanty decoration. It was early plundered, and
blocks bearing the name of Khafra were utilised in
building the northern temple of Lisht. The fine
sculptures and painted decoration in the funerary
temples at Abusir show how completely this primitive
simplicity was abandoned by the time of the Fifth
Dynasty.
By the Middle Kingdom the walls were covered
with scenes and inscriptions, although the columns as
yet bore little more than the royal cartouche. During
the great Theban period all the plain surfaces, pylons,
wall facings, and shafts of columns were covered with
scenes and texts. Under the Ptolemies and the
Caesars these inscriptions were so crowded that the
masonry was lost sight of under the mass of orna-
mentation with which it was covered. A very cursory
glance is sufficient to show that these scenes were
arranged with much care. They are connected and
lead on from one to another, forming a mystic volume
where the official relations between gods and men are
set forth for those capable of understanding them.
The temple was built as an image of the world, as the
Egyptians imagined it to be. The earth, they believed,
io8
RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
was a shallow flat plane oblong in form. The sky
stretched over it was, according to one conception,
like an immense iron ceiling, according to another
Figs. 101 to 106. — Decorative Designs from Denderah.
in mi mi
m mi i*
Fig. 102.
like a shallow iron vault. As it could not remain in
position without some support the idea arose that it
was prevented from falling by four props or gigantic
Fig. 103
Fig. 104.
pillars. The temple pavement was the natural equi-
valent of the inhabited world. The four corners of
the chambers represented the supports ; the ceiling,
Fig. 105.
Fig. 106.
which at Abydos, and in several other localities, was
vaulted, but which was generally flat, corresponded
exactly to the Egyptian conception of the sky. Each
DECORATION.
109
part was decorated appropriately to its signification.
All that touched the ground was covered with vege-
tation ; the columns represented the plants or trees
that abound on the banks
of the Nile. The base of j^£ ^"^121 ^
the walls was decorated
with long stems of papyrus
or lotus (fig. 101), among
which cattle were occa-
sionally depicted. In some
cases a dado had a charm-
ing design Of groups of **• ">7.-Two Nile-gods, bearing
fc> & t> 1 lotus-flowers and libation vases.
river plants emerging from
the water (fig. 102), or again we find full-blown
flowers alternated with single buds (fig. 103) or con-
nected by cords (fig. 104), or again the emblematic
plants that symbolise the union of the two Egypts, of
Fig. 108. — Dado decoration, hall of Thothmes III., Karnak.
the north and of the south, under one Pharaoh (fig. 105),
birds with human arms, seated in adoration over the
sign used to denote solemn festivals, or crouching
prisoners, a negro and an Asiatic bound two and two
to a stake (fig. 106). On the ground level, Niles, both
male and female, either kneel (fig. 107) or advance
I IO
RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
majestically in procession, their hands full of fruit and
flowers. These are the nomes, the lakes and districts
of Egypt, that are shown bringing their produce to
the god. At Karnak in one instance Thothmes III.
had the flowers, plants, and animals of the lands con-
quered by him sculptured on the lower courses of the
'k-k-kickicicicicicicic'k'kJC'k'kieiC'ki
Fig. 109. — Ceiling decoration, from tomb of Bakenrenf (Bocchoris),
Saqqara, Twenty-sixth Dynast}'.
walls (fig. 108). The temple ceilings were painted dark
blue and sprinkled with five-pointed stars painted
yellow, occasionally interspersed with the cartouches
of the royal founder. Bands of hieroglyphs at
intervals broke the monotony of this Egyptian night.
The vultures of Nekheb and Uazit, goddesses of the
DECORATION.
Ill
south and the north, armed with emblems of universal
domination (fig. 109), hover over the central aisle of the
hypostyle hall and on the soffits of the doors, above
the head of the king as he passed to the sanctuary.
At the Ramesseum, at Edfu, Philse, Denderah,
Fig. IIO. — Zodiacal circle of Denderah.
Ombos, and Esneh, the very depths of the firmament
appeared to open, and reveal. their inhabitants to the
eyes of the faithful. There the celestial ocean dis-
played its waters, over which sailed the sun and moon,
escorted by the planets, the constellations and decani,
112 RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
while the genii of months and of days marched in
interminable succession. During the Ptolemaic period,
signs of the zodiac, copied from the Greek, are found
among astronomical figures of purely Egyptian origin
(fig. [io). The decoration of the architraves that
support the stone roof is quite independent of that of
the roof itself. On them legends are inscribed in
immense hieroglyphic characters, setting forth the
beauties of the temple, the names of the royalties who
built it, and the name of the deity to whom it was
consecrated. In fact the ornamentation of the base
of the walls, and of the roof is confined to a small
number of subjects which are always the same ; while
the most important and most varied scenes may be
said to be placed between heaven and earth, on the
walls of the chambers and pylons.
These illustrate the official relationships between
Egypt and its gods. The common folk had no right
to communicate directly with the divinity. For them
it was necessary to have a mediator, who, partaking
both of the human and the divine nature, was able to
comprehend both equally. Thus the reigning king,
Son of the Sun, was alone of sufficiently lofty descent
to behold the god, to serve him, and speak with him
face to face. Sacrifices could only be offered by him,
or at his express command ; offerings for the dead
were supposed to pass through his hands, and the
family invoked his name {seten de Jiotep) in order
that they might reach their destination in the next
world. Thus the king is depicted everywhere in the
temple, standing, sitting, kneeling, slaying the victim
and presenting parts of it, pouring wine, milk, oil, and
RELIGIOUS SCENES. 113
burning incense. The whole of mankind is acting
through him, and performing through him its duty to
the immortals. When the ceremony performed by
him demands the presence of several people, then it
is only the assistants, his own family as far as possible,
who are seen taking part. The queen standing behind
him, as Isis stands behind Osiris, has her hand raised
to protect him, shakes the sistrum or beats the
tambourine in order to ward off evil spirits from him,
or holds the bouquet, or the libation vase. His
eldest son tightens the net, or lassoes the bull, or
recites the prayer, while the king tenders to the
god everything prescribed by the ritual. The prince
is occasionally replaced by a priest, but no other
human being has any but very subordinate parts.
They are butchers, or servants, they drive the chariot,
or carry the palanquin of the god. The god, on the
other hand, is not always alone. Next to him are
his wife and his son, then the divinities of adjacent
nomes, and in a general way all the gods of Egypt.
From the moment that the temple is regarded as the
image of the world it should, like the world, contain
all the gods, great and small. They are generally
arranged in rows behind the god of the temple, either
sitting or standing, and partake of the homage offered
to him. Sometimes, however, they claim a more
active part in the ceremonies. The spirits of On,
and of Khonsu kneel at the feet of the sun and
acclaim him. Horus, Set, or Thoth conduct the
Pharaoh to his father, Amon-Ra, or with him they
perform the ceremonies usually assigned to the prince
or the priest ; they help him to overthrow the victim,
8
114 RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
to snare the birds intended for sacrifice, the)- pour
over his head the water of youth and of life that will
cleanse him from all impurities. The position and
functions of these subordinate gods are strictly defined
by the theology.
The sun journeying from east to west, as stated
in the texts, cut the universe into two worlds, the
north and the south. Like the universe the temple
was double and an imaginary line, drawn through
the axis of the sanctuary, divided it into two temples,
the temple of the south on the right, and the temple
of the north on the left. This fiction of duality was
pushed even further ; each chamber was divided in
imitation of the temple into two parts, of which the
right was that of the south and the left of the north.
In order to be complete the homage of the king must
be paid both in the temple of the north and of the
south, both to the gods of the north and of the south,
with the produce both of- the north and of the south.
Thus each scene must be represented at least twice,
on a wall to the right and on a wall to the left. Amon
on the right receives the wheat, the wine, and the
drink-offerings of the south ; on the left he receives
the wheat, the wine, and the drink-offerings of the
north ; and that which applies to Amon applies
equally to Mut, Khonsu, Mentii, and many others.
In practice the want of space prevented this being
always carried out, and one often finds a single
scene, in which the products of the north and of the
south are placed together before an Amon who repre-
sents in himself the Amon of the north and the Amon
of the south. This deviation from established usage
WALL SCULPTURES.
ns
is, however, exceptional, and symmetry was re-esta-
blished as soon as circumstances permitted.
During Pharaonic times the scenes were not much
crowded together ; the surface to be covered defined
below by a line drawn above the decoration of the
dado, is bounded above by the usual cornice, or by
a frieze of uraei, of bundles of lotus arranged side by
side, of the royal cartouches with their divine symbols
(fig. 1 1 1), or of emblems connected with the local cult
— Hathor-heads for instance in a temple of Hathor —
or of a horizontal line of dedicatory inscription deeply
carved in fine hieroglyphs. The space thus enclosed
sometimes formed one
single register, but as often
Fig. III. — Frieze of uraei and
cartouches.
it was divided into two
registers, one above another;
it was only on very lofty
walls that this number was
exceeded. Figures and texts were widely spaced,
and the scenes followed each other almost without
definite divisions ; it was left to the spectator to
discover the beginning and the end. The heads of the
kings were actual portraits drawn from life, and for
the gods also their features were copied as closely as
possible ; for Pharaoh being the son of the gods, the
surest method of obtaining their likeness was to
model it on the portrait of the king. The secondary
figures were represented with equal care, but where
there were too many of them they were arranged in
superposed rows of two or three, of which the total
height never exceeded that of the principal person-
ages. The offerings, the sceptres, the jewellery, the
Il6 RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
vestments, the headdresses, the furniture, and all the
accessories were located with minute regard for
elegance and accuracy. The colours were so com-
bined as to secure one dominant tone in any one part
of the building. Thus there are chambers which
might accurately be styled the blue hall, the red hall,
the green hall, the golden hall. So much for the
classical periods.
The nearer we approach to later times, the more
crowded the scenes become. Under the Greeks and
Romans they are so numerous that it was only
possible to arrange them on the wall by means of
four (fig. 112), five, six, or even eight registers. The
principal figures seem to be compressed in order to
save space, while thousands of explanatory hieroglyphs
fill up the gaps between them. The gods and kings
are no longer portraits of the reigning sovereign, but
conventional types without life or vigour, while,
with regard to the secondary personages and the
accessories, the only anxiety was to crowd them
together as closely as possible. This was not owing
to lack of taste ; these changes were due to the pre-
valence of a religious idea, the sole object of the
decoration was not merely to please the eye ; when
applied to a piece of furniture, to a house, a temple, or
a coffin, it possessed magical virtue, of which every
being or action represented, every word inscribed or
pronounced at the time of consecration, determined
the power and character. These scenes were there-
fore amulets as well as decorations. So long as they
lasted, they secured to the god the benefit of the
homage rendered, or the sacrifice offered by the king,
ORDER OF WALL SCENES.
117
and they confirmed to the king, living or dead, the
favour granted him by the god in recompense for his
&£ is 4* «?< £» ."^ ■*?) S^> 4=5 #=5 «* E* 4=7 ■ • _- f s • .• ; - - '. .- c
Fig. 112. — Wall of a chamber at Denderah, to show the
arrangement of the tableaux.
piety, they preserved the wall on which they were
carved from destruction, and also the whole area of
Il8 RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
the temple to which the wall belonged. During the
Eighteenth Dynasty it was supposed that one or two
amulets of this kind were sufficient to obtain the
desired effect, but later it was thought advisable to
increase the number, and as many were added as
could find room on the walls. One medium-sized
chamber of Edfii or Denderah furnishes more material
for study than the hypostyle hall of Karnak, and the
chapel of Antoninus Pius at Philae, had it been com-
pleted, would have contained more scenes than the
sanctuary at Luxor with the passages surrounding it.
Observing the extraordinary variety of subjects
dealt with, one is tempted to think that the decoration
does not form a continuous scheme from beginning
to end, and that, while several series are doubtless
developments of a single idea either historical or
religious, others are merely placed together without
any connecting link. On each face of a pylon at
Luxor and the Ramesseum a field of battle is repre-
sented, on which one can almost follow the struggle
of Rameses II. with the Kheti day by day. There
we see the royal camp surprised just as the Pharaoh
had arrived before Qodshu (Kadesh), the camp forced,
then the defeat of the barbarians, their flight, the
garrison of the city sallying forth to their relief, and
the disasters that befell the Syrian prince and his
generals. Elsewhere it is not the field of battle that
wc see, but the sacrifice of human life that marked
the close of each campaign ; the king grasping his
prostrate prisoners by the hair and brandishing his
mace as though about to kill them at a single blow.
At Karnak, along the outer wall, Seti I. is shown
ORDER OF WALL SCENES. 1 19
hunting down the Bedouin tribes of Sinai. At
Medinet Habu we see Rameses III. destroying the
fleet of the peoples of the sea, or he is counting the
severed hands of the Libyans brought him as trophies
by the soldiery. Then without any attempt at transi-
tion we find a peaceful scene — Pharaoh pouring out
a libation of perfumed water to his father Amon. It
does not appear possible to establish any connection
between these scenes, and yet one is a necessary
consequence of the other ; if the god had not granted
victory to the king, the king would not in turn have
performed the ceremonies in the temple. The
sculptor has recorded the events on the wall in the
order in which they occurred. The victory, then the
sacrifice ; the benefits bestowed by the god, and then
the act of gratitude performed by the king. If we
study them as a whole, we find that the multitude of
episodes are linked together in the same manneTT'all
the scenes, including those which at the first glance
appear most unaccountable, represent various stages
in one single action, which begins at the entrance,
and develops as we pass through the courts till it
ends at the sanctuary. Pharaoh enters the temple.
In the courts his eye is everywhere met by records of
his victories, but these pictures which appear intended
solely to flatter his vanity are homage to the god.
This is so well understood by the latter that, con-
cealed in his shrine and surrounded by his priests,
he forthwith emerges to meet the king. The rites
prescribed in this case are recorded on the walls of
the hypostyle hall where they were performed, and
then the king and the god together sought the
120 RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
sanctuary. Arrived at the door that divided the
public part from the mysterious regions of the temple,
the priestly escort halted, and the Pharaoh, passing
the threshold, was received by the gods. He per-
formed one after another all the prescribed religious
exercises, and then, having acquired merit, and with
senses refined by virtue of his prayers, he ventured
among the immortals and penetrated at length into
the sanctuary, where his divine father revealed him-
self to him, and conversed with him face to face.
The decorations give a faithful representation of this
mystic interview, the friendly welcome of the divinities,
the gestures and offerings of the king, the vestments
successively laid aside and donned by him, the crowns
he wore, the visions he recited and the benefits
resulting from them — all these are engraved on the
walls in their respective positions ; Pharaoh and his
small escort are placed facing the door at the farther
end with their backs to the entrance ; while the gods,
with the exception of those escorting the king, face
the entrance door, with their backs to the sanctuary.
Should the royal memory fail during the ceremony,
the king had only to glance at the walls to see what
was next to be done.
This was not all ; each part of the temple had its
individual decoration and furniture. The walls of
the pylons were not only furnished with the masts
and streamers already mentioned, but with statues
and obelisks. The statues, four or six in number,
were of limestone, granite, or sandstone ; they repre-
sented the royal founder, and were sometimes of
colossal size. The two Memnons seated at the
OBELISKS. 121
entrance of the chapel of Amenhotep III. at Thebes
measure about 50 feet in height. The colossus of
Rameses III. at the Ramesseum stood 57 feet high,
and that at Tanis at least 70 feet. The greater
number of statues, however, did not exceed 20 feet.
They mounted guard infront of the temple, facing
outwards as though to ward off any approaching
enemy. The obelisks of Karnak are almost all
swallowed up in the multitude of courts. This
circumstance is easily explained. Each pylon, with
its accompanying obelisks, was originally the ex-
ternal fagade, and was in turn relegated to a secondary
position by the additional courts of successive
Pharaohs. The proper position of the obelisks is
in front of the colossi, on each side of the main
entrance. They are always in pairs, but often of
unequal height. They have been variously explained
as being emblems of Amon-Generator, or a finger of
the god, or a ray of light. Roughly shaped stone
stelae, bearing the name of the deceased king, were
placed in front of the tombs of the kings of the
earliest dynasties, and small limestone obelisks, about
3 feet in height, are found in tombs as early as the
end of the Third Dynasty. They are placed to right
and left of the stela — that is to say, on either side of
the door that leads to the dwelling of the dead. In
their origin * they may have been models of the
celebrated benben stone of Heliopolis, the earliest
incarnation of the sun god Ra, and closely related to
the baityle, so well known in Syria and Palestine.
Like the sphinx and the statues of the kings, they
* English Editor.
122
RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
11
\zzU
were regarded as possessing magic
powers that enabled them to protect
the building before which they were
placed from all evil, the attacks of
mortal enemy, or of malignant spirits.
Erected before the pylon gates, they
were made of granite, and their
dimensions are considerable. The
shaft of the obelisk at Heliopolis
(fig. 113) measures 68 feet, and those
at Luxor are respectively JJ and
75-i feet, while the highest known,
that of Queen Hatshepsut at Karnak,
rises to a height of 109 feet. To
move such masses, even at the present
time, and to calibre them accurately,
is a serious task, and it is difficult to
realise how the Egyptians succeeded
in raising them with nothing more
than ropes and sacks of sand.
Hatshepsut boasts that her obelisks
were quarried, shaped, transported,
and erected within seven months, and
we have no reason to doubt her word.
Obelisks were almost invariably
square in section, the faces slightly
convex, and sloping slightly from top
to bottom. The base was a single
square block inscribed with texts or
carved in high relief with cynocephali
adoring the sun. The point was carved
into a pyramidion, occasionally covered with bronze
K^*
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rf.
u
n
u
Fig. 113. — Obelisk
of Seniisert I.,
Heliopolis.
OBELISKS.
123
or copper-gilt. Scenes of offerings to Ra-Harmakhis,
Horus, Atiim, and Amon are carved on the sides of
the pyramidion and on the upper part of the shaft.
Below, on the four vertical faces, there are parallel
lines of hieroglyphs setting forth the praises of the
king, and sometimes a scene of
offering at the bottom.
This is the usual form of obelisk.
Here and there one comes across
one of a different type. That at
Begig, in the Fayum, is rectangular
in section, and bluntly rounded at
the top (fig. 114). A mortise at
the summit shows that it was sur-
mounted by some metal object,
probably a hawk, as on the obelisk
carved on one of the votive stelae
in the Cairo Museum. This form
lasted till the final decay of
Egyptian art. One has been found
at Axum, in the middle of Ethiopia,
dating from about the fourth
century of our era.
Such were the accessories to the
decoration of the pylon. The inner
courts and hypostyle halls had also
colossi of their own. Some of these, backed on
to the front faces of the pillars or walls, were only
half disengaged from the masonry, and were even
built up with it in courses. They represented the
Pharaoh standing, mummified, and bearing the
insignia of Osiris. Others, under the peristyle at
Fig. 114.— Obelisk of
Senusert I., Begig
Fayum.
124 RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
Luxor, and at Karnak between each column of
the central aisle, are also statues of the Pharaoh,
but here he is Pharaoh triumphant, clad in royal
apparel. The right to dedicate a statue in the temple
was also a royal prerogative, and although the king
occasionally permitted some favoured person to
dedicate theirs by the side of his own, it was always
a special favour, and the inscription on such statues
mentions that it was placed there by the king's grace.
Rarely as this privilege was granted, it resulted in a
vast accumulation of votive statues, so that in the
course of centuries the courts and passages of some
temples were crowded
with them. At Karnak
the sanctuary enclosure
was furnished outside
with a kind of broad
Fig. 115.— Table of offerings, bench breast - high, on
Karnak. .
which the statues were
placed with their backs to the wall. So crowded
was the temple, that at last it was found absolutely
necessary to get rid of some of the statues. They
were temple property, and could not be disposed of.
In the course of the third century B.C. a deep
trench was dug near the south wall of the hypostyle
hall, and about a thousand statues were buried.
Here they remained in safety till the beginning of
this century, when M. Legrain discovered them, and
they are now ranged in numbers in the Cairo
Museum.
Attached to each statue as it stood in the sanctuary
was a rectangular table of offerings (fig. 1 1 5) formed
TABLES OF OFFERINGS.
125
of a block of stone with a projection on one side to
form a spout, and the upper part hollowed more or
less deeply. On it are often carved loaves, joints of
beef, libation vases, and other objects usually pre-
sented to the deceased or to the gods. The tables of
offerings of King Ameni Entef Amenemhat at Cairo
consist of blocks of red granite more than 3 feet in
length, the top of which is hollowed into cups spaced
at regular intervals, each cup-hole being reserved for
one particular offering. There was a cult connected
with these statues, and the tables were altars upon
which sacrificial offerings of meat,
cakes, fruits, vegetables, and the
like were placed during the per-
formance of the ritual which
ensured the offerings reaching the
deceased.
The sanctuary and the surround-
ing chambers contained the objects Fig. 116.— Limestone
required for the cult. The bases altar-
of altars varied in shape, some square and massive,
others polygonal or cylindrical. Some of these last
are not unlike a small cannon, which is the name
given them by the Arabs.
A perfect specimen was discovered at Menshiyeh
in 1884 (fig. 116). It is of white limestone, hard, and
polished like marble. The foot is a very long cone
with no ornament except a torus about half an inch
below the top. Upon this the large hemispherical
basin is fixed into a square mortise.
The naos is a small shrine of wood or stone
(fig. 117) in which the spirit of the deity was at
126
RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE.
all times expected to dwell, and which on certain
festivals contained his actual image. The sacred
barks were built after the model of a boat, in which
the sun pursued his daily course round the world.
In the centre was the naos, covered with a veil that
prevented spectators beholding what was within it.
The crew was complete, each god at his appointed
Fig. 117. — Wooden naos, Turin Museum.
place, the pilot at the helm, the look-out at the prow,
the king on his knees before the door of the naos.
We have not yet found any of the statues em-
ployed at the ceremonies in honour of the gods, but
we know their appearance, the part they played, and
the materials of which they were made. They were
animated, and in addition to their bodies of stone,
metal, or wood, they possessed a soul, procured by
magic from the divinity they represented. They
MOVING STATUES. 127
spoke, they moved, they acted — not metaphorically,
but actually. The Pharaohs undertook nothing
without their counsel. They addressed them, con-
sulting them as to affairs of state, and after each
question they showed approval by bowing the head,
or if the reply was unfavourable they remained
immovable. The stela of Bakhtan (a priestly docu-
ment of Persian or Ptolemaic times) states that a
statue of Khonsu placed its hands four times on the
neck of another statue in order to transmit to it the
power of chasing away demons. Hatshepsut de-
spatched an expedition to Punt, the Land of incense,
after having conversed with the statue of Amon in
the darkness of the sanctuary. In theory the divine
spirit alone was supposed to produce these miracles,
but in practice the speech and movement were the
result of human intervention. Interminable avenues
of sphinxes, gigantic obelisks, massive pylons, halls of
a hundred columns, mysterious chambers where the
day never penetrated — the entire Egyptian temple
was built to serve as an abode for an articulated
puppet in whose name a priest spoke, and of which
he pulled the wires.
CHAPTER III.
TOMBS.
The Egyptians regarded man as constituted of
various entities, each of which possessed its own
functions and life. There was the visible form, the
body to which the ka_or double was attached during
life. The ka was a replica of the body, of a substance
less dense, a coloured but ethereal projection of the
individual : the ka of a child would reproduce the
child, that of a woman the woman, that of a man
the man, each of them feature for feature. Then
there was the ba, the soul represented in the form
of a bird, sometimes with a human head. There
was also the kliu or luminous, and one or more
other entities perhaps of less importance. These
elements were not imperishable, and if left to them-
selves they would gradually cease to exist, and the
man would die a second time — that is to say, he
would become non-existent. The existence of the
ka depended on the body, and to save that from
destruction was the object of the survivors. By the
process of drying and embalming the body they
could prolong its existence for ages, while by means
of prayers and offerings they saved the double, the
soul, and the luminous from the second death, and
procured for them all that was necessary for pro-
128
THE GRAVE. 1 29
longed existence. The double scarcely quitted the
place where the mummy dwelt ; the soul and the
luminous left it to follow the gods, but they always
returned to it as a traveller returns home.
At first the grave was a mere shallow pit in which
the dead was laid on a mat surrounded by weapons,
food, pottery, ornaments, and a palette on which to
rub the paint with which he coloured his face. The
body was laid on the left side in a crouching attitude,
with the head either to the north or the south. This
earliest form of grave was soon elaborated, and
through the Thinite period we can trace its develop-
ment. The deep rectangular pit roofed with timber
and mud, then brick-lined, with steps leading down
to it ; the superstructure of mud and brick carefully
whitened on the outside, and with its two niches on
the east side where offerings and prayers could be
made for the dead. Every stage can be traced from
the primitive grave to the elaborate tomb of the
Old Kingdom. The tomb of the Egyptian was a
dwelling-house, his eternal house, in comparison to
which earthly houses were but inns for temporary
convenience. The arrangement of these eternal
houses corresponded faithfully to the conception held
regarding the future life. They contained private
apartments for the soul, where after the day of the
funeral no living creature could enter without com-
mitting sacrilege. In the fully equipped tombs halls
of audience were provided for the double, where priests
and friends came with prayers and offerings, while
between the two were passages of various lengths.
The arrangement of these three sections varied
9
130 TOMBS.
greatly, according to the period, the locality, the
nature of the site, and the social position and caprice
of the individual. The part accessible to the public
was often above ground, and formed a separate
building. In other cases it was excavated in the
mountain side as well as the tomb itself, or again
the sepulchral chamber with the passages leading
to it was in one locality, while the place for offering
and prayer was at a distance on the plain. But,
however varied in detail and grouping, the principle
always remains the same. The tomb is a dwelling
intended to promote the well-being and secure the
preservation of its occupant.
I. MASTABAS.
We have already alluded to the graves of the
pre-dynastic and archaic period. The cemeteries
of that early period abound in Lower Nubia and
Upper Egypt, and mastabas of the Second Dynasty
have been found as far north as Saqqara. The great
mastabas of the Memphite period are found at
Memphis, at Medum, and between Abu Roash,
and Dahshur. The mastaba (fig. 1 1 8) is a quad-
rangular building which from a distance might be
mistaken for a truncated pyramid ; the name was
applied to them by the natives on account of their
shape, mastaba being the Arabic word for a bench
or platform. Many of these mastabas are from
30 to 40 feet in height, 150 feet in length, and
So feet in width, while others are barely 10 feet
high or 15 feet long. The sides slope symmetrically,
THE MASTABA. 131
and are usually quite smooth, but sometimes the
courses recede one above another like a series of
steps. The materials employed are brick or stone.
The stone is always limestone worked in blocks
about 32 inches long, 20 inches high, and 24 inches
wide. Three kinds of limestone are used ; for the
best worked tombs the fine white stone from Turah
or the compact silicious stone of Saqqara, and for
ordinary tombs the marly limestone of the Libyan
mountains. This last contains thin layers of salt
and is veined with crystallised gypsum, and is ex-
ceedingly friable and unsuited for ornamentation.
The brick is merely
sun-dried, and is of ^^t,
two kinds. The ^ffiS^J.
most ancient, which J§S|8Sifej^*~P^
fell into disuse as ' Fig. Ii8.-Amastaba.
early as the Sixth
Dynasty, is small (8| x 4^ x 5f inches), yellowish,
and made of sand mixed with a little clay and
gravel. The other kind is black, compact, well
moulded, made of mud mixed with straw, and fairly
large (15 x 7 x $h inches). The working of the
stone inside the building varies according to the
material employed by the architect. Nine times out
of ten it is only the outside walls of the stone mastabas
that are regularly worked. The inside is constructed
of roughly quarried rubble, fragments of limestone
and rubbish roughly laid in horizontal courses
embedded in mud, or even piled up without mortar
of any kind. The brick mastabas are almost always
uniform in construction, the external faces carefully
132 TOMBS.
built with mortar, and the ^interstices of the inner
layers filled in with fine sifted sand.
It was intended that the mastaba should be correctly
orientated, the four sides to the four cardinal points,
the greater axis stretching from north to south ; but
the masons did not trouble to find the exact north,
and the orientation is rarely accurate. At Gizeh
the mastabas are arranged according to a symmetrical
plan, and form actual streets ; at Saqqara, Abusir,
and Dahshur they are flung in disorder on the plain,
in some places crowded, in others far apart. The
modern Mussulman cemetery at Siut shows a similar
lack of arrangement, and furnishes an idea of the
appearance of a Memphite necropolis during the
latter part of the Old Kingdom.
An unpaved platform, consisting of the final layer
of the masonry, forms the top of the mastaba : this
is thickly strewn with pottery, which is almost buried
in the earth employed in the building, and laid most
thickly above the hollow parts of the interior. The
walls are bare, the doors generally face east, occasion-
ally north or south, but never west. There were two
of these, one reserved for the use of the dead, the
other accessible to the living ; but that intended for
the dead was merely a narrow high niche in the east
face, near the north-east angle. Vertical grooves
were worked on the face of the niche, and formed
a frame and a narrow sunk panel. Even this pretence
of a means of entry was sometimes omitted, and the
soul had to manage as best it might. The door for
the living was of more or less importance, in accord-
ance with the chamber to which it led. In more than
PLAN OF MASTABAS.
133
one instance, as in the earliest form of mastaba, the
door and chamber are combined in one shallow recess
containing a stela and a table of offerings (fig. 119).
This is occasionally protected by a wall projecting
from the face of the mastaba, which forms a kind
of forecourt opening towards the north ; in the tomb
of Kaapir the court is square (fig. 120), in that of
Neferhotep at Saqqara it is of irregular form (fig. 12 1).
When the plan of the
tomb includes one or more
chambers, the door is in
Fig. 119. — False door in mastaba,
from Mariette's Les Mastabahs.
Fig. 120. — Plan of forecourts,
in mastaba of Kaapir.
the centre of a small architectural facade (fig. 122)
or under a shallow portico of two square pillars
without base or abacus (fig. 123). It is of almost
rudimentary simplicity — the two door-jambs are
either plain or have bas-reliefs representing the
deceased, and surmounted by a cylindrical drum
carved with his name and titles. In the tomb of
Pohunika at Saqqara the door-jambs represent two
pilasters each crowned with two lotus-flowers in
relief,
134
TOMBS.
The chapel itself was generally small, and out
of all proportion with the size of the building (fig.
124), but there was
no precise rule to
determine its size.
In the tomb of Ti
(fig. 125) there is
successively a portico
(a), a square ante-
chamber with pillars
(b), a passage (c), with a small chamber on the right
(D) opening into a final chamber (e). There is plenty
of space for more than one
person of importance, and
the inscriptions show that
the wife of Ti reposed
Fig. 121.
Plan of forecourt, mastaba of
Neferhotep.
Fig. 122. — Door in facade of
mastaba.
W
there with her husband.
The tomb was not so com-
plicated when it was in-
tended for one person only.
A short narrow gallery leads to an oblong chamber,
hich crosses it at right angles. The rear wall is
often straight, and the
whole resembles a well-
balanced hammer (fig.
126). In other cases the
wall is recessed opposite
the entrance, and gives
the form of a cross with
the head considerably
■
Fig. 123. — Portico and door, from
Mariette's Lcs Mastabahs.
shortened (fig. 127). This was the most usual arrange-
ment, but] the architect was at liberty to disregard
PLAN OF MASTABAS.
135
it at will. One chapel consists of two parallel
galleries connected by a transverse passage (fig. 128).
In another the chamber opens at one corner on to the
WPRRHRIWSIMPMIMHiqggi
Fig. 124.— Plan of chapel in mastaba of Khabiiisokari, Fourth Dynasty.
gallery (fig. 129) ; or again in the tomb of Ptahhotep
the available area was hemmed in between earlier
constructions, and was not large enough. Here the
Fig. 125.— Plan of Fig. 126.— Plan of chapel Fig. 127.— Plan ot
chapel in mas- in mastaba of Shep- chapel in mastaba
taba of Ti, Fifth sesptah, Fourth Dy- of Affi, Saqqara,
Dynasty. nasty. Fourth Dynasty.
new mastaba was combined with the earlier one by
making the entrance common to both, and the chapel
of the one was enlarged by the whole of the space
occupied by the other (fig. 130).
136
TOMBS.
The chapel was the reception-room of the double.
There the relatives, friends, and priests celebrated the
funerary sacrifices on the days prescribed by law, "at
the feasts at the beginning of the seasons, at the feast
of Thoth, on the first day of the year, at the feast
of Uaga, at the great feast of
Sothis, at the procession of
the god Min, at the feast
of loaves, at the feasts of
the months, the half months,
and of the days." The
offerings were deposited in
the principal hall at the
foot of the west wall at the precise spot where the
entrance to the eternal house was indicated. At first
this was marked by an actual door, framed and
decorated like the ordinary door of a house. As,
Fig. 128. — Plan of chapel in
mastaba of Thenti II.,
Saqqara, Fourth Dynast}'.
Fig. 129. — Plan of chapel in mastaba of the Red Scribe, Saqqara,
Fourth Dynasty.
however, it was to remain for ever closed to the living
it was not long before this door was walled up and
a mere false door substituted for it. A hieroglyph
inscription carved on the lintel commemorated the
name and rank of the occupant. Representations
of him, standing or seated, were carved on the sides,
THE MASTABA CHAPEL.
137
while a scene painted or carved on the back of the
recess showed him seated before a table and reaching
out his hand for the repast provided for him. A flat
table of offerings fixed in the floor between the jambs
of the false door received the offerings of food and
drink. The general appearance of the recess is that
Fig. 130. — Plan of the mastaba of Ptahhotep, Saqqara, Fifth Dynasty.
of a somewhat narrow doorway. As a rule it was
empty, but occasionally it contained a portrait of the
dead man, either the head and shoulders, or a com-
plete statue of him (fig. 131), standing with one foot
forward as though about to pass the gloomy threshold
of his tomb, descend the steps into the chapel or ka
138
TOMBS.
} «M
-S N
V
K
Pig. 131. — Stela in tomb of Merruka, a lalsc door containing a
statue of the deceased, Abusir, Fifth Dynasty.
chamber, and partake of the heaped-up offerings of
food1 laid on the table, as he was expected to do a^
THE STELA. 139
soon as the ceremonies were concluded, and bis. living
visitors had departed.
Theoretically these offerings should have been
repeated year by year throughout the ages, but the
Egyptians soon realised that this could not be. After
two or three generations the dead of bygone times
would be neglected in favour of others more recent.
Even when they were endowed with pious foundations
whose revenues were intended to provide offerings
and priests to serve them, the hour of oblivion was
only deferred. Sooner or later the double would be
forced to search for food among the town refuse and
corrupt filth lying about on the ground.
The survivors therefore conceived the idea of
inscribing on the stela a list of the food and
drink he would require, with an invocation to the
gods of the dead, Osiris or Anubis, to supply him with
all good things necessary. Offerings of real provisions
were not necessary. Any chance stranger in times to
come who should simply repeat the magic formula of
the stela aloud would thereby secure the immediate
enjoyment by the deceased of the good things there
set forth. The name and titles of the deceased in-
scribed on the door-posts and lintels were no mere
epitaph for the information of future generations ; all
the details given as to the name, rank, and function
of the deceased were intended to secure the continuity
of his individuality and civil status in the life beyond
death. In order to ensure that the funerary offerings
should for ever retain their virtue they were painted
and described on the walls of the chapel (fig. 132).
The painted or sculptured representations of persons.
140
TOMRS.
and things ensured their actual possession and enjoy-
ment by the individual for whose benefit they were
executed. Thus the ka saw himself depicted on the
walls eating and drinking, and he ate and drank
accordingly.
PURPOSE OF WALL PAINTINGS. 14-t
This idea once admitted, many further develop-
ments were evolved from it. Not only were fictitious
provisions provided, but the domains from which they
were supposed to come were also added, with flocks,
labourers, and slaves. Was it a question of how to
provide food for all eternity, it was only necessary
to draw the different parts of an ox or a gazelle ready
prepared for the butcher — the shoulder, the haunch,
the ribs, the breast, the heart and liver and the head ;
but it was also quite easy to represent the history of
the animal from a very early period — its birth, its
life in the pastures, then the slaughter-house, the
cutting up of the creature, and the final offering. In
the same way with regard to cakes or loaves, there
was no difficulty in depicting the field labour, the
sowing, the harvest, beating out the grain, storing it
in the granary, and kneading the dough. Clothing,
ornaments, and furniture afforded a pretext for intro-
ducing spinning and weaving, gold-working and
joiner's work. The master is represented of immense
size, out of 'all proportion to the workpeople and
cattle. Various tactful scenes show him in his
funeral barge travelling full sail (fig. 133) to the other
world, on the very day when he was deposited in the
depths of his new abode. Elsewhere he is seen in full
activity inspecting his imaginary vassals as he had
formerly inspected the real ones (fig. 134). His
ornaments are not forgotten, and he is provided with
dancing girls, musicians, or his favourite gaming-
board at which he is seen playing. Varied as these
scenes are, they are not arranged without method.
They all converge towards the false door that is
142
TOMBS.
supposed to communicate with the tomb chamber ;
those nearest the door represent the details of the
fig. 133. — Wall painting, funeral voyage, mastaba of Urkhuu,
Gizeh, Fourth Dynasty.
sacrifice and offerings, followed in the retrograde
order of the sequence of events, the first preliminaries
being at the greatest distance from the stela. At the
Fig. 134. — Wall scene from mastaba of Ptahhotep, Fifth Dynasty.
door the figure of the occupant appears to await his
visitors and bid them welcome. There is an infinite
variety, the inscriptions are shortened or lengthened
THE SERDAB.
H3
according to the caprice of the scribe, the false door
loses its architectural character, and is often nothing-
more than a stone of medium size, a stela bearing
the name and protocol of the occupant ; large or
small, bare or richly ornamented, the chapel always
remained the dining-room, or perhaps rather the
buttery, where the deceased could feed when hungry.
On the other side of the wall a narrow lofty recess
or passage is concealed. To this archaeologists give
the name of serdab, a term borrowed from the Arabs.
The greater number of tombs
have only one of these, but in
some instances there are three
or four (fig. 135). They com-
municate neither with each
other nor with the chapel, and
they may be described as buried
in the masonry (fig. 136) ; safely
walled up in them were statues
of the deceased, sometimes of his
wife and children. If there is
any connection with the outside
world it is by means of an opening in the wall a man's
height from the floor (fig. 137) and almost too small for
a hand to be inserted. At this orifice the priests would
murmur prayers and burn incense ; the double was at
hand to profit by them, and his statues would certainly
benefit. To carry on existence as he had done on
earth the man still required a body, but the corpse
disfigured by the process of embalming was only an
imperfect representation of the living form. The
mummy was alone and easily destroyed, it might be
Fig. 135. — Plan of serdab
in mastaba at Gizeh,
Fourth Dynasty.
144
TOMBS.
burned, or dismembered and scattered abroad. If it
should disappear what would become of the double ?
The statues hidden in the serdab, whether of stone,
metal, or wood, became after consecration the actual
body. By the piety of the relatives the number of
these ka statues was multiplied, and thus the supports
of the double were also increased. A single body
gave him one chance of prolonged existence, whereas
twenty bodies gave him twenty chances. It was with
similar intention that statues of his wife and children
were placed with that of the deceased, and also figures
V.
\ ^
Egk •
-ur.
^i3
Fig. Ij6. — Plan of serdab and
chapel in mastaba ol" Ra-
hotep at Saqqara, Fourth
Dynasty.
Fig. 1 37.- -Plan of serdab
and chapel in mastaba of
Thenti I., at Saqqara,
Fourth Dynasty.
of his servants occupied with their various domestic
duties, grinding corn, kneading bread, or sealing up
the wine-jars. The figures that were painted on the
chapel walls were detached and assumed a solid form
in the serdab.
All these precautions did not prevent every possible
means being adopted to preserve what remained of
the actual body from decay and from damage by
spoilers. In the tomb of Ti a steep passage-way
from the centre of the principal chamber leads to the
vault, but this is very exceptional. The entrance to
THE VAULT.
145
msmsg'
the vault is usually a vertical shaft, which descends
from the centre of the platform (fig. 138), or more
rarely from a corner of the chapel. The depth varies
from 10 to 100 feet, the shaft is carried down through
the masonry into the rock, when it opens on the
south side into a corridor so low that it is impossible
to walk upright. Beyond this is the funeral chamber,
and here the mummy is
concealed in a massive sar-
cophagus of white limestone,
red granite, or basalt. In
rare cases it is inscribed
with the name and titles of the deceased,
and still more rarely it is decorated ;
some examples are known carved in
imitation of a house, with its grooves
on the facade, its doors, and windows.
The accessories placed in
the vault are very simple ;
alabaster vases for perfumes,
bowls into which the priest
poured some drops of the FiS- 138-— Section showing
.... „ , shaft and vault of mastaba
liquids Ottered to the dead at Gizeh, Fourth Dynasty.
man, rough pottery jars for
water, an alabaster or wooden head-rest, and a votive
offering of a scribe's palette. The body having been
placed in the sarcophagus and sealed up, the
attendants placed joints of a newly sacrificed ox
or gazelle on the floor. The entrance to the passage
was then carefully blocked up, and the shaft filled up
with fragments of stone mixed with sand and earth.
This mixture, when freely watered, formed an almost
10
146
TOMBS.
impenetrable cement. The body thus left in solitude
henceforth received no visit except from its soul, its
luminous, and its double. The double could leave the
chapel and come and go at pleasure, while the soul
from time to time abandoned the celestial regions
when it journeyed with the gods, and spent some
hours with its mummy.
Up to the time of the Sixth
Dynasty the walls of the tomb
chamber are bare. Once only
did Mariette find in it fragments
of inscriptions belonging to the
Book of the Dead. In 1881, how-
ever, I found tombs at Saqqara,
where the sepulchral chambers
had been decorated in preference
to the chapel. They were built
of brick, and the place for offer-
ings was merely a niche containing
a stela. Inside, the shaft was
replaced by a small rectangular
Fl'g- I39— Section of court, on the western side of
mastaba, Saqqara, , . , , , ,
Sixth Dynasty. which was the sarcophagus.
Above the sarcophagus there
was a limestone chamber of the same length and
breadth as the sarcophagus, and about 3^ feet high,
covered with a flat ceiling of stone slabs. A niche
was constructed at the end or to the right to take
the place of the serdab. Above the flat roof was
a vaulting, with a radius of about 18 inches, to
take off the weight of the superincumbent masonry,
and above that again were courses of bricks carried
SIXTH DYNASTY MASTABAS, SAQQARA. 147
up to the level of the platform. The chamber
occupies about two-thirds of the cavity, and looks
like an oven with the mouth open. Sometimes the
chamber was only completed after the interment, and
the stone walls actually rest on the cover of the
sarcophagus (fig. 1 39). More frequently they are sup-
ported on brick substructures, and the sarcophagus
gWgJ»»W1w™«y<i««.», MMtaaM«tl»«K~r"T---jy-w»i»ic«w»CTy3»t.
140. — Wall painting of funerary offering?, from mastaba of
Nenka, Saqqara, Sixth Dynasty.
could be opened or closed at will. The decoration,
whether painted or sculptured, is the same every-
where. Each wall was regarded as an actual house
containing the objects represented or enumerated on
it. Care was taken, therefore, to provide a large door
by which the deceased could obtain access to his
property. On the wall to the left he found a pro-
fusion of food (fig. 140), and also|the table of offerings.
I48 TOMBS.
The end wall provided him with household utensils,
linen, and perfumes, their names and quantities care-
fully noted. The scenes are repetitions of those in
the chapels. They have been removed from their
original position and transferred to the tomb chamber,
thus rendering them far more secure than they could
be in chambers that were accessible to all comers.
The stately stone mastabas of the nobles and
officials of the court of Khufu cluster near his
pyramid at Gizeh. The humbler brick-built mastabas
of less important folk of the Fourth and Fifth
Dynasties are near by. From them, recent excava-
tions by Dr. Reisner have brought to light man}'' fine
portrait figures hitherto concealed in the untouched
serdabs. Man)' of these ka statues of limestone,
finely painted, are now in Boston, and form an
interesting study of men, with their wives and
children, who must have been officially connected
with the building of the great pyramids.
2. KOYAL TOMBS AND PYRAMIDS.
The great mastaba at Nagada and the tombs
at Abydos are the earliest royal tombs known
in Egypt. The outer walls of the Nagada tomb are
recessed at intervals with vertical grooves very similar
to those on the walls of early Babylonian buildings
(fig. 141). Similar panelling is frequently found on
mastabas of the early period, and of the Old Kingdom
(fig. 142).
At Abydos there is a scries of royal tombs of the
First and Second Dynasties. They consist of im-
re
a
2
OS
c
>>
Q
fc
4)
C
0)
c
ca
Oh
I
1 50 TOMBS.
mense rectangular pits from 10 to 14 feet deep, and
lined with bricks. The tomb chamber is in the
centre, surrounded by a number of smaller chambers
which contained offerings and also the bodies of
servants, whose has would accompany their master
to the future world. The tombs vary considerably.
The brick walls were lined with wood ; at first the
tomb chamber was of wood or of brick, and floored
with wood. A stairway (fig. 143) was soon introduced
Fig. 142. — Tomb of Senna, with panelled east wall, Denderali,
•Sixth Dynast}-.
on the north side, then a granite floor was provided
for the tomb chamber, and bv the time of the Second
Dynasty there is a tomb chamber built of hewn
stone. The tomb was roofed over at the ground level
with beams of wood and a layer of straw. Above
this sand was piled, and a low retaining wall some
3 or 4 feet high shows the very modest height of the
superstructure. In front of the tomb at the east side
(in one instance on the south) two large stone steiae
were erected on which were carved in hieroglyphs the
TOM 15 OF KING OA
151
re
a
>>
Q
o
<
C
-3
u
o
3
O'
60
c
o
60
name of the king (fig. 144). It was here that the
offerings for the dead were brought.*
The royal tomb of Bet Khallaf, built by Zeser of
* W. M. Flinders Petrie, Royal Tombs, vol. i., ii.
I K2
TOMBS.
Fig. 144. — Stela of King Perabsen,
Abydo?, Second Dynasty.
the Second or Third
Dynasty, has deve-
loped into an un-
mistakable mastaba
(fig. 145). The super-
structure is of crude
brick, and rises about
33 feet above the
present level of the
desert. It measures
280 feet long by 153
feet wide. The bricks
employed average
11x5x3^ inches.
The outer walls are
panelled with vertical
grooves. A stairway
(fig. 146), which turns
at right angles after
perhaps eight steps,
leads down to the
desert level ; at this
point it passes through
an archway and opens
on a sloping passage
covered by a barrel
roof of brick. This
continues to a depth
of 54 feet below the
ground, and gives ac-
cess to a series of gal-
leries and chambers
MASTABA OF BET KHALLAF.
15;
opening to right and left, and to the stone-lined tomb
chamber (f). The passage was closed at five separate
points by large slabs of limestone, let down shafts
constructed for the purpose. These stones increased
in size as they neared the chamber entrance. The
largest was 17 feet in height, <S to 9 feet in width, and
2 feet thick.
The tomb chamber had been rifled in Roman times.
Fig. 145. — Royal tomb, Bet Khallaf, superstructure. — Egypt Research
Account, J. Garstang.
but broken vessels lay there in' piles, inscribed with
the royal name. The plunderers had dug a way for
themselves ; the portcullises were undisturbed, and
the stairway was crowded with alabaster vases, tables
of offerings, and wine-jars, some of them stamped and
sealed with the royal name and titles. The entrance
at the top had been carefully bricked up and con-
cealed, and had successfully guarded its secret.*
* J. Garstang, Mahasna and Bet Khallaf.
154
TOMBS.
With the second tomb built by King Zeser we
approach yet nearer to the type of the true pyramid.
The great step pyramid of Saqqara is built of stone,
and has the appearance of six superposed mastabas
(fig. 147). It is not accurately orientated ; the northern
face deviates 40 2i'E. of the true north. The base
is not square, but a rectangle elongated from cast to
-.
Fig. 146. — Section of
lo^al tomb of Bet
Kliallaf — Egypt Re
starch A cam lit. J.
Garstang.
west measuring 395 x 351 feet. It is 196 feet high.
The lowest step, with its sloping sides, is T,yh feet
high, and the succeeding steps each recede about
7 feet. It is built entirely of limestone from the
surrounding desert plateau. The stone is small
and badly quarried, the courses are concave, on the
same method of construction as that employed for
quays and fortresses. An examination of the walls
where they are broken shows that the external face
STEP PYRAMID OF SAQQARA.
155
of each step has two coverings, each with its regular
revetment. The building forms a solid mass, and
the chambers are cut out in the rock below the
pyramid. The most important of the four entrances
is on the north side, and the passages form a perfect
labyrinth dangerous to enter. Colonnades, galleries,
chambers, all lead to a central pit, at the bottom of
which a hiding-place is contrived, no doubt intended
,:>-k-7-
Fig. 147. — Step pyramid of Saqqara.
to contain the most valuable objects of the funerary
outfit.
The stone pyramid of Zowyet el Aryan has recently
been examined by Dr. Reisner, and proves to be
also a step pyramid, apparently of the Third
Dynasty.
The next advance we note in this development of
the royal tombs is the pyramid of Seneferu, last
Pharaoh of the Third Dynasty, and the predecessor
of Khufu. His pyramid is at Medum. It consists
of three square stages with sloping sides resembling
three mastabas placed one above another (fig. 148).
Like the step pyramid of Saqqara, it is a cumulative
1 56
TOM MS.
mastaba. The entrance is on the north, about 53 feet
above the sand (fig. 149). At a distance of 60 feet the
passage enters the rock. At 174 feet it runs level
for 40 feet, when it stops and rises perpendicularly
for 21 feet, and then opens on the floor of the vault.
A set of beams and ropes which are still in place
above the opening show how the spoilers drew the
sarcophagus out of the chamber in ancient times.
We have already seen (p. /2) that the small chapel
Fig. 148. — Pyramid of Medum.
built against the eastern slope of the pyramid re-
mains intact.
Thus by the timeof the Fourth Dynasty the royal
tomb, like. the mastaba, consisted of three parts, the
chapel, the passage, and the vault, but on a special
plan of which the ordinary tomb gives no idea.
There is the pyramid, inside which is the sepulchral
chamber and the passages, while the chapel or hall
of offerings has developed into an actual temple
built on the eastern face of the pyramid, in most
cases supplemented by the valley temple at the foot of
the hill.
THE BUILDING OF THE PYRAMIDS.
tS7
The pyramid and upper temple were surrounded
by a high stone wall enclosing a rectangular temenos
paved with large stone slabs. The door was always
in the northern face. On three sides of the pyramid
long galleries were dug in the solid rock to contain
offerings and provisions for the dead king and the
members of his family.
As we have seen, the oldest stone pyramid of the
northern group is that of Zeser at Saqqara. The
latest belong to the Pharaohs of the Thirteenth
Dynasty. The construction of these monuments was
therefore a continuous work that lasted for thirteen
Fig. 149. — Section of passage and vault in pyramid of Medum.
or fourteen centuries under government direction.
The granite, basalt, and alabaster required for the
sarcophagus and for various details of the construc-
tion were the only materials of which the use and
quantity were not regulated beforehand, and that had
to be brought from a distance.
In order to procure them each king despatched
one of the principal nobles of his court on a special
mission to the quarries of the south, and the speed
with which he procured the blocks formed a powerful
title to the favour of the sovereign. The rest of the
material did not involve such a cost. If the building
was of hrick, the bricks were moulded on the spot
I58 TOMBS.
with earth from the valley at the foot of the hill.
If of stone the nearest part of the plateau would
furnish abundance of marly limestone. For the
walls of the chambers, and for the outside facing,
limestone from Turah was usually employed, and
even this had not to be brought across the Nile for
the special purpose. At Memphis there were stores
always full, that supplied the stone for public build-
ings, and consequently for the royal tombs. The
blocks taken from these reserve stores were conveyed
by water to the foot of the hill, and were then raised
to the site by the sloping causeway. The internal
arrangement of the pyramids, the length of the
galleries, the size at the base, and the height are very
variable ; the pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) rose to a
height of about 481 feet above the ground ; the
smallest was less than 30 feet. It is not easy to
realise why the Pharaohs should build monuments
so greatly varying in dimension, and it has been
imagined that the size of the building was in direct
proportion to the time devoted to building it, that is
to say, to the length of each reign. It was supposed
that as soon as a king came to the throne, a pyramid
was hastily begun, of sufficient size to contain all the
essentials of a tomb ; and that from year to year new
courses of stone would be added round the original
kernel until death put a stop for ever to the growth
of the monument. It may have been thus in certain
instances, but in most the facts do not justify this
hypothesis. The smallest of the pyramids of Saqqara
is that of Unas, who reigned thirty years, while the
two imposing pyramids of Gizch were built by Khufu
THE GREAT PYRAMID.
159
and Khafra, who respectively governed Egypt for
twenty-four and twenty-three years. Merenra, who
died very young, has a pyramid as large as that of
Pepi II., who lived to be more than ninety. The
plan for each pyramid was generally made once for
all by the architect according to the instructions
received by him, and the resources placed at his
disposal. Once begun, the work was carried through
without any additions or curtailment, except in case
of accident.
Like the
mastabas, the
pyramids were
supposed to
face the four
cardinal points,
but whether
from ignorance
or negligence the Fi8
greater number
are not accurately orientated, and many of them vary
considerably from the true north. Those at Gizeh,
however, are very accurate. They form eight groups
stretching from north to south on the edge of the
Libyan desert — from Abu Roash to the Fayum, by
Gizeh, Zowyet el Aryan, Abusir, Saqqara, Dahshur,
and Lisht. The group at Gizeh consists of nine,
including the pyramids of Khufu, Khafra, and Men-
kaura, which were anciently reckoned among the
wonders of the world. The ground on which Khufu
built his pyramid was very irregular. A small rocky
mound (fig. 150) was roughly cut and enclosed in the
[50. — Section of the great pyramid.
W. M. F. Petrie.
l60 TOMBS.
masonry of the foundations, and a sloping shaft lead-
ing to an underground chamber shows signs of the
existence of an earlier tomb. The original height of
the pyramid was 481 feet, and the width of the base
755 feet, but the ravages of time have reduced these
measurements to 454 feet and 750 feet respectively.
Until the Arab conquest it was cased with fine lime-
stone, to which the action of the air had given a
variety of colours. The blocks were so skilfully joined
that they appeared to be one single piece from top
to bottom. The casing was begun at the top, the
cap was first placed in position, then the courses were
added in succession till the base was reached. The
whole of the interior was arranged with the object of
concealing the exact position of the sarcophagus, and
to baffle any marauders who by chance or by perse-
verance had succeeded in discovering the entrance.
The first difficult)- was to discover the entrance under
the facing stones that masked it. It was nearly in the
middle of the north face at the level of the eighteenth
course of masonry about 45 feet above the ground,
and was closed by a single block balanced on a pivot.
This having been swung aside gave access to a sloping
passage 476 inches high and 412 inches wide which
descended a distance of 317 feet, passing an un-
finished chamber and ending 60 feet beyond in a
cul-de-sac. Here was the initial disappointment.
Careful examination, however, combined with deter-
mination not to be foiled, would be rewarded by
discovering in the roof, (>2 feet from the entrance, a
block of granite that contrasted with those surround-
ing it. It was so hard that the marauders having
THE PYRAMID OF KHUFU. l6l
exhausted themselves in trying to break or displace
it, adopted the method of working a way for them-
selves through the softer stone that surrounded it.
This obstacle surmounted, they found themselves in
an ascending corridor that diverged from the first
at an angle of 120°, and which divides into two
branches. One extends horizontally towards the centre
of the pyramid, and ends in a granite chamber with
a pointed roof, called without any sufficient reason
" the Queen's Chamber." The other, which continues
to ascend, changes its character and appearance. It is
now a gallery, 148 feet long and 28 feet high, built of
the fine hard stone of the Mokattam mountains, so
polished and so finely adjusted that it would be
difficult to insert " a needle or even a hair " between
the joints. The lower courses are perpendicular, but
the seven upper courses are corbelled to such an
extent that the top courses are only 21 inches apart.
A new obstacle was encountered at the end, where
the corridor that led to the tomb chamber was
closed by a single slab of granite ; to this succeeded
a small vestibule divided into equal sections by four
portcullises. These have been so completely de-
molished that no fragment of them now exists, but
they were probably of granite. The royal sepulchre
is a granite chamber with a flat roof 19 feet high,
34 feet in length, and ly feet wide. Here there is no
figure or inscription to be seen, nothing but a granite
sarcophagus, mutilated and without its cover.
Such were the precautions taken against the depre-
dations of man, and the event proved them to be
efficacious, for the pyramid long guarded the deposit
1 1
102 TOMP.S.
entrusted to it. But the actual weight of the materials
was a very serious clanger, and in order to save the
central chamber from being crushed by the 300 feet
of stone that surmounted it, five low hollow spaces
were left in the masonry above. The upper one of
these has a pointed roof formed of two rows of stone
slabs resting against each other at the top. Thanks
to this contrivance, the central pressure is thrown
almost entirely on to the lateral faces and the tomb
chamber is relieved ; none of the stones of which it
is formed are crushed, although some have been dis-
placed, probably by earthquakes.
The interior arrangements of the pyramids of
Khafra and Menkaura differ entirely from those
of Khufii. That of Khafra (Khephren) has two
entrances both on the north side, one from the plat-
form before the pyramid, the other 50 yards above
the ground. On the east side are the vestiges of the
funerary temple, but at the present day the glory of
the pyramid is its valley temple, the great granite
temple with its adjacent sphinx.
The pyramid of Menkaura (Mycerinus) has retained
part of its casing, the lower part of which was of red
granite and the upper part of limestone. The entrance
gallery descends at an angle of 260, and soon enters
the rock. The first chamber to which it leads is
decorated with panels carved in the stone, and the
exit is closed by three portcullises of granite. The
second chamber appears to be unfinished ; but this
was merely an artifice intended to mislead robbers.
A passage concealed with great care in the floor
gave access to the tomb chamber. There lay the
THE PYRAMID OF UNAS.
163
mummy in a sarcophagus of sculptured basalt, which
was still intact at the beginning of the nineteenth
century. Carried off by Vyse, it foundered off the coast
of Spain with the vessel bearing it to England. The
valley temple of this pyramid was left unfinished,
but magnificent statuary placed there in readiness
shows that the king's death or some other misfortune
alone prevented the erection of another fine building
in keeping with that of Khafra.
The pyramids of Sahu-ra, of Ne-user-ra, and of
Nefer-ar-ka-ra, of the Fifth
Dynasty, are at Abiisir. They
have recently been excavated
) A B C B _:^K->1
Fig. 151.
-Plan and ^section of the pyramid
of Unas.
by Dr. Borchardt with their
temples and valley. The temple
of Nefer-ar-ka-ra, begun in stone,
was hurriedly finished in brick ; but the valley temple
of Ne-user-ra contained columned halls filled with
sculpture and statuary. His great causeway, which
formed the approach to the pyramid and upper
temple, consisted of a narrow covered passage lined
with fine limestone and exquisitely sculptured. The
valley temple of Sahu-ra contained beautiful speci-
mens of palm and papyrus columns, while a drain
of hammered copper about 450 yards long carried off
the rain water from the upper temple. The group
of pyramids, with their temples, causeways, and
164
TOMBS.
valley temples, fronted by landing-stages, must have
presented a magnificent appearance to visitors
arriving by water.
Most of the pyramids of the Fifth and Sixth
Dynasties at Saqqara were built on one plan,
and are only distinguished from each other by their
size. In the pyramid of Unas (fig. 151) the entrance
(a) is just below the first visible course of stone
about the centre of the north face, and the passage
(b) descends by a gentle
slope between limestone
walls ; it was blocked at
intervals all along its length
by huge stones that had
to be broken in order to
reach the first chamber (c).
After leaving this chamber
the limestone gallery con-
tinued some distance far-
ther, where for a time it
gives place to walls, floor,
and ceiling of polished
syenite, after which the limestone reappears, and the
gallery opens on to the vestibule (e). The portion
lined with granite contains three portcullises of the
same material at intervals of 2 or 2\ feet (d). Above
each of these there is a hollow that contained the
portcullises upheld by supports until they should
be required (fig. 152). After, the mummy had been
laid in place, the workmen, when departing, would
remove the supports, and the three portcullises,
falling into their places, cut off all communication
Fig. 152.— Portcullis and pas
sage, pyramid of Unas.
THE PYRAMID OF UNAS.
165
with the outside world. The vestibule was flanked
on the east by a serdab with a flat roof, divided into
three niches and choked with stone chips hastily
swept there by the slaves when they cleaned out the
chambers to receive the mummy. The pyramid of
Unas has preserved all these. In the pyramids of
Teti and Merenra the separating walls were very
wisely done away with in ancient times, and no trace
of them remains beyond a line of attachment, and
a lighter colour on the wall in the places they
originally covered. The tomb chamber (G) was to
■^Sa
Fig. 153. — Section of the pyramid of Unas.
the west of the vestibule. The sarcophagus lay
along the western wall, the feet to the south, the
head to the north (h). The ceiling of the two
principal chambers is pointed. It consists of large
limestone beams, which lean against each other at
the top, and at the lower end rest on a low bench (i),
which is carried round outside the walls. The first
pair of beams is surmounted by a second, and this
again by a third, and the whole (I) forms an effectual
protection for the vestibule and tomb chamber
(ng. 153)-
The pyramids of Gizeh are the work of some of
1 66 TOMBS.
the Pharaohs of the Fourth Dynasty, and the
pyramids of Abiisir of the Pharaohs of the Fifth
Dynasty. The five pyramids of Saqqara, which are
uniform in plan, belong to Unas of the Kifth, and
his four successors of the Sixth Dynasty, Teti,
Pepi I., Merenra, and Pepi II. They are contem-
porary with the mastabas with painted tomb chambers
already described. It is not surprising therefore to
find inscriptions and decorations here also. Every-
where the ceilings are strewn with stars and decorated
in imitation of the sky at night ; but the remainder
of the decoration is very simple. In the pyramid
of Unas, where decoration plays a more important
part, it is only to be found at the end of the funerary
chamber. The wall near the sarcophagus is faced
with limestone, and engraved to represent the great
monumental doors by which the deceased was
supposed to enter his store-house of provisions.
Figures of men and animals and scenes of daily
life and sacrificial details are not represented there — -
nor would they be in place. They were to be found
in the places where the double led its public life,
and where visitors actually performed the sacrificial
rites : the passages and tomb chamber where the
soul alone could enter could admit no other orna-
mentation than that which dealt with the life of
the soul. The texts are of two kinds. The least
numerous concern the provision for the double, and
are a literal transcription of the formula; by which
the priest ensured that every object should pass
from this world to the next : this was the final
resource for the double in case the real sacrifices
PYRAMID TEXTS OF THE OLD KINGDOM. 167
should cease or the magical scenes in the chapel
be destroyed. The greater part of the inscriptions
referred to the soul, and preserved it from the
dangers which it must face in heaven and on earth.
They taught it the sovereign incantations against
the bite of snakes and venomous creatures, the pass-
words that conferred on them the right to enter the
company of the good gods, and the exorcisms that
warded off the influence of the evil gods. While
the destiny of the double was to continue as the
shade of terrestrial life, a destiny to be accomplished
Fig. 154. — Mastabat el Faraim.
in the chapel, the destiny of the soul was to follow
the sun across the sky, and for this he depended on
the instructions written for him on the walls of the
tomb chamber. It was through their merit that the
absorption of the dead man into Osiris was com-
pleted, and that he enjoyed for ever the immunities
essential to a divine being. Above in the chapel he
was a man, and he there comported himself after
the fashion of a man ; here he was a god, and he
comported himself after the fashion of a god.
The enormous rectangular flat-topped building
called by the Arabs Mastabat el Faraun, " the seat
168 TOMBS.
of the Pharaoh" (fig. 1541, stands by the side of the
pyramid of Pepi II. It has been thought to be
an unfinished pyramid or a tomb on which an obelisk
once stood. It is in fact a pyramid left unfinished
by Ati, the first Pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty.
Recent excavations have shown that the pyramids
of Dahshur belong to two different periods. One of
them, the northern pyramid, dates from the Third
Dynasty. It is built of brick, and belongs to Sene-
ferii, who, like Menes and Zeser, appears to have
built two tombs for himself, while the others are
of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Dynasties. The latter
differ curiously from the usual type. The lower half
of one of the stone pyramids rises at an angle of
500 41', while in the upper half the slope changes
abruptly to 420 59/. The whole appearance is that
of a mastaba crowned by an immense attic.
At Lisht, where the pyramids are exclusively of
Pharaohs of the first Theban period, there is again a
change in the situation. In one of them at least, in
the pyramid I attribute to Senusert I., the sloping
gallery leads to a perpendicular shaft, into the bottom
of which open chambers, which are now filled with
water. The pyramids of Illahun and Hawara, where
Senusert II. and Amenemhat III. were buried, are
on the same plan as those of Lisht, and like them
are full of water.
The use of pyramids did not end with the Twelfth
Dynasty : they are to be found at Manfalut, at
Hekalli, south of Abydos, and at Esneh. Until the
Roman period the semi-barbarous rulers of Ethiopia
made it a point of honour to give their tombs a
COMBINED MASTABA AND PYRAMID. 169
pyramidal form. The earliest, the pyramids of N Cirri,
the resting-places of the Pharaohs of Napata, recall
in their construction the pyramids of Saqqara ; the
later ones, those of Meroe, present some new
characteristics. They are higher than they are
broad, built of small stones, and occasionally finished
at the angles with a round or square moulding. The
east face has a false window surmounted by a cornice,
and is flanked by a chapel preceded by a pylon.
These pyramids are not all dumb. Here, as on the
walls of ordinary tombs, are scenes from the funerary
ritual or from the books that record the vicissitudes
of life beyond the tomb.
3. — TOMBS OF THE THEBAN EMPIRE.
• Excavated Tombs.
Two classes of tombs superseded the mastaba
throughout Egypt. In the first, the chapel was con-
structed above ground, and the principle of the
pyramid was combined with that of the mastaba ;
in the second, the entire tomb, including the chapel,
was excavated in the rock.
The earliest examples of the first class of these
tombs are to be found in the Theban necropolis of the
Middle Kingdom. The tombs are built of crude
brick, large and black, without any admixture of
straw or grit. The lower part is a mastaba, either
square or oblong in plan, measuring sometimes as
much as 40 or 50 feet on the longest side. The walls
are perpendicular, and rarely high enough to allow a
man to stand upright inside : on this base is a pointed
lyo
TOMIIS.
pyramid, which varies from 12 to 30 feet in height,
covered on the outside
with a coat of plaster and
painted white. Owing to
the poor quality of the
ground it was impossible to
excavate a burial chamber,
and the builders were
forced to conceal it in the
building itself. A chamber
with corbelled vaulting,
closely resembling an oven,
is frequently to be found
in the centre (fig. 155), and
contains the mummy, but
Fig. 155.— Section of "vaulted"
brick pyramid, Abydos.
more usually the tomb chamber is constructed partly
Fig. 156.- Section of" vaulted " tomb, Abydos.
in the mastaba and parti)- in the foundations, while
COMBINED MASTABA AND PYRAMIDION. 171
Fig. 157. — Plan of
tomb, Abydos.
the space above is constructed merely to relieve the
weight (fig. 156). In many cases there was no ex-
ternal chapel, and the stela placed on the lower part
of the building, or embedded in
the outer face of the wall, marked
the place for offerings. Some-
times a vestibule was added in
front where the relatives could
assemble (fig. 157), and in very
rare cases one finds a low girdle
wall defining the pyramid area.
This compound form prevailed in
the Theban cemeteries from the
early years of the Middle King-
dom. Several kings and nobles
of the Eleventh Dynasty built
tombs for themselves at Drah Abu'l Neggeh very
similar to those at Abydos (fig. 158). Mentuhotep II.
built himself an immense mastaba about 130 feet
long, on which he placed his
pyramid, actually in the western
court of his funerary temple at
Deir el Bahari, while his sepul-
chral chamber was reached by a
long gallery cut in the rock behind.
During the centuries that fol-
Fig. 158.— Theban tomb, ° .
with pyramidion, from lowed, the relative size 01 pyramids
IT-Ika J iV0"15 f and mastabas was modified. The
bheikhAbd el Gurneh.
mastabas which we have seen as
insignificant basements gradually recovered their
original importance, while the pyramid became
smaller, and was finally reduced to an insignificant
172
TOMBS.
>\\\\\\\llll/////
n
pyramidion (fig. 159). They abounded in the necro-
polis of Thebes of about the Ramesside period, but
they have all perished, and it is from contemporary
paintings that we learn the numerous
varieties, while the chapel of one of
the apis bulls that died under Amen-
hotep III. still stands to prove that
the fashion extended as far as
Memphis. Of the pyramidion scarcely
any traces remain, but the mastaba is
intact. It is a limestone cube, stand-
ing on a basement, supported at the
angles by four columns and crowned
with a hollowed cornice : a set of
five steps led up to the inner chamber
(fig. 160).
The earliest examples of the second
kind of tomb, those to be seen at Gizch among the
mastabas of the Fourth Dynasty, are neither large nor
highly decorated. During
the Sixth Dynasty they
were more carefully con-
structed, and in more dis-
tant localities, at Bersheh,
Sheikh-Said, Kasr es Said,
Dcndcrah, and Nagada ;
but it was later that they
attained their full develop-
ment, during the long
interval that divided the last Mcmphitc kings from
the first Thcban rulers.
Here, again, we find the various elements of the
Fig. 159. — Theban
tomb with pyra-
mid ion, from
wall painting.
-^r
Fig. 160. — Suction of apis tomb,
time of Amenhotep 111.
ROCK-CUT TOMBS.
173
mastaba. The architect chose by preference lime-
stone ridges well in sight, high enough on the cliff to
be safe from the gradual rise of the cultivated ground,
and yet sufficiently low for the funeral procession to
reach it without difficulty.
The finest of these tombs belong to the great
feudal lords, who at the time of the Middle Kingdom
divided the territory of Egypt among themselves ;
the princes of Minieh rest at Beni Hasan, those of
Khnum at Bersheh, and those of Siut and Elephantine
at Siut and opposite Assuan. Sometimes, as at Siut,
Fig. 161.— Tombs in cliff opposite Assuan.
Bersheh, and Thebes, the tombs are at different levels
on the side of the cliff; in other cases, as at Assuan
(fig. 161) and Beni Hasan, they follow the limestone
strata, and are ranged in an approximately straight
line. A sloping road or stairway, constructed of
roughly hewn stone, led from the valley to the
entrance of the tomb. At Beni Hasan and Thebes
the road disappeared more or less completely beneath
the sands, but the stairway of one of the Assuan
tombs is still intact with its two lateral flights of steps
for the men and the central slide up which the coffin
and the heavy funeral furniture were dragged. The
174
TOMBS.
funeral procession, having slowly ascended it, paused
in front of the tomb to perform the last rites for the
mummy.
The plan of the chapel is not uniform in any
group. Many of the Beni Hasan tombs have a
portico, where the pillars, bases, and entablature are
all carved in the rock itself. In the tombs of Ameni
Fig. 162. — Facade of tomb of Khnumhotep, at Beni Hasan,
Twelfth I lynasty.
and Khnumhotep (fig. 162) the portico is composed of
two polygonal columns. At Assuan (fig. 163) a
rectangular lintel crosses the narrow door carved out
of the sandstone, at about one-third of its height,
thus forming the semblance of a door within the
doorway. At Siiit, in front of the tomb of Hepzefa,
there is a regular porch about 24 feet high, with
a vaulted roof of centred stones, charmingly painted
ROCK-CUT TOMBS.
175
and sculptured. More often it was considered suffi-
cient to smooth and straighten the sloping face of the
rock for a space corresponding to the intended width
of the tomb. This method had the double advantage
of forming a platform enclosed on three sides, and
also of obtaining
a vertical facade
which could be de-
corated if desired.
Sometimes the
doorway placed in
the centre of this
facade had no
frame, and some-
times it was framed
by two uprights
and a slightly
projecting lintel.
Where inscriptions
exist they are very
simple. At the
top are one or two
horizontal lines,
and on the sides
one or two vertical
lines accompanied
by a human figure, either seated or standing. These
comprised a prayer and the name, titles, and parentage
of the deceased. The chapel has usually only one
chamber, which is either square or oblong, with a
flat or slightly vaulted roof, and lighted only from
the door. Sometimes the pillars and architraves cut
Fig. 163. — Fa9ade of tomb, Assiian.
176
TOMBS.
in the live rock give it the appearance of a hypostyle
hall. The tombs of Ameni and Khnumhotep, the
two wealthiest nobles of Beni Hasan, each possess
four of these pillars (fig. 164). Other chapels have
,. .v.-.^.-y-.^»^r.;^^-v:-T>y^-r7-
six or eight, variously
arranged. An un-
finished tomb was
single
nally
ongi
chamber with
rounded roof and
six columns. Later
on it was enlarged
on the right side,
and the new addi-
tion formed a kind
of portico with a
flat roof supported
on four columns
(fig. 165).
To hollow out a
serdab in the living
rock was almost
impossible, and
movable statues left
in a place accessible
to all comers would
be liable to be stolen
or damaged. The serdab was therefore combined
with the chapel and converted into a sanctuary.
This was a more or less spacious niche cut out of the
rear wall, and almost invariably opposite the door.
There the figures of the deceased and his wife were
Fig. 164.
\ ^
-Plan of tomb of Khnumhotep,
Beni Hasan.
TOMB DECORATIONS OF NEW KINGDOM. 1 77
enthroned, also carved out of the rock ; on the walls
were paintings of the funerary feast, and the entire
decoration of the chapel converged towards the
sanctuary, as in the mastaba it converged towards
the stela. The stela, however, is still here in its old
place on the west wall. With the New Kingdom we
find some changes in the decoration of the chapel and
sanctuary. On the whole it is much the same as of
old, but with noteworthy
additions. The progress of
the funeral procession and
the taking possession of the
tomb by the double, which
hitherto were scarcely re-
presented, are ostentatiously
set forth on the walls of the
Theban tomb. The convoy
approaches with the weeping
women, the crowds of friends,
the men carrying funerary
furniture, the barks, and the
catafalque drawn by oxen.
It arrives at the door; the
mummy is placed upright on its feet, receives the
farewells of the family, and undergoes the final
manipulations necessary to adapt it for its future life
(fig. 166). The sacrifice and its preliminaries, field
labour, sowing, harvesting, rearing of cattle, manual
crafts, all appear as before, and are painted with a
profusion of bright colours.
Many details now appear that had not been given
during the early dynasties, and others are absent that
12
Fig. 165. — Plan of unfinished
tomb, Beni Hasan.
i78
TOMBS.
were never previously omitted ; but centuries had
elapsed, and in twenty centuries many changes come
about even in conservative Egypt. We may search
almost in vain for the herds of gazelles, for under the
Ramcssides these animals were rarely domesticated.
The horse, on the contrary, was now well known in
the rich valley, and it is to be seen pawing the
1 - .-- r *
Fig. 166. — Funeral procession and ceremonies from wall paintings,
tomb of Manna, Thebes, Nineteenth Dynast}'.
ground where formerly gazelles were pastured. The
trades are more numerous and complicated, the tools
more perfect, and the aspirations of the deceased
more varied and personal. When the rules for tomb
decoration were first formulated the idea of future
retribution did not exist, or was very dimly con-
ceived. The deeds done by man here below exercised
BIOGRAPHICAL INSCRIPTIONS ON TOMBS. 1 79
no influence on the fate that awaited him elsewhere ;
good or bad, from the moment that the rites had
been performed over him, and the prayers recited, he
must necessarily continue wealthy and happy. In
order to establish his identity it was of course
necessary to state his name, titles, and parentage ;
there was no need to describe his past in detail.
But when beliefs in rewards and punishments arose,
it was recognised that it would be advisable to
guarantee for each individual the merit of his own
actions, and biographical details were added to the
summary of social standing that had hitherto been
considered sufficient. At first there were only a few
words, but about the time of the Sixth Dynasty we
find actual pages of history in the tomb of Una, a
high official, who records the services rendered by
him under four sovereigns. Then, again, at the
beginning of the New Kingdom, drawings and
paintings combine with inscriptions to immortalise
the exploits and achievements of the deceased.
Khniimhotep of Beni Hasan expatiates in detail on
the origin and grandeur of his ancestors. Kheti
displays on the walls the vicissitudes of military
life, manoeuvres of soldiers, war-dances, besieging of
fortresses, battle, and bloodshed. The Eighteenth
Dynasty perpetuates in this as in all else the tradi-
tions of earlier ages. Ai', in his fine rock-tomb at
Tell el Amarna, recounts the episodes of his marriage
with the daughter of Akhenaten. Neferhotep of
Thebes received the decoration of the golden collar
from Horemheb, and he records with much com-
placency the smallest incidents of the investiture, the
I§0 TOMBS.
discourse of the king, the year and the day on which
this supreme distinction was conferred on him.
Another, who had presided over a survey, shows
himself accompanied by his land surveyors with their
measuring-lines, and he is also presiding at a census
of the human population, as formerly Ti presided at
a numbering of his cattle. The stela shares in the
new characteristics that transform mural decorations ;
in addition to the ordinary prayers it contains a
panegyric on the deceased, a sketch of his life, and
only too rarely his cursus honorum, with the dates.
When space permitted, the tomb chamber was
immediately below the chapel ; the shaft was some-
times cut in a corner of one of the chambers, and
sometimes outside in front of the door. In the large
cemeteries at Thebes or Memphis, for instance, it was
not always possible to superpose the three — tomb,
shaft, and chapel. There was risk of interfering with
tombs on a lower level if an attempt was made to
give the usual depth to the shaft. Two methods
were adopted to avoid this danger. Either a long
horizontal gallery was made, at the end of which the
shaft was sunk, or a horizontal or slightly sloping
disposition of the chambers was substituted for the
old vertical arrangement. In this case the passage
opens from the centre of the near wall ; the mean
length varies from 20 to 1 30 feet. The tomb chamber
is small and plain like the gallery. Under the Theban
dynasties the soul was no more concerned about the
decorations than it was under the Memphite Pharaohs,
but when the walls were decorated the figures and
inscriptions related far more to the life of the soul
TOMB INSCRIPTIONS. l8l
than to "that of the double. In the tomb of Harhotep,
who flourished in the time of the Senusei ts (Twelfth
Dynasty), and in similar rock-tombs, the walls, with
the exception of the doorways, were divided into two
registers. The upper part belonged to the double,
and beside the table of offerings there are objects
similar to those figured in certain mastabas of the
Sixth Dynast)', stuffs, jewels, weapons, and perfumes,
which Harhotep would require to ensure eternal
youthfulness of limb. The lower register belonged
to both the double and the soul, and there one reads
fragments of liturgical works, the Book of the Dead,
Ritual of Embalmment, Ritual of Funerals, whose
magic virtues protected the soul and afforded comfort
for the double. The stone sarcophagus and the
wooden coffin are covered with writing, for precisely
as the stela was an epitome of the entire chapel, so
the sarcophagus and coffin formed an epitome of the
sepulchral chamber, and imitated a vault within the
actual vault.
As at Memphis, there are royal tombs at Thebes,
that should be studied to realise to what perfection
the decoration of the passages and tomb chambers
was carried. Nothing now remains of the earliest of
these, which were once scattered over the plain and
on the southern slope of the hills. The mummies of
Amenhotep I., of Sekenenra, and of Aahhotep have
survived the stone resting-places intended to safe-
guard them. As early as the beginning of the
Eighteenth Dynasty all the best places had been
occupied, and it was necessary to search elsewhere
for a suitable site on which to establish a new royal
1 82 TOMBS.
cemetery. Behind the mountain that borders the
Theban plain on the north there was a rocky hollow,
enclosed on all sides and communicating with the
rest of the world only by mountainous tracks. It
divides into two branches, one of which turns sharply
to the south-east, while the other extends some
distance to the south-west, and again divides into
secondary ramifications. On the east it is dominated
by a mountain that recalls on a gigantic scale the
step pyramid of Saqqara. The engineers observed
that this valley was only separated from the wady
that leads to the plain by a barrier some 500 cubits
thick. There was nothing here to daunt such ex-
perienced sappers as the Egyptians. They cut a
tunnel 50 or 60 cubits deep through the solid rock,
at the end of which a narrow passage like a gateway
gives access to the valley beyond. Was this gigantic
work undertaken under Amenhotep I.? His successor,
Thothmes I., is at all events the first Pharaoh whose
tomb has been found here. He was followed by
Thothmes II., Hatshepsut, Thothmes III., and most
of their successors, and then by the Pharaohs of the
Nineteenth Dynasty, and the Ramessides one after
another. Herihor was perhaps the last, and com-
pleted the series. So many sovereigns gathered here
won for the locality the name of the Valley of the
Tombs of the Kings, a name it retains to the present
day.
The tombs were not complete, the chapel stood far
off on the plain, at Gurneh, at the Ramesseum, at
Medinet Habii, and these have already been described.
Like the Memphite pyramid, the Theban tomb con-
THE TOMBS OF THE KINGS. 1 83
tains only the corridors and the tomb chamber.
During the day the pious soul incurred no serious
danger, but at evening, when the eternal waters that
flow round the heavens sink in the west and plunge
behind the mountains that bound the earth on the
northern side, the soul with the sun bark and its
escort of luminary deities entered a world that was
strewn with ambuscades and perils. For twelve
hours the sacred convoy traversed the dark sub-
terranean regions, where genii, some hostile, others
friendly, endeavoured either to obstruct its passage
or aided in surmounting the difficulties of the way.
At intervals a gate, defended by a gigantic serpent,
opened before it, and permitted the bark to enter an
immense hall, full of flames and smoke, of monsters
with hideous faces and of executioners who tortured
the damned. Then the bark once more entered
narrow, gloomy corridors, and encountered more blind
journeying in the horrors of darkness, struggles with
malevolent genii, and again the joyous reception of
the propitious gods. By the, morning the sun had
reached the extreme limit of the land of darkness ;
he quitted it with the first beams of dawn, and finally
rose in the east to herald the new day. The tombs
of the kings were fashioned as far as possible on the
model of the underworld. They had their galleries,
their doors, and their vaulted halls that penetrated
far into the heart of the mountain. The arrangement
of tombs in the valley was made without any con-
sideration of sequence of dynasty or succession to the
throne. Each sovereign pierced the rock at a place
where he hoped to find a suitable vein of stone, and
1 34
TOMHS.
with so little regard for his predecessors that the men
engaged in the work had often to change the direction
in order to avoid damaging a neighbouring tomb.
The plans of the architect were very simple, and could
be modified at will ; it was not considered necessary
to carry them out scrupulously, and thus the actual
Fig. 167. — Plan of tomb of Rameses IV.
measurements and arrangement of the tomb of
Rameses IV. (fig. 167) differ at the sides and in their
order from the original plan which is preserved on
a papyrus now in the Turin Museum (fig. 168). No-
thing, however, could be simpler than the general
arrangement. A square door with very sober decora-
E^E^
=5*
¥
Fig. 168. — Plan of tomb of Rameses IV., from Turin papyrus.
tion opened on a gallery leading to a chamber of
varying dimensions. From this a second gallery
opened on to a second chamber, and thence at times
to other chambers, and finally to that in which the
coffin lay. In some of the tombs, the whole length
from the entrance to the far end is on a gentle slope
perhaps interrupted by two or three low steps ; in
others the various parts are in stages one below
THE TOMBS OF THE KINGS.
185
another. In the tomb of Seti I. (fig-. 169) a steep
staircase and an uneven slope (a) leads to an
ante-chamber and two halls with pillars (b). A
second stairway (c) opening from the floor of the
ante-chamber descends to the second part (d), which
is of less scanty proportions than the first, and con-
tains the sarcophagus. The tomb was not intended
to end there; a third staircase (e) had been made at
the end of the principal chamber, which, according to
the original design, would have led to another set of
chambers, but the death of the king put an end to
the work. As we pass from one tomb to another we
Fig. 169. — Plan of tomb of Seti I.
find that the general arrangement does not vary
greatly. In the tomb of Rameses III. the entrance
gallery is flanked by eight small lateral cells. Else-
where the amount of painting that has been completed
and the extent of the galleries form the only differ-
ences. The smallest of these rock-tombs does not
exceed 5 feet in length, while the tomb of Seti I.,
which is the most complete, is more than 470 feet in
length, and then not finished. The same devices that
were employed by the engineers of the pyramids to
throw tomb robbers off the scent were adopted in the
Theban tombs — false shafts, mere cul-de-sac, were
sunk, and painted and sculptured walls were built
1 86 TOMBS.
across the galleries. When the burial had taken
place the doors were walled up, large rocks were
placed before the entrance, and the original appear-
ance of the hillside was restored as far as possible.
Seti I. has provided us with the most complete
type we possess of this form of sculpture ; the figures
and hieroglyphs in his tomb are real models of
drawing and of graceful sculpture. The tomb of
Rameses III. already shows signs of deterioration.
The greater part of it is summarily painted, yellow
abounds, and the reds and blues suggest the colouring
children delight in daubing on their pictures. A
little later mediocrity reigned unchallenged, the
drawing became feeble, the colours increasingly crude,
and the later tombs are no more than lamentable
caricatures of those of Seti I. and Rameses III. Up
to the end the decoration remained the same, and
everywhere it is on the same principle that prevails
at the pyramids. At Thebes as at Memphis its
object was to secure for the double the enjoyment of
its new habitation, to introduce the soul to the com-
pany of the divinities, both of the solar cycle and of
the Osirian cycle, and to guide it through the
labyrinth of the infernal regions ; but the Thcban
priests endeavoured to present to the eye by means
of drawing what the Mcmphitcs confided by writing
to the memory of the deceased, and he was enabled
to behold what formerly he had been forced to read
on the walls of his tomb. Where the texts of Unas
recount how Unas, now identified with the sun, sails
on the celestial waters or enters the Elysian fields,
the scenes in the tomb of Seti I. show Seti in the
TOMB PAINTINGS UNDER THE NEW KINGDOM. 187
solar bark, and the scenes in the tomb of Rameses III.
show Rameses in the Elysian fields (fig. 170). Where
the walls of the pyramid of Unas have only the text
of the prayers recited over the mummy to open his
mouth to give him the use of his limbs, to supply him
with clothing, perfumes, and food, the tomb of Seti
shows the mummy itself, and the ka statues that
form the support of the double, the priests who are
performing for them the opening of the mouth, who
are clothing them, anointing them, and serving them
with various dishes from the funeral banquet.
Fig. 170. — Wall painting of fields of Aalu, tomb of
Rameses III.
The star-strewn ceilings of the pyramids represent
the starry sky, but they do not provide the soul with
the names of the heavenly bodies. On the ceilings of
some of the rock -tombs of Thebes the constellations
are drawn, each with its proper figure, while astro-
nomical tables describe the aspect of the heavens
during each fortnight of the months of the Egyptian
year, and the soul had only to raise his eyes to learn
in what region of the firmament his nightly course
would lie. The whole design forms an illustrated
account of the journeys of the sun, and in consequence
1 88 TOMBS.
of the soul during the twenty-four hours of the day.
Each hour is represented, with its domain separated
by boundaries, the doors guarded each by an immense
serpent who bore a name such as Fire face, Flaming
eye, Evil eye. The third hour of the day was when
the fate of souls was decided ; the god Anubis weighs
them, and, according to the indications given by the
balance, assigns them an abode. The guilty soul is
delivered over to the cynocephali who serve as
assessors of the tribunal ; they drive him off with rods
after changing him into a sow or some other impure
animal ; the pure soul passes into the fifth hour,
where with his fellows he cultivates the fields, reaps
the corn of the celestial harvest, and, his appointed
task finished, enjoys his leisure under the guardianship
of kindly genii. After the fifth hour the celestial
waters became a vast battlefield where the luminary
deities pursued the serpent Apopi, captured and bound
him in chains, and finally at the twelfth hour they
strangled him. But their triumph was not of long
duration. The victorious sun was carried by the
current into the realms of the hours of the night, and
once across the threshold he was assailed, like Virgil
and Dante at the gates of the Inferno, by horrid noise
and clamour. Each circle had its own voice which
could not be confounded with the voice of any other.
One was like the buzzing of an immense number of
wasps, another like the lamentations of women for
their husbands and of animals for their mates, and
another like the growling of thunder. The sarco-
phagus as well as the walls was covered with these
scenes, whether sinister or joyous. It was usually of
TOMB FURNITURE UNDER THE NEW KINGDOM. 1 89
red or black granite. As it was the last piece of the
funerary outfit to be carved, there was not always time
to complete it, but when it was finished the scenes
and texts that covered it formed an epitome of the
whole tomb. The deceased found depicted on it the
details of the superhuman destiny awaiting him, and
also learned from it to taste the blessedness of the gods.
Private tombs were rarely decorated with such com-
pleteness, but two at least of the rock-tombs of the
Twenty-sixth Dynasty, those of Petamenoph at
Thebes and of Bakenrcnf at Memphis, rival the royal
tombs in this respect. In the first there is a complete
edition of the Book of the Dead, the second has long
extracts from the same book from the Book of the
Opening of the Mouth, and from the Pyramid Texts,
the religious formulae found in the pyramids.
As each part of the tomb had its special decoration,
so it had its special furniture. Few traces are left
of the chapel fittings ; the stone table of offerings is
usually all that has survived. The objects immured
in the serdab, galleries, and tomb chamber have
suffered less from the ravages of time and the hand
of man. Under the Old Kingdom the statues were
always enclosed in the serdab ; the tomb chamber
contained little beyond the sarcophagus, some head-
rests in limestone and alabaster, geese carved in
stone, occasionally some scribes' palettes, frequently
vases of various forms in pottery diorite, granite,
alabaster, and compact limestone, some heaps of
grain and other food produce, and the bones of
victims sacrificed on the day of the funeral. Under
the Theban dynasties the supplies for the dead
190 TOMBS.
became richer and more complete. The ka statues
of the family and servants, which formerly were
placed with that of the master in the serdab, were
now relegated to the tomb chamber, and had
diminished in size. On the other hand, many of
the objects that formerly were painted on the walls
were now supplied in the round. Thus we find
funerary barks with their crews, the mummy, the
women mourners, the priests, and the disconsolate
friends ; offerings of loaves in baked clay, erroneously
called funerary cones, stamped with the name of the
deceased ; clusters of grapes in glazed ware, and the
limestone moulds with which the deceased was
supposed to make pottery ; oxen, birds, and fish to
take the place of creatines of flesh and blood.
Furniture, kitchen utensils, toilet requisites, weapons,
and musical instruments abounded, most of them
carefully broken before they were placed in the
grave ; they were thus killed, that their souls might
follow their lord into the other world and serve him
there.
The small statuettes, made in wood, stone, and
in blue, white, or green glaze, are placed by the
hundred, or even by the thousand, among the piled -
up heaps of provisions and boxes. These statuettes
were at first the serdab statues made of much smaller
size, and like them intended to provide a body for
the double and also for the soul. They were clothed
in the same way as the individual whose name they
bore was clothed during his lifetime. Later on, their
functions became less important, and their duties
were confined to answering for their owner when
GRAVES OF THE MIDDLE CLASSES. I91
he should be called upon by the gods, and executing
in his stead the demands made upon him for labour
in the Elysian fields. These small figures are called
respondents, ushabtiu. They carry labourers' tools,
and they are modelled to represent a mummified
body, with the head and hands free and unbandaged.
The canopic jars, with their heads of a sparrow-hawk,
a cynocephalous ape, a jackal, and a man, were em-
ployed as early as the Eleventh Dynasty to contain
the viscera, which were necessarily abstracted from
the body during the process of embalmment. The
mummy itself was more and more encumbered
with cartonnage, papyri, and amulets, which formed
a complete suit of magic armour, as each piece
safeguarded the limbs and the soul that animated
them.
Theoretically every Egyptian had a right to an
eternal house built on the plan the development of
which we have just traced. The graves of the middle-
class or less wealthy folk at Beni Hasan consist
of a deep rectangular pit of one chamber, reached
by a vertical shaft. On their painted wooden coffins
were placed models of boats, both sailing (fig. 171)
and rowing, and figures of servants carved in the
round, ready to carry their luggage, neatly tied up,
or placed in baskets, or to cook, brew, or grind
corn for them (fig. 172). Rows of these graves are
found at Beni Hasan, where the humbler folk rest
in the cliff below the stately tombs of their feudal
lords.
The poor subsisted very well without all that was
considered necessary for the great and wealthy. They
I92 TOMBS.
were buried wherever it could be done most cheaply,
in old tombs that had been robbed or abandoned, in
natural fissures of the mountains, in shafts where a
lodgment could b2 had for a small price, or in
trenches dug for public use. At Thebes during
the time of the Ramessides there were trenches
dug in the sand always ready to receive corpses.
a»r
Fig. I/I. — Wooden model ot sailing boat and crew. Round the cabin
hang the weapons and shield required by the deceased in the
future life. Beni Hasan, Twelfth Dynasty, Ashmolean Museum.
The funeral rites over, the attendants shovelled a
thin covering over the corpses collected during the
day, sometimes singly, sometimes in batches of two
or three, sometimes so crowded together that no
attempt was made to lay them out in regular rows.
Some of them were only protected by their bandages,
others were wrapped in palm-leaves bound together
in the shape of a basket. Those most cared for are
placed in a rude wooden box without inscription or
GRAVES OF THE POOR. 1 93
painting. Many are thrust into old coffins without
any attempt being made to fit the coffins to their
new occupants, or flung into a chest made out of
pieces of three or four broken mummy-cases. There
was no question of providing a funerary outfit for
people of this class ; at the most they have with
them a pair of worn-out leather shoes, a pair of
Fig. 172. — Rough wooden model of servants at work. A squatting
scribe records the results, overlooked by the mistress. Beni
Hasan, Twelfth Dynasty, Ashmolean Museum.
sandals made either of cardboard, or of plaited
osiers, a travelling-staff for the celestial highways,
rings in glazed pottery, bracelets or necklaces made
of a single row of small blue beads, figurines of
Ptah, Osiris, Anubis, Hathor, and Bast, mystic eyes,
scarabs, and, more important than all, strings twisted
round the arm, the neck, the leg, and the body to
protect them from magical influences.
13
CHAPTER IV.
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
The greater number of the statues and bas-reliefs
that decorated the temples and tombs of ancient
Egypt were painted. Coloured stones, such as granite,
basalt, diorite, serpentine, and alabaster, sometimes
escaped the painter's brush, but sandstone, limestone,
and wood were rigorously subjected to it, and if one
occasionally finds some object in these materials that
shows no traces of colour, we may be sure that the
paint has been accidentally removed, or that the work
was left unfinished. The sculptor and the painter
were inseparably allied, and the former had scarcely
finished his work before the latter took possession of
it ; the same artist was often equally skilled in the
use of the brush and the chisel.
I. DRAWING AND COMPOSITION.
Of the system adopted by the Egyptians for teach-
ing drawing we know nothing. They had learned
from experience to determine the general proportions
of the body, and to establish fixed relations between
the different parts, but they never took the trouble to
tabulate those proportions or reduce them to a system.
In what remains of their work there is nothing that
leads us to believe that they ever possessed an official
'94
DRAWING. 195
canon based on the length of the human finger or
foot. Their method was one of routine and not of
theory. They had models made by the master him-
self, which were repeatedly copied by the pupils until
they could reproduce them correctly. That they also
studied from nature is shown by the facility with
which they seized a human likeness and rendered the
characteristics and movements of various animals.
Their first attempts were made on slabs of limestone
roughly smoothed, on a piece of wood covered with a
wash of white stucco, or on the reverse side of old,
valueless manuscripts. New papyrus or vellum was
too expensive to be wasted on
the daubings of pupils. The
Egyptians had neither pencil
nor stylus, but they used reeds,
the ends of which, soaked in Flg- 173— Pestle and mor-
t-ir for grinding colours.
water, split into minute fibres
and formed a brush more or less fine, according to
the size of the stem. The palette was a narrow
rectangular piece of wood, with a vertical groove at
the lower end in which to lay the brush, and with
two or more cup-like depressions at the upper end,
each of which contained a cake of dry ink, red and
black being the colours most constantly in use. A
small pestle and mortar to pound the colours (fig. 173),
and a cup of water to damp and wash the brushes,
completed the outfit of the apprentice. Palette in
hand, and without any kind of support for his wrist,
he seated himself cross-legged before his model, and
practised copying it in black. The master criticised
the copy, and corrected the faults in red ink.
196 PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
The drawings that have come down to us are on
small pieces of limestone, and are most of them in
very bad condition. They have been found in great
abundance in recent years, and may be seen in most
large collections in Europe and America, as well as in
Cairo. The subjects are very varied. They include
sketches of birds and animals, many of them hiero-
glyphic characters; Pharaoh on his throne, or smiting
the foe, or otherwise depicted as he is seen on
the monuments ; divinities and their worshippers.
There are also sketches of less conventional character,
some of them comic. At Turin there is a charming
study of a female figure, half nude, bending back-
wards as though in the act of turning a somersault.
The lines are flowing, the action graceful, and the
modelling is delicate. The artist was not hampered
then as now by the use of a stiff implement. The
reed brush attacked the surface perpendicularly, and
with it the artist could make a line as thick or fine as
he wished, could prolong it, or stop and turn with
perfect ease. So supple an instrument lent itself
marvellously to rendering the humorous and laugh-
able incidents of daily life. The Egyptian, gay and
sarcastic by nature, early practised the art of carica-
ture. A papyrus in the Turin Museum records in a
series of spirited vignettes the amorous exploits of
a shaven priest and a singer (priestess) of Amon.
On the reverse are serio-comic scenes of animals.
An ass, a lion, a crocodile, and an ape are giving
a concert of vocal and instrumental music ; a lion and
a gazelle are playing at draughts ; the Pharaoh of all
the rats mounted in a chariot drawn by dogs is
DRAWING.
197
hastening to assault a fort garrisoned by cats ; a cat
of fashion, having a flower on her head, has quarrelled
with a goose ; they have come to blows, and the
unhappy fowl has succumbed in terror. Cats were
among the favourite animals of Egyptian caricaturists.
An ostracon in the New York Museum depicts a cat
of high rank in full dress seated on a couch, while a
wretched Tom of piteous appearance, with his tail
between his legs, is handing her refreshments (fig. 174).
We also possess an abundance of pen drawings
illustrating religious
works. Almost all
of these works are
copies of the Book
of the Dead and the
Book of knowing
that which is in the
Undenvorld. They
were copied by hun-
dreds from ancient
manuscripts- preserved in the temples, or in families
where the cult of the dead was the hereditary pro-
fession. The artist therefore had to make no demands
on his imagination ; all he had to do was to trans-
cribe as well as possible from the copy given him.
The rolls of the Book of knowing that which is in the
Underworld which we possess are not earlier than the
Twentieth Dynasty. The workmanship is often bad,
and the figures are little more than summary scrawls
hurriedly drawn and badly proportioned. Copies of
the Book of the Dead are so numerous that from this
source alone a history of miniature painting in Egypt
)5«h7
Fig. 174. — Comic sketch on ostracon in
New York Museum.
198
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
might be compiled ; some arc as early as the
Eighteenth Dynasty, while others are of the time of
the earlier Caesars. The oldest copies are for the
most part remarkably fine in execution. Each
chapter has a vignette representing a divinity either
in animal or human form, and a sacred emblem, or
the deceased in adoration before the divinity. These
small designs are, in some instances, ranged in a
single line above the text (fig. 175); in others they are
scattered about the pages like the illuminated capitals
Fig. 175. — Vignette from the Book of the Dead, Saite period.
of our manuscripts. At intervals large pictures
occupy the entire height of the papyrus. At the
beginning of the roll comes the burial scene, then
towards the middle occurs the judging of the soul,
and at the end is shown the arrival of the soul in the
fields of Aalu. Here the artist had scope to exercise
his talent and show the extent of his powers. We
see the mummy of Hunefer upright before the stela
and tomb (fig. 176); the women of the family are
bewailing him, while the men and the priest present
offerings to him.
The papyri of the princes and princesses of the
VIGNETTES OF THE " BOOK OF THE DEAD." 199
family of Pinotem in the Cairo Museum prove that
the good traditions of the school were maintained
among the Thebans as late as the Twenty-first
Dynasty, but they declined rapidly under TKeTsuc-
ceeding dynasties, <and for centuries we find nothing
J]{l/CH£jtfu<Vl__
Fig. 176. — Vignette from the Book of the Dead, from the papyrus
of Hunefer.
but rude and valueless drawings. The downfall of
the Persian domination occasioned a revival ; the
tombs of the Greek period have yielded papyri with
vignettes carefully executed in a dry and conventional
style, which contrasts strangely with the broad, bold
200 PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
style of earlier work. The broad-tipped brush has
been superseded by a fine-pointed pen, and artists
vied with one another in the delicacy of their strokes.
The lines with which they overloaded their figures —
the details of the beard, the hair, and the folds of the
garments — are sometimes so minute that it is difficult
to distinguish them without a magnifving-glass.
Fig. 177- — Part of scene on the wall of the pre -dynastic tomb of
Hierakonpolis. — F. W. Green, Hierakonpolis, vol. ii. {Egypt
Research Account).
Valuable as these documents are, they do not afford
a fair estimate of the full powers and technical
methods of the Egyptian artists ; it is to the walls of
their temples and tombs that we must turn if we wish
to understand their methods of composition.
The earliest funerary example of Egyptian decora-
tive art we possess is on the walls of the predynastic
tomb of Hierakonpolis (fig. 177). The carefully
DRAWING. 20I
smoothed and plastered brick wall was covered with
a wash of pale yellow ochre. On this the figures
were outlined in red ochre, and painted in black,
bright green (probably obtained from pounded
malachite),* a pasty white, and with red and yellow
ochre. In the foreground are human beings, animals,
and what may be a trapping scene ; in the middle
distance are six large vessels with cabins ; the back-
ground is filled in with herding and hunting scenes.
The drawing of the animals is good ; the human
beings are grotesque. The men are fighting with
sticks, and protecting themselves with shields made
of animal skins. The vanquished foe is literally
represented as overthrown. Some seated women on
the right are clad in white petticoats. There is no
attempt at defining the river-banks, and many of the
figures seem to be inserted at haphazard.*
The conventions of the drawing of historical times
differed considerably from ours. Man or beast, the
subject was never more than an outline against the
surrounding background, and the object of the artist
was therefore to introduce only such objects as
offered a distinct profile that could readily be seized
and adapted to a fiat background. In the case of
animals the problem was easily solved, the line of the
back and the body, the head and the neck, in flowing
curves parallel to the ground, could be outlined in
one long stroke of the reed-pen, while the legs are
well detached from the body. The animals are life-
like, each with the gait and action and flexion of the
limbs peculiar to it The slow, measured tread of
* Quibell and Green, Hierakotipolis, vol. ii. p. 20 et seq.
202 TAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
the ox ; the short step, the meditative ear, and the
sarcastic mouth of the ass ; the jerky little trot of the
goat ; the spring of the greyhound when hunting, —
all these are rendered with unfailing felicitv of line
and expression. And when we pass from domestic
animals to wild ones, we find the same perfection of
treatment, the calm strength of the lion in repose,
the stealthy, sleepy tread of the leopard, the grimace
of the ape, and the somewhat slender grace of the
gazelle and antelope have nowhere been better
rendered than in Egypt. But to project the whole
figure of man in the same way without deviating
from nature was not so easy. The human figure
does not lend itself to being reproduced in outline.
To draw it in profile is to omit some of the most
important features ; the contour of the forehead and
nose, the curve of the lips, and the cut of the ear
are lost when the head is drawn full face, while the
bust, on the contrary, must be shown full face in
order that the outline of both shoulders may be
rendered, and that the arms may be duly shown one
on each side of the body. The contours of the lower
part of the body model to best advantage when seen
from a three-quarters point of view, while the legs
should be seen from the side. The Egyptians had
no scruple in combining these contradictory points
of view in the same figure, part in profile and part
full face. The head, with the eye almost invariably
full face, is in profile on a full-face bust; the bust
surmounts a trunk seen from a three-quarters
point of view, while the legs, ngain, are in profile.
These conventions were accepted as early as the
CONVENTIONS OF DRAWING. 203
Thinite period, and prevailed throughout Pharaonic
times.
And yet one finds figures that are composed more
in accordance with our rules of perspective.
In the case of most of the personages in the tomb
of Khnumhotep at Beni Hasan, an attempt has been
made to rescue them from this system of malforma-
tion. The bust is in profile like the head and legs,
but one or other of the shoulders is thrust forward in
order to show both arms (fig. 1 78), and the effect is not
happy. But observe the peasant who is fattening a
goose, and still more the man who is throwing his
m^:
Fig. 178. Fig. 179.
Scenes from the tomb of Khnumhotep at Beni Hasan, Twelfth
Dynasty.
weight on to the neck of a gazelle to force it to lie
down (fig. 179). Here the action of the arms and
hips is accurately rendered, the perspective of the
back is perfect, the projection of the chest caused
by the position of the arms is correctly drawn without
any exaggeration, and the body is well placed upon
the haunches. The varied movements and postures
of the wrestlers of Beni Hasan, and of the dancing
women in the Theban tombs, are rendered with
perfect freedom (fig. 180).
But these are exceptional ; elsewhere tradition has
been more powerful than nature, and to the end
204
TAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
Egyptian artists continued to deform the human
figure. Their men and women are actual monsters
from the anatomical point of view, even though they
are by no means so hideous and absurd as they have
been represented by many of our copyists. The
distorted parts of the body have been joined to each
other with such ingenuity that the combination does
not strike one as unnatural. The correct and the
fictitious lines follow and complete each other so
cleverly that the former appears to be the natural
Fig. 180. — From a tomb painting in the British Museum,
Eighteenth Dynasty.
complement of the latter. The convention once
recognised and admitted, it is difficult to over-
estimate the skill shown on many of the monuments.
The line is firm and even, drawn to the end with one
long resolute sweep of the brush. Ten or twelve
such strokes sufficed to draw a life-size figure ; one
single stroke outlined the head from the nape of the
neck to the base of the throat, another represented
the rise of the shoulders and the fall of the arms, two
accurately curved lines indicated the contour from
the armpits to the point of the feet, two finished the
COMPOSITION.
205
legs, and two the arms. The details of clothing and
jewellery at first summarily indicated were afterwards
worked out in minute detail, and one can almost
count the tresses of hair, the folds of the garment,
the enamel on the girdle or bracelet. This admixture
of natural ability and of intentional awkwardness of
rapid execution and of patient re-working does not
exclude either elegance of form, the grace and truth
of the attitudes, or the precision of the movements.
The figures are peculiar, but they are alive, and for
any one who regards them without prejudice, their
Fig. 181. — Funerary repast, tomb of Prince Horemheb, Eighteenth
Dynasty.
very strangeness lends a charm that is not always
to be found in later work more conformed to the
verities.
We admit, then, that the Egyptians knew how to
draw. But were they, as has often been asserted,
ignorant of the art of composition ? Let us choose
a scene at random from one of the Theban tombs —
that which represents the funeral banquet offered
to Horemheb (fig. 181) by members of his family.
The subject is half realistic, half imaginary. The
deceased and his relations already in the other world
are here depicted in company with the living. Visible,
206 PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
but not mixing with them, they are assisting at the
banquet rather than partaking of it. Horemheb is
seated on a folding stool to the left of the spectator ;
on his knees is a little princess, daughter of Amen-
hotep III., of whom he was the adoptive father, and
who died before him. His mother, Senuit, behind
him on his right, seated in a large chair, is grasping
her son's arm with her left hand, while with the right
she offers him a lotus-bud. A tiny gazelle, which
perhaps was buried near her, like the gazelle found
beside Queen Isiemkheb in the hiding-place at Deir
el Bahari, is tied to the leg of the chair. The
members of this supernatural group are of gigantic
size ; seated as they are, the heads of Horemheb and
his mother are on a level with those of the women
standing before them. It was essential that the gods
should be larger than men, kings larger than their
subjects, and the dead larger than the living. The
relatives and friends are ranged in a single row
facing their deceased ancestors, and appear to be
talking among themselves. The feast has begun,
the jars of wine and beer in their wooden stands are
already opened. Two young slaves are rubbing the
living guests with sweet-scented essences taken from
an alabaster jar. Two sumptuously attired women
are presenting to the deceased metal bowls full of
flowers, grain, and perfumes, placing them in turn on
a square table. Meanwhile three other women are
playing the lute, singing, and dancing, thus com-
pleting the homage offered to the deceased.
As the tomb is here the scene of the banquet, the
background of the picture is formed by walls covered
208 PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
with hieroglyphs, in front of which the guests were
seated during the ceremony. Elsewhere the scene
of action is clearly indicated by tufts of grass or by
trees if it occurred in the open country, by red sand
if in the desert, or by a belt of reeds and lotus if in
the marshes. In one place we are shown a woman
of quality entering her house (fig. 182). One of her
daughters who is thirsty is taking a long draught
of water from a gAllaJi, two little naked children with
shaven heads, a boy and a girl, have run to the street
door to meet their mother, and the toys she has
bought for them during her absence are being handed
to them by a servant. Above we see a vinery heavy
with clusters, and trees laden with fruit ; this is the
garden, but the mistress and her two eldest girls have
crossed it without stopping, and have entered the
house. Half the front of the house has been removed,
and we can see what they are doing inside, where
three servants are bringing them refreshments. The
picture is not badly composed, and it might be
transferred to a modern canvas without much altera-
tion, but the same clumsiness or prejudice that led
the Egyptian to place a head in profile on a full-face
bust, has prevented his arranging his scenes in proper
sequence, and has forced him to adopt expedients of
some ingenuity to atone for the absence of per-
spective.
Again, when drawing a number of persons engaged
in the same action it was usual to separate them as
much as possible to avoid the outline of one over-
lapping another, or else they were flatly superposed
as though they were of only two dimensions and had
ABSENCE OF PERSPECTIVE.
209
no breadth. A herdsman walking in the midst of his
cattle treads on precisely the same ground-line as the
beast which partly conceals his body. In the case of
a company ofLsoldiers advancing in marching order
Fig. 183. — From wall scene in tomb of Horemheb.
to the sound of the trumpet, the head and feet of the
farthest figure are on the same level as those of the
soldier nearest to the spectator (fig. 183). Where the
chariots defile before Pharaoh one could swear that
Fig. 184. — From wall scene, Ramesseum.
all the wheels follow each other in the same rut, were
it not that the body of the first chariot partially hides
the horses of the one that follows next (fig. 184). In
these examples the men and chariots are placed so
close together, whether by accident, or in reproducing
14
2IO
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
the actual scene, that the defect is not too apparent,
and the Egyptian artist has made use of the same
contrivance that was employed later by the Greek
sculptors. Elsewhere the Egyptians have attempted
to secure greater accuracy. In the case of the archers
in the battle scene of Rameses III. at Medinet Habii,
an attempt which is almost successful has been made
to render them in perspective. The line of helmets
falls and the line at -.the base of the bows rises with
perfect regularity, but the feet
are all on one parallel line,
and do not follow the direction
of the other lines as they
should (fig. 185).
This mode of representation
is not uncommon during the
Fig. 185. — Archers, repre-
sented on walls of Medinet
Habu.
Theban period. For figuring
troops of men or of animals
performing the same action at
the same moment it was em-
ployed by preference, but it
involved a difficulty which was
serious in the eyes of the Egyptians ; with the
exception of the first man the human figure was
almost entirely concealed, a very small part only
being left visible. When therefore it was impossible
to group all the figures without hiding some of them
the whole mass was broken up into several groups
each of which represented an episode, and these
were ranged one above another in the same vertical
plane. The height given to each man docs not
(Upend on his position in ordinary perspective, but
ABSENCE OF PERSPECTIVE.
211
on the number of rows needed by the artist to
illustrate his subject. If he only required two rows,
the space was divided into
two, if he wished for three, it
was divided into three, and so
forth, while in the case of
minor details the register could
be lowered. Thus in the funeral
feast of Horemheb the amphorae
are arranged in a space con-
siderably narrower than that
in which the guests are seated.
The secondary scenes were
generally separated by a line,
but this line was not indis-
pensable, and more especially
when large bodies of men
regularly drawn up had to be expressed, the vertical
rows overlapped one
another to an extent that
varied according to the
fancy of the artist. At the
battle of Kadesh the files
f|| of the Egyptian phalanx
overtop one another as
high as the waist (fig. 1 86),
while scarcely more than
the head of the Hittites is
visible (fig. 187).
This latitude in the
grouping of men and animals is by no means the
greatest that Egyptians permitted themselves; houses,
Fig. 186. — Phalanx of
Egyptian infantry, Ra-
messeum.
Fig. 187.— Hittite battalion,
Ramesseum.
212
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
landscapes, trees, and water are even more strangely
treated. A canal is represented by a narrow rectangle
placed upright on its side with wavy lines drawn
across it. To leave no doubt in the mind of the
spectator that it is intended to represent a piece of
water, crocodiles and fish are drawn in it ; boats are
balanced on the upper edge, while herds of cattle
are fording it breast-high. The place where the
water ends and the bank begins is marked by a
fisherman with his line. In other places the rectangle
looks as though it were
suspended half-way up
the trunks of five or six
palm-trees (fig. 188), and
then we are given to un-
derstand that the water
is flowing between two
rows of trees. Or again,
Fig. 188.— Pool and palm-trees, as in the tomb of Rekh-
from tomb of Rckhmara, _____ fc„ , q_a (i,„ f_~~.^
_•;__,. n rk * maia (tig. ioQ), tlie tree^
Lignteenth Dynasty. v ° -7''
are neatly laid down
along the four sides of a pool, and a boat in profile
bearing a dead body and dragged by slaves also in
profile, is sailing unconcernedly on the vertical face
of the water. Each of the rock-tombs of the Ramesside
period can furnish more than one instance of such
original contrivances, and, after studying them, one
scarcely knows which is most marvellous, the obstinacy
of the Egyptian who would not adopt the natural
laws of perspective, or the wealth of imagination that
could invent such a variety of false relations between
such various objects.
SELECTION AND SEQUENCE OF SCENES. 213
When applied to large spaces these proceedings
are less startling than they are on small panels. One
feels that the most experienced artist would be forced
to resort to some artifice if called upon to cover the
walls of a pylon, and this consideration renders us
more indulgent especially as the subjects treated in
these immense bas-reliefs are never confined to one
Fig. 189. — Scene from tomb of Rekhmara, Eighteenth Dynasty.
single episode. Restricted as they were to com-
memorating the victories of the Pharaoh, the Pharaoh
necessarily plays the principal part ; but instead of
choosing from among his mighty deeds a dominant
episode, the artists employed elected to detail the
successive events of his campaign : a night attack on
the Egyptian camp by a band of Asiatics, spies sent
by the prince of the Kheti to mislead the Pharaoh as
to his plans, the military camp of the king surprised
214
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
and broken into by the Hittite chariots, the battle of
Kadesh and its various incidents. In this way the
pylons of Luxor and of the Ramesseum give us an
illustrated history of the campaign of Rameses II.
against the Syrians. It was after the same fashion
that painters of the early Italian schools represented
Fig. 190. — Scene from mastaba of Ptahhotep, Fifth Dynasty.
in one piece and in unbroken sequence the events of
their own history. The scenes are placed on the
walls without any definite separating lines, and there
is the same difficulty in dividing the groups and
distinguishing the various personages that we experi-
ence with the bas-reliefs on the column of Trajan.
This method is reserved for the outside of the
SUPERIMPOSED BACKGROUNDS.
215
temples. In the interior and in the tombs the different
parts of a picture are divided into registers, placed in
rows one above another from the basement to the
cornice. This adds another difficulty to those we
Fig. 191. — Palestrina mosaic.
encounter in endeavouring tolunderstand the meaning
and style of the Egyptian artists. We imagine that
we are looking at a variety of subjects when in reality
we are gazing at disjointed parts of a single composi-
tion. Take for instance one of the walls of the tomb
2l6 PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
of Ptahhotep at Saqqara (fig. 190). In order to grasp
the thread that links the various parts together we
may compare it with the Roman mosaic of Palestrina
(fig. 191), which represents some of the same scenes,
but in a manner more in conformity with our methods.
In the foreground is the Nile, which extends to the
foot of the hills. On the farther bank are towns and
obelisks, farms and towers that are Graeco-Roman in
style and resemble the buildings of Pompeii far more
than Pharaonic monuments. The great temple on
the right, in the middle distance, to which two
travellers are making their way, has a pylon in front
against which are placed four colossal Osirian figures,
and alone suggests the general arrangement of
Egyptian architecture. To the left some men in a
large boat are harpooning crocodiles and the hippo-
potamus. To the right a company of legionaries led
by a priest and massed in front of a temple appear
to be saluting a galley as it is rowed up the river.
In the centre of the picture men and women half
nude are singing and carousing under the shelter of a
bower thrown over a branch of the river. Papyrus
skiffs occupied by single boatmen, and a variety of
small vessels fill in the gaps in the composition.
The desert commences behind the line of buildings,
and here the river widens out into pools at the foot
of abrupt hills. In the upper part of the picture
various animals either real or imaginary are hunted
by bands of archers with shaven heads.
Like the Roman artist the Egyptian placed himself
on the bank of the Nile, and reproduced all he saw
between himself and the horizon. At the base of the
SUPERIMPOSED BACKGROUNDS. 2iy
wall painting (fig. 190) the Nile is seen flowing between
its banks, boats come and go, and boatmen quarrel
and strike each other with their poles. In the register
above are the river-banks and the adjacent fields,
where a group of slaves hidden in the bushes are
trapping birds. Above, again, boat-building, cord-
making, and fish-curing are carried on. Finally, under
the cornice there are the bare cliffs and wild desert
plains, where greyhounds are pulling down gazelles
and scantily clad huntsmen are lassoing wild birds.
Each register corresponds to one plane of the land-
scape ; but the artist, instead of placing his planes in
perspective, has separated and superimposed them.
Everywhere in the tombs, as even in the primitive
tomb of Hierakonpolis, we find similar combinations,
scenes of inundation and of civil life on the lower
part of the walls, and the hills and hunting scenes
above.
Sometimes the artist inserted between these two
registers another containing pastoral scenes, labourers
and artisans working at their trades, and occasionally
the intermediate scenes are entirely omitted, and the
Nile and the desert are placed next to each other.
The mosaic of Palestrina and the Pharaonic tomb
paintings represent the same subject treated according
to the conventions and methods of two different
schools of art. Like the mosaic the wall-painting
represents not a series of isolated scenes, but a regular
composition which may be interpreted with ease by
those who can read the artistic language of the
period.
2l8 PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
2. TECHNICAL PROCESSES.
The preparation of surfaces about to be decorated
required much time and care. As the architects
were unable to give a perfectly flat surface to the
walls of the temple or pylon the decorators were
forced to adapt themselves to slight irregularities
in places. The blocks of which the walls were
formed were rarely homogeneous, and the limestone
strata in which the tombs were excavated almost
invariably contained nodules of flint, fossils, and
petrified shells. When the tomb was to be painted,
the wall which had been roughly levelled was
washed over with a coat of black clay mixed with
finely chopped straw, similar to the mixture used
in brick-making. In preparing for sculpture, how-
ever, the sculptor was forced to arrange his subject
so as to avoid as far as possible the irregularities of
the stone. If they occurred in the midst of the
figures, and were not too hard, they were worked
over with the chisel, but if this could not be done
they were removed and the hole was plugged with
white cement, or with carefully fitted pieces of
limestone. This was no small undertaking, and we
could point to tomb chambers where as much as
a quarter of the wall-space is made up of inserted
slabs of limestone. This preliminary work accom-
plished, the whole was washed over with a thin coat
of fine plaster mixed with white of egg, which con-
cealed all inequalities or repairs and formed a smooth
polished surface, over which the brush of the designer
could be employed with freedom.
sculptors' sketches for bas-reliefs. 219
In unfinished chambers or parts of chambers, and
even in the quarries, we constantly find sketches in
red or black ink of the bas-reliefs with which it was
intended to cover them. The plan, first made out
on a small scale, was then squared and transferred
to the wall on the large scale by assistants and
pupils. In some places the subject is summarily
indicated by two or three rapid strokes of the reed-
brush. This is the case with certain scenes that
were copied by Prisses d'Avennes from the Theban
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Fig. 192. — Sculptor's sketch from tomb, Old Kingdom.
tombs (fig. 192). Elsewhere the outline is fully
drawn, and the figures on their squaring lines only
await the sculptor. Some sculptors took the pains
to determine the position of the shoulders and the
poise of the body by horizontal and vertical lines,
on which they marked the height of the knee, the
hips, and other parts of the body (fig. 193). Others
with more confidence in their own powers attacked
their subject at once, and drew in their figures
without any sort of guide ; this was done by the
220
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
artists who decorated the tomb of Seti I. and the
southern walls of the temple of Abydos. Their line
is so pure and their facility of execution so amazing
that it has been supposed that they made use of
stencilling ; but this opinion
is at once abandoned when
we examine the figures
closely and take the trouble
to measure them with a
compass. The forms of
Fig. 193.— Sculptor's sketch from some are slighter than
Old Kingdom tomb. ., ,, r . .
others, the contours 01 the
chest are more accentuated in others, or the legs are
farther apart. The master did not find much to
correct in the work of these assistants. Here and
there he altered a head, he flattened or accentuated
a knee, or modified the arrange-
ment of some detail. In one
instance, however, at Kom
Ombos several of the divinities
on the roof were badly placed,
and their feet came where their
arms should have been : the
master readjusted their position
on the same squared surface Fie- '94-~Sc",ptfor„s K°r"
^ rection, Medinet Harm.
without effacing the original
sketch. Here, at an)' rate, the error was noticed in
time ; at Karnak on the northern wall of the hypostyle
hall, and again at Medinet Habu, the error was only
discovered after the sculptor had completed his work.
The figures of Seti I. and Rameses III. sloped back-
wards, and appeared about to overbalance ; they
SCULPTORS' TOOLS. 221
were filled in with cement or stucco and cut afresh.
The cement has now fallen out, and traces of the
first chiselling are once more visible ; thus both
Seti I. and Rameses III. have two profiles, one
scarcely marked, the other cut in high relief (fig. 194).
The sculptors of the Pharaonic age were not so
well provided with tools as those of our own day.
One of the kneeling scribes in the Cairo Museum
has been carved out of limestone with the chisel ;
the flat lines made by the tool are visible on his
skin. A statue in grey serpentine in the same
collection shows traces of two
different tools : the body is marked £>
all over with the point ; the head ^
is unfinished, but it has been
blocked out by chipping it with a
small hammer. Similar observa-
tions and study of the monuments
1 , 1 , t- . Fig. IQ5- — Bow drill.
have shown that the Egyptians
were familiar with the drill (fig. 195), the toothed
chisel, and the gouge, but there has been endless
discussion as to whether their metal tools were
iron or bronze. Iron has been considered out of
the question for a priori reasons. It has been
argued that it was regarded as impure, and that
it must have been impossible to employ it even
for the most ignoble purposes without contracting
impurity that would be injurious to the soul both
in this world and the next. But the uncleanness
of an object has never prevented its use. Pigs were
impure, but they were bred nevertheless in consider-
able numbers in certain provinces, for Herodotus
222 PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
states that swine were let loose in newly sown fields
in order that they might tread in the grain. Like
many things in Egypt, iron was pure or impure
according to circumstances. While certain legends
called it " the bones of Typhon," and condemned
it as baneful, other equally ancient legends affirmed
that it was the actual metal of which the sky was
made, and owingf to this authoritative statement it
was named ba-en-pet, the celestial metal. The only
metal found in the Great Pyramid is a piece of iron,
and though objects made of iron are rarely found
in comparison with the immense numbers found in
copper and bronze, this may be accounted for by
the fact that iron is soon consumed by rust, and
where it has survived it has only done so owing
to a combination of very exceptional circumstances.
It is certain that the Egyptians were acquainted
with iron, and made use of it at all periods, and it is
no less certain that they never possessed steel. The
question then arises how they managed to work the
hardest stones, such as we almost hesitate to attempt
to-day — diorite, basalt, serpentine, and syenite. The
various manufacturers of antiquities who work granite
for the benefit of tourists have solved the question.
They work with twenty or more points and chisels
of inferior iron, which are rendered unusable by
a few blows. The first one spoilt, they take another,
and so on, until their store is exhausted, when they
take the whole collection to the forge to be put to
rights. The proceeding is neither so slow nor difficult
as might be imagined. There is now in the Cairo
Museum a life-si/.e head which was produced by one
sculptors' methods. 223
of the best forgers in Luxor in less than a fortnight
from a block of black granite streaked with red.
I have no doubt the ancients worked in the same
way ; they mastered the hardest stones by means
of iron, copper, and bronze. The method once
discovered, practice would teach them how to work
with greater ease and to produce as regular and
delicate work with the tools they possessed as we
can produce with ours. As soon as the apprentice
had learned to handle the point and mallet the master
placed graduated models before him that represented
the successive stages in representing an animal, part
of a human body, and the entire human body from
the first rough sketch to the finished work (rig. 196).
Every year these trial pieces are found in sufficient
numbers to establish a progressive series. Some
were intended to teach carving in bas-relief and
others for practice in statuary, and they show us
the methods employed for both.
The Egyptians understood three principal forms
of bas-relief — either by simple engraving with the
point or by cutting away the ground and allowing
the figures to stand out, or again by leaving the
background untouched and sinking the figures them-
selves, modelling them in relief in the hollow. The
first method was very quickly accomplished, but
it had the disadvantage of being only very slightly
decorative. Rameses III. made use of it in several
places at Medinet Habu, but it was generally applied
to stelae and small objects ; the risk of breakage was
small, and it necessitated no re-dressing of the face,
and there were no projections to be endangered by
224
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
blows or chipping. The second method was most
in use, and appears to have been taught in the schools
Fig. 196. — Sculptor's trial piece, Eighteenth Dynasty.
in preference to the others. The models were small
square or oblong tablets, squared off to enable the
pupil to enlarge or reduce the design without altering
sculptors' models. 225
the proportions. Some of these models were worked
on both sides, but more frequently on one side only.
The subjects include an ox, the head of an ape, a
ram, a lion, or of a divinity ; occasionally we find
the design repeated, merely outlined on the left and
finished in detail on the right. In no instance does
the relief exceed J inch, and it is generally even
less. This is no indication that the Egyptian could
not work in very much higher relief. At Medinet
Habii and at Karnak, in the upper part of the
temple and where the carvings are exposed to the
full glare of sunlight, the projection is as much as
2^ inches, both in granite and in limestone. If they
were less deep, the figures would be absorbed and
lost in the glare, and only a confusion of lines would
be visible to the spectators below.
Models intended for the study of statuary in the
round are even more instructive. Many of them are
plaster casts of works of art known in the schools.
Every part of the body, the head, the arms, legs, and
trunk were cast separately. In order to make an
entire body, the various parts were selected and built
up as required into a statue of a man or a woman,
kneeling or standing, seated on a chair or squatting
on the heels, the arms extended or hanging down.
This curious collection was found at Tanis, and
dates probably from Ptolemaic times. Students'
models of the Pharaonic period are in soft limestone,
and almost all of them represent the reigning
sovereign. They are cubical in shape, and measure
about 10 inches. On one side cross lines were
drawn at right angles, which regulated the relative
15
226 PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
position of the features. Then on the opposite face
the work was begun according to the scale given
on the reverse. On the first block a mere oval was
designed ; a projection in the middle and two de-
pressions to right and left indicated vaguely the
position of the nose and eyes. The form assumes
more definite lines as we pass from one block to
another, and the face gradually emerges from the
stone. The contours of the face are regulated by
lines drawn by the artist from top to bottom of the
block, the angles are cut away, and worked into
correct form, the features begin to appear, the eye
is hollowed out, the nose and mouth assume their
proper forms. By the time we reach the last block
all is complete except the ura;us and details of the
head-dress. We have no school piece in granite or
basalt, but, like our monumental masons, the Egyptians
always kept in hand a stock of half-finished statues
in hard stone that could be comoleted in a few hours.
The hands, the feet, and the bust only required a
few final touches, but the head was scarcely blocked
out and the clothing was only sketched ; half a day's
work would be sufficient to transform the head into
a portrait of the purchaser and to arrange the short
skirt according to the newest fashion. Two or three
of these unfinished statues show us the method of
procedure as completely as if we possessed a series
of teachers' models. The regular continuous cutting
of limestone could not be applied to volcanic rock,
which could only be worked by means of the point.
When by expenditure of time and patience the
desired result had been reached, there would still
SCULPTORS' METHODS. 227
be various rough places, nodules of heterogeneous
substances that the sculptor had not dared to meddle
with for fear of injuring the surrounding work, and
for these he had to employ another implement.
Over the projection he placed the sharp edge of
a pebble, and on this he dealt cautious blows with
a rounded pebble until the projection was reduced
to powder under the blows of this novel axe and
mallet.
After these defects had been corrected, the monu-
ment would still look dull and lacking in finish. It
required polishing in order to efface the marks of the
point and mallet. The operation was exceedingly
delicate ; an unlucky slip of the hand, one moment
of carelessness, and the work would be injured past
repair. The dexterity of the workmen rendered
such a catastrophe very rare. Take, for instance,
the highly polished statue of Sebekemsaf at Cairo,
or the colossal figure of Rameses II. at Luxor. The
play of light at first prevents the eye seizing the
delicacy of the work, but by placing ourselves in a
favourable light, we find that the detail of the knee
and chest, of the shoulder and face, are no less finely
rendered in granite than in limestone. The Egyptian
sculptures are no more injured by the very high
polish than was the work of Italian sculptors of the
Renaissance.
After leaving the hands of the sculptor the work
passed into those of the painter. A sandstone or
limestone figure would not be considered complete
if it were allowed to retain the natural colour of the
stone, and the statues were painted from head to
228 PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
foot. In bas-reliefs the background was usually left
plain, but the figures were coloured. In this respect
the Egyptians were far better equipped than is usually
supposed. The most ancient painters' palettes — and
some are known of the Fifth Dynasty — have separate
divisions for yellow, red, blue, brown, white, black,
and green. Others of the Eighteenth Dynasty pro-
vided for three varieties of yellow, three of brown,
and two each of red, blue, and green, at least fourteen
or sixteen different shades. Black was obtained by
burning the bones of animals ; white was made of
gypsum mixed with honey or albumen ; the yellows
are ochre or sulphuret of arsenic, the orpiment of our
modern painters ; the reds are ochre, cinnabar, or
vermilion ; the blues are lapis lazuli, or sulphate of
copper. If the materials were rare or costly, local
productions were substituted for them. Lapis lazuli
was replaced by blue frit coloured with sulphate of
copper and reduced to an impalpable powder. The
colours were kept in small bags, and doled out when
required, slightly moistened with water containing a
little gum tragacanth. This was applied by means
of a reed-pen or a hair-brush, of which the artist
usually employed only two, one with a fine point for
outlines and delicate parts of the work, and a broad
one for large surfaces. When well prepared the ,
pigments were remarkably solid, and have scarcely
changed during the course of centuries. Where the
reds have darkened, the greens faded, or the blues
turned green or grey, it is only on the surface, the
colours below are still brilliant and unchanged.
Until the Theban period no precaution was taken
PIGMENTS AND COLOURING. 229
to preserve them from the action of air and light ;
about the time of the Twentieth Dynasty the custom
arose of covering them with a transparent varnish
soluble in water, which was probably the gum of
some variety of acacia. This varnish was not applied
universally ; some painters used it for the entire
picture, others merely varnished the ornaments and
accessories, and omitted the flesh tints and clothing.
In course of time it cracked, and became so dark as
to damage the pictures it was intended to preserve.
The Egyptians no doubt realised the mischief that
attended its use, for we do not meet with it after the
Twenty-sixth Dynasty.
The Egyptians used flat, uniform washes of colour ;
they did not paint in our sense of the word, they
illuminated. Just as in drawing they rendered the
outline and almost entirely suppressed the internal
modelling, so in painting they simplified the colouring
and merged all variety of tones and play of light
and shade in one uniform tint. Egyptian painting
is never entirely true nor yet entirely false, it follows
nature as closely as possible, but does not attempt to
imitate it faithfully, sometimes understating, some-
times exaggerating and substituting ideal conven-
tional renderings for the visible reality. Water is
always blue, either plain or spaced, .with black zig-zag
lines. The buff and bluish hues of the vulture are
rendered by vivid red and bright blue : the flesh
tints of the men are brown, those of the women are
yellow. The colour assigned to each object was
taught in the schools, and the convention, once
thoroughly established, was transmitted without
230 PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
change from one generation to another. At various
times some adventurous artist would attempt to
break through these conventions. Thus in the Sixth
Dynasty tombs at Deir el Gebrawi there are instances
of women depicted with brown skins. There are
men with yellow skins at Saqqara of the Fifth
Dynasty, at Meir in tombs of the Twelfth Dynasty,
and at Abu Simbel of the Nineteenth Dynasty, while
in the tombs of Thebes and Abydos, about the
period of Thothmes IV. or Horemheb, and at El Kab
and Beit el Wally of the Nineteenth Dynasty, there
occur figures with bright rose or crimson flesh tints.
It must not, however, be supposed that the im-
pression produced by this artificial colouring was
crude and discordant. Even in works of small size,
such as illuminated copies of the Book of the Dead,
the decoration of coffins, or of funerary coffers, there
is harmony and softness of colouring. The most
vivid tones are boldly placed in juxtaposition, but
with full knowledge of their relations to each other,
and of the phenomena which naturally result from
those relations. They do not jar, nor do they kill
one another ; each has its full value, and by their
proximity to each other they give rise to half-tones
that harmonise with them.
When we pass from small to great, from a leaf of
papyrus or a panel of sycamore-wood to the walls of
tombs and temples, we find the habitual use of flat
tints both soothing and pleasant to the eye. Every
wall is treated as a whole, and a harmony of colour
is preserved throughout the superposed registers. In
some cases the colours are distributed rhythmically
CONVENTIONAL COLOURING. 23 I
or symmetrically from stage to stage and balance
one another, in others one colour predominates and
determines the general tone to which the others are
subordinated. The vividness of the whole is always
proportioned to the amount of light that will play on
the wall. Where the halls are completely dark the
colour is as brilliant as possible, as otherwise it would
scarcely be observable by the flickering light of
torches or lamps. On the outside walls and on the
pylons the colouring is as vivid as it is in the remotest
depths of rock-tombs. However powerful it might
be, the glaring effect was neutralised by the sun. In
places where twilight reigned, such as beneath the
temple porticoes and in the antechambers of tombs,
the colouring is soft and subdued. Painting in Egypt
was only the humble handmaid of architecture and
sculpture. To compare it with our own, or even with
that of the Greeks, is not to be thought of, but if we
accept it for what it is in the secondary position
assigned to it, we must admit that it possesses some
unusual merits. It excelled for large decorative
schemes, and if the fashion of painting our mansions
and public buildings should ever return, we should
lose nothing by making a study of Egyptian methods
and conventions.
3- — SCULPTURE.
It is now possible for us to trace to some extent
the development of sculpture in Egypt from the rude
attempts of the earliest Thiiiite period. In Oxford,
at the Ashmolean Museum, are two statues found at
Koptos, representing the local deity. The modelling
23-
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
is exceedingly rough ; the arms project but slightly
from the bodv, and the legs are merely indicated by
a groove in front and behind.
each figure is wound a girdle.
Round the body of
The same museum
CARVINGS OF THE EARLY PERIOD.
233
possesses a statue found at Hierakonpolis even more
slightly worked. All three represent standing figures,
and are more than life-size.
In marked contrast to these figures are the finely
carved limestone maceheads and the great palettes of
schist or slate. On some
of these the human figure
is shown in correct perspec-
tive, but on the palette of
King Narmer (figs. 197,
198) we find the strange
conventional method of
representing the human
figure that obtained
throughout the history of
Egypt. Executed in very
low relief, these carvings
show the mastery of line
and composition which the
sculptors of their day were
to hand down to posterity.
Some small ivory figures
carved in the round are
known of this period, which
are rendered with much
spirit. The earliest named
royal statue dates from the
early part of the Third Dynasty. There is a seated
figure of King Khasekhemui in the Cairo Museum
carved in schist, and another in limestone is to be
seen in Oxford. The figures are similar in attitude
and costume. The pose is somewhat awkward, but the
Fig. 199. — King Khasekhemu'
Third Dynasty, at Oxford.
234
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
conventional attitude of later Egyptian art is already
adopted (fig. 199). The face shows calm power and
alert expression. The excellence of the work, not-
withstanding some roughness of execution, proves that
the Pharaoh of that period could command the services
of an experienced sculptor, trained in a school that
was rapidly gaining power and certainty of treatment.
It is to be hoped that future excavations will pro-
Fig. 200. — Rahotep, Third Dynasty, fiom Medum.
duce many more works of the primitive dynasties
that yet sleep undiscovered beneath the sands of
Egypt. Those of the Old Kingdom are daily ex-
humed from the tombs and temples scattered over
the great pyramid area. These have not yielded
Egyptian art as a whole, but they have familiarised
US with one of its schools, the school of Memphis.
There were other schools, notably those of the Delta,
Ilermopolis, Ekhmim, Abydos, Denderah, Thebes,
STATUARY OF THE OLD EMPIRE.
235
Assuan, whose work does not begin to appear earlier
than about the Sixth Dynasty. Memphis was the
capital, and the presence of the Pharaoh must have
attracted all the talent of the vassal principalities.
Judging from the result of excavation in the Mem-
phite necropolis alone, it is possible to determine the
characteristics of both sculpture and painting in the
Fig. 201. — Nefert, wife of Rahotep, Third Dynasty, from Medum.
time of Seneferii and his successors with as much
exactness as if we were already in possession of all
the monuments which the valley of the Nile still holds
in reserve for future explorers.
Of the close of the Third Dynasty we have
two remarkable works from Mediim. Rahotep
(fig. 200), notwithstanding his high title of General,
is of humble birth, Well-made and powerfully built
236
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
as he is, there is a rustic element of surprise and
subserviency in his expression. His wife Nefert
(fig. 201), on the contrary, is a princess of the blood
royal, and her whole figure denotes dignity and
resolution, which are very skilfully rendered by the
sculptor. She is wearing a close-fitting garment
opening in a point in front.
Beneath the material the
shoulders, the bosom, the body,
and the thighs are modelled
with a grace and purity of out-
line which it is impossible to
praise too highly. The round,
plump face is surrounded by
a ponderous wig, confined by
a richly ornamental bandeau.
Here, as in most statues of
women of the Old Kingdom,
the natural hair appears on the
forehead below the wig. Both
husband and wife are in lime-
stone, and are painted, the
husband a reddish brown, the
wife a light buff.
The six wooden panels of
the tomb of Hesi in the Cairo Museum are perhaps
the most important that we possess of their kind.
Fig. 202. — Panel from tomb
of Hesi, Third Dynasty.
There is no err
ouping. In each of them Hesi is
either standing (fig. 202) or sitting, and above his
head are four or five lines of hieroglyphs, but the
purity of line, the rendering of the human frame,
and the fineness of execution are admirable. Never
THE GREAT SPHINX. 237
has wood been carved by a more skilful hand nor
with a more delicate chisel.
But the art of the sculptor was not steadily
progressive. The contemporary sculptors of any
given period were not all possessed of equal skill,
and though several might show themselves capable
of good work, there would be others who were merely
craftsmen, and we must beware of mistaking what is
due to their incompetence or inexperience for archaic
clumsiness. Thus there are certain pieces known to
belong to the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties which
possess all the characteristics which are quoted as
belonging to works of far greater antiquity.
One of the most ancient and remarkable pieces of
statuary known is a colossus — the sphinx of Gizeh.
Its date has been the subject of endless discussion.
Recent discoveries point to its being Khafra himself,
a portrait head of the Pharaoh with the body of
a lion guarding his pyramid and temples from all
evil by the magic power possessed by a sphinx, or,
as others have thought, it may be far older, a relic of
even more remote times.
Carved out of the solid rock at the extreme edge
of the desert, the sphinx seems to raise his kingly
head, conscious of divine descent, in order to be the
first to behold the rising of his father the sun (fig. 203).
For centuries it was buried to the chin in the sand,
but even this did not preserve it from ruin. The
battered body now only bears a general resemblance
to a lion, the feet and chest, repaired under the
Ptolemies and Caesars, retain only a portion of the
stone facing with which they were then covered to
238
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
conceal the ravages of time. The lower part of the
head-dress has fallen away, andjthe narrow portion of
Fig. 203. — The Great Sphinx of Gizeh.
neck still remaining does not seem strong enough to
support the weight of the head. The nose and beard
MEMPHITE ART. 239
have been broken by fanatics, and the red colour
that gave life • to the features is almost entirely
effaced. And yet the whole figure in its decay
preserves a commanding expression of power and
grandeur. The eyes gaze into the distance with an
intensity of profound thought, the mouth still smiles,
the mutilated face breathes power and repose. The
art that conceived and carved this prodigious statue
out of the solid rock is a complete art, master of
itself, certain of its results.
The artists of Memphis excelled in the use of the
brush and chisel, and the scenes traced by them in
thousands on the walls of the tombs bear witness to
unusual artistic ability. The relief is low, the colour-
ing sober, and the composition is good. Buildings,
trees, vegetation, and the incidents of country life are
summarily indicated, and introduced only when they
are absolutely indispensable for complete under-
standing of the scene represented. Men and animals,
on the contrary, are treated with abundance of detail
and with a fidelity and facility of rendering such as
we rarely find rivalled in the schools of later date.
In the statues we do not find the same variety of
attitude that we observe in the pictured scenes.
A professional mourner, a woman grinding corn, the
baker kneading bread, are as rare in the round as
they are numerous in bas-relief. In the greater
number of statues the figure is either walking with
one leg advanced or seated on a chair or a block of
stone ; sometimes kneeling, more often seated cross-
legged, the body upright, and the legs flat on the
ground in the squatting attitude of the modern
240 PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
fellahin. This monotony is explained by the purpose
for which these statues were made. They represented
the actual body of the individual for whom the tomb
or temple was built, and the bodies of his relations
and retainers, his slaves, and the members of his
household. The master is always either sitting or
standing, and it would be impossible to give him any
other position. The tomb was, in fact, the eternal
house where he continued the life he formerly lived
in this world, and the scenes depicted on the walls
show the details of his life after death. In one place
he is presiding over the preliminaries of the offerings
by which he is to be fed, sowing and harvesting, the
care of cattle, fishing, hunting, and working at various
trades, and he superintends all zvorks that are done f or
the dwelling-place of eternity \ for this he stands with
raised head, his arms either hanging down or holding
a staff and baton. Elsewhere he is provided with a
succession of dishes containing offerings, and for this
he is seated at ease in a chair of state. These two
positions of the bas-reliefs he also retains in the
statues. Standing, he is supposed to receive the
homage of his vassals ; seated, he shares the family
meals. The household also adopt the attitude adapted
to their rank and occupation. The wife stands by his
side, or she is seated on the same seat with him, or on
a separate one, or she is crouched at his feet as she
did during life. The son is dressed like a child if the
statue was made during his infancy, or if he was
represented when a man he has the bearing and
equipments proper to his position. The slaves are
grinding the corn, the cellarers are sealing up the
KA STATUES. 24 1
wine-jars, the mourners are weeping and tearing their
hair. His social world followed the Egyptian to the
tomb and there stood in the same relation to him
that it had done before his death. The Pharaoh
must still remain the monarch, seated on his throne,
protected by the sacred serpent the urasus, or over-
shadowed by the guardian hawk. Whether, like
Menkaiira, he is standing in company with the gods,
or with his wife in the affectionate attitude adopted
by sovereign and subjects alike, he is unmistakably
Pharaoh, conscious of supreme power, of divine
descent, and of actual divinity.
The influence exerted on the sculptor by this
conception of the other world did not end here. As
soon as the ka statue was regarded as the posthu-
mous support of the double, it became absolutely
necessary that the new body of stone should be a
copy — even if only a summary one — of the body
of flesh in order that the double might adapt itself
with ease to its new support. The head is there-
fore a faithful portrait, while the body, on the con-
trary, is that of a person in the highest state of
development in order that he may fully enjoy his
physical powers in the company of the gods. The
men are always in the prime of life, and their
women have the slender proportions of girlhood.
This ideal was only abandoned when the anomaly
was too obvious. The statue of a dwarf possessed
all the innate deformities of a dwarf, for if an
ordinary body were placed in the tomb, the double
accustomed to the deformities of its members wculd
be unable to accommodate itself to the new con-
16
242 PAINTING AND SCULPTUKK.
ditions, and would be deprived of the support neces-
sary for further existence. The sculptor was only at
liberty to vary the details and general accessories ; he
could make no change in the usual attitude and
resemblance without diminishing the utility of his
work.
This continued repetition of pose and subject pro-
duces a feeling of monotony in the mind of the
spectator, an impression which is increased by the
peculiar appearance of the columns or shafts which
are placed behind the statues. These are sometimes
rectangular and end at the base of the skull, or they
narrow near the top and are lost in the hair, or the
top is rounded and appears above the head. The
arms are often separated from the body, they are in
one piece with the sides and hips. When the leg is
advanced for walking it is often united up the entire
length to the pediment at the back by a narrow band
of stone. It may be thought that this is accounted
for by the lack of adequate tools, and that the sculptor
hesitated to remove the superfluous stone for fear of
injuring the statue. This explanation may hold good
for the earliest work, but not after the Fourth Dynasty,
for we can point to many examples even in granite
where all the limbs are free, whether they are
worked with the chisel or with the drill. Although
the use of tenons persisted to the last, it was not
owing to the difficulty of removing them, but from an
exaggerated respect for the teaching of former ages.
Until recently very few museums possessed statues
of the Memphitc school. Egypt and Paris, besides
many of inferior work, possessed about twenty fine
STATUARY OF THE OLD EMPIRE.
243
examples : the crossed-leggcd scribe, Sekhemka, and
Pahurnefer in Paris ; the Sheikh el Beled, Khafra,
Ranefer, the kneeling scribe, and a cross-legged scribe
at Cairo. Recent excavations in the Pyramid area
have yielded many more fine works of this period.
Among the most perfect we have the statues of
Menkaura and the wonderful
series of slate triads from his
valley temple ; the alabaster
statuette that probably repre-
sents Khufu (Kheops) and the
statue of Ne-user-ra in rose
granite. A very fine series of
limestone statuettes painted
and quite uninjured have been
recovered by Dr. Reisner from
serdabs of Fourth and Fifth
Dynasty mastabas at Gizeh.
These statuettes show the same
vigorous characteristics as the
larger statues, and many of
them are exceedingly fine. _~
Some of them are now at
Boston. Fig. 204.— King Khafra,
Khafra is a king (fig. 204).
Fourth Dynasty.
He sits squarely and proudly on the throne of the
Pharaohs, his hands on his knees, his head raised,
and his gaze assured. If the inscription that bears
his name were destroyed and all insignia of his
rank obliterated, we should still recognise him as
a king by his bearing. Every trait shows the man
accustomed from infancy to feel himself invested
244 TAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
with supreme authority. His statue carved in diorite
was found with others less perfect in his valley
temple. Of Khufu we possess as a certainty only
a small ivory carving, now at Cairo, but minute
as it is, it is a fine piece of portraiture that
will bear examination through a magnifying-glass.
The valley temple of Menkaura has yielded royal
statues that are exceedingly fine. The slate triads
are worked with extraordinary finish of texture. In
the triad now at Boston the king is standing by the
side of the goddess Hathor, and wears the crown of
Upper Egypt and the false beard. In the centre is
a seated figure of the goddess, her left arm round the
king, and her right hand on his arm. On her other
side is the goddess of the nome. A very fine group
is of Menkaura and his queen carved in a fine dark
slate. The portraits are life-like, and a comparison
of the numerous statues shows that they belong to
two periods ; some represent Menkaura early in his
reign, and others as an older man. A beautiful head
carved in alabaster of Shepseskaf, his son and suc-
cessor, was found among a mass of fragments. The
face is that of a youth wearing the royal urasus. The
shrewd somewhat projecting under-lip closely repre-
sents that of his father. The mouth is firmly set and
the cheery powerful face is strongly individual.
The bronze statue of Pepi I. of the Sixth Dynasty
found by Quibell at Kom el Ahmar represents the
Pharaoh standing, the right arm down, the left raised
to hold the sceptre or staff. The bust, legs, and arms
were hammered out and fitted together most accu-
rately ; the face, hands, and feet were cast. Round
STATUARY OF THE OLD EMPIRE. 245
the loins was a dress of gold, and a wig of blue stone
was on the head, but both have disappeared. The
eyes were black and white enamel inserted in bronze
eyelids.
Ranefer belonged to one of the great noble families
of his time. He stands upright in the attitude of a
prince inspecting a march-past of his vassals, but
he does not impress us with the intense power and
calm decision of Khafra.
The original of the cross -legged scribe at the Louvre
was not a handsome man (fig. 205), but the fidelity and
vigour of his portrait compensate in great measure
for what it lacks in ideal beauty. With his legs crossed
beneath him in one of the attitudes familiar to
Orientals, but almost impossible for a European to
maintain, the upright bust well balanced from the
hips, his head raised, his hand holding the reed-pen,
and placed ready on the outstretched papyrus, he
still waits, as he has done for six hundred years, for
the moment when his master will consent to resume
his interrupted dictation. The face is almost square,
the strongly marked features indicate a man of mature
age, the broad thin-lipped mouth is slightly raised
at the corners, which are almost lost in the projec-
tion of the surrounding muscle, the cheeks are hard
and bony, the thick heavy ears stand out from the
head, and the hair is coarse and closely cropped over
the low forehead. The large well-opened eyes owe
their peculiar vivacity to an ingenious contrivance of
the ancient artist. The stone orbit that forms the
setting has been hollowed out and filled with black
and white enamel ; a bronze setting defines the edge
246
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
of the eyelids, while a small spangle of ebony inserted
behind the iris arrests and reflects the light and gives
an appearance of actual sight. The flesh is slightly
flaccid, as it should be with a man of middle age, whose
Fig. 205. — Cro3s-legged scribe at theiLouvre, Old Kingdom,
occupations do not admit of active exercise. The
back and arms stand out well, the hands are hard and
bony, the fingers are unusually long, the details of the
knees are carefully modelled. The whole body is
STATUARY OF THE OLD EMPIRE.
H7
governed by the dominating sense of waiting, which
also prevails in the expression of the face. The
muscles of the arm, the bust, and shoulder are all in
semi-repose, ready to resume their interrupted task.
The cross-legged scribe of Cairo (fig. 206) was dis-
Fig. 206.- -Cross-legged scribe, from Saqqara.
covered by M. de Morgan at Saqqara in 1893. This
statue exhibits much the same vigour of expression
and execution as its fellow of the Louvre, while
representing a young man of full, firm, and supple
figure.
The Sheikh el Beled (fig. 207), Raemka, was over-
seer of the works, probably one of the chiefs of
>48
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
the corvee who built the Great Pyramids. By birth
one of the middle class, he is very conscious of the
importance conferred on him by his office, and his
whole bearing denotes contentment and official self-
assurance. We seem to see him with his knotted
staff of acacia-wood in his hand
superintending his gangs of work-
men. The body is stout and heavy,
the neck is thick, the head, despite
its vulgarity (fig. 208), is not wanting
in energy, the eyes are inlaid. The
original feet have perished and new
ones have been provided. When
the figure was first discovered at
Saqqara, it closely resembled the
SJieikli el Be/ed, the headman of
the place. The fellahin immediately
named it the Sheikh el Beled, and
the name has clung to it. It is
carved in wood, and so is another
figure of the same period from an
adjacent tomb (fig. 209). It is now
Fig. 207. — Sheikh a mere trunk without arms or legs,
el Beled, Old t cnouCrh remains to show that
Kingdom. J &
it represented a good type of the
middle-aged Egyptian matron.
The kneeling scribe of Cairo (fig. 210) must have
belonged to one of the lower ranks of a bureaucracy
similar to that which exists at the present day on
the borders of the Nile. If he had not died more
than six thousand years ago I could swear that I
met him six months ago in one of the villages of
STATUARY OF THE OLD EMPIRE.
249
Upper Egypt. He has just brought a roll of papyrus
or a tablet covered with writing to be examined by
his chief. Kneeling as custom ordained, his hands
crossed, his shoulders stooping, his head slightly
tilted, he waits in suspense until the reading is over.
What were his thoughts as he waited ? The scribes
were not without apprehension when they had to
submit their work to their superiors. The staff
4%
IIP?
Fig. 208.— Head of the Sheikh el Beled.
played a large part in administrative relationships,
and an error in addition or an order misunderstood
was followed in due course by blows. The sculptor
has rendered with inimitable skill the expression of
resigned uncertainty and sheepish gentleness that
resulted from a life passed entirely in servitude.
The mouth smiles, because etiquette enjoined that
it should, but there is nothing joyous in the smile,
while the cheeks and nose are puckered up in
250
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
fix his gaze or con-
thoughts.
agreement with the expression of the mouth. The
enamelled eyes have the fixed stare of a man who
is waiting without any
definite object on which
to
centrate his
The face is lacking in
intelligence and vivacity;
but then his occupation
did not demand great
powers of mind.
The statues of the
scribes are in painted
limestone, but whatever
the material, dioritc,
alabaster, slate, wood, or
limestone, the chiselling
is everywhere free,subtle,
and delicate. The head
of the scribe and the
bas-relief portrait of the
Pharaoh Menkauhor in
the Louvre, the dwarf
Xemhotep, and the
slaves preparing food
offerings, at the Cairo
Museum, are in no way
inferior to the cross-
legged scribe or the
Sheikh el Be led. The
baker kneading his dough (fig. 211) belongs entirely
to his work. The flexion of the thighs and the
Fig. 2C9. — Wooden statue of a
woman, Old Kingdom.
.STATUARY OF THE OLD EMPIRE.
251
effort with which he presses on the kneading-
trough are perfectly natural. The dwarf has a long,
big head and huge
ears (fig. 212). The
face is foolish, the
eyes are narrow slits
sloping upwards to
the temples, and the
mouth is misshaped.
The chest is powerful
and well developed,
but the trunk not in
proportion with the
rest of the body,
and the sculptor has
been well advised in
concealing the lower
part under an ample
white skirt, for one
feels it is too long
for the arms and
legs. The abdomen
is abnormally pro-
minent, while the
hips are set so far
back that they act
as a counterpoise.
The thighs are little
more than rudi-
mentary, and the entire figure, resting on small,
misshapen feet, seems as though it must overbalance
and fall forward. It would be difficult anywhere
Fig. 210. — The kneeling scribe,
Old Kingdom.
252
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
to find a work of art where such deformities are
represented in so lifelike a manner, free from ex-
aggeration.
Theban art is closely related to that of Memphis.
Its methods, materials, composition, and designs are
those of the Memphite school, but there are also
points of divergence. By the beginning of the
Fig. 211. — A bread-maker, Old Empire.
Eleventh Dynasty the legs became longer and
slighter, the hips less powerful, the body and neck
more slender. Works of this period of the Middle
Kingdom are not to be compared with the best
productions of the earlier centuries. The wall-
paintings of Siut, of Bersheh, of Beni Hasan, and
of Assuan arc not equal to those of Saqqara and
Gizeh ; nor are the most carefully executed statues
SCULPTURE OF FIRST THEBAN EMPIRE. 253
of that time worthy to rank with the Sheikh el Beled
or the cross-legged scribe. Nevertheless, the seated
statue of Mentuhotep I. discovered at Deir el Bahari
Fig. 21 2. — The dwarf Nemhotep, Old Kingdom.
in 1900 is a very vigorous and effective piece of work.
Many of the royal statues of this period that we
possess have been usurped by later sovereigns.
Senusert III., whose head and feet are in the Louvre,
was appropriated by Amenhotep III., and the sphinx
254 PAINTING AM) SCULPTURE.
at the Louvre and the colossi at Cairo by Rameses II.
More than one museum possesses statues supposed
to be of Rameses II. which on careful examination
we are compelled to ascribe to the Pharaohs of the
Thirteenth or Fourteenth Dynast}*. Those statues
of which there is no doubt, Sebekhotep III. of the
Louvre, the Sebekemsaf of Cairo, and the colossi
of the island of Argo, show dexterity of manipula-
tion, but are wanting in vigour and originality, as
though the sculptors had attempted to reduce them
all to the same feeble and expressionless type.
The contrast is great when we turn from these
poor puppets of the early Theban school to work
of the Tanite school of the same period, the black
granite sphinxes discovered by Mariette at Tanis
in 1 86 1. The body of the lion is powerful and
compact, and is shorter than in sphinxes of the
usual type. Instead of a head-dress of folded linen
the head is covered with an ample mane that frames
the face and encloses the lion's ears. Small eyes,
an aquiline nose rounded at the base, high check-
bones, the lower lip slightly protruding, a countenance
so little in accord with what we are accustomed to
find in Egypt that they were at one time supposed
to be of Asiatic origin (fig. 213). M. Golenischeff,
however, has shown that they were executed for
Amenemhat III. of the Twelfth Dynast)', and with
his features. Whatever the origin of the Tanite
school that produced these specimens, it continued
to exist long after the expulsion of the Hyksos
invaders, since one of its works, the group of the
two Niles of the North and of the South, bearing
SCULPTURE OF THE NEW EMPIRE.
^55
trays laden with flowers and fish, was consecrated
by Pisebkhanu of the Twenty-first Dynasty.
The first three dynasties of the New Kingdom have
bequeathed us more monuments than all the others
put together ; bas-reliefs, paintings, statues of kings
and of private persons, colossi, and sphinxes can
be counted by hundreds between the Fourth Cataract
Fig. 213. — One of.the Tanis sphinxes.
and the mouths of the Nile. The old sacerdotal
cities, Memphis, Thebes, Abydos, are naturally the
richest, and the ancient schools of Memphis and
Tanis still preserved their traditions, but so great
was the impetus given to art that even remote pro-
vincial towns could boast of producing chefs- d'ceuvre.
But it is to the Theban school, the royal city and
workshops of Thebes, and the funerary workshops
256 PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
of the western valley that most of the work of this
period is due. The royal workshops at Karnak pro-
duced the official portraits of the Pharaohs. Amcn-
hotep I. is at Turin, Thothmes I. and Thothmes III.
are at the British Museum and at Turin, as well
as at Cairo. The favissa at Karnak discovered by
M. Legrain in 1903 contributed about eight hundred
statues of the Theban school, of Pharaohs, and of
eminent personages. The bas-reliefs in temples and
tombs show a marked advance upon those of the earlier
ages. The modelling is finer, the figures are more
numerous and better grouped, the relief is higher,
and the perspective is studied with more care and
insight. The sculptured scenes of the terraces of
Deir el Bahari and in the rock-tombs of Hiii, of
Rekhmara, of Anna, of Khamha, and of many
others at Thebes are surprisingly rich, brilliant,
and varied. Feeling for the picturesque is aroused,
and architectural details, the rise and fall of the
ground, exotic plants, all factors hitherto neglected
or only summarily indicated, are now introduced
into the composition.
The cow found at Deir el Bahari by M. Naville is
a fine piece of work ; it reproduces all the character-
istics of the kindly animal with marvellous fidelity,
and also succeeds in imparting to the sacred symbol
of the goddess Hathor a feeling of remoteness and
mystery which is the result of real genius. Hathor
is standing among the marsh plants, on her head
is the solar disc, and under her protection are figures
of Amenhotcp II. in two positions, suckled by the
sacred mother, and also leaning against her chest.
ART OF TELL EL AMARNA. 257
The taste for the colossal, somewhat modified since
the construction of the great sphinx, now revived.
Amenhotep III. was not satisfied with statues 20 or
30 feet in height, such as had contented his ancestors.
Those erected by him in front of his funerary chapel
on the west bank of the Nile at Thebes, one of which is
the Memnon of the Greeks, are 50 feet high. They are
monoliths carved in sandstone, and are as carefully
worked as though they were of ordinary size. The
avenues of sphinxes that stretch in front of the temples
at Luxor and Karnak do not end some few feet from
the entrance, they extend a long distance ; in one avenue
they are human-headed lions, in another they are
kneeling rams. Akhenaten,the revolutionary successor
of Amenhotep 1 1 1., far from discouraging the progress
of art. did his utmost to promote it. Never, perhaps,
were Egyptian artists more unrestricted than by him
at his new capital of Tell el Amarna. While throwing
off the trammels of the ancient religion, art was able
to expand, enriched by the foreign influences that for
more than a generation had penetrated the court and
country. It is probable that Akhenaten introduced
artists from the neighbourhood. The school of Cusae
was mature as early as the Twelfth Dynasty. In the
tomb chapels of Meir, 15 miles south of Tell el
Amarna, are to be seen not only the naturalistic
treatment of animal forms, but also of the human
figure, and many of the peculiarities which we find
reproduced under the Eighteenth Dynasty by the
artists of Akhenaten and his court.*
* A. M. Blackman, Aichccological Survey, Egypt Exploration Fund,
191 1-I2, p. 9 et seq.
J7
258 PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
Among the subjects treated on the bas-reliefs of
Tell el Amarna are military reviews, chariot driving,
festivals of the fellahin, state receptions, the distribu-
tion of honours and rewards by the king, representa-
tions of palaces, villas, and gardens, and other subjects
which differed from the traditional mode of treatment
in so many points that the artists could follow their
own ideas and natural genius without restraint. They
did so with admirable results. The perspective of
some of their bas-reliefs is almost entirely correct,
and all of them express the movements of large
numbers of people with astonishing success.
Admirable statues of the king and of members of
his family have been found, many of them shattered,
and others left unfinished in the sculptors' workshops.
A very charming statuette of Akhenaten in painted
limestone (fig. 214) was discovered at Tell el Amarna
in 1 91 2 by Borchhardt, and is now at Cairo. The
monotheistic king is holding a table of offerings.
The delicate features are those we are well acquainted
with in other portraits of him both in the round and
in bas-relief; the sensitive expression of the face is
admirably rendered. The conventions are the same
as in other royal statues ; the pediment is there, and
the full-face pose is unaltered.
The political and religious reaction that followed
this reign arrested this development of art, and the
Theban school was once more triumphant. The
school of Tell el Amarna continued, however, at
least as late as the Twenty-second Dynasty, and
although it returned to the ancient religious con-
ventions, the style of the school persisted to the
Fig. 214.— Statuette in painted limestone of Akhenaten.
Deutsch-Orient. Gesellschaft.
260
I'AINTINC. AND SCULPTURE.
end.* Its influence, moreover, made itself felt under
Horemheb, under Seti I., and even under Rameses II.
If during more than a century Theban art remained
free, graceful, and refined, that improvement was due
to the school of Tell el Amarna. It would be
difficult to find anything finer than the bas-reliefs
of the temple of Abydos, or those of the tomb of
Seti I. The head of
the Pharaoh (fig. 2 1 5),
which must neces-
sarily be always very
favourably presented,
is a model of re-
served and dignified
beauty. Rameses II.,
represented as a war-
rior in the speos of
Abu Simbel, is almost
as admirable as Seti I.,
though very differ-
ently rendered. The
action of the arm with
which he brandishes
his lance is somewhat
Fig. 215. — Head of Seti I., bas-relief.
angular, but the expression of courage and triumphant
vigour that pervades the whole body, and the de-
spairing and yet resigned attitude of the vanquished
foe, completely atone for that defect. The group of
Horemheb and the god Amon in the Turin Museum
(fig. 216) is slightly heavy and ill-balanced. The
fine colossi in red granite which Horemheb placed
* I.. Borchhardt, Mitt. Orient. Gesellschaft, No. 50, Oct. 1912.
SCULPTURE OK THE NEW KINGDOM.
26l
against the uprights of the inner door of his first
pylon at Karnak, the statue of Khonsu which he
placed in the sanctuary of the god, and the bas-
reliefs on the wall
of his speos at Gebel
Silsileh, his own
portrait and that of
one of the ladies of
his family now at
Cairo, may be said
to be faultless. The
queen's face (fig. 2 1 7)
is animated and in-
telligent ; the eyes
are large and some-
what prominent, and
the mouth, though
rather large, is well
shaped. The head
is carved in hard
limestone, the
creamy tint of which
softens the satirical
expression of her
glance and smile.
Horemheb is in
black granite (fig.
218), and the sombre colour is unpleasing and depress-
ing to the spectator. The face, which is a young one,
is pervaded by a morbid air, which we find in other
royal statues of the period. The nose is straight and
delicate, the eyes are long, the lips are large and full,
Fig. 216. — The god Amon and
Horemheb.
262
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
slightly contracted at the corners, and strongly de-
fined at the edges, the chin is barely covered by the
false beard. Every detail is treated with as much
skill as if the artist had to deal with a soft stone
instead of with one that offers such resistance to the
chisel. It is annoying that Egyptian artists never
signed their work. The man to whom we owe the
statue of Horemheb deserves to be remembered.
Like the Eighteenth
Dynasty, the Nineteenth
Dynasty erected colossi.
Those of Rameses II. at
Luxor measured from 25
to 35 feet in height, the
colossal Rameses of the
Ramesseum was 57 feet
high, and that at Tanis
about 65 feet. The colossi
of Abu Simbel, although
not of such gigantic size,
present a formidable ap-
pearance on the river
front.
At the present day it is almost a commonplace to
say that the decadence of Egyptian art commenced
under Rameses II., but nothing can be more untrue.
It must be conceded that many of the statues and
bas-reliefs executed during his reign are almost incon-
ceivably rude and ugly, but they are chiefly to be
found in provincial towns, where schools did not
flourish and the artists had no ancient models to
guide them. At Thebes, Memphis, Abydos, Tanis,
Fig. 217. — Head of a queen,
Eighteenth Dynasty.
DECADENCE OF ART.
263
in localities in the Delta where the court habitually
resided, and even at Abu Simbel and Bet el Wally
the sculptors of
Rameses II. were in
no way inferior to
those of Seti I. and
Horemheb. Decad-
ence began after the
reign of Merenptah.
When civil war and
foreign invasion had
brought Egypt to the
verge of ruin, art also
suffered and rapidly
declined. It is
melancholy to watch
the downward pro-
gress under the later
Ramessides, in the
well scenes of the
royal tombs, in the
reliefs in the temple
of Khonsu, or on the
columns of the hypo-
style hall of Karnak.
Carving in wood
maintained its level
for some time longer.
The Charming figur- Fig. 2 i8.-Hea'd of Horemheb.
ines of priests and
of children in the Turin Museum date from the
Twentieth Dynasty. The advent of Sheshonk and
264
TAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
internal dissensions at length completed the ruin of
Thebes, and of the school which had produced so
many masterpieces. That the school of Tanis still
persisted as late as the Twenty-first Dynasty is
proved by the fine group of the two Niles now at
Cairo, and the school of Tell el Amarna survived
aarsj still longer. Towards the end of the
Ethiopian Dynasty, Theban art revived
after an interval of three hundred
years. The statue of Queen Ameniritis
(fig. 219) manifests some noteworthy
qualities. The limbs are slender and
rounded, the lines arc delicate and
pure, but the head, over-weighted with
the head-dress usually worn by god-
desses, is dull and lifeless. Psamme-
tichus I., when victoriously seated on
the throne, devoted himself to the
restoration of the temples. Under his
auspices the valley of the Nile became
one vast studio of painting and
#im sculpture, which owed its inspiration
Fig. 219.— Queen to the artists of the Delta. The
Ameniritis. . .
carving of hieroglyphs attained re-
markable precision, and fine statues and bas-reliefs
were produced in large numbers. The Sai'te school
is characterised by a somewhat stiff elegance, by
attention to detail, and by an incomparable facility in
the working of stone. The Memphites preferred
limestone, the Thebans chose red or grey granite, but
the Sa'itcs by preference worked in basalt, breccia, or
serpentine, and with these fine grained and almost
SAITE SCULPTURE.
>65
homogeneous materials they obtained surprising
results. They courted difficulty for the pleasure of
overcoming it, and one finds distinguished artists
spending year after year in chiselling the cover of a
sarcophagus or carving statues out of the most stub-
born materials. The statue of Taurt (fig. 220), and
the four pieces of the tomb of the scribe Psammetichus
of the Thirtieth Dynasty in
the Cairo Museum are the
most remarkable pieces
hitherto discovered of this
class of work. Taurt, the
Greek Thueris, was the
goddess who protected preg-
nant women and presided
over childbirth. This figure
of the goddess was dis-
covered at Thebes by fellah in
digging for sebakh,\\\e nitrous
manure that is found round
the ruins of ancient build-
ings. She was standing in
a chapel of white limestone ■.J|f'
dedicated to her by the
priest Pabesa in the name Fig. 220.— The goddess Taurt,
c r\ vr-i. • ti • Sa'i'te work.
01 Oueen JNitocris. 1 Ins
charming hippopotamus carved in green serpentine,
with her disproportionate snout, her ample smile,
rounded belly, pendant breasts, and shortened paws, is
a fine example of difficulties overcome, the only merit
I have any wish to ascribe to her. The Psammetichus
group on the contrary has real artistic merit as well
266
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
as excellence of technique. It consists of four pieces
of green basalt, a table of offerings, a statue of Osiris,
a statue of Isis, and a Hathor cow against which
Psammetichus is leaning (fig. 221). All four are some-
what artificial, but the faces of the divinities and of
the deceased man are not wanting in sweetness. The
cow is admirable. She is stretching her head over
the man to protect
him in the same
manner as the cow
of Deir el Bahari,
and the little figure
she is supporting
groups well with her.
Other less known
pieces compare well
with these. The Sai'te
style is easily recog-
nised. It does not
show the broad
scholarly treatment
of the first Mem phi te
school, nor the grand
and sometimes rude manner of the second Thcban
school, the proportions of the body are more slender,
and the limbs lose in vigour what they gain in
elegance. A remarkable change in the attitude is
also observable. Orientals assume attitudes which
to us would be most fatiguing. They spend long
hours kneeling or seated cross-legged in tailor fashion,
or they squat like frogs with bent knees, only
supported by the toes and ball of the foot on the
Fig. 221. — Hathor-cow in green basalt,
.Sai'te work.
ATTITUDE IN SCULPTURE.
267
ground, or again they sit on the ground with their
legs drawn up and arms crossed on their knees.
The bas-reliefs show that these four attitudes were in
use as early as the Old Kingdom, but the two last
were not adopted for the early statuary. The early
artists probably considered
them ungraceful, and
scarcely ever used them.
The cross-legged scribe of
the Louvre, and the kneel-
ing scribe of Cairo, show
how they availed them-
selves of the two first.
The third attitude was
neglected by the Theban
sculptors, no doubt for the
same reason. About the
time of the Eighteenth
Dynasty we find the fourth
attitude coming
into general use.
It is possible that
earlier it was
not fashionable
among the weal-
thier classes, who
alone were able to order statuary, and also it is prob-
able that customers would not choose to appear in the
form of a square package surmounted by a human
head. The sculptors of the Sai'te period had not the
same objection as their predecessors to this position,
and they contrived to arrange the limbs with some
Fig. 222.
-Squatting statue of Pedishashi,
Sai'te work.
268
TAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
grace, while they rendered the heads in a fashion that
redeemed any defect of posture. That of Pedishashi
(fig. 222) has an expression of youthfulness and in-
telligent kindliness such as we rarely meet with from
an Egyptian chisel. Others again are brutal in their
sincerity. The wrinkles on the forehead, the crows-
feet at the corners of the eyes, the folds of the mouth,
and the prominences on the head are marked with
scrupulous fidelity on a
small head of a scribe at
the Louvre (fig. 223), and
in another belonging to
Prince Ibrahim at Cairo.
The Sai'te school divided
into two parties. One
attempted to model itself
on the remote past, and
endeavoured to revive the
enfeebled art of their own
times by adopting the
methods of the ancient
Memphite school. They
succeeded so well that their work has been mistaken
for some of the finest productions of the Fourth and
Fifth Dynasties. The other fashion, without departing
too obviously from tradition, elected to study from
life, and approached more closely to nature than had
ever been done previously. They might probably
have carried the day, had not prolonged contact with
the Greeks and the Macedonian conquest turned the
art of Kgypt into new channels.
The new departure progressed slowly. The
Fig. 223. — Head of a scribe,
Sai'te work.
SAITE SCULPTURE.
269
k
>V
liv
successors of Alexander were portrayed by the
sculptors in the guise of Egyp-
tians, and they were transformed
into Pharaohs, as had happened
in turns to the Hyksos and the
Persians. The sculptures that
can be assigned to the time of
the early Ptolemies can scarcely
be distinguished from those of
the good Sa'i'te period, and it is
only rarely that one can detect
imitation of Hellenic models :
thus the colossus of Alexander II.
at Cairo (fig. 224) has some
flowing material as a head-dress,
below which is a row of curls.
Soon, however, the sight of
Greek masterpieces determined
the Egyptians of Alexandria,
Memphis, and the great cities
of the Delta to modify their
methods of procedure. A mixed
school was established that com-
bined certain elements of the
indigenous art with others bor-
rowed from the foreign art. The
Alexandrian Isis of the Cairo
Museum still wears the attire of
the Pharaonic Isis, but she has
lost the slender form and stilted,
unnatural bearing. There is a
mutilated figure of a prince of Siut that might perhaps
\/r
\£-
m
Fig. 224. — Colossus of
Alexander II.
270
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
pass' for a poor Roman statue. The statue of a
personage named Horus discovered in 1 88 1 not far
from the site of the tomb
of Alexander is the most
powerful example that we
possess of this hybrid
school (fig. f 225). The
head is a good piece of
work, though perhaps
somewhat dry in style.
The thin straight nose, the
eyes placed close together,
the straight mouth pinched
in at the corners, and the
square chin all conduce
to give an expression of
harshness and obstinacy to
the face. The hair is short,
but not so cropped as to
prevent its separating
naturally into thick wavy
locks. The body clothed
in the chlamys is clumsy
and not in accord with the
head. One arm is hanging
down, the other is bent
and resting on the body,
Fig. 225. — Statue of Horns.
Graeco-Egyptian.
the feet are gone. All this
statuary is the result of
recent finds, and there is no doubt that systematic
excavations at Alexandria would produce much
more. The school that produced them gradually
<;r/eco-egyptiaN art. 271-
approached more and more nearly to the style of
the Greek schools, and the stiffness, from which
it never entirely freed itself, would scarcely be
regarded as a defect at a time when certain
sculptors employed in Rome prided themselves on
their archaisms. I should not be surprised if the
statues of priests and priestesses with which Hadrian
decorated the Egyptian part of his villa on the Tiber
might be attributed to this Alexandrian hybrid
school.
The native schools outside the Delta, left to their
own resources, gradually perished. And yet they
were not without models, or even Greek artists. In
the Thebaid, in the Fayum, and at Assuan, I have
bought or discovered statues and statuettes which are
Hellenic in style and of correct and careful
workmanship. One of them, bought at Koptos,
appears to be a small replica of a Venus analogous to
the Venus of Milo. But the provincial artists, from
lack of knowledge and intelligence, failed to take
advantage of the new ideas as the Alexandrians had
done. When they endeavoured to give to their
models the suppleness and plenitude of the Greek
figures they only succeeded in losing the somewhat
dry but masterly precision acquired by their predeces-
sors. In place of the fine, delicate low relief, they
adopted a relief deeply cut, but feebly rounded and
modelled and wanting in vigour. The eyes smile
foolishly, the slope of the nostril is exaggerated, the
corners of the lips, the chin, and all parts of the
face are contracted and seem to converge towards a
central point placed in the ear. We have the work
27-
PAINTING AM) SCULPTURE.
of two schools each independent of the other. The
least known flourished in Ethiopia at the court of
the semi-barbarous kings who reigned at Meroe. A
group sent from Naga in 1882 shows us to what
this art had attained in the first century of our era
(fig. 226). A divinity and a
queen standing side by side are
roughly carved out of a block
of grey granite. The work is
coarse and heavy, but it is not
without energy and truth. The
school that produced it, isolated
among an uncivilised people,
soon fell into barbarism and
probably came to an end shortly
after the age of the Antonines.
Egyptian art survived somewhat
longer under the aegis of the
Roman domination. The Cajsars,
no less astute than the Ptolemies,
realised that they strengthened
their dominion over the Nile
^"r"^> valley by humouring the reli-
Fig. 226.— Group from pious feelings of their Egyptian
subjects. At enormous cost
they caused the temples of the national gods to
be rebuilt or restored according to the plans and
ideas of the past. Thebes had been destroyed by
a earthquake in the year 22 B.C. and it was now
no more than a place of pilgrimage where devotees
came at daybreak to listen to the voice of Mcmnon,
but at Denderah and Ombos the decoration of the
DECLINE AND EXTINCTION. 273
temples was completed by Tiberius and Claudius,
Caligula worked at Koptos, and the Antonines at
Philae and Esnah. The workmen employed had
sufficient knowledge to execute thousands of bas-
reliefs according to the ancient rules. The work
done by them is feeble, ungraceful, and absurd,
inspired merely by routine, but nevertheless it is
founded on ancient tradition, enfeebled and de-
generate, but still living and capable of being
invigorated with new life. The changes that occurred
in the middle of the third centurv, the incursions
of the barbarians, and the progress and triumph of
Christianity led to the abandonment of the work and
the dispersion of the workmen. With them died all
that yet survived of the national art.
18
CHAPTER V.
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
We have briefly surveyed the fine arts ; it now
remains to turn our attention to the industrial arts.
Fig. 227. — Slate palettes, predynastic and First Dynasty.
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
Love of luxury and of beauty very early invaded all
classes of society. Living or dead, the Egyptian liked
to load himself with jewellery and costly amulets, and
to surround himself with elaborate furniture and
2 74
SLATE PALETTES.
2/5
artistic household utensils.
He desired that every
object used by him should
contribute to satisfy this
taste by beauty of form, if
not by richness of material ;
and pottery, stone, metal,
and wood were all laid
under contribution by him.
whether they were the
products of the country,
or obtained from distant
lands.
The Egyptian of the
predynastic and earliest
dynastic periods was laid
in his grave surrounded by
pottery jars filled with food,
or with scented fat, while
close to his hand was his
slate palette (fig. 227) of
many varied forms on
which was rubbed the paint
with which he coloured
his eyes. Beads of agate,
carnelian, brown and white
quartz, steatite, calaite, and
of glazed pottery, are found
in abundance in the pre-
historic graves, while
beads of glazed stone, of
turquoise,
276 TPIE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
amethyst, lapis lazuli, serpentine, haematite, obsidian,
porphyry, silver, gold, and iron are found in some-
what later graves. The Egyptian of that period
excelled in flint working, which he brought to the
highest perfection (fig. 228). Knives with recurved
tips were finished with unequalled dexterity. They
were first ground to an even surface, and then
flaked in two rows of perfect regularity, and the
cutting edge finely serrated. Hoe blades and teeth
Fig. 229. — Flint teeth for sickles.
for sickles (fig. 229) were also made of flint, and
tanged arrow-heads and spear-heads of the finest
workmanship were manufactured. Copper was early
introduced into Egypt and largely superseded the use
of flint knives, the working of which deteriorated early
in the dynastic period. The funerary outfit of the
predynastic Egyptian included jewellery, ivory carv-
ings, stone vases, and also a variety of amulets,
some of which we meet with again in the historic
period, such as the bull's head, the fly, the frog, and
the serpent.
BEADS AND AMULETS. 277
I. STONE, POTTERY, AND GLASS.
It is impossible to visit a collection of Egyptian
antiquities without being struck by the prodigious
number of small objects in fine stone that have
survived to the present day. At present we have
found no diamonds, rubies, or sapphires, but with
these exceptions the domain of the lapidary was
almost as extended as at the present day ; it
comprised amethyst, emerald, garnet, aquamarine,
rock-crystal, chrysoprase, the miny varieties of onyx
and agate, jasper, lapis lazuli, felspar, obsidian, granite,
serpentine, and porphyry ; fossiliferous substances
such as amber and some kinds of turquoise ; animal
secretions such as coral, pearls, and mother-of-pearl ;
metallic oxides such as haematite, oriental turquoise,
and malachite. Most of these substances were used
for making beads of various shapes, round, square,
oval, pear-shaped, lozenge-shaped, or of an elongated
spindle form. Threaded and arranged in rows these
beads were made into necklaces and they are found
in myriads in the sand of the great cemeteries. The
perfection with which they are cut and polished, and
the precision with which they are drilled, do honour
to those who made them. But the craftsmen accom-
plished more than this. With the saw, drill, point,
and grindstone they worked the stones into a variety
of different shapes, hearts, fingers, human limbs,
cartouches, serpents, animals, and figures of divinities.
All of these were amulets or charms, and they were
probably valued less for the beauty of the work than
for the supernatural virtues attributed to them by the
278 THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
national religion. The girdle tie in red carnclian was
the blood of Isis and washed away the sins of its
possessor (fig. 230); the frog represented the
§ goddess Hekt, guardian of mothers and new-
born infants, and was emblematic of renewed
birth (fig. 231); the little lotus-flower column
in green felspar (fig. 232) typified the gift
of eternal youth ; the uza/> the mystic eye
The^gir- (fig. 233), when tied by a cord round the
die tie oi throat or the an-n) Was a protection against
ghosts, snake bites, and against envious or
angry words. These amulets were distributed through-
out the ancient world, and many of them, especially
those that represented the sacred beetle,
were copied outside Egypt by the
Phoenicians and Syrians, and in Greece,
Asia Minor, Etruria, and Sardinia.
This insect was called kheper and it Fig. 231.-
is supposed that its name was derived amulet.
from the root k/iepra, "to become." By an obvious
play on the words the beetle was made the emblem
of terrestrial existence, and the successive
developments of a man during his career in
the world beyond. The amulet in the form
of a scarab (fig. 234) is therefore a symbol
of present or future duration, and to carry
it was to obtain security against annihila-
Fl£r 2^2. ' o
Lotus tion. These scarabs were made in all
column materials and of various sizes ; some with
amulet.
the head of a sparrow-hawk, a ram, a man,
or a bull. Some are as carefully carved on the under-
side as on the back, others are plain below, and there
SCARABS.
279
Sacred
eye or nzat.
Fig. 233
are others that have almost lost the form of the
beetle, and are called scaraboids. They are pierced
lengthways with a hole through which a thin slip of
wood was passed or a gold or silver wire by which
they were suspended. The largest were regarded as
taking the place of the heart. They were laid on the
breasts of mummies, with wings out-
stretched ; a prayer engraved on the
flat side adjured the heart not to bear
witness against its owner in the day
of judgment. Various scenes of
adoration were occasionally added to
the formula. On the wing cases two
seated Amons, on the shoulder the moon saluted by
two cynocephali, and on the fiat side the solar bark
with a group below of the mummied Osiris between
Isis and Nephthys, who are protecting him with out-
stretched wings. The small scarabs at first used as
prophylactics finally became nothing more than orna-
ments, with no religious value. They were used as
seals, as pendants or earrings, the bezel of a ring, or
threaded to form a bracelet. The
flat side is usually carved with
various designs cut in the material
without modelling of any kind ;
relief, properly so called, as employed
in the cameo, was unknown among Egyptian lapi-
daries before the Greek period. The subjects have
not yet been classified, nor has a complete collection
been made. They include simple combinations of
lines, spirals, and interlaced curves, without any
special meaning ; symbols to which the proprietor
Fig. 234. — Scarab.
280 THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
attached some mysterious signification known only
to himself; the names, parentage, and titles of some
individual ; royal cartouches of historical interest ;
good washes, pious ejaculations, and magical formulae.
There are many scarabs in crystal and obsidian that
date back as far as the Sixth Dynasty ; others, roughly
cut and uninscribed, in amethyst, emerald, and even
in garnet, belong to the commencement of the first
Theban empire. From the time of the Eighteenth
Dynasty they can be counted by thousands, and the
fineness and finish of the work vary according to the
hardness of the stone.
This is the case with all the varieties of amulets.
The hippopotamus heads, the sou/s or Ba birds, and
the hearts that are picked up in numbers at Taudf
to the south of Thebes, are scarcely more than out-
lined, the amethyst and felspar of which they are
made having proved almost impossible to work with
the point. On the contrary, the girdle ties, squares,
and head-rests that are carved out of red jasper,
carnelian, and haematite are finished down to the
smallest detail. Lapis lazuli is soft and friable, liable
to break away at the edges, and it might be supposed
that it would not lend itself to any minute work.
Nevertheless, the Egyptians chiselled figures of god-
desses out of it — Isis, Nephthys, Neith, Sekhet — which
are marvellous examples of delicate carving. The
modelling of the body is as boldly cut as if it were
carved out of some material of no more than ordinary
difficulty, and the features will bear examination with
a magnifying-glass. Generally, however, a different
method was adopted. The figure was subjected to a
SCULPTURE IN MINIATURE. 281
breadth of treatment that sacrificed the details to the
general effect. The projections and hollows of the
face are accentuated, and the thickness of the neck,
the curve of throat and shoulder, the slenderness of
the waist, the hollows and roundness of the body, are
exaggerated ; the thigh and tibia are defined bv a
line that is almost sharp, the feet and hands are
slightly enlarged. All this is the result of bold and
judicious calculation. An exact mathematical repro-
duction of a model is, when applied to sculpture
in miniature, not as happy as might be supposed.
The head loses its character, the neck appears too
slight, the bust is no more than a cylinder with
irregular bumps on it, the feet and legs do not appear
sufficiently solid to support the weight of the body,
while the principal lines are lost in the complexity of
the secondary ones.
By suppressing most of the accessory features and
accentuating the important ones, the Egyptians
escaped the danger of producing insignificant or
meaningless work : the eye instinctively modifies any
exaggeration, and supplies what is lacking. Owing
to this skilful treatment, a minute figure of a divinity,
barely ih inches high, has almost the breadth and
dignity of a colossus.
As early as the close of the predynastic period
stone vases were worked in the hardest materials,
such as breccia, syenite, quartz, crystal, and diorite,
and great alabaster bowls were so finely worked as to
be translucent. Stone vases intended for suspension
were provided with handles carved out at the sides
and pierced (fig. 235). Some of the finest of these
282 THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
stone vessels belong to the later prehistoric and early
dynastic times ; they are found also in porphyry,
slate, alabaster, diorite, basalt, and other fine stones
in the temples of the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties, and
the use of them in the softer materials of alabaster
and serpentine continued into the Middle Kingdom.
Revolving seal cylinders of steatite, gold, and ivory
have been found at Thinis, and abundant examples
of their use occur on the sealings of jars in the royal
tombs at Abydos (fig. 236). They closely resemble
Fig. 235.— Stone vases, predynastic and First Dynasty.
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
the cylinder seals of Babylonia. By the time of the
Middle Kingdom they were superseded by scarabs,
which were employed almost universally as seals
during the later dynasties. Of stone were also the
small funerary obelisks which come from the tombs
of Saqqara, the bases of altars, the stelae, and the
tables of offerings. At the time of the Pyramids the
favourite material for the tables of offering; was
alabaster or limestone, under the Theban kings,
granite or red sandstone, and from the time of the
Twenty-sixth Dynasty, basalt or limestone ; but this
TABLES OF OFFERING.
283
was not obligatory, and we find them at all periods
in all kinds of stone.
Some of them were merely flat or slightly hollowed
discs, others were rectangular, and carved on the
upper face with loaves, vases, haunches of oxen and
gazelle, birds, vegetables, and fruit. On the offering
table of Situ the libation, instead of being allowed to
run off, was collected in a square basin divided into
stages marking the height of the Nile in the Memphis
rig. 236. — Impression of cylinder-seal, First Dynasty7.
reservoirs at the different seasons — 2 5 cubits in summer
during the inundation, 23 in autumn and at the
beginning of winter, 22 at the end of winter and in
the spring. These unusual forms do not as a rule
contribute to beauty, but one of the tables of offerings
from Saqqara is a real masterpiece ; it is in alabaster.
Two lions standing side by side support a rectangu-
lar, slightly sloping table with a groove that carried
off the libations into a vase placed between the tails
of the animals.
284
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
Fig. 237. — Perfume
vase, alabaster.
The alabaster geese of Lisht are not without merit.
They are cut in two lengthways, and are hollowed
like a box. But as a rule the tables
of offerings in painted limestone are
poor in taste and workmanship, and so
are the figures of offerings, the loaves,
cakes, heads of oxen and gazelle, and
the bunches of black grapes.
They are not very numerous, and
come chiefly from tombs of the Fifth
and Twelfth Dynasties. The canopic jars, on the
contrary, were always carved with great
care. They are generally either of limestone
or alabaster, but the heads that form the
covers are often of painted wood. The
canopic jars of Pepi I. are in alabaster, and
so are those of the kinjj who was buried in
the southern pyramid of Lisht, as well as
the human heads upon the lids. The carving
of one of them is so finely executed that
it can only be compared with that of the
statue of Khafra. The earliest funerary statuettes
yet found, those of the Eleventh Dynasty,
are of alabaster, but from the time of the
Thirteenth Dynasty they were also carved
in limestone. The quality of the work is
very unequal. Some of them are master-
pieces, and are as faithful portraits of the
deceased as any statue of ordinary pro-
portions. Vases for perfume formed part
of the outfit provided for temples and tombs. The
nomenclature of these is very far from being fixed,
Fig. 238.—
Perfume
vase, ala-
baster.
Fig. 239. -
Pe rfu me
vase, ala-
baster.
I
SEPULCHRAL VASES IN STONE.
:85
g. 240. -
Perfume
vase, ala-
baster.
and at present we can identify very few of the vases
with the special names given them in the texts. The
larger number are of alabaster, turned and polished.
Some are heavy and ugly (fig. 237), while others
possess an elegance and diversity of form
that do credit to the inventive genius of
the men who made them. They are
spindle-shaped (fig. 238), or round, with a
fiat base and straight rim (fig. 239) ; they
have no ornament, unless occasionally
handles formed of two lotus buds, two
lions' heads, or possibly a small female
head projecting at the lower part of the
neck (fig. 240). The smallest of these
did not contain liquids, but pomades,
medical unguents, or salves made with
honey. One of the most usual type is a small round
jar with a short cylindrical neck and flat rim (fig. 241).
In these the Egyptians kept powdered charcoal or
antimony, with which they blackened their eyes and
eyebrows. This kohl-jar was perhaps the only article
for the toilette that was in common use among all
classes of society. Some of them were
very fantastic in form, and we find
many of them in the shape of men,
plants, or animals. Among others,
there are a full-blown lotus blossom, a
sparrow-hawk, a hedgehog, a monkey
clasping a column against his breast or climbing up
a jar, a grotesque figure of the god Bes, a kneeling
woman whose body contained the powder, or a young
girl, nude, holding a wine-jar. The ingenuity of the
Fig. 241. — Kohl-
jar.
286
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
craftsmen when once exercised in this direction was
unbounded, and they adapted everything to their
purpose — granite, diorite, breccia, pink jade, alabaster,
Fig. 242. — Black-topped pottery.
a soft limestone adapted for fine work, and a material
even more easily worked, namely, pottery painted
and glazed.
Although the art of modelling, decorating, and
firing pottery was never carried to such perfection
POTTERY.
>.S7
in Egypt as it was in Greece, it was not for the
want of the crude material. The valley of the Nile
supplies a variety of fine ductile clays from which
great results might have been obtained had it been
carefully prepared, but in many cases the clay was
;
Fig. 243. — Red burnished pottery.
taken without selection from any place where the
potter happened to be at the moment. Badly
washed, badly kneaded, it was then fashioned with
the hand or a primitive hand-worked wheel. The
firing was very uncertain, some pieces were scarcely
burnt at all and fall to pieces while in water, while
others are as hard as a tile.
288
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
Fig. 244. — Tottery fish,
predynastic.
Pottery is found in abundance in the graves of
the predynastic period. There are rough, heavy jars
of coarse red pottery weighing sometimes twenty
or thirty pounds, each of which
contained food offerings. Of
the finer varieties there are
several. A finely polished red
pottery was shaped by hand
before the invention of the
potter's wheel. Washed with
haematite and carefully bur-
nished, a brilliant black was obtained on the upper
part during the firing. Placed upside down in the
kiln, the rim was covered by the charcoal, and the
iron in the clay became deoxi-
dised from red peroxide to black
magnetic oxide, with a sub-
crystalline surface (fig. 242).
There is also a red burnished
pottery (fig. 243) sometimes
made in a variety of shapes in
the form of fish (fig. 244) or
birds, and red pottery painted
with cross lines in white slip
in imitation of basket-work
(fig. 245), or with floral and Fig. 245. —Red pottery
other designs Wlth bask,el-work de"
uiuci u^g"3- sjgnS( predynastic.
The class of drab-coloured
pottery painted with designs and figures in dull red
is of peculiar interest as presenting us in a few
instances with pictorial records of that remote time.
Beside cordage designs, chequers, marbling in imitation
POTTERY.
289
Fig. 246. — Vase painted to imitate
mottled stone.
of stone vases (fig. 246), and spirals, many oared
galleys with cabins, ensigns, and other details are
rudely represented, and also figures of men, animals,
and birds (fig. 247).
The black incised
pottery found in many
parts of the Mediter-
ranean basin was also
known in Egypt. Deep
bowls made of a soft
fat clay lightly baked,
pricked with basket-
work patterns and the
punctures filled in with white clay (fig. 248), are
found in predynastic graves, and again in various
localities, and at later periods, at Medum of the
Third Dynasty, and at
Kahun of the Twelfth
Dynasty.
All tombs of the Old
Kingdom contain pottery
of a red or yellow ware,
often mixed, like the
bricks, with finely chopped
straw or weeds. It con-
sists mostly of large solid
jars with oval bodies, short
necks, and wide .mouths
without foot or handle.
Fig. 247. — Decorated vase,
predynastic.
With them are found pipkins and pots in which to
store the dead man's provisions, bowls of various
depths, and flat plates. The surface is seldom
19
290
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
smooth or glazed. It is generally washed over with
a coating of white paint which flakes off at the
slightest touch.
The town of Kahun supplied domestic pottery of
the Middle Kingdom. Ring-stands for water-jars,
flower-vases with three separate openings or spouts
to support and divide the flowers, and cylindrical
vessels with a small hole at the base are among the
most remarkable. Heavy dishes with deeply incised
patterns are also found.
The Theban tombs of the great period of conquest
have provided us with
sufficient pottery to fill
many museums, but un-
fortunately it is of little
interest. There are the
small funerary or usJiabti
figures shaped by hand
out of a lump of clay.
A bit of the pottery
pinched with the fingers
formed the nose, while two dots and two short strips
added after the firing supply eyes and arms. The
better ones were shaped in terra-cotta moulds, many
of which have been found. They were generally
moulded in one piece, then carefully reworked, burnt>
painted red, yellow, and white, and finally the hiero-
glyphs were added either with the point or the brush.
Many of them are excellent in style and almost equal
to those carved in limestone. The usJiabti figures of
the scribe Hon', preserved in the Cairo Museum,
are about 16 inches high, and they show what the
Fig. 248. — Black incised pottery,
predynastic.
POTTERY.
29I
Fig. 249. — Lenticular
ampulla of Mykenaean
type, Eighteenth
Dynasty.
Egyptians could have accomplished had they chosen
to cultivate this branch of art.
The funerary cones were purely devotional objects
which no skill could have succeeded
in rendering beautiful. They are
merely conical lumps of clay drawn
out to a point at one end, and
stamped at the broader end with a
seal bearing the names, titles, and
parentage of its possessor, the
whole covered with a wash of
whitish colour. They were, per-
haps, intended to represent offerings
of bread to secure an endless supply
of food for the deceased. Many of the jars deposited
in the tombs are painted in imitation of alabaster,
granite, basalt, bronze, and even gold, and were
probably cheap
substitutes for
the valuable vases
lavished by the
rich on their dead.
Of the latter part
of the Eighteenth
Dynasty pottery is
found of distinctly
Mykenaean type,
Fig. 250. — False-necked vase of Mykenaean such as the len-
tvpe, Eighteenth Dynasty. , , ,
ticular ampulla?
(fig. 249) and the false-necked vases (fig. 250).
Among the vases intended to hold flowers and Nile
water, some are covered with designs outlined in red
292
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
Fig. 251.
and black (fig. 251) circles and concentric lines
(fig. 252), wavy lines, religious emblems (fig. 253),
cross lines resembling fine meshed netting, garlands
of flowers or of buds, or leafy stems
carried down from the neck to the body
of the vase, or rising from the body to
the neck. The vases from the tomb of
Sennetmu have a large collar on one
side similar to the necklaces placed on
mummies, painted with the brightest
colours in imitation of natural flowers or of enamel.
The canopic jars in pottery, rare during the Eighteenth
Dynasty, became increasingly numerous as the wealth
of Thebes diminished. The heads, more
especially the human heads with which they
are covered, are generally well carved.
Modelled by hand, hollowed to lessen their
weight, and then slowly baked, each was ,g' 252'
painted with the special colours peculiar to the genius
whose head was represented by it. Towards the
Twentieth Dynasty the custom was established of
depositing the bodies of sacred animals in
these canopic vases. Those found near
Ekhmim contain jackals and hawks ; those
at Saqqara contain mummied snakes, rats,
and eggs ; while those at Abydos enclose
the ibis. These last are by far the finest.
The body of the vase is surrounded by
the outstretched wings of the protecting
goddess Khuit, while Horus and Thoth present the
bandage and jar of unguents ; the whole is painted
blue and red on a white ground. Early in the
Fig. 253.
GLASS. 293
Greek period, when the poverty of the country had
increased, pottery was used not only for canopic
jars, but also for coffins. In the Isthmus of Suez,
at Ahnas el Medineh, in the Fayum at Assuan, and
in Nubia there are entire cemeteries where one finds
no other coffins than those made of pottery. Many
resemble oblong boxes, rounded at both ends, and
with a saddle-back cover. Some are of human form,
but barbarous in style, the head surrounded by a
sort of sausage that represents the ancient headdress,
the features scooped out with the thumb, or perhaps
some tool, while two small lumps placed haphazard
on the breast indicate the corpse of a woman. But
even in these closing years of Egyptian civilisation
it is only the very roughest specimens that are left
in their natural colours. Now, as formerly, they are
almost invariably covered with paint, or with richly
coloured glazes.
Glass was known to the Egyptians from the
earliest period. Chemical analysis shows that the
composition was almost identical with our own,
but in addition to silica, lime, alumina, and soda, it
contains a relatively considerable proportion of
foreign substances, copper, oxide of iron, and oxide
of manganese, which the Egyptians did not succeed
in eliminating. Thus the glass is very rarely colour-
less. It possesses an indefinite tint that approxi-
mates to green or yellow. Some pieces of poor
manufacture have completely rotted, and fall into
fragments or into iridescent powder at the slightest
touch. Others have not suffered so much from the
action of time, but they are streaked and full of
294 THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
bubbles. Others again, very few in number, are
perfectly clear and homogeneous.
Uncoloureci glass was not in favour as it is with
us. Until the Roman period, whether opaque or trans-
parent, glass was almost invariably coloured. This was
effected by mixing metallic oxides with the ordinary
ingredients — copper or cobalt for the blue, copperas
for the greens, manganese for the violets and browns,
iron for the yellows, lead or tin for white : one variety
of red contains at least 30 per cent, of copper, and
when exposed to damp becomes coated with
verdigris. All this chemistry was empirical and
purely instinctive. The workmen collected around
them the necessary materials or received them from
afar, and they then proceeded to use them, often
without definite knowledge of the effect they were
about to produce : many of their most harmonious
combinations were the result of chance, and they
could not reproduce them at will. In this way they
sometimes produced very large pieces : classical
authors speak of glass sarcophagi stelae and columns
made in one piece, but glass generally was only used
for small objects, and more especially in imitation of
precious stones.
Cheaply as these could be bought in the Egyptian
markets, they were not accessible to all, and the glass-
blowers imitated emerald, jasper, lapis lazuli, and
carnelian with such precision that we are often
puzzled at the present day to distinguish the real
from the false. The glass was run into stone moulds
of the desired size and shape, beads, discs, rings,
pendants for necklaces, narrow rods, and plaques
COLOURED GLASS. 295
bearing figures of men or animals, gods and goddesses.
Eyes and eyebrows for stone or bronze statues were
made of glass, and so were bracelets for their wrists.
Glass was used as an inlay for hieroglyphs, and
entire figures, scenes, and inscriptions in glass were
inlaid in wood, stone, or metal. The mummy-cases
of Netemt are decorated this way, and so are the
coffins of Iuiya and Tuiyu, the grandparents of
Akhenaten.* They are entirely covered with gold
leaf with the exception of the headdress and some
details ; the inscriptions and the principal part of the
decoration are formed of these brilliantly coloured
enamels, which contrast well with the gold back-
ground. The mummies of the Fayum were covered
with plaster or stucco on which the scenes and
texts, which elsewhere were merely painted, were
inlaid by means of adjusting the pieces of glass
and then reworking them with the chisel, after
the fashion of a bas-relief. Thus in the case of
the goddess Maat the face, hands, and the feet
are in turquoise blue, the headdress in very dark
blue, the feather in alternate strips of blue and
yellow, the robe is dark red. On the wooden naos
from the neighbourhood of Daphnae, and on a
fragment of a coffin in the Turin Museum, the
hieroglyphs of multi-coloured glass stand out
directly on the dark wooden background, and the
result of this arrangement is extraordinarily rich and
brilliant.
Glass filigree, cut and engraved glass, soldered
glass, and imitation of wood, straw, or cord, in glass
* T. M. Davis, The Tomb of loitiya and Toniyou.
296 THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
were all known to the Egyptians. At Cairo there is
a square rod made of a number of strips of glass
of varied colours fused together and forming the
cartouche of one of the Amenemhats. The strips
run through the whole length of the rod ; wherever it
may be cut, the section will show the same cartouche.
Small glass objects are so numerous as to fill an
entire case in the Cairo Museum. One represents
a monkey on all fours smelling some large fruit
lying on the ground, another is a portrait of a
woman, full face, on a white or pale green background
framed in red. Most of the plaques merely represent
rosettes, stars, and flowers, either single or in a
bouquet. One of the smallest represents an Apis
bull, black and white, walking ; the work is so
delicate that it can well bear examination with a.
microscope. Most of these objects are not anterior
to the first Sai'te dynasty ; but excavations at
Thebes and at Tell el Amarna have proved that
as early as the eighteenth century B.C. the taste for
coloured glass had arisen, and in consequence it was
commonly manufactured in Egypt. At Deir el
Bahari, in the Valley of the Kings, at Gurnet Murrai
and at Sheikh abd el Gurneh not only have amulets
been found intended for the use of the dead, such as
columns, hearts, mystic eyes, hippopotami standing
on their hind legs, and pairs of ducks, in pottery of
mixed colours, blue, red and yellow, but also vases
of a type one has been accustomed to consider as
Phoenician or Cypriote workmanship.
Here, for instance, is a small cenochoe of semi-
opaque light blue glass (fig. 254) inscribed with the
COLOURED GLASS AND ENAMELS.
297
name of Thothmes III., the ovals on the neck and the
palms on the body of the vase traced in yellow.
Here again is a lenticular ampulla 3} inches in
height (fig. 255) in dark blue glass of
admirable purity and intensity ; over this
is a bold, delicate pattern of fern-leaves
in yellow. Two small handles of trans-
parent light green are attached to the
neck, and the rim is surrounded by a
yellow fillet. An amphora of the same
height is dark olive-green and semi-
transparent (fig. 256) ; a band of blue Fj ,
and yellow chevrons confined within four I'arti-coloured
yellow lines surrounds the body of the iJ^gn^W
vase at the widest part. In the vault ofThoth-
mes III
of Deir el Bahari by the side of the
Princess Nesikhonsu there were goblets of similar
workmanship ; seven were of plain glass, light green,,
yellow, or blue, four in black spotted
with white, and one was covered
with a pattern of multi-coloured
fern-leaves arranged in two rows
(fig. 257). Thus the manufacture
of glass was in full activity as early
as the time of the great Theban
dynasties. Heaps of scoriae mixed
with slag mark the site of their
furnaces at Medinet Habii, Tell el
Amarna, at the Ramesseum, at El
Kab, and at the Tell of Eshmuneyn.
From predynastic times the Egyptians enamelled
stone. At least half of the scarabs, cylinders, and
Fig. 255.— Parti-
coloured lenticular
glass vase.
298
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
amulets we admire in our museums are in limestone
or schist covered with a coloured glaze. Ordinary
clay, no doubt, did not appear to them suitable for
this method of decoration. They re-
placed it by various kinds of frit, some
white and sandy : another sort was
brown and fine and was obtained by
pulverising a special sort of limestone
that abounds in the neighbourhood of
Keneh, Luxor, and Assiian. A third
sort was reddish and mixed with
powdered sandstone and powdered
brick. These various substances are
known as Egyptian porcelain or Egyptian faience,
both terms being equally inaccurate. The earliest
specimens of the so-called faience were covered with
Fig. 256. — Parti-
coloured glass
vase.
Fig. 257. — Parti-coloured glass goblets of Nesikhonsu.
an exceedingly thin coat of glaze except in the
hollows of the hieroglyphs and figures where the
vitreous substance accumulated and the brilliant
colour stands out in vivid contrast to the somewhat
ENAMELLED STONE AND GLAZED WARE. 299
dull tone of the surrounding surface. Under the early
dynasties, green was by far the most usual colour ;
but white, red, yellow, brown, violet, and blue were
also used, and as early as the time of Menes glazing
in two colours was understood. Blue predominated
in the Theban manufactories from the early years
of the Middle Kingdom. It is a soft brilliant blue
much like that of lapis lazuli or turquoise. The
Cairo Museum formerly possessed three hippopotami
in this colour discovered at Drah abu'l Neggeh in the
tomb of an Antef. One of these was lying down, the
others standing in
the marshes ; on
their bodies the
potter has drawn in
black ink sketches
of reeds and lotus
among which birds ^SISibm^"""^""!!^*!^
and butterflies are Fig 258.— Hippopotamus in blue glaze.
flying (fig. 258). It
was his method of representing1 the animal among
his natural surroundings.
The blue is deep and brilliant in tone, and we
must take a flight over twenty centuries to find its
equal among the funerary statuettes from Deir el
Bahari. The green reappears under the Sai'te
dynasties, but paler than it was in the earlier period.
It predominated in Lower Egypt, at Memphis,
Bubastis, and Sai's, but without entirely eliminating
the blue. The other colours were only in common
use during four or five centuries, from the time of
Aahmes I. to the time of i the Ramessides. It is
300 THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
then, and then only, that the so-called Respotidaiits, or
ushabti figures, in white or red glaze, rosettes and
lotus flowers in yellow, red, and violet, and kohl-
boxes in a mixture of colours abounded. The
potters of the time of Amenhotep III. had a decided
preference for shades of violet and
grey. The olive-shaped amulets
stamped with the names of this
Pharaoh and the princesses of
his family bear hieroglyphs of
pale blue on a very delicate mauve
background. The vase of Queen
Fig. 259.— Glazed ware, Tyi in the Cairo Museum is grey
from Thebes. . , . r , , ,
with a mixture 01 blue ; round
the .neck there are bands of ornamentation and
inscriptions in two colours.
These polychrome glazes attained their highest
development under Akhenaten ; at least, it is in the
plain of Tell el Amarna that the finest and best
specimens have been found —
green, yellow, or violet rings,
white or blue flowers, fish, lutes,
figs, and bunches of grapes. There
is a small figure of Horus with
a red face and a blue body, and Fig. 260.— Glazed ware,
the bezil of a ring with the from Thebes.
name of the king in violet on a light blue ground.
However small the space, the colours have been
laid on with so sure a hand that they are never
confused, but contrast vividly with each other. A
vase for powdered antimony, chased and mounted on
a pierced stand, is of a uniform reddish brown
GLAZED WARE.
3OI
(fig. 259) ; another, in the form of a mitred hawk, is
blue with black spots, it belonged formerly to
Aahmes I. ; a third, carved in the form of a cheery
little hedgehog, is of a variable green (fig. 260). The
head of a Pharaoh in dead blue wears a striped linen
headdress of dark blue. But, fine as these
pieces are, the finest of the whole series is
the statuette, now at Cairo, of Ptahmes, chief
prophet of Amon. The hieroglyphs and the
details of the mummy wrappings have been carved
in relief on a white background of admirable uni-
formity, filled in with enamels ; the face and hands
are of turquoise blue, the headdress is yellow with
violet stripes, the hieroglyphs and the vulture that
spreads its wings over the
breast are also violet. The
whole figure is harmonious,
delicate, and brilliant ; no
flaw mars the purity of the
contour nor the sharpness of
the lines. Glazed pottery was
common at all times. The
cups with a foot (fig. 261),
the blue bowls decorated with
mystic eyes lotus flowers
fish (fig. 262), and palms,
drawn in black ink, are usually of the Eighteenth,
Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties. The lenticular
ampullae, covered with a greenish glaze, and decorated
with rows of beads or ovals on the neck, an elaborate
necklace on the shoulders, and supplied by way
of handles with two crouching monkeys, belong
Fig. 262.— Decoration of in-
terior of small bowl,
Eighteenth Dynasty.
302
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
almost, if not entirely, to the reigns of Apries (the
Hophra of the Old Testament) and of Aahmes II.
(fig. 263).
The Egyptians loved this ware, which was so cool
to the touch, so pleasant to the eye, and so easily
kept clean ; they used it for the handles of sistra and
of mirrors, for drinking-cups in the form of half-
opened lotus buds, dishes, and plates. An immense
piece of glazing is a sceptre
5 feet high with a separate
head, made for Amen-
hotep II., and now in the
South Kensington Museum.
It appears that the Egyp-
tians carried their prefer-
ence for glazed pottery so
far, in some instances, as
to cover the walls of their
palaces, temples, and tombs
with it. Glazed tiles for
fixing on walls were used
during the Thinite period.
As late as the nineteenth
century one of the chambers of the step pyramid of
Saqqara still retained its mural decoration of glazed
ware (fig. 264). Up to three-quarters of its height
it was faced with green tiles, oblong in shape, slightly
convex in front, but flat at the back (fig. 265) ; a
square projection pierced with a hole served to fix
the tiles at the back by means of a flexible strip of
wood passed horizontally through the whole row.
The three rows of tiles that frame the lower part of
Fig. 263. — Lenticular vase, glazed
ware, Sai'te period.
GLAZED TILES.
SOS
the doorway are inscribed with the titles of the
Pharaoh Zeser of the Second or Third Dynasty. The
hieroglyphs are in blue, red, green, and yellow on a
tawny background. Of the Sixth Dynasty there is
a yellow tile on which is the name and Ka name
of Pepi I., and there are fragments of red and white
\
, -k. -x -*r ^ -x -^ - ir
-¥. _ -K -X X ■ -X- -T
-* ^ -K „. <*-* -k -x *~ *r „
-K -K -K -K ■#- -*- *y
Fig. 264. — Chamber decorated with tiles in step pyramid of Saqqara.
tiles of Seti I. and of Sheshonk (Shishak), besides
a green tile bearing the name of Rameses III.
In the palace of Tell el Amarna glazed tiles were
used in abundance. The stone columns of the harem
were covered with glazed and moulded tiles, ribbed
to imitate bundles of reeds, and filled in with lotus
buds and flowers all in glazed ware. The great hall
of columns had a very beautiful dado, of green tiles
3°4
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
Fig. 265.—
Tile from step
pyramid of
Saqqara.
inlaid with white daisies and violet thistles. The
limestone walls were inlaid with glazed ware and
gleamed with great hieroglyph inscrip-
tions of gorgeous colouring, while both
in the temple and the palace stones were
inlaid in other stones, white alabaster in
red granite, or tesserae of black granite
in yellow quartzite.* This method of
decoration was adopted to some extent
by the successors of Akhenaten. At Tell
el Yahudieh, Rameses III. employed
much the same scheme for his temple.
The main part of the building was lime-
stone and alabaster, but the scenes, instead of being
sculptured in the usual manner, were formed of a
mosaic of stone tesserae and glazed
pottery in about equal proportions. The
element most frequently introduced into
the scheme of decoration was a circle,
made of sandy frit coated with grey or Tile inlay, Tell
, , , 1 • 1 el Yahudieh.
blue glaze, on which was a cream-
coloured rosette (fig. 266). Some of these rosettes
are surrounded by geometric designs (fig. 267) or
spider-web patterns, and some represent
open flowers, the central boss in relief,
the petals and tracery inlaid. These
circular plaques, which vary in size from
Tile inlay, Tell three-eighths of an inch to 4 inches,
el Yahudieh. wefe fixed tQ ^ waU ^^ yery fine
cement. They were combined to form ordinary
designs, such as scrolls, foliage, or parallel fillets such
* W. M. F. Petrie, Tell el Amama,
TELL EL YAHUDIEH TILES.
305
Fig. 268. — Inlaid tiles,
Tell el Yahiidieh.
as can be seen on the foot of an altar and the base
of a column now in Cairo. The cartouches were
usually made in one piece, and so were the figures ;
the details, either incised or moulded in the clay-
before baking, were afterwards covered with a paste
of the desired colour. The lotus
blossoms and leaves that decorated
the base of the walls or the cornice
were, on the contrary, formed of
a variety of pieces. There every
colour is separate, and made to fit
into the surrounding pieces with
great exactness (fig. 268).
The temple was pillaged at the beginning of the
nineteenth century, and ever since the time of
Champollion the Louvre has possessed figures of
prisoners brought from there. All that was left was
destroyed years ago by dealers in antiquities, and the
debris dispersed.
Some have found
their way to the
British Museum.
Mariette recovered
with great diffi-
culty some of the
most important
fragments, includ-
ing the name of Rameses III., which gives us the
date of the building, some of the borders of lotus
flowers and human-handed birds (fig. 269), and the
heads of Asiatic and negro slaves (fig. 270). The
destruction of this building is especially annoying,
20
jjbwi^x-^^
Fig. 269. — Tile in relief, Tell el Yahiidieh.
306
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
because apparently the Egyptians did not build many
of the same type. Rameses III. also decorated some
part of his temple at Medinet
Habu with inlaid enamels. The
Boston Museum possesses a fine
series of tiles that apparently came
from there, and a doorway from
Medinet Habu is now at Cairo.
Glazed bricks and enamelled tiles
are easily injured, and that would be a very serious
drawback in the eyes of a people who regarded
durability as being of the highest importance.
Fig. 270.— Tile in re-
lief, Tell el Yahiidieh.
2. — ^IVORV, WOOD, LEATHER, AND TEXTILES.
Ivory, bone, and horn are somewhat rare in our
museums, but this is no reason for supposing that
they were not freely used by the Egyptians. Horn
does not last well, certain insects are partial to it and
destroy it very rapidly ; bone and ivory soon lose their
consistency and become friable. The elephant was
known to the Egyptians from the earliest times, and
it is possible that at a very remote period the animal
existed in the Thebaid. As early as the Memphite
dynasties the name of the island of Elephantine is
written with the figure of an elephant. Before the
time of Menes, ivory was freely used for combs and
hairpins, decorated with figures of men, birds, or
animals, and for spoons (fig. 271). Rudely carved tusks
were also placed in the graves (fig. 272). Figures of
men and women — the latter wrapped in long cloaks —
inscribed plaques, cylinders, and tusks inscribed with
Ivory carvings.
307
rows of animals, birds, and human figures (fig. 273)
are also found of the earliest dynastic period.
During historical times ivory
was imported into Egypt from the
Upper Nile in the form of tusks,
or half-tusks. It was generally left
its natural colour, but occasionally
Fig. 271,— Ivory spoon, combs, and hairpins,
predynastic. At Oxford.
VA
■A
Fig. 272. — Tusk
carved with
human face.
it was stained green or red. It was in great request
for inlaying furniture, chairs, beds, and coffers ;
3o8
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
combs, hairpins, toilette
ornaments, and delicately
wrought spoons (fig. 274)
continued to be made of
ivory, and so were dice,
kohl -bottles made in the
form of a hollow column
surmounted by a capital,
incense-burners shaped like
a hand holding a bronze
bowl in which perfume was
burnt, and also boomerangs
covered with outlines of
divinities and fantastic
animals. Some of these
objects are fine works of
art, as for instance a dagger
handle at Cairo in form of
a lion, or the carved ivory
plaques on a box belonging
to Tua'i", who lived at the
end of the Seventeenth
Dynasty. Of the Middle
Kingdom there is an ivory
gaming-board 6 inches long
by 4 inches broad with
playing pieces also carved
in ivory. The board is
shaped like an axeblade,
and rests on four ivory bull's
legs ; below there is a small
drawer of ivory and ebony
OBJECTS IN IVORY AND WOOD. 309
closed by an ivory bolt that works in copper staples.
There are ten ivory playing pieces, five with dogs'
heads and five with jackals' heads. The ivory of
the board is backed with sycamore wood, and round
the edges is an ebony veneer fixed with glue.*
Another object which also comes from the same
excavations in the eastern valley of Deir el Bahari
is a toilet box of cedar wood veneered with ebony
and ivory. Below the lid there is a tray with /-\
partitions and a hollow to hold a mirror ;
below this again is a drawer fitted to hold
eieht alabaster vases of cosmetics ; both lid
and drawer are fitted with silver knobs. This
was the property of Kemen, keeper of the
kitchen department to Amenemhat IV.
Engraved on the ivory plaque in front is
a scene of Kemen offering vases to his
sovereign.*
Some fine statuettes are carved in ivory.
The seated figure of Khufii found at Abydos
is only 5 inches high, but it is of perfect Fig. 274.
and most delicate workmanship. There is a — sPoon-
figurine dating from the Fifth Dynasty that has
unfortunately been damaged, but which still bears
traces of rose colour, and a miniature figure of Abi
who died under the Thirteenth Dynasty. Abi is
perched on the top of a lotus-flower column and
gazes straight in front of him with a majestic air,
which contrasts comically with his very prominent
ears. The work is broad and spirited and will bear
comparison with the ivories of the Renaissance.
* Lord Carnarvon, Five Years Exploration of Thebes, 1913.
3io
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
■
Egypt is not rich in trees, and most of those she
possesses are useless to the sculptor. The two which
are most abundant, the date-palm and the dom-palm,
are coarse and uneven in fibre. Some varieties of
the sycamore and acacia are the only
trees that provide wood suitable for
carving. Wood was nevertheless a
favourite material for cheap and rapid
work, and at times it was chosen for
important pieces such as ka statues.
The statue of the Sheikh el Beted shows
with what boldness and breadth wood
could be treated. But the blocks and
beams the Egyptian had at his disposal
were seldom either broad or long enough
to make a statue in one piece. The
Sheikh el Beled, which is under life size,
is carved in several pieces, joined with
square pegs. The custom therefore
arose of reducing the subject that was
to be carved in wood to a size that could
be rendered in one single piece, and
under the Theban Dynasties the statues
of early days have become statuettes.
Art lost nothing by this reduction, and
more than one of these small figures is
comparable with the finest work of the Old Kingdom.
The best of them all is perhaps one in the Turin
Museum belonging to the Twentieth Dynasty. It
represents a young girl whose only clothing is a
narrow girdle round the waist. She is at that
indefinite age when the undeveloped figure is almost
Fig. 275.—
Wooden statu-
ette of officer,
Eighteenth
Dynasty.
WOODEN STATUETTES.
311
as much like that of a boy as of a girl. The expres-
sion of the face is roguish and pleasant, and the
figure at a distance of thirty centuries
is in fact a portrait of one of those
graceful little maidens of Elephantine
who without shame or immodesty
walk unclothed in sight of strangers.
The three small figures of men at
Cairo are probably of the same date
as the Turin figure. They are
clothed in robes of state, as indeed
they should be, for one of them,
Hori, surnamed Ra, was a favourite
of the Pharaoh. They are walking
with calm and even pace, the bust
thrown well forward and the head
held high ; their expression is know-
ing and somewhat furtive.
An officer (fig. 275) now retired to
the Louvre is in the semi-military
costume of the time of Amen-
hotep III., and his successors, a
small wig, a tight-fitting vest, with
short sleeves. A kilted skirt,stretched
tightly over the hips and reaching
scarcely half-way to the knees, has
the free end plaited lengthways and
puffed out in front by some artificial
contrivance. Near him stands a
priest (fig. 276) with a wig made of
rows of small curls, wearing the long skirt that reached
half-way down the legs, and spread out in front in a
Fig. 276. — Wooden
statuette of priest,
Eighteenth Dynasty.
312
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
sort of plaited apron. With both hands he is holding
a divine symbol, consisting of the head of a bull
crowned with the solar disc, supported on a massive
staff. Both officer and priest are painted a reddish
brown with the exception of the hair, which is black,
the corner of the eyes, which is white, and the sacred
standard, which is yellow. Curiously enough their
companion in a glass case, the little lady
Naif, is also painted brown, and not
yellow, the regular colour for women in
kgypt: (fig. 277). She is represented in a
tight-fitting garment, trimmed down the
front with white embroidery. Round her
throat she is wearing a gold necklace of
three rows, gold bracelets on her wrists,
and on her head is a wig with tresses
hanging over her shoulders. Her right
arm is hanging down, and the hand
grasped some object, now lost, probably
a mirror ; the left hand is holding a lotus
jvofc^u^ bud. The figure is supple, the throat
Wooden- youthful and rounded, the expression of
statuette of the broad smiling face is pleasant, though
not entirely free from vulgarity. The
headdress is heavy, but the bust is modelled with
purity and grace of form ; the dress defines the
contour and without rendering them too visible the
attitude is natural, and the movement by which
the young lady presses the flowers to her breast is
rendered with realistic skill. These are portraits,
and as the originals were not people of exalted birth,
they probably did not employ artists of the highest
TOILET ARTICLES.
3*3
repute. They must have had recourse to unpretentious
craftsmen, and the knowledge of composition and
the dexterity of manipulation show the powerful
influence exercised even on artisans by the great
school of sculpture that still flourished at Thebes.
This influence is even
more apparent when we
study the small objects
, . , ., , Fig. 278. — Spoon, wood.
devoted to the toilet and
those for household use. It would be no light task
to attempt to describe the immense variety of knick-
knacks on which the ingenious fancy of the artists
was expended. The handles of mirrors are generally
in the form of a lotus or papyrus stem, ending in a
full-blown flower to which the disc of polished
metal is affixed. Or they are sometimes
formed of the figure of a girl either nude,
or clad in a tight-fitting garment, bearing
the disc on her head.
The tops of hairpins were formed of a
coiled snake, of the head of a jackal, a dog,
or a hawk, very similar to those of the archaic
period. The stands intended to hold these
pins are in the form of a tortoise or a hedge-
hog with holes pierced in a regular pattern
on the carapace. Headrests which served
instead of pillows for the head are decorated
with scenes in sunk relief from the myths of Bes and
Sekhet, and the forbidding countenance of Bes is
carved on the lower side or the base. But the
inventive genius of the craftsmen was more specially
roused by the spoons for perfumes and the kohl-vases.
Fig. 279
Spoon
3^4
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
In order to save their fingers, spoons were used for
essences, pomades, and for the various dyes with
which both men and women stained their cheeks and
lips, their eyelids, nails, and the palms of their hands.
I ra The designs are generally derived from the
flora and fauna of the Nile. A spoon in
the Cairo Museum represents a fox in full
flight, carrying off an enormous fish in his
mouth, the body of the fish forming the
bowl of the spoon (fig. 278). Another is a
cartouche that rises out of an open lotus
flower, or a lotus fruit placed on a bouquet
of flowers (fig. 279), or a simple triangular
bowl, flanked by two flower buds (fig. 280).
The most elaborate spoons combine a human
figure with these designs. A girl, nude
except for a girdle round the hips, is swim-
S
Fig. 280.-
Spoon.
ming with her head well above water (fig. 281). Her
extended arms support a duck, the body of which
is hollowed out, while the two movable wings serve
as a cover.
Not in ivory or wood, but very delicately modelled
Fig. 281.— Spoon, wood. At New York.
in glazed ware is another spoon found in 191 3 in the
Oxford excavations at Merawi. This dates from
about the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. The figure of
the swimming girl is almost identical with that just
PERFUME SPOONS.
315
described (fig. 281), but the arrangement of the hair
is slightly different. It is brushed back
close to the head and then arranged in
a large knot behind ; her outstretched
arms support an oblong tray. The
details of the tiny figure are perfectly
rendered. The ears pierced for earrings,
the slender hands and fingers, the fingers
and toes all bear close examination.
At the Louvre there is also a girl
(fig. 282) partly concealed among the
lotus plants, from which she is gathering
a bud. A bundle of stems, from which
two full-blown flowers emerge, unite the
handle to the bowl of the spoon, which
in this case is reversed, the pointed
end being attached to the handle. In
another the girl is framed by two flowering stems,
and is playing on a long-necked lute as
she walks (fig. 283), or, again, the musician
is standing on a boat (fig. 284), or her
place is taken by a woman bearing offer-
ings. Sometimes a slave is represented
bending under the weight of an enormous
sack.
The physiognomy and the age of each
of these tiny persons are very clearly
characterised. The girl gathering lotus is
of good birth, as is indicated by the
dressing of her hair and the pleated linen
of her skirt. The young Theban ladies
wore long garments, and she has only gathered up
-fesi-
Fig. 282.—
Spoon.
Fig. 283.-
Spoon.
3i6
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
her dress in order to avoid wetting it as she makes
her way through the reeds. The two
girls playing lutes are, on the contrary,
of inferior birth. One is satisfied with
a mere girdle round the hips, and the
other has only a short petticoat carelessly
arranged. The girl bearing offerings
(fig. 285) wears the long pendant tress
which was distinctive of childhood. She
is one of the slim, slender girls we know
so well among the fellahin of to-day.
Her lack of clothing therefore does not
prove that she was not of gentle birth,
for even the children of
the nobles did not wear
the garments of their
sex before the period of
The slave (fig. 286), with
his thick lips, his flat nose, his heavy
animal jaw, his retreating forehead, and
his conical head, is evidently a carica-
ture of some foreign prisoner. The
sullen demeanour with which he
slouches along under his burden is
admirably caught, and the angularities
of his body, the shape of his head, and
the disposition of the various parts all
recall the general appearance of the
grotesque terracotta figures of Asia
Minor. The natural objects, such as 'g' ' poon'
leaves, flowers, or birds that are grouped round these
principal figures, are skilfully and truthfully arranged.
Fig. 284. —
v Spoon.
adolescence.
household furniture.
3*7
Thus in the case of the three ducks tied together by
the legs, carried by the girl bearing offerings, two
have resigned themselves to their fate, and are swing-
ing with outstretched necks and open eyes, while the
third has lifted up its head and is
flapping its wings in protest. The two
my**
f &<
water-birds we see perched on the
lotus plants listening to the lute are
entirely at ease with their heads on
their breasts. They know by experi-
ence that they need not disturb them-
selves for a song, and that they have
nothing to fear from a girl who carries
no alarming weapon. The sight of a
bow and arrow would put them to
flight. The Egyptians were thoroughly
acquainted with the habits of wild
creatures, and they delighted in re-
presenting them with exactitude. The
habit of observing the minutest facts
was instinctive with them, and in
consequence even the smallest piece of
work was certain to be characterised
by a marvellous degree of realism.
The variety of furniture used in
ancient Egypt was no greater than it
is at the present day. The poor were
contented with a few mats which they rolled up by
day. Those who were somewhat better off possessed
stools, low frame beds like the Nubian angareb, and
some chests and boxes of various sizes to hold tools
or linen. The nobles had chairs and divans in
Fig. 286. — Spoon.
3i8
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
addition, such as those found in the tomb of the
parents of Queen Tyi. The art of the cabinet-maker
had attained a very high degree of perfection early
in the dynastic period. Boards were
worked with the adze, mortised, glued,
and fitted together, and fastened with
pegs of hard wood, or with the thorns
Fig. 287.— Chest °*" tne acacia> never with metal nails.
They were then polished and ready to
be painted. Chests generally stand on four straight
feet, sometimes of considerable height. The cover
is either flat or rounded ^
according to a special curve ^pH|ill|i
Fig. 288.— Chest.
which was popular with Lc
the Egyptians at all periods } flS; "MM- f|] j
(fig. 287), or, very rarely, ||§|5 *
they were sloped to a ridge If (][
like the roofs of our houses
(fig. 288). Generally the
whole lid lifts off, but occasionally it turns on a peg
inserted in one of the corners at the top, or it opens
at the side on two wooden
pivots (fig. 289). The panels
are admirably adapted for
decoration and are covered
with paintings, or inlaid with
ivory, silver, enamel plaques,
or with valuable woods. It
Fig. 289.— Chest. js possible that we are not
in a position to judge of the skill possessed by
the Egyptians in this branch of art, nor of the
variety of shapes invented by them at various
WOODEN SARCOPHAGI.
319
periods, as most of their furniture that we possess has
been found in tombs, and some of it may have been
cheap imitation provided for the purpose, or of
special design reserved for the use of mummies.
It was these mummies who were the most profit-
able customers of the cabinet-makers. Everywhere
else man carried only a small number of objects with
him into the next world, but in Egypt he was content
with nothing less than a complete outfit. The coffin
itself was a serious piece of work that employed a
whole gang of workmen (fig. 290). The method
Fig. 290. — Construction of a mummy case, wall scene,
Eighteenth Dynasty.
varied at different periods. At the time of the
Memphite empire and the first Theban empire, the
coffins are almost without exception huge rectangular
chests of sycamore-wood, fiat both at top and bottom,
the various parts joined together with wooden pegs.
The shape is not elegant, but the decoration is very
interesting. The cover has no cornice, and the
centre of it is occupied by a long band of hieroglyphs
on the outside, sometimes written with ink or painted,
sometimes carved in the wood and then filled in with
a bluish paste. This inscription gives merely the
name and titles of the deceased, occasionally followed
320 THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
by a short formula of prayer on his behalf. The
inside is covered on the surface with a thick coating of
stucco, or it is whitewashed. On this the seventeenth
chapter of the Book of the Dead is generally written
with red and black ink in fine cursive hieroglyphs.
The coffin itself consists of eight vertical planks, two
at each side and at the ends, and three horizontal
planks at the bottom. On the outside it is some-
times decorated with wide parallel lines of colour
ending in intertwined lotus leaves, correspond-
ing to the grooves on the stone sarcophagi. More
often the coffin has two large open eyes, and two
monumental doors on the left, and three doors on the
right, precisely like those found in the rock-cut tombs
of the period. The coffin is in fact the house of the
deceased, and as such it was necessary that its walls
should bear a summary of the prayers and pictures
that covered the walls of the tomb. The formula
and necessary representations were inscribed and
shown on the inside, in about the same order in
which we find them in the mastabas. Every side is
divided into three registers and every register con-
tains either a dedication in the name of the occupant
or a picture of the objects belonging to him, or texts
of the ritual recited for his benefit. When this was
skilfully done on a background painted to look like
fine wood, the whole effect was bold and harmonious.
Only a small share of the work fell to the cabinet-
maker, and the long boxes in which the earliest
mummies were enclosed demanded little skill on his
part. But this was not the case with coffins that
were made as nearly as possible in the human form.
TYPES OF WOODEN COFFINS. 32 I
Of these we have two types. In the earliest of the
two the coffin followed the lines of the mummies.
The feet and legs are joined together throughout
their length : the slight projection of the knees, the
rounding of the calf, and the outline of the thighs and
the trunk are summarily indicated, as though they
were vaguely modelled under the wood. The head,
the only living part of the inert body, is entirely
disengaged. In this type the man was imprisoned
in a sort of statue of himself, which was so well
balanced that it could be stood up on end when
desired.
In the second type the man appears to be lying
down on his coffin ; his statue carved in the round
forms a cover for his body. On his head is his large
curled wig, the breast is scarcely concealed by his
vest of almost transparent white material, the petti-
coat with its symmetrical folds covers his legs, on his
feet are elegant sandals, and his hands clasp various
emblems, the atik/i, the girdle tie, the dad, or in the
case of the wife of Sennetmu at Cairo, a wreath
of ivy.
This sort of mummiform casing is rare under the
Memphites. Menkaiira, the Mycerinusof the Greeks,
has, however, left us a noteworthy example. They
were very common under the Eleventh Dynasty, but
at that time they were often little more than the
hollowed trunk of a tree, with a human head and feet
roughly hewn out. The face is daubed with brilliant
colours, yellow, red, and green ; the hair and head-
dress are painted with black or blue stripes. A
necklace is ostentatiously displayed at the breast ;
21
322
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
the remainder is either covered with the gilded
feathers of Isis and Nephthys, the two mourning
goddesses, or plastered with a thick wash of uniform
colour either yellow or white, on which is a scanty
decoration of figures and bands of hieroglyphs
" Si'™
Fig. 291. — Mask of coffin of Rameses II.,
/nupo, Twenty-first Dynasty.
painted black and blue. The most elaborate royal
coffins of the Eighteenth Dynasty that I excavated
at Deir el Bahari belong to this type, and are only
distinguished by the finish of the work and by the
extraordinary perfection with which the artist re-
produced the features of the sovereign. The mask
of Aahmes I., of Amenhotep I., and of Thothmes II.
THE DEIR EL BAHARI COFFINS.
323
i
r:';q
are actual masterpieces of this species of work. The
mask of Rameses II. shows no trace
of painting except a black groove
inserted to accentuate the eye. It
is undoubtedly a portrait of the
Pharaoh Herihor who restored the
funerary furniture of his powerful
predecessor, and is almost com-
parable to the best examples of
contemporary statuary (fig. 291).
Two coffins, those of Queen
Aahmesnefertari and her daughter
Aahhotep II., are of immense size
and measure more than ioi feet in
height. When standing upright
(fig. 292) they might almost be mis-
taken for some of the caryatids in
the court of Medinet Habu, though
on a smaller scale. The body is
represented swathed in bandages
and only faintly suggests a human
form. A network in relief, with
each mesh standing out in blue on
the yellow background, fits tightly
to the neck and shoulders, and
forms a kind of mantle, from
which the hands emerge, and are
crossed on the breast clasping the
1 D tig. 292. —
ankk, the sign of life. The head Mummy-case ofQueen
. ■, .1 r j j Aahmesnefertari.
is a portrait, the lace round and
broad, the eyes wanting in intelligence, the expres-
sion mild and characterless. Above the heavy
ip$M
m
i
h
Sis
mm
324 THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
wig are the headdress and stiff feathers of Amon
or Mut.
It may well be asked what motive the Egyptians
could have had in manufacturing these extraordinary
productions. Both queens were small women and their
bodies were lost in such huge coffins. They had to be
wedged in and padded with rags to prevent their
rolling about and being injured. Apart from their
size the coffins are characterised by the same sim-
plicity as that which distinguishes all of that period,
whether of royal or private personages. About the
middle of the Nineteenth Dynasty there was a change
of fashion : one single coffin soberly adorned was no
longer sufficient ; it was necessary to have two or
three or even four inside one another, profusely
decorated with paintings or inscriptions. At this
time the outer casing was often a sarcophagus with
short square posts or handles at the corners and a
ridged or saddle-back lid painted in white on the
lower side and covered with figures of the deceased
in adoration before the gods of the Osirian group.
When the coffin is shaped in human form, some of
the former bareness of decoration is still retained : the
face is coloured, there is a necklace spread on the
breast, and a band of hieroglyphs extends to the feet.
The rest is of a uniform colour, black, brown, or a
dull yellow. The inner coffins are decorated to an
almost extravagant degree. The face and hands arc
red, rose-coloured, or gilded. The jewellery is re-
presented either by painting or by enamels inlaid
in the wood, and there are scenes and texts in a
variety of colours, the whole covered with the yellow
MUMMY-CASES OF NINETEENTH DYNASTY. 325
varnish already referred to. The contrast between
the abundant ornamentation of this period, and the
simplicity of the earlier work is very striking. It is
to Thebes itself that we must look for an explana-
tion. Private people as well as the Pharaohs of the
period of conquest devoted their full energy of
resources to the construction of their rock tombs.
There the walls formed one vast picture, and the
sarcophagus was a colossal block of finely worked
granite or alabaster. It mattered little that the
coffin in which the mummy reposed should be only
slightly decorated. But the Egyptians of the de-
cadence and their rulers could no longer draw on the
wealth of Egypt and of surrounding countries as their
predecessors had done. They were poor, and most
of them had to renounce any attempt at constructing
elaborate tombs. They devoted the money they had
at command to providing themselves with fine coffins
of sycamore-wood. The splendour of their mummy-
cases is therefore only another proof added to those
we already possess of their weakness and poverty.
When the Sai'te Pharaohs succeeded in re-establish-
ing the prosperity of the country, stone sarcophagi
once more appeared, and the wooden coffin to some
extent returned to the simplicity of the time of
prosperity and fine art ; but this revival was not of
long duration, and the Macedonian conquest led to
changes in funerary customs similar to those that
followed the downfall of the Ramessides. The
custom of employing double or treble coffins with
excess of painting and crude gilding once more
revived. The skill of the workpeople who prepared
326
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
the inhabitants of Ekhmim for their last resting-place
was even less than that of the funerary undertakers
who lived under the obscure Ramessides of the
Twentieth Dynasty, and in the matter of bad taste
they were fully equal to them. A series of Graeco-
Roman examples from the Fayum exhibits the stages
Fig. 293. — Panel portrait, (iraco-Roman, at National Gallery. —
Haivara. Binluiui and Arsinoc, W. M. F. Petrie.
by which portraiture in the flat then replaced the
modelled mask, until towards the middle of the second
century A.D. it became customary to bandage over
the face of the mummy a panel portrait of the dead
as he was in life (fig. 293).
The remainder of the funerary outfit involved as
FUNERARY FURNITURE. 327
much work for the cabinet-maker as the coffins
themselves. Chests of different sizes were required
to hold the garments of the deceased, and to contain
the viscera, and for the respondants, the ushabti
figures ; tables for his meals, chairs, stools, beds for
the mummy ; hearses to convey him to his tomb, and
chariots both for war and for pleasure. The boxes
that contained the canopic vases, the ushabti figures,
and the libation vases were divided into several
compartments, sometimes guarded on the lid by a
jackal, which also served as a handle. Each box
was mounted on a small sledge, on which it could be
drawn in the funeral procession.
Beds are not uncommon. Those that resemble the
Nubian angareb are mere wooden frames, with coarse
linen or crossed strips of leather stretched across
them. The greater number are less than 5 feet in
length ; the sleeper, therefore, could never have
stretched himself at full length, but must have curled
himself up. The decorated bedsteads were of very
much the same type as our own. Generally they were
horizontal, but occasionally they sloped slightly from
the head to the foot. They often stood some height
from the ground, and were climbed into with the help
of a stool or a set of portable steps. These details
were only known to us by pictured wall paintings till
1884-5, when I discovered two complete beds, one at
Thebes, in a tomb of the Thirteenth Dynasty,
another at Ekhmim, in the Graco-Roman necropolis.
The sides of the later bed were formed of two lions,
kindly animals, whose heads supported the top of the
bed, and whose tails curved over the foot. Over this
328
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
bed there was a species of canopy, which was used at
any rate during the funeral ceremonies. A similar
canopy had already been found by Rhind, and pre-
sented by him to the Edinburgh Museum (fig. 294).
It is in the form of a temple, with a rounded top,
supported by graceful miniature columns of painted
wood. A door guarded by two serpents was supposed
to afford access to the interior. Three winged discs,
1 i •'! i.M^^ii?
Fig. 294. — Carved and painted mummy canopy, Thirteenth Dynasty.
graduated in size, are ranged in the three superposed
cornices over the doorway, and the structure is
crowned by uraei drawn up in line. The canopy of
the Thirteenth Dynasty bed is much less complicated.
It is a sort of wooden balustrade carved and painted
to resemble bundles of reeds, the liotesu pattern em-
ployed to decorate the upper part of temple walls.
Above this there is the usual cornice. In the mummy
couch of the Gneco-Roman period (fig. 295) the side
balustrade is replaced by crouching figures of the
FUNERARY CANOPIES.
■29
goddess Maat, sculptured and painted, with her
feather in her hand. At the head and foot stand
Isis and Nephthys, waving their arms fringed with
wings. The upper part is in open work, and three
vultures hover over the mummy, and kneeling figures
of Isis and Nephthys weep over it.
The sledges that conveyed the dead to their tombs
were also provided with canopies, but totally different
in appearance. The sledge canopy is also a naos,
but with solid sides, similar to those found by me in
Fig. 295.— Mummy-couch with canopy, Graeco-Roman.
1886 in the chamber of Sennetmu. When there were
any openings they were square, and so arranged as to
allow the head of the mummy to be seen. Wilkinson
describes one of these canopies from paintings in a
Thcban tomb (fig. 296). In all cases the panels
could be removed. When the mummy had been
placed in the sledge, the panels were replaced and
the curved roof, with its many-coloured cornice, was
shut down, and the whole closed in.
Many of the chairs in the British Museum and the
Louvre date back to the Eleventh Dynasty, and are
330
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
piiiimiiiiHiiiititiiniBr
iiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinii
Fig. 296. — Mummy-sledge and canopy.
equal to some of later date. One of them (fig. 297) has
retained its brilliance of colour to a remarkable extent.
The frame, for-
merly filled in with
a network of cords,
stands on four
lion's feet. The
back is decorated
with two flowers
and a row of
lozenges in mar-
queterie work of
ebony and ivory
on a red ground. Stools of similar workmanship
(fig. 298), or folding stools with feet in form of the
flattened heads of geese,
are to be found in all %
museums. Pharaohs and
functionaries of high rank
sought for more elaborate
designs, and their seats arc
at times very high. A
painting of a royal chair
shows the lower supports
made of prisoners of war
bound back to back (fig.
299). A step placed in
front Of the chair served Fi- 297— Inlaid chair, Eleventh
Dynasty.
also as a footstool. No
complete example of this type of chair has yet been
found. Arms were also provided for the chairs
formed of leopards or of two running lions. From
CHAIRS.
331
the tomb of the parents of Queen Tyi, discovered by
Mr. T. Davis in 1903, come three charming chairs.
The carved lion's feet are
very similar to those of
the Eleventh Dynasty, but
the chairs are provided
with arms. The back and
sides of one chair are of
solid wood elaborately
sculptured and gilded. In
front of the arms are tWO Fig. 29S.— Inlaid stool, Eleventh
i_- 1 Dynasty.
small female heads, which
balance the lion's feet below. The sides of the two
other chairs are carved in open-
work designs.
The hardness of the seats was
obviated by adding a stuffed
cushion richly worked. There
is no doubt that tapestry was
known to the Egyptians. One
of the reliefs at Beni Hasan
(fig. 300) shows that it was
made on a frame similar to that
used by the weavers of Ekhmim
up to the present day. The
loom is horizontal, although the
Fig. 299.-Royal chair of Egyptian lack of perspective
state, wall painting, e{ves the impression of its being
Rameses III. & r
upright. It is composed ol two
slender cylinders, placed about 54 inches apart, and
held in place by two large pegs driven into the
ground about $4 inches from each other. The
332
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
threads of the warp were firmly knotted, and then
rolled round the upper cylinder until the proper
tension was attained — cross sticks placed at intervals
facilitated the insertion of the spindles filled with
thread. The work was commenced at the bottom,
as is done with the Gobelins tapestries. The tissue
was beaten down and equalised by means of a coarse
comb, and the finished work was wound upon the
lower cylinder as it progressed. In this way both
Fig. 300. — Women weaving, from wall scene in tomb of
Khnumhotep, Beni Hasan, Twelfth Dynast}'.
tapestry and carpets were produced, one decorated
with figures, the other with geometrical designs and
zigzags and chequers (fig. 301), but at the same time
a careful examination of the painted scenes has con-
vinced me that the greater number of instances that
have been thought to represent tapestry arc in reality
intended for leather, cut and painted. The leather
industry flourished. There are few museums that
do not possess at least one pair of sandals, or of those
braces provided for mummies with pink and yellow
LEATHER WORK.
333
ends stamped with the figure of a god or of a Pharaoh,
a hieroglyph text or a rosette, and sometimes with
a combination of all four. These small objects are
rarely of earlier date than the time of the high-
priests of Amon or of the earlier Bubastites, and it
is to this period that we must assign the cut leather
canopy of the Cairo Museum. The catafalque that
was placed over the mummy during its final journey
to the tomb was often simplified, and consisted
merely of a covering of some woven material or of
rig. 301. — Man weaving hangings or carpet, from Eeni Hasan,
Twelfth Dynasty.
pliable leather. This covering sometimes hung
straight, and sometimes it was caught back, allowing
the mummy to be seen. The canopy now at Cairo
was made for the Princess Isiemkheb, daughter of
the high-priest Masahirti, wife of the high-priest
Menkheperra, and mother of the high-priest
Pinotem II. The central portion, which formed the
top, is longer than it is broad, and is divided into
three sections of sky blue leather, now faded to
pearl grey. The two side pieces are strewn with
334
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
«esa
yellow stars ; on the central piece are vultures
guarding the deceased with outstretched wings. The
curtains that fill in the sides are
in green and red chequer work.
>> The two side curtains have each
£ a border at the top. That on the
Q right consists of scarabs with out-
stretched wings alternating with
& cartouches of Pinotem II., and a
c
jj frieze above of lance heads. On
the left the design is more com-
J= plicated (fig. 302). In the centre
g is a tuft of lotus flanked by royal
™ cartouches. Beyond on either side
t, are gazelles kneeling on baskets,
° then two bunches of papyrus, and
£ finally two scarabs similar to those
•5 on the other border ; the frieze
~ of lance heads again extends the
3 whole length. The technique of
° the piece is very curious. The
S hieroglyphs and figures were cut
^ out of large pieces of leather. Into
-S the gaps thus made other pieces
m of leather of the desired 'colours
were fitted, and the whole was
strengthened and made good by
a second piece of leather in white
or pale yellow fastened behind it.
Notwithstanding the difficulties
that attended such a piece of work, the result
obtained is very remarkable. The outline of the
*
O
hi,
LEATHER WORK.
335
gazelles, the scarabs, and the flowers is as clear and
graceful as if it had been drawn with a brush on the
wall or on a roll of papyrus, the choice of subjects
is happy, and the colouring is both bright and
harmonious. The craftsmen who planned and exe-
cuted the work of the canopy of Isiemkheb were
highly experienced in this form of decoration and
Fig. 303. — Bark with cut leather sail ; wall painting in
tomb of Rameses III.
the class of design required for it. I myself have no
doubt that the cushions of chairs and of the royal
divans and the sails of the funerary or sacred boats
used for mummies or for statues of deities were
frequently made of this leather work. There is a
sail covered with chequer pattern and lateral rows of
chevrons on one of the boats painted in the tomb of
Rameses III. (fig. 303), and the chequers appear to
be exactly similar to those on the canopy.
336
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
The vultures and fantastic birds on another sail
painted in the same tomb (fig. 304) are no more
strange or difficult to cut in leather than the vultures
or gazelles of Isiemkheb.
The classical writers afford abundant testimony
that the Egyptians of their time embroidered with
rare skill. The two votive cuirasses presented by
Fig. 304. — Bark with cut leather ; wall painting in
tomb of Rameses III.
Amasis, one to the Lacedemonians, the other to the
temple of Athena at Lindos, were of linen embroidered
with figures of animals in gold thread and purple,
each thread of which consisted of 365 separate stran Js.
For earlier evidence we find from the Theban tombs
that the garments of the Pharaohs had borders cither
woven or embroidered. The most simple of these
consisted of one or more lines of a darker shade
Tapestry and brocades. 337
parallel with the edge of the material. Elsewhere
we find palmettos, or rows of discs and points, leaves,
coils, or curves, and occasionally figures of men
divinities, or animals. On the garment of one of the
Deir el Bahaii princesses I found a royal cartouche
embroidered in pale rose colour. In the tomb of
Thothmes IV., discovered by Mr. Davis in 1903,
were found some pieces of linen with a pattern of
flowers and hieroglyphs worked or woven in most
charming colouring.
The Egyptians of the best periods had a special
esteem for materials in plain colours, especially white.
They wove them with remarkable skill on a loom
identical in all points with those employed for
tapestry. The pieces of linen in which the hands and
arms of Thothmes III. were wrapped are as delicate
as the finest India muslin, and they deserved the
name of ivoven air fully as much as did the gauzes of
Cos : this is of course purely a matter of handicrafts
into which art does not enter. The use of embroidery
and tapestry only became general in Egypt towards
the close of the Persian domination, and the com-
mencement of the Greek period. Alexandria was
partially populated by prosperous colonies of Phoeni-
cians, Syrians, and Jews, who brought their native
industries with them. Ptolemy attributes to the
Alexandrians the invention of weaving with a variety
of threads and producing the material now called
brocade (polymita), and in the time of the earlier
Caesars it was a recognised fact that " the needle of
Babylon was henceforth surpassed by the comb of
the Nile." The materials thus made were not like
22
338 THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
the ancient Egyptian tapestries, decorated almost
exclusively with geometric designs, but, as the classical
writers state, plants, animals, and even men were
represented. Nothing now remains of the master-
pieces which filled the palace of the Ptolemies, but
fragments are frequently found that can be safely-
attributed to the later Roman period, such as the
child with the goose described by Wilkinson, or the
marine divinities purchased by me at Koptos. The
numerous fragments of shrouds with elaborate patterns
woven on the borders discovered in the Fayum and
near Ekhmim are almost all of them from Coptic
burials, and they belong rather to Byzantine than to
Egyptian art.
3. —METAL.
Metals were divided by the Egyptians into two
groups, separated from each other in Egyptian writings
by the mention of various kinds of precious stones
such as lapis lazuli or malachite. The noble metals
were gold, electrum, and silver ; the base metals were
copper, iron, and lead, to which tin was added later.
— Iron was known as early as the predynastic period ;
some iron beads of that time proved on analysis to
be of wrought iron. It is very rarely found, however,
during the early dynasties, and in later times it was
reserved for weapons of war, for tools intended for
hard work such as chisels, sculptors' and masons'
chisels, for axeheads and saws and the blades of
adzes and knives. Lead was rarely used. It was
occasionally employed as an inlay for the doors of
temples, for coffers and other furniture, and it was
BRONZE. 339
cast for small figures of divinities more especially of
Osiris and Anubis. From the earliest prehistoric
graves copper implements are found in small quanti-
ties, and its use rapidly increased and was almost
universal up to the Sixth Dynasty, when it was
gradually superseded by bronze. The vessels made
of it are of hammered work and shaped on a core
or mould. Accessories, such as spouts, were cast
separately, and welded on with the help of a blowpipe.
Rivets were also used to fasten one part of a metal
vase to another. By the Sixth Dynasty bronze had
come into use ; casting also was far more freely
employed.
It has often been affirmed that the Egyptians
succeeded in tempering bronze so that it became
as hard as iron or steel, and it is certainly the case
that they were able to produce bronze of very
different qualities by varying the constituents and
their relative proportions. The greater number of
the specimens examined up to the present contain
copper and tin in the same proportions that are used
to-day in the manufacture of bronze. The bronze
analysed by Vauquelin in 1825 contained 84 per
cent, of copper 14 per cent, of tin, and 1 per cent, of
iron and of other substances. A chisel brought to
Europe by Wilkinson had only 5'9 per cent, of tin,
O'l of iron, and 94 of copper. Fragments of statuettes
and mirrors analysed more recently have rendered a
sensible quantity of gold or silver and correspond
with the bronzes of Corinth. Others have the colour
and composition of brass. Many of the finest have a
marvellous power of resisting the effects of damp, and
340
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
ronze jug.
oxidise with difficulty. While still hot they were
rubbed over with a resinous varnish which filled up
the pores, and formed an unalterable patina. Each
kind had its special use. The ordinary bronze was
employed for weapons, and for'the common amulets ;
alloys similar to brass were used for
household utensils, the gold or silver
bronzes for mirrors, valuable weapons,
and fine statuettes. None of the tomb
paintings that I have examined repre-
sent the manufacture of bronze, but
that omission is supplied by an ex-
amination of the objects themselves.
Tools, weapons, rings, and cheap vases were parti}'
hammered, partly cast whole in moulds of hard clay,
or stone. Everything in the nature of a work of art
was cast in one or more pieces according to circum-
stances, and the pieces were then adjusted, soldered
together, and worked over with the
burin. The method most generally in
use was casting by means of a core.
The core was made of sand or earth
mixed with pounded charcoal, roughly
formed in the same shape as the mould. Fig. 306— Sa
This was placed inside the mould, and Jl,s seen ho,n
above.
the metal with which it was coated was
often so thin that it would have yielded to the slightest
pressure if the core had not been left inside it.
The greater number of domestic utensils and small
household implements were usually made of copper
or bronze ; they are to be found by thousands in our
museums. In Egypt trade was not incompatible
BRONZES. 341
with art, and the coppersmith endeavoured to give
beauty of form and of ornament even to the humblest
of his productions. The stockpot in which the cook
of Rameses III. patiently allowed his most elaborate
dishes to simmer is provided with lion's feet. Here
is a pitcher that does not appear to differ in
any way from the modern pitcher (fig. 305),
but let us examine it more closely. The
handle is a papyrus flower, and the petals
drooping on their stem rest on the rim of the
jug (fig. 306). The handle of a knife or spoon
is almost always the curved neck of a duck or
a goose. The bowl of the spoon may be an
animal, such as a gazelle bound ready for
sacrifice (fig. 307), and on the handle of a
sabre a small jackal is seated. The upper half
of a pair of scissors at Cairo is formed of an
Asiatic captive, with arms bound behind his
back. A mirror is composed of a leaf, the
stalk forming the handle. One
box for perfumes is a fish, another
is a bird, and a third is a grotesque
deity. Vases for holy water
carried by priests and priestesses
to sprinkle the faithful, or the
ground over which processions Fig. 307.— Lamp, Gr*co-
were about to pass, merit a Roman period,
special place of honour among connoisseurs. They
are pointed or ovoid at the lower end, and
decorated with designs in outline or relief. Some-
times there are figures of deities, each enclosed in
a separate framework, and sometimes scenes of
342
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
prayer or of lustration, and the work is generally
extremely good.
Both copper and bronze were early employed for
statuary. The statue of
Pepi I. discovered by
Ouibell at Kom el
Ahmar has already been
mentioned. The tech-
nique is not the least
interesting thing about
it. Bust, legs, and arms
were hammered out and
fitted together most
accurately ; the hands,
face, and feet were cast.
We possess some pieces
of the Eighteenth and
Nineteenth Dynasties ;
the chased lion's head
found with the jewels
and weapons of Queen
Aahhotep, the Harpo-
crates of Cairo that
bears the names of
Karnes and of Aahmes I.,
and several figures of
Amon in the same
museum, said to come
from Medinet Habu and
Fig 308. — Bronze statuette of the
lady Takiishet.
Sheikh Abd el Gurneh, are of that period. The most
important pieces belong to the Twenty-second or
Twenty-sixth Dynasty, while many are no earlier
BRONZES.
343
than the beginning of the Ptolemaic period. A
fragment from Tanis in the possession of Count
Stroganeff formed part of a statue of King Petukhanu
of the Twenty-first Dynasty. It must have been at
least two-thirds of life-
size, and is one of the
largest pieces we possess.
The portrait statuette of
the lady Takushet given
by M. Demetrio to the
museum at Athens, the
four figures at the
Louvre, and the kneel-
ing genius at Cairo came
originally from Bubastis,
and probably date from
the years that imme-
diately preceded the
accession of Psamme-
tichus I. The lady
Takushet is standing,
one foot advanced, the
right arm pendent, the
left arm folded below
the breast (fig. 308). She
wears a short robe em-
broidered with religious
subjects, and she has bracelets on her arms and wrists.
Her head is covered with a wig of short curls arranged
in regular rows. The details of the dress and jewels
are engraved in outline on the bronze inlaid with a
line of silver wire. The face is a portrait and indicates
Fig. 309. — Bronze statuette of Horus.
344
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
a woman of mature age, while the body, following the
traditions of the Egyptian school, is that of a girl,
upright, firm, and supple. There is a large admixture
of gold in the copper, and the soft lustre harmonises
in the happiest manner with the rich ornamentation
of the embroidery. The kneeling
genius of Cairo, on the contrary,
produces a rough and harsh effect.
He is adoring the rising sun as
was the bounden duty of the genii
of Heliopolis; he is hawk-headed,
his right arm is sharply raised,
the left is folded on his breast.
The whole style is dry and the
impression of harshness is in-
creased by the granulated surface
of the skin, but the movement is
correct and energetic, and the
bird's head is adjusted to the
human body with consummate
skill.
The same merits and demerits
distinguish the Horus of the
Louvre (fig. 309). Standing with
outstretched arms, he is carefully
pouring the contents of a libation
Both vase and king have now
disappeared. The other three figures are far better
finished, especially one that bears the name of Mosu
inscribed on the breast (fig. 310). Like Horus, he
is standing with the left leg advanced, the left arm
pendent, while the right hand once held the staff of
Fig. 310. — Bronze sta-
tuette of Mosu.
vase over a king;.
BRONZES. 345
office. He is girdled with a striped waist-cloth,
the end of which falls squarely in front. On the
head is a wig formed of rows of small fine curls.
The ear is large and round, the well-opened eyes
were once inlaid with silver, which has been stolen
by some native. The features bear a marked ex-
pression of pride and determination.
Of the numberless statuettes of Osiris, Isis,
Nephthys, Horus, and Nefertiim that have been
recovered from Saqqara, Bubastis, and other cities of
the Delta, there is little to be said. Many, no doubt,
are charming subjects for a glass case. The casting
is faultless, and they are worked with great delicacy,
but most of them are merely articles of commerce,
made on the same pattern, and possibly cast in the
same moulds, for centuries, for the edification of
pilgrims and devotees. They are feeble and common-
place, and can no more be distinguished from each
other than the figures or coloured pictures of saints
sold by hundreds in Europe to-day. Figures of animals,
rams, sphinxes, and more especially of lions, on the
contrary, maintained their individuality. The Egyp-
tians had a special predilection for the feline tribe ;
they represented the lion in all possible attitudes,
chasing the antelope, attacking the huntsman,
wounded and biting the wound, or in calm, dis-
dainful repose. No nation has represented him with
so intimate a knowledge of his habits, nor with such
intensity of life. Several of the divinities, Shu,
Anhiiri, Bast, Sekhet, Tefnut, were of cat or lion
form, and as their cult was specially popular in the
Delta, scarcely a year passes without discoveries
346
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
being made at Bubastis, Tanis, Mendes, or some
other less well-known town of large deposits of
thousands of figures of these animals, or of human
ficures with lions' or cats' heads. Our museums are
crowded with the cats of Bubastis or the lions of
Tell es Saba.
The Horbeit lions may be reckoned among the
masterpieces of Egyptian statuary. The name of
Apries is inscribed on the largest of them (fig. 311).
Fig. 311. — Bronze lion from Horbeit, Saite period.
It formed part of the fastening of a temple door, and
the back of the object was fixed with a wooden beam.
The animal is caught in a trap, or is lying in a cage
from which its head and forepaws protrude. The
lines of the body are simple and full of power, and
the expression of the face shows calm strength. In
breadth of treatment and majestic demeanour it
almost rivals the fine limestone lions of Araen-
hotep III.
The idea of overlaying stone or wood with gold
USE OF THE PRECIOUS METALS. 347
was familiar in Egypt before the time of Menes.
Many of the earliest stone vases have handles and
rim covered with gold-leaf, and limestone beads are
also overlaid with it. The gold is often mixed with
silver. When amalgamated to the extent of 20 per
cent, it changes its name, and is called electrum.
Electrum has a fine pale yellow colour, which
becomes paler as the proportion of silver is in-
creased, and at 60 per cent, it is almost white. Silver
was brought from Asia in rings, sheets, and blocks
of standard weight. Gold was also brought from
Syria in rings and blocks, and from the Sudan and
from the Libyan Desert to the
west of the Red Sea in nuggets
and gold-dust. The processes
of refining and smelting gold
are represented on monuments
of the early dynasties. On a
/ J . Fig. 312.— Gold worker.
bas-reliet at baqqara there is a
record of the amount of gold entrusted to a craftsman
for some piece of work, on another at Thebes the
goldsmith is seated in front of his crucible holding
his blowpipe to his lips to fan the flame, while his
right hand grasps the pincers ready to seize the
ingot (fig. 312).
The Egyptians struck neither coins nor medals, but
with this exception they made the same use that we
do of the precious metals. We gild the crosses and
cupolas of our churches ; they covered the doors of
the temples with gold, as well as the lower part of
the walls, certain bas-reliefs, pyramidions of obelisks,
and even the obelisks themselves. The obelisks of
348 THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
Queen Hatshepsut at Karnak were thickly coated
with electrum. " They were beheld from the two
banks of the Nile ; both the lands of Egypt were
illuminated by the splendour of their reflection
when the sun rose between them as it rises on the
horizon of heaven."
The sheets of gold employed for these obelisks
were forged on an anvil with a hammer, but for
smaller objects small pellets were beaten flat between
two pieces of parchment. The Louvre possesses a
perfect goldsmith's book, and the gold-leaf it contains
is as fine as that used in Germany in the eighteenth
century. It was applied to bronze by means of an
ammoniacal mordant.
A wooden statuette that had to be gilded was first
covered with a fine linen material or a thin coating
of stucco, and then overlaid with gold or silver.
Statues of Thoth,Horus, and Nefertum in gilded wood
existed as early as the time of Khiifu. The temple of
Isis, " Mistress of the Pyramid," contained a dozen of
these, and this chapel was by no means one of the
largest in the Memphite necropolis. The Theban
temples seem to have possessed some hundreds, at
any rate under the conquering dynasties of the New
Kingdom, and the Ptolemaic temples were no less
well provided.
But bronze or gilded wood did not always content
the Egyptian deities. They demanded solid gold,
and it was unhesitatingly lavished upon them. The
sovereigns both of the Ancient and the Middle King-
doms dedicated statues cast or worked in the precious
metals, while the Pharaohs of the Eighteenth and
GOLD AND SILVER STATUES. 349
Nineteenth Dynasties, who could draw almost at will
on the treasures of Asia, surpassed all that had been
done in this respect by their predecessors. Even
during the decadent period we find feudal lords
continuing the tradition of the past, and like
Mentuemhat, prince of Thebes, they replaced the
images of gold or silver carried off from Karnak by
the generals of Ashurbanipal during the Assyrian
invasions. The amount of precious metal thus
devoted to the service of the supreme god must have
been considerable. Numbers of small figures mea-
sured only an inch or two in height ; others measured
three or more cubits. Some were made entirely
either of silver or gold, others are partly gold, partly
silver; others, again, rival the Greek chrys-elephantine
statuary, where the gold is combined with carved
ivory, ebony, and precious stones. Bas-reliefs at
Karnak, Medinet Habu, at Denderah and elsewhere,
represent these statues, and show us what they were
like, and so does the statuary in limestone or wood ;
the material may be different, but the style is the
same. There is nothing more perishable than such
work— the value of the materials foredooms it to
destruction. All that survived the civil wars, foreign
invasion, and the rapacity of the Pharaohs and
Roman governors, fell a prey to the iconoclasm of
the Christians. A few small figures in guise of
amulets concealed in the mummies, a few statuettes
once adored as domestic Lares, found among the
ruins of houses, and some ex-votos lost in obscure
corners of a temple, are all that have come to us of
figures of divinities. An electrum statue of a youth
350
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
Fig. 313.— Gold cup of Tahuti,
Eighteenth Dynasty.
of the time of the Eighteenth Dynasty was found in
a private tomb close to the valley temple of
Hatshepsut at Deir el Bahari. It is 5} inches high.
The figure is nude.
In one hand the
boy clasps a lotus
bud with its long
stem. The work
is not highly
finished, but the
modelling is deli-
cate and subtle.*
This is not a re-
ligious piece. The
figures of Ptah and
Amon, belonging
to Queen Aahhotep, another Amon at Cairo, and the
silver vulture from Medinet Habii, are so far the only
other pieces that can with certainty be attributed to
the New Kingdom. The re-
mainder belong to the Sai'tic
and Ptolemaic periods, and are
only distinguished by perfection
of workmanship.
The vessels of the temples
and palaces have varied little
better than the statuary. Early "1*3^*'
in the nineteenth century the Fig. 314.— Silver vase of
T ., n , Thmuis.
Louvre acquired some flat-
bottomed bowls or cups that had been presented by
Thothmes III. to Tahuti, one of his generals, as a
* Earl of Carnarvon, Five Years' Explorations at Thebes, I912.
/«v
GOLD AND SILVER PLATE.
351
iS. 315. — Silver vase
Thmuis
of
reward for valour. The silver cup is much mutilated ;
the gold cup is perfect, and of a very charming
design (fig. 313). On the lateral side is a hieroglyph
inscription ; on the base a rosette is engraved, round
which six fish arc swimming ; a border of lotus
flowers united by a curved line
surrounds the central design.
The five vases of Thmuis, in
the Cairo Museum, are of silver.
They formed part of the temple
property, and were concealed in
a hiding-place from which they
have only recently been removed.
They date from the end of the
Sai'tic age or the beginning of the Ptolemaic period,
but the workmanship is purely Egyptian. Of one,
only the cover remains, with a handle consisting of
two flowers on one stem. The others are perfect, and
decorated in repousse work
with lotus lilies in bud and
blossom (fig. 314). The
form is simple and graceful,
the ornamentation sober
and delicate, the relief low.
Fig. 316.— Ornamental vase in One,however,is surrounded
by a row of ovoid bosses
(fig- 3 r 5). with well-marked
projections that somewhat alter the outline of the bowl.
In 1906 the Cairo Museum was enriched by a large
number of gold and silver vessels, discovered with
other treasures at Zagazig and elsewhere. Some of
them date from the Nineteenth Dynasty, and bear
precious metal, from wall
painting, Twentieth Dynasty.
352
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
witness to the great skill of the gold-workers of that
time. There are numerous flat silver cups, similar in
form to that of General Tahuti, but far more elabo-
rately decorated with repousst
work and with the point. Two
gold jugs belonged to Queen
Tausert. Oneof these iscovered
all over the body with a series
of bosses in repousse work ;
round the neck four bands of
floral designs are engraved, and
immediately below the rim is
I V. 317.— Craterof precious a figure of an ox, with a hole
metal, wall painting,
ninnr
Eighteenth Dynasty.
through which is passed a ring
for suspension. There is also
a silver jug, with a gold handle in form of a goat.
The animal is straining upwards, and its lips rest
on the rim of the jug. The lower part of the jug is
covered with rows of flowers
in repousst work.* The whole
forms a real masterpiece.
The Pharaohs had not our
commercial resources, and
could not circulate the gold
and silver extorted from con-
quered nations in the form of
coin. After deducting the
share devoted to the gods
they had no alternative but
to melt the remainder into ingots or to convert their
share of the booty into vessels of gold and silver or
* G. Maspero, Guide to the Cairo Museum, 1910, pp. 401 ct seq.
•%Z-
Fig. 31S. -Hydria of precious
metal, wall painting, Eigh-
teenth Dynasty.
GOLD AND SILVER WORK.
353
Fig. 319. — En-
amelled cruet,
wall painting,
Eight e e n t h
Dynasty.
into jewellery. This was the case also with private
persons, and from the time of Aahmes I. during at
least six or eight centuries the taste
for worked silver was indulged to an
extravagant extent. Ail houses of any
consequence contained not only what
was required for the service of the
table, dishes, ewers, cups, goblets, and
baskets on which fantastic figures of
animals were engraved and embossed
(fig. 316), but they were also provided
with large vases intended to be filled
with flowers and displayed on gala
days before invited guests. We have
seen from the specimens we possess that some of
them were of extraordinary richness, and also that
some at least of the vases depicted on
the monuments were copied from those
in actual use, and we can turn to the
wall paintings to show us the variety
of forms in which they were fashioned.
Here for instance is a crater with
handles formed of two papyrus buds,
and the foot of two full-blown blossoms;
two Asiatics in sumptuous garments
appear to be lifting it by exerting their
full strength (fig. 317). Or again we
find a kind of elongated hydria with a
cover in the form of a lotus flanked by
the heads of two gazelles (fig. 318) ; two horses' heads,
bridled and caparisoned, are placed back to back at
the foot. The body of the vase is divided into
23
Fig. 320. — En-
amelled cruet,
wall painting,
Eighteenth
Dynasty.
354
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
horizontal zones of which the centre one represents
a marsh, with an antelope careering at full speed.
Two enamelled cruets are surmounted, one with the
plumed head of an eagle (fig. 319), the other with
the head of the
god Bcs between
two serpents (fig.
320). A gold cen-
trepiece (fig. 321)
sent to Amcn-
hotep III. by a
viceroy of Ethiopia
represents one of
Fig. 321. — Gold centrepiece of Araen-
hotep III., wall painting, Eighteenth
Dynasty.
the most usual scenes of Egyptian conquest. A group
of men and apes arc gathering fruit in a grove of
dom-palms, two natives in striped waist-cloths, with
a long feather stuck in their hair, are each of them
Other men of the same tribe are
kneeling on the ground and beg-
ging for mercy from the Egyptian
soldiery, while negro prisoners
laid fiat on the ground are with
difficulty raising their heads and
shoulders. A cup with a shallow
base and a high conical cover
stands up among the trees.
Evidently the workmen who carried out this design
studied richness and effectiveness more than grace
and beauty of design. It mattered little to them
that the whole effect was heavy or in bad taste if
only they could display their skill and the amount of
Fig. 322. — Crater of
precious metal, wall
painting. Eighteenth
Dynasty.
GOLD AND SILVER VASES.
155
precious metal they had at their disposal. Other
centrepieces of the same type are represented among
the offerings made to Rameses II. at Abu Simbel.
Here buffaloes instead of giraffes are wandering loose
among the palms. These were
costly toys similar to those col-
lected by the Byzantine emperors
of the ninth century in their
palace at Magnaura, and which
they exhibited on gala days to Fig. 323.— Crater of pre-
impress strangers. When the cious metal, wall paint-
0 . ing, Eighteenth Dynasty.
Pharaoh returned victorious from
his distant campaigns these vases were carried in
state in his triumphal processions, of which his
unfortunate captives also formed part.
Vases for ordinary use were of simpler form and
less loaded with unnecessary ornament. The two
leopards that serve as handles to a crater of the time
of Thothmes III. (fig. 322) are
not well proportioned and do
not harmonise with the form of
the crater. They are far from
equal to the goat on the jug of
pre_ Tausert. The crater, however
cious metal, wall paint- (fi~ ,2?\ anJ ewer /fi~ ,2<\
ing, Eighteenth Dynasty. v ° J mJJi V & J t/
belonging to the same service
are very happily conceived and have much beauty
of form.
These gold and silver vases, engraved, hammered,
and repousse, and some of them bearing battle or
sporting scenes arranged in zones were imitated in
Phoenicia, and when exported into Asia Minor,
356 THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
Greece, and Italy, introduced into those countries
many other shapes and designs of Egyptian gold and
silver work. The passion for precious metals went
so far under the Ramessides that they were not
content to employ them for the service of the table.
Both Rameses II. and Rameses III. had thrones
of gold, not merely overlaid, but of solid gold en-
crusted with precious stones. These were far too
costly to last, and they disappeared on the first
opportunity. Their artistic importance did not
equal their intrinsic value, and we need not mourn
their loss.
All orientals, whether men or women, are great
lovers of jewellery, and the Egyptians were no excep-
tion to the rule. Not content with wearing it in
profusion during their lifetime, they also loaded the
arms, fingers, neck, ears, forehead, and ankles of their
dead with ornaments. The quantity they deposited
in the tombs was so great that even now, after thirty
centuries of active search, mummies are still found
from time to time that may be said to be sheathed
in gold. Many of these gold ornaments were merely
made for show on the day of the funeral, and the
workmanship bears witness to the purpose for which
they were intended. But in many cases the favourite
jewellery of the deceased was buried with them and
then the careful workmanship leaves nothing to be
desired. As is only natural, a great number of rings
and chains have survived to our time ; the ring was
not merely an ornament as it is with us, but an
object of primary necessity ; it was used for official
sealing, and the seal held good in law. Thus every
JEWELLERY. 357
Egyptian had his own ring that he carried with him
in case of need. The ring of the poor man was
merely of copper or silver, the ring of the rich was
more or less elaborately chased and ornamented With
reliefs. The movable bezel turned on a pivot, and
was frequently set with an engraved stone bearing
a device or emblem chosen by the owner, such as a
scorpion (fig. 325), a lion, a sparrow-hawk, or a
cynocephalous ape. For the Egyptian woman the
chain was of as great importance as was the ring for
her husband ; it was her chief ornament. I have seen
one in silver that measured 63 inches in length, while
others are barely 2 or 2\ inches long.
They are made in every variety of
pattern, in double or treble rows, with
large or small links, solid and heavy,
or as light and flexible as the finest Fi „-
Venetian chain. The poorest peasant Signet-ring
with bezel
could possess one as well as the ladies
of the royal harem, but the woman must indeed
have been poor whose dowry did not include some-
thing more. No list could give an adequate idea
of the amount and variety of jewellery known to
us, Berlin possesses the jewellery of an Ethiopian
Candace, and the Louvre has that of Prince Psar, but
the jewel room at Cairo possesses a wealth of gold,
silver, and enamelled work which forms a complete
history of Egyptian jewellery.
There are the four bracelets found on a piece of an
arm of a woman in the tomb of King Zer, of the
beginning of the First Dynasty, at Abydos. The
bracelets are made of pure soft gold, turquoise, dark
358
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
purple lazuli, amethyst, and a kind of glaze or vitreous
paste. One (fig. 326) is made of alternate plaques of
gold and torquoise, the design being a house door
surmounted by a hawk, the symbolic figure that
mm
Fig. 326.
Fig.r327-
&4&
■§>>
+*>■*• ' ••* <^
Fig. 328.
Fig. 329.
Bracelets,' First Dynasty.
throughout historic times encloses the " Horus name"
of the Pharaohs. The turquoise plaques show signs of
re-threading, and the style of the carving indicates
that they are somewhat earlier than the rest of the
work. Two bracelets (figs. 327, 328) are formed of
beads of various shapes finely cut and elaborately
JEWELLERY.
359
threaded. The fourth (fig. 329) has a gold flower of
very beautiful workmanship.
The jewellery of the Old Kingdom is still very
rare. There are necklaces formed of ?old links
t o
copied from a shell the cyprcea ; a minute gold lion,
and a fine wasp used as pendants, and some repousse
figures of animals in thin gold-leaf.*
Fig. 330. — Gold cloisonne pectoral, bearing cartouche of
Senusert III. Fro n Dahshur.
The treasure of Dahshur consists of a mass of
pectorals, rings, bracelets, necklaces, chains, pendants,
and diadems that belonged to the wives of three of
the Pharaohs of the Twelfth Dynasty. The pectorals
of gold cloisonne work inlaid with vitreous paste
or precious stones, which bear the cartouches of Senu-
sert II., Senusert III. (fig. 330), and Amenemhat III.,
* G. Maspero, Guide to the Cairo Museum, 1910, p. 383.
360
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
exhibit marvellous precision of taste, lightness of
touch, and dexterity of fine workmanship. There
are two crowns. One is merely a delicate frame-
work of gold threads united at six regular intervals
by flowers with a carnelian centre and blue petals
and sprinkled with tiny flowers also in red and blue.
It could never have been worn ; the weight of the
flowers would have been too much for the delicate
framework, and it must have been
made expressly to be placed in a
tomb. The second diadem has an
alternative pattern of rosettes and
lyres formed of gold, carnelian, lapis
lazuli, red jasper, and felspar.
The ornaments of Queen Aah-
hotep are far more substantial, and
were made for use by the living.
Aahhotep was the wife of Karnes,
a king of the Seventeenth Dynasty,
and she was probably the mother
Fig. 331.— Mirror of of Aahmes I., first king of the
o ep. Eighteenth Dynasty. Her mummy
had been stolen by one of the robber bands that
infested the Theban necropolis towards the close of
the Twentieth Dynasty. They buried the royal
corpse till they had an opportunity of despoiling it
unobserved. They were probably seized and executed
before they were able to carry out their project. The
secret of their hiding-place remained undiscovered
until some Arab diggers hit on the spot in 1859.
The equipment provided for this queen consisted
almost entirely of women's gear, jewellery, and
FUNERARY PARURE OF QUEEN AAHHOTEP. 361
weapons ; there was a fan handle laminated with
gold and a mirror of bronze-gilt with an ebony handle
ending in a gold lotus flower (fig. 331).
The bracelets are of various types. Some were
intended for anklets or to be placed on the upper part
of the arm. These are plain gold circles either solid
or hollow, edged with a species of filigree made of
plaited gold wire. Others were intended for the
wrist, and they are made of beads in gold, lapis lazuli,
tfii/ctpr </")"
Fig. 332. — Bracelet of Queen Aahhotep, bearing cartouche
of Aahmes I.
carnelian, or in green felspar, threaded on strips of
gold and arranged in squares, each divided diagonally
in halves of different colours. Two gold plates on
which the cartouche of Aahmes I. are lightly engraved
with the point form the fastening, and are connected
by means of a gold pin. A very beautiful hinged
bracelet belonging to the same king (fig. 332) suggests
to some extent the methods employed in the manu-
facture of cloisonne enamels. Aahmes is kneeling
before the god Geb, and his acolytes the genii of
Sopu and Khonu. The figures and hieroglyphs are
362
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
Fig. 333. — Bracelet of Queen
Aahhotep.
delicately worked with the burin on a gold plaque.
The background is filled in with blue paste and lapis
lazuli artistically carved. A bracelet of more compli-
cated design, but of less fine
workmanship, was placed
on the wrist of the Queen
(fig- 333)- It is of solid
gold and consists of three
parallel bands set with
turquoises. In front is a
vulture with outspread
wings ; the feathers, ren-
dered in green enamels,
lapis lazuli, and carnelian
are inserted in gold
cloisons. The hair of the Queen was drawn through
a massive gold crown, scarcely larger than a bracelet.
On the oblong plaque fixed to the circlet is the name
of Aahmes inlaid in blue
paste, while a small sphinx
at each end, appear to
keep watch and ward over
him (fig. 334). A thick
flexible gold chain was
twisted round the neck,
finished at each end by
the head of a goose which
served to fasten the chain.
Attached as a pendant to this chain was a scarab
with feet and body of solid gold, and thorax and
wing-cases of blue vitreous paste striped with gold.
The decorations laid on the breast of the mummy
Fig. 334. — Diadem of Queen
Aahhotep.
JEWELLERY.
363
were completed by a large necklace of the kind
known as the Asekh (fig. 335). The fastening was
Fig. 335. — Gold usekh of Queen Aahhotep.
formed of two falcons' heads in gold, the details worked
out in blue enamel. The rows of the necklace are
composed of scrolls, of four-petalled flowers, of ante-
II
r]MlBllf.ariGBL''BULB^
Fig. 336. — Pectoral of Queen Aahhotep, bearing cartouche
of Aahmes I.
lopes pursued by tigers, of crouching jackals, winged
uraei, falcons and vultures. All of these are in gold
repousse work, and were attached to the winding-
364
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
«1
sheet by a ring fixed to the back of each
object. Below this, one of the square
plaques to which the name of pectoral is
given (fig. 336) was hung on the breast.
In general appearance this resembles a
naos. Aahmes is standing between Amon
and Ra, who are pouring over his head and
body the water intended for his purification.
The figures are outlined in gold cloisons,
once filled in with small stones and enamels,
many of which have fallen out. The piece
is somewhat heavy, and it is not easy to
understand the use to which it was put.
In order to do so we must recall the clothing
worn by Egyptian women, a sort of tight
dress of semi-transparent material that
ended just above the waist, leaving the
upper part of the body bare except for
the narrow pair of braces that held up the
garment. This bare space was covered
with jewellery by the rich. The necklace
half concealed the shoulders and neck, the
pectoral filled in the space between the
breasts, and the breasts themselves were
frequently covered with two gold caps
either painted or enamelled.
In addition to the jewellery, weapons
and amulets were heaped up in confusion,
There were large massive gold flies sus-
cartouche of pended on a fine gold chain, nine small
Aahmes I. , . ....... .
axes, three in gold and six in silver, the
head of a lion in gold of minutely detailed work, a
Fig. 337--
Poniard
of Queen
Aahhotep,
bearing
FUNERARY WEAPONS OF QUEEN AAHHOTEP. 365
sceptre in black wood decorated with gold spirals,
two anklets, and two poniards. One of these (fig. 337)
has a gold sheath ; the wooden handle is decorated
with triangles of carnelian, lapis lazuli, felspar, and
gold; the knob is formed of four female heads in gold
repousse work ; a bull's head in gold
conceals the juncture of the handle
and the blade. The edges of the
blade are of solid gold, the central
part of black bronze damascened in
gold. On the upper face, below the
prenomen of Aahmes, there is a lion
chasing a bull opposite four huge
grasshoppers, placed one behind
another ; on the lower face we find
the name of Aahmes, followed by
fifteen flowers opening one out of
another and diminishing in size to
the point. Several daggers discovered
by Dr. Schliemann at Mycenae are
similarly decorated. The second
dagger found with the Queen (fig. 338)
is of a pattern not infrequently found
at the present day in Persia and
India. The blade is of yellowish
bronze, very heavy, with a handle
formed of a lenticular silver disc.
the handle was held in the hollow of the hand, and
the blade was passed between the index and the
middle fingers. It may be asked what use a woman,
and moreover a dead woman, could possibly have for
so many weapons. The other world swarmed with
Fig. 338.—
Poniard of
Queen Aahhotep.
When in use
366
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
enemies against whom it was necessary to struggle
unceasingly — there
were Typhonian genii,
serpents, gigantic
scorpions, tortoises,
monsters of every de-
scription. The daggers deposited in the
coffin with the mummy helped the soul
to protect itself, and as they could only
be used in a fight at close quarters, pro-
jectiles were added, bows and arrows,
boomerangs of hard wood, and a war axe.
The handle of the axe is in cedar-wood
covered with gold-leaf (fig. 339). The
name and titles of Aahmes are inscribed
on it in characters of lapis lazuli, carne-
lian, turquoise, and green felspar. The
head is inserted in a notch in the wood
and held in place by strips of gold bound
round it. It is in black bronze and has
been gilded ; one of the two faces has
lotus flowers in precious stones on gold ;
on the other face is Aahmes striking a
prostrate barbarian, whom he is grasping
by the hair ; and below is Mont, the
Theban war-god, in the likeness of an
eagle-headed griffin. Two boats in gold
Battle-axe of ar>d silver represent the barge on which
Queen the mummy crossed the river to reach
Aahhotep.
its last resting-place, and in which the
Queen would also navigate the waters of the West
in the company of the gods. The silver boat was
U
DECADENCE OF JEWELLERS' ART. 367
mounted on a wooden chariot with four bronze
wheels, but as it was in bad condition it was taken
off its carriage and replaced by the boat made of
gold (fig. 340). The hull is long and narrow, the
prow and stern end in tufts of papyrus gracefully
curved inwards. On the poop and at the prow are
two raised platforms surrounded by a solid balustrade,
to take the place of a quarter-deck. The pilot is
standing on one of them, and the steersman in front
of the other is working the wide oar that serves as a
Fig. 340. — Funerary bark of Queen Aahhotep. The boat is gold,
the men are silver.
rudder. Twelve oarsmen in solid silver are rowing
under the orders of these two officers. In the centre
Karnes is seated holding the sceptre and axe.
All this provision was made for one single mummy,
and I have only enumerated the most remarkable
objects. The technique is irreproachable, and the
good taste of the craftsman is as assured as the
dexterity of his work. This high degree of perfection
was not long maintained. Fashions changed, and
jewellery became heavier in design. The ring of
Rameses II. in the Louvre, with the pawing horse on
368 THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
the bezel (fig. 341), the bracelet of Prince Psar
(fig. 342), with griffins and lotus in cloisonne enamel,
are less happy in design than the bracelet of Aahmes.
The jewellers who made them were no less expert
than the craftsmen of Queen Aahhotep, but their
taste and inventive faculty were inferior. Rameses II.
must either refrain from wearing his ring or be
prepared to see his little horses damaged by the
slightest blow. This decadence, already observable
in the Nineteenth Dynasty, becomes more marked
as we approach the Christian era. The ear-studs of
Rameses IX. in the Cairo Museum are an inartistic
Fig. 341. — Ring of Rameses II.
medley of filigree work, small chains, and pendent
uraei, such as no ear could have worn without the
lobe being greatly enlarged and deformed. They
were found attached to the wig on the head of the
mummy.
The bracelets of the high-priest Pinotem III.,
found on the arms of the mummy, are mere circles
of gold rounded and encrusted with coloured glass
and carnelian, similar to those still made by the
Sudanese blacks. The settlement of Greeks in
Egypt only very gradually modified the style of
Egyptian gold work, although eventually Greek types
were substituted for native art. The gold jewels
DECADENCE OF JEWELLERS' ART.
369
discovered at Saqqara in coffins of the Persian period
are purely indigenous in style. The jewellery of an
Ethiopian queen, purchased from Ferlini by the
Berlin Museum, comprised, in addition to objects
that might well be attributed to the Pharaonic period,
others of a mixed style where Hellenic influence is
easily recognisable. The treasures discovered at
Zagazig in 1878, at Keneh in 1881, and at Damanhur
in 1882 are completely alien to Egyptian art and
traditions ; here are hairpins surmounted by a figure
Fig. 342. — Bracelet of Prince Psar.
of Venus, waist-buckles, agraffes for the peplum,
rings and bracelets set with cameos, and coffers
flanked at the four corners with Ionic columns. The
ancient models were, ho.vever, still held in honour in
the country districts, and the village goldsmith
followed with fair success the ancient traditions, while
their servile fellow craftsmen of the cities copied
Greek and Roman models.
In this rapid survey of the industrial arts there are
only too many omissions. I have been forced to
confine myself to quoting examples only from well-
24
370 THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
known collections, but there is much to be learnt
from those who have the leisure to visit our provincial
museums, and also to examine the specimens that
have passed by purchase into private hands. There
is an immense variety of small objects which illus-
trate the industrial arts of ancient Egypt, and a
methodical study of them has yet to be done. It is
a task that holds out a promise of infinite pleasure
and interest to the student who undertakes it.
INDEX.
159.
96, 230, 260,
107, 132, 163.
Aahhotep 181, 342, 350, 360-7.
Aahhotep II. 323.
Aahmes I. 299, 301, ^^^, 342>
352, 360-7.
Aahmes II. 302.
Aahmesnefertari 323.
Aalu, fields of 198 (see Elysian
Fields).
Abacus 61, 63, 68, 133.
Abi 309.
Abu Gurab 78.
Abu Roash 130,
Abu Simbel 61,
262, 263, 355.
Abusir 65, 68, 78
Abydos 1, 2, 3, 26, 28, 29, 171,
230, 255, 292, 309.
art of 234, 262.
fort of 32, 33.
royal tombs of 3,26,282, 357.
Acacia 229, 248, 310, 318.
Adze 55, 338.
Agate 275, 277.
Agraffes 369.
Annas el Medineh 293.
A'i 16, 179.
Akhenaten 14, 16, 20, 179, 257,
258,295.
Alabaster 7, 48, 53, 74, 76, 101,
189, 194, 243, 250, 281, 282,
283, 284, 286, 304, 309, 325.
Alexander, tomb of 270.
Alexander II., colossus of 269.
Alexandria 60, 269, 270, 271.
Altar 73, 80, 100, 125, 282, 305.
Alumina 293.
Amasis 336.
Amber 277.
Amenemhat II. 90.
Amenemhat III. 90, 168, 254,
359-
Amenemhat IV. 309.
Amenhotep I. 181, 182, 256,
322.
Amenhotep II. 61 , 256, 302.
Amenhotep III. 61, 82, 92, 94,
121, 172, 206, 253, 257, 300,
3". 346, 354-
Ameni 174, 176.
Ameni Entef Amenemhet 125.
Ameniritis 264.
Amethyst 276, 277, 280, 358.
Anion 114, 119, I2i, 123, 127,
260, 279, 280, 301, 342, 350,
364-
Amon Ra 113.
Amphora 42, 211, 297.
Amulets 55, 116, 118, 191,274,
276, 277, 296, 298, 300, 340,
349, 364-
Andro-sphinx 105, 257.
Angareb, or Nubian bed 317,
327-
Angulated grooving 9, 31, 86,
148.
Anhuri 345.
Animal figures 201, 239, 257,
3°6, 336, 337- 345. 359-
sacrifice 55, 88, 112,1 13, 184.
skins as shields 201.
Ankh amulet 321, 323.
Anklets 361, 365.
Anna 256.
Antef 299.
Antelope 202, 345, 354, 363.
Antimony 285, 300.
Antonines, the 272, 273.
Antoninus Pius 118.
371
372
INDEX.
Anubis 139, 1S8, 193, 339.
Anvil 348.
Ape 196, 225, 354 (see also
Cynocephali).
Apis bull 172, 296.
Apopi (serpent) 188.
Apries (Hophra) 302, 346.
Aquamarine 277.
Arch 9, 59.
Archaic period 44, 130 (see
Predynastic and Thinite
Periods).
Archers 210, 216.
Architraves 53, 59, 63, 112, 175.
Argo, Island of 254.
Arrow-heads 276.
Art, decadence of 186, 263, 368.
duality in 114.
influence of court on 235,
263.
schools 234, 255, 263, 264,
269, 271, 272.
Artists' models 195.
palettes 195.
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
44, 192, 193, 231, 233.
Ashurbanipal 349.
Asia Minor 278, 355.
Asiatics 109, 305, 341, 353.
Ass 196, 202.
Assuan 51, 82, 91, 173, 174,
252, 271, 293, 298.
art school of 235, 271.
Assyria 349.
Astronomical figures 112, 187.
Athena 336.
Athens 343.
Ati 168.
Attitudes in statuary 239, 240,
245, 266, 267.
Atum 123.
Axe 338, 364, 366, 367.
Axum 123.
Ba, the soul 128, 280.
transmigration of 188.
Babylonia 2ii2.
Baityle 12 1.
Bakenrenf 189.
260,
347.
34 7.
/•
Bark, sacred 81, 91, 126 (see
Boat of the Sun).
Barrage 47.
Basalt 48, 163, 194, 222, 264,
266,282.
Basket 353.
work designs on pottery 289.
Bas-reliefs 40, 163, 219, 223,
225, 250, 255, 256, 258,
261, 264, 267, 271, 273,
349.
Bast 193, 345.
Bath 11, 25.
Beads 275, 277, 294, 338,
358, 361
Beams laid in brickwork 6
Bed 307, 317, 327, 328.
Bedouin 48, 119.
Begig 123.
Beit el Wally 98, 230.
Belief in rewards and punish-
ments 178, 179.
Benben stone 121.
Beni Hasan 66, 96, 173, 174,
176, 179, 191, 203, 252, 331.
Berlin 357, 369.
Bersheh 172, 173, 252.
Bes 61, 65, 285, 313, 354.
Biographies on tombs 179, 180.
Birds with human arms 109,
3°5-
Birket el Kariin 45.
Block houses 38.
Blow pipe 339, 347.
Boat 191, 212, 289, 315,
366.
of the sun 80, 126, 183,
Bone 306.
Book of the Dead 169,
189, 197, 230, 320.
Book of Knowing that which is
in the Underworld 197.
Book of Opening of the Mouth
189.
Boomerangs 308, 366.
Boston 148, 243, 244, 306.
Bracelet 279, 295, 343, 357,
358, 359. 361, 362- 368, 369-
Braces 332, 364.
335.
187.
181
INDEX.
373
Breccia 48, 264, 281, 286
Bricks, —
burnt 4.
concave courses of 34, 104.
glazed 5, 302 et seq., 306.
made with straw 131.
marked with royal name 4.
moulds for 3,4.
sizes of 4, 131.
unburnt 3, 104, 131, 169.
Bridge 41, 42.
British Museum 256, 305, 329.
Bronze 122, 221, 223, 244, 245,
291, 339, 34°. 342, 348>
361,365.
gilded 361, 366.
Brush, artist's 195, 196, 200,
219, 228, 290.
Bubastis 2, 60, 105, 299, 343,
345, 346-
Bubastites 93, 333.
Buffaloes 355.
Builders of Great Pyramid 148,
248.
Bull 276, 308, 365 (see Apis).
Burin 362.
Byzantine emperors 355.
Cabinet-making 318, 319, 327
et seq.
Caesars (Graeco-Roman period)
5, 66, 81, 107, 116, 198, 237,
271, 326, 327, 328, 337.
Cairo Museum 5, 123, 125, 199,
221, 222, 227, 233, 236, 242,
243, 244, 248, 250, 254, 256,
258, 261, 264, 265, 269, 289,
296, 299, 300, 301, 305, 306,
308, 311, 314, 321, 333, 341,
342, 343, 344- 35o, 35i, 357,
368.
Calaite 275.
Caligula 273.
Cameo 369.
Canaanite cities 38.
Canal 8, 41, 44, 51, 212.
Candace 357.
Canopic jars 191, 284, 292, 327.
Canopy 328, 329, 333, 335.
Capitals 51, 60, 65 et seq. (see
also Columns).
Caricature 196.
Carnelian 275, 278, '280, 294,
360, 361, 362, 365, 366, 368
Carpets 332.
Cartouches 55, 56, 68, 107,
280, 296, 297, 305, 314, 334,
337-
Casting 339, 340, 342, 345.
Cats 197, 345, 346.
Causeway, of temples 73, 76,
78, 10b, 163.
Cedar-wood 309, 366.
Ceilings 2, 19, 108, no, 166,
187.
Cella 83.
Cellars 42, 104.
Chains 356, 357, 359, 362, 364,
368.
Chairs 307, 317, 327, 329, 330,
331-
Chariot 113, 209, 258, 327, 367.
Chests 317, 318, 327.
Chisel 221, 222, 242, 338.
Chlamys 270.
Christianity 273, 349, 368.
Chrysoprase 277.
Cinnabar 228.
Claudius 273.
Cloisonne enamels 359, 361,
362, 364, 368.
Cobalt 294.
Coffers 307, 338, 369.
Coffins 173, 181, 191, 193, 292,
293, 3*9, 321 et seq., 325, 369.
Coins 347, 352.
Colossi 96, 120, 121, 237, 254,
^ 255, 257, 260, 262, 269.
Colours employed in painting,
201, 228.
for flesh tints, 229, 230, 236.
312.
for glass 294, 296, 297.
for glaze 299, 300, 301.
for ivory 307.
Columns 10, 53, 54, 60, 66, 70,
71, 107, 109, 163, 294.
374
INDEX.
Columns, campaniform or bell-
shaped 63, 64, 86.
Hathor-head 69, 70, 97.
lotus-bud 66, 86, 92.
palm-leaf 68, 78.
Combs 306, 308.
Composition, in art 194, 199,
205 et seq., 256.
Conception of earth and sky
108.
of future life 128, 129, 181.
Constellations in, 187.
Contra Latopolis 69.
Conventions of drawing 203 et
seq.
Copper 42, 163, 223, 276, 294,
309, 338, 339, 34°. 342,
344. 357-
gilt 123.
sulphate of 228.
Copperas 294.
Copts 338 (see also Christi-
anity).
Coral 277.
Corbelled vaulting 59, 103, 161,
170.
Cordage designs 288, 295.
Corinth, bronzes of, 339.
Corvee 248.
Counterforts 36.
Covering walls 32, 36, 37.
Cow 102, 256, 266.
Craters 353, 355.
Crio-sphinx 106.
Crocodile 196, 216.
Crowns 44, 360, 362.
Cruets 354.
Crypts 88, 97.
Crys-elephantine statuary
349-
Crystal 280, 281.
Cuirass 336.
Cuneiform tablets 24.
Cups, of precious metal 350,
352, 353, 354-
Cusac, art of 257.
Cushions 331, 335.
Cynocephali 122, 188, 191, 357.
Cypriote type of vase 296.
Dad amulet 321.
Dado 109, 303.
Dagger 308, 365.
Dahshur 81, 130, 132, 168, 359.
Damanhur 369.
Dancing 141, 203, 206.
Daphnae 43, 295.
Darkness of temples 87.
Decani in.
Deceased, name and titles of
^39. 143. 175. 291, 319-
Decoration of temples and
tombs 77, 78, 8o, 107, 112
et seq., 137, 166, 177, 187,
199, 213.
of the golden collar 78.
Deir el Bahari 53, 69, 80, 98
etseq., 171,206,253,256,296,
297, 299, 309, 322, 337,
350-
Deir el Gebrawi 230.
Delta, art of 234, 263, 264,.
269, 271, 345.
Denderah 61, 65, 69, 72, 105,
in, 118, 172, 272.
art school of 234.
Derr 98.
Dice 308.
Diorite 48, 75, 189, 194, 222,
244, 250, 281, 282, 286.
Divans 317, 335.
Divine descent of Pharaohs
237, 241.
Dogs 196, 202, 313.
Doors, false 132, 136, 141, 143,
166.
on sides of coffins 320.
Double or Ka 128, 129, 136,
139, 143, 166, 181, 186, 187,
241.
Dovetails 56.
Drah Abul, Neggeh 171, 299.
Drain of hammered copper 163.
Drawing 186, 194, 202, 204.
Drill 221, 242, 277.
Ducks 296, 314, 317, 341.
Dwarf 241, 250, 251
Dyke 45.
stone 47.
INDEX.
375
Eagle 354, 366.
Earrings 279, 315.
Earstuds 368.
Earthquake 94, 162, 272.
Ebony 246, 308, 309, 330, 349,
361.
Edfu 64, 65, 72, 105, in, 118.
Edinburgh Museum 328.
Eggs, mummied 292.
Ekhmim 234, 292, 326, 327,
331. 338.
El Hibeh 2, 40.
El Kab 2, 28, 29, 33, 34, 63,
84, 105, 230, 297.
Electrum 338, 347, 348, 349.
Elephant 306.
Elephantine 82, 83, 173, 306.
Elysian fields 186, 187, 191,
198.
Embalming 128, 143, 191.
Embroidery 336.
Emerald 48, 277, 280, 294.
Enamel 245, 248, 295, 301,
306, 318, 357, 362 (see also
Glaze and Cloisonne).
Eshmuneyn 297.
Esneh in, 168, 273.
Eternal house 129, 136, 191,
240.
Ethiopia 123, 168, 272, 264,
354. 357. 369-
Etruria 278.
Ewers 353, 355.
Exorcisms 167.
Eyes, inlaid 245, 248, 295,
345-
mystic 278, 301.
on sides of coffin 320.
Falcon 363.
False doors 132, 136, 141, 143,
166.
necked vases 291.
Fan 361.
Fayum 123, 293, 295, 326, 338.
Feast days 136.
Felspar 277, 278, 280, 360, 361,
366.
Feudalism 173, 191, 349.
Filigree 295, 361, 368.
Fingers as amulets 277.
Fireplace 13, 23.
Fish 288, 301, 314, 341, 351
Flint working 276.
Flooring of cylindrical pots 26.
Flowers 303, 304, 314, 316, 337,
353. 359, 360, 363, 365.
Fly, amulet 276, 364.
Fortnight 136, 187.
Fortress 2, 28 et seq.
Foundation 5, 6, 30, 54, 79.
animal sacrificed for 55, 56.
deposits 55.
Fox 314.
Frit 298, 304.
Frog 276, 278.
Funerary barge 141, 190, 335,
366.
ceremonies 177, 187.
cones 190, 291.
feast 205, 211.
furniture 189, 274, 307, 314,
3*7. 3i8.
offerings 136, 139, 189, 190.
procession 174, 177.
ritual 169, 174, 181.
temples 68, 98, 101, 257.
workshop 256.
Gaming board 141, 308.
Garden 13, 15, 16, 25.
Garnet 277, 280.
Gazelle 141, 178, 190, 202, 203,
206, 217, 283, 284, 334, 341,
353-
Geb 361.
Gebel Abu Fedah 51.
Gebel Barkal 61.
Gebel Sheikh Herida 51.
Gebel Silsileh 96, 261.
Gebeleyn 40.
Genii 112, 183, 344, 361, 366.
Genius, the kneeling 343, 344.
Gerf Hossein 98.
Giraffe 354, 355.
Girdle tie, amulet 278, 2X0,
321.
376
INDEX.
Gizeh 53, 60, 102, 131, 165,
237. 252.
granite temple of 73, 102 (see
Khafra).
Glass 293 et seq., 368.
imitation of precious stones,
294.
inlay 295.
Glazed pottery 190, 193, 275,
286, 293, 301, 302, 304.
stone 275, 297.
tiles 303 et seq., 306.
Glazes for inlay 21, 304, 358.
Goat 202, 352, 355.
Gold 141, 276, 279, 291, 295,
312, 338 et seq., 346, 347,
348. 349, 35i. 355 et seq.
!eaf 347, 348, 359, 366.
Goose 189, 203, 284, 320, 338,
341. 362.
Graffiti 73.
Granary 2, 11, 14, 42, 104, 141.
Granite 53, 79, 98, 101, 120,
122, 161, 162, 164, 189,
194, 222, 227, 264, 272,
277, 286, 325.
black 48, 189, 223, 254, 261,
3°4-
red 48, 60, 74, 189, 243, 260,
264, 304.
Grasshoppers 365.
Graves, predynastic 129.
of the middle classes 191.
of the poor 191, 192.
Gra^co-Egyptian art 270, 271.
Greece 278, 356, 368, 369
Greek period 199, 268, 279, 293
(see also Ptolemaic period).
Greyhound 202.
Gurneh 67.
Gurnet Murrai 296.
Hadrian 271.
1 l.iinatitc 276, 277, 280.
Hairpins 306, 308, 313, 369.
Half-months, feasi oi [36 (sec
Fortnight).
Hammer 34 8.
Harhotep 1S1.
Harpocrates 342.
Hathor 63, 97, 100, 102, 193,
244, 256, 266.
head columns 69, 70, 97.
Hatshepsut 49, 55, 91, 98, 100,
122, 127, 182, 348, 350.
Hawara 168.
Hawk 241, 292, 301, 313, 344,
357-
Headrest 189, 280, 313.
Heart, amulet 277, 296.
scarab 279.
Hearth 13.
Hedgehog 285, 301.
Hekalli 168.
Heliopolis 2, 33, 39, 121, 122,
344-
Hellenic influence 269, 271,
368, 369.
Hemispeos 98 et seq.
Hepzefa 174.
Herihor 182, 323.
Hermopolis 234.
Herodotus 45, 105.
Hesi 236.
Hierakonpolis 200, 217, 233.
Hieroglyphs 77, 78, no, 112,
116, 123, 136, 186, 196, 208,
236, 264, 290, 295, 298, 300,
301, 304, 319, 322, 324, 333,
334. 337- 35i, 361.
Hippopotamus 216, 265, 280,
296, 299.
I littites 38, 211, 214.
Holy of Holies 85 (see Saxc-
1 1 wry).
Hophra (Apries) 302.
Horbeit 346.
Horemheb 179, 205, 206, 211,
230, 260, 261, 262, 263.
Hori 290.
Hori Ra 311.
I lorn 31 ><>.
Horse 178, _•<»», t,^,^, ^c>j, 368.
1 torus 113. 1 23, 292, 300, 344,
345. 34's-
name, on plaque 358.
Servants of 72.
INDEX.
377
Horus, statue of one 270.
Hotesu pattern 328.
Houses, facades of 17, 18.
foundations of 5, 6.
models of 27.
plans of 9, 22 et seq.
primitive 3.
stories of 6, 7, 9, n, 16, 18.
Human figure 202, 204, 231,
239, 257, 289, 292, 306,
. 307. 337-
limbs as amulets 277.
Human-handed birds 109, 305.
Hunefer 198.
Hunting scenes 201, 217.
Hydria 353.
Hyksos 254, 269.
Hypostyle halls 85, 88, 90, 92,
97, 101, 103, 106, in, 119,
187, 263.
Ibis 292.
Illahun 168.
Incantations 167.
Incense 113, 143.
burners 308.
Incised patterns in pottery 289.
India 365.
Inlay 21, 295, 304, 318, 343,
345-
Iron 108, 221, 222, 223, 276,
294.
Irrigation 42, 44, 45.
Isiemkheb 206.
canopy of 333 et seq.
Isis 113, 266, 269, 278, 279,
280, 322, 329, 345, 348.
Isthmus of Suez 293.
Italy 356.
Iuiya and Tuiyii, parents of
Tyi 295.
Ivy 321.
Jack, for lifting 56.
Jackal 191, i<)i, 309, 313, 327,
341-
Jade, pink 286.
Jar stoppers 43.
Jasper 280, 294, 360.
Jewellery 274, 276, 353, 356
et seq.
Egyptian love of 274, 356.
Jugs 340, 352, 355.
Ka (double) 128, 129, 136, 139,
143, 166, 181, 186, 187,
241.
chamber 136, 138.
statues 143, 144, 187, 190,
241, 243, 310.
Kadesh 38, 118, 211, 214.
Kahun 1, 10, 289, 290.
Kalaat Addah 96.
Kalabsheh 62.
Kames 342, 360, 367.
Karnak 9, 53, 54, 58, 60, 6i,
62, 65, 90 et seq., 105, no,
118, 124, 220, 225, 256, 257,
261, 263.
Kasr es Said 172.
Kemen, toilet box of 309.
Keneh 298, 369.
Khafra (Khephren) 73, 76, 78,
107, 162, 237, 243, 284.
temple of 73 et seq. (see also
Granite Temple of Gi-
zeh).
Khamha 256.
Khasekhemui, statue of 233.
Kheops (see Khufu).
Khephren (see Khafra).
Kheti 179.
Kheti, the 118, 213 (see Hit-
tites).
Khnum 173.
Khnumhotep 174, 176, 179,
203.
Khonsu 113, 114, 127, 261.
temple of 67, 85, 263.
Khu 128.
Khufu 148, 243, 309, 348.
Khuit 292.
King as mediator 112.
as priest 119 et seq.
of divine descent 119, 237,
241.
378
INDEX.
Knives, bronze 338.
flint 276.
Kohl 285, 300, 308, 313.
Kom el Ahmar 2, 33, 244, 342
Kom Ombo 1, 9, 35.
Koptos 26, 273, 338.
Kosheish 45
Kummeh 35..
Labyrinth 66.
Lacedemonians 336.
Lake Moeris 45, 46.
of temple 91.
Lamps 25, 341.
Lance-head decoration 334.
Lapis lazuli 228, 276, 277, 280,
294- 338, 358, 360, 361, 365,
366.
Lead 294, 338.
Leather 327, 332, 334.
cut and painted 332.
Lenticular ampulla 291, 297,
301.
Leopard 202.
Libation 283.
vases 327, 341, 344.
Libyan desert 347.
Limestone 7, 21, 48, 50, 52, 53,
72, 79, 100, 101, 120, 131,
163, 164, 166, 189, 195, 196,
221, 225, 227, 233, 236, 243,
250, 258, 261, 265, 282, 284,
286, 298, 304, 346, 347, 349.
Linen 327, 336, 337.
Lintels 53.
Lion 196, 202, 225, 283, 285,
308, 327, 330, 342, 345,
357. 359. 364. 365-
Lions' feet for furniture 330,
331- 341-
Lisht 107, 168, 284.
Loaves, feast of 136.
Loggia 23.
Loom 331, 337.
Loop of cord on column 69.
Lotus 9, 65, 109, 133, 206, 285,
299. 3°°. 3OI> 302, 303,
305, 3!2, 313, 314. 3!5.
3*9, 334. 350. 35L 353.
361, 366, 368 (see also
Columns).
flower column amulets 278,
296, 309.
Louvre 242, 245, 250, 253,
254. 268, 305, 315, 330,
343. 347. 357. 367-
Luminous, the 128, 129.
Lute 206, 300, 315, 316, 317.
Luxor 54, 60, 65, 94, 105, 120,
122, 124, 125, 227, 257, 262,
298.
Lyres 360.
Maat 295, 329.
Mace heads 118, 233.
Macedonian conquest 325.
Magic formula? 139, 280.
powers of sphinx, obelisk,
etc. 116, 121, 193, 237
(see also Amulets).
Malachite 277, 338.
Manfalut 168.
Manganese 294.
Marqueterie 330.
Masahirti 333.
Massarah 50.
Mastaba 27, 130 et seq., 134,
171, T72, 173.
Mastabat el Faraiin 167.
Masts in front of temples 52,
86, 120.
Matting, coloured 27.
Medamot 64, 66, 72.
Medinet Habii 9, 39 et seq., 60,
61, 65, 66, 104, 119, 182,
209, 220, 223, 225, 297, 306,
323, 342, 349, 350.
Medum 72, 130, 235, 289.
Meir 230, 257.
Memnon 120, 257, 272.
Memphis 1, 39, 45, 53, 60,
105, 130, 172, 178, 189,
255, 269, 283, 299.
art of 234 et seq., 243, 252,
255, 262, 264, 266, 268,
269.
Mendes 346.
INDEX.
379
Menes 52, 72, 168, 299, 306,
347-
Menkauhor 250.
Menkaura 77, 162, 241, 243,
244, 321.
Menkhepperra 333.
Mentu 114.
Mentuemhat 349.
Mentuhotep I. 253.
Mentuhotep II. 101, 171.
Merawi, Nubia 314.
Merenptah 263.
Merenra 165, 166.
Merlon 31.
Meroe 169, 272.
Mesheikh 84.
Metals 338.
Migdol (Magadilu) 38, 39.
Min, feast of, 136.
Mines 42, 48.
Minieh 173.
Mirror 302, 309, 312, 313, 339,
340. 341-
Models 225, 226.
Mokattam mountains 161.
Moeris 45 et seq.
Monkey 285, 296, 301.
Monoliths 60, 257.
Monotheism 258.
Mont 366.
Months, feast of 136.
Mortar 56, 131.
Mosii 344.
Mother-of-pearl 277.
Moulds 190, 290, 340.
Mourners 190, 239, 241.
Mulkaf 13, 28.
Mummy 143, 163, 164, 170,
174, 187, 190, 191, 198,
279, 295, 3*9, 325. 329,
335. 349, 356, 36°. 366,
367-
couches 328 et seq.
of animals 292.
Musical instruments 190, 196
(see also Lute).
Musicians 141
Mut 114.
Mycenae 365.
Mycenaean type of pottery
291.
Mycerinus (see Menkaura)
162, 321.
Mystic eye amulet 278, 301.
Naga 272.
Nagada 172.
Nai 312.
Naos 69, 74, 125, 126, 295,
329, 364-
Napata 169.
Necklace 277, 292, 294, 302,
3!2, 321, 359, 363, 364-
Nectenebo 70.
Nefer-ar-ka-ra 163.
Neferhotep 179.
Nefert 236.
Nefertari 97.
Nefertum 345, 348.
Negroes 109, 305, 354.
Neith 280.
Nekheb no.
Nemhotep 250.
Nephthys 279, 280, 322, 329,
345-
Netemt 295.
Nesikhonsu 297.
Ne-user-ra 78, 80, 163, 243.
New York 197.
Niche in tombs 129, 132 (see
also False Door).
Niles 109, 254, 264.
Nilometer, table of offerings as,
283.
Nitocris 265.
Nome no.
goddess 244.
Nubia 53, 80, 96, 130, 293, 314.
Nubian bed 317, 327.
Nurri 169.
Oared galley 289.
Obelisk 79, 82, 91, 120, 121,
122, 123, 347, 348.
magic power of 121.
Obsidian 276, 277, 280.
Ochre 201, 228.
3 So
INDEX.
(Enoch oe 296.
Offerings for the dead 100,
112, 125, 138, 166, 189, 288,
291.
Ombos 34, 43, 105, in, 272
On (Heliopolis) 113.
Oracles 126, 127.
Orders of architecture 72.
Orientation, of body 129, 165.
of mastabas 131.
Osirian cycle 186, 324.
Osiride figures 6i, 77, 97, 123,
216.
Osiris 28, 61, 63, 88, 113, 139,
167, 193, 266, 279, 339, 345.
Ostraca 43, 197.
Oval 297 (see Cartouche).
Ox 51, 202, 205, 283, 284, 352.
Oxford 44, 231, 233, 250, 314.
Oxide of iron 293.
of manganese 293.
Pabesa 265.
Pahurnefer 243.
Painting 194 et seq., 228 et seq.,
255-
on pavements 20, 21, 22, 108.
on walls 12, 21.
Pakhet 49, 96.
Palestine 121.
Palettes 129, 233, 275.
painters 195, 228.
scribes 189.
Palm 192, 301, 354.
columns 68, 78.
Palmettos 337.
Papyri 101, 184, 191, 195, 198,
199.
Papyrus 65, 109, 216, 230,
249, 313, 34i. 353-
columns 163 (see Campani-
form Columns).
Paris 243 (see Louvre).
Pearl 277.
Pectoral 359, 364.
Pedishashi 268.
I Ynnants 86.
Pepi I. 166, 244, 284, 303, 342.
199, 269,
203, 208,
Pepi II. 166, 168.
Peplum 369.
Perfume 82, 145, 187, 313, 34]
Peristyle 97, 98, 123.
Persia 365.
Persian period 127,
369-
Perspective 201, 202
210, 233, 258.
Petamenoph 189.
Pctukhanu 343.
Philse 43, 65, 69, 70, 94, in,
118, 273.
Phoenicia 278, 355.
Phoenician vase, type of 296
Piankhi 41.
Pig 188, 221, 222.
Pigments 201, 228.
Pillars 20, 60, 61, 62, 98, 174.
Pinotem 199.
Pinotem II. 333, 334.
Pinotem III. 368.
Pisebkhanu 255.
Pithom 2, 43.
Place d'armes 32, 33.
Plan of tomb of Rameses IV.
184.
Planets in.
Plants emblematic of union
of North and South 109.
Point, the 226, 277, 290, 361.
Polygonal columns 78, 101,
174.
Porphyry 48, 276, 277, 282.
Portcullis 153, 161, 162, 164.
Portico 14, 25, 28, 133, 134,
174.
Portrait masks on coffins
323-
panels on coffins 326.
Postern gate 32, 33.
Potter's wheel 287, 288.
Pottery 129, 132, 189,
286 et seq.
black incised 289.
glazed 286, 287.
painted 293.
Precious stones $49, $56,
366.
322,
275.
359,
INDEX.
381
Predynastic period 34, 129,
13°, 275, 276, 281, 282,
288, 289, 297, 338.
tomb of Hierakonpolis 200.
Priest 113, 136, 139, 166, 187,
265, 311.
High 333, 368.
Primitive huts 3 (see Pre-
dynastic and Thinite
Periods).
temples 52.
Pronaos 88.
Psammetichus I. 264, 343.
the scribe 265, 266.
Psar, prince 357, 368.
Ptah 193, 350.
Ptahhotep 27, 135, 216.
Ptahmes 301.
Ptolemaic period 66, 69, 81,
88, 93, 94, 107, 112, 116,
127, 225, 237, 268, 272,
338. 343, 348, 350, 351-
art of the 268.
Punt, land of 127.
Purpose of wall paintings 141.
Pylons 14, 17, 20, 82, 86, 93,
103, 104, 107, 112, 120, 122,
169, 213, 216, 231.
Pyramid 154 et seq., 101, 170,
171, 222, 302.
period 282.
temples 72, 73, 78.
texts 187, 189.
Pyramidion 122, 172, 347.
Qodshu (Kadesh) 118.
Quarries 42, 48, 49, 50.
turned into chapels 49.
Quarrying, methods of ,50, 122.
Quartz 275, 281.
Quartzite, yellow 304.
Quay, of valley temples 73, 74
Ra 364.
Ra Harmakhis
Raemka 247.
Rahotep 235.
123.
Ram 225, 278, 345.
kneeling as sphinx 105, 257.
Rameses I. 93.
Rameses II. 93, 94, 97, 103,
118, 227, 254, 260, 262, 355,
356, 367> 368.
Rameses III. 39, 40, 119, 121,
220, 221, 223, 254, 260,
3°4> 3°5, 3°6, 323. 335.
34i. 356.
tomb of 185, 186, 187, 210.
Rameses IV. tomb of 184.
Rameses IX. 368.
Ramesseum 54, 57, 65, 111,
182, 262, 297.
Ramesside period 5, 30, 182,
192, 263, 299, 325, 326, 356.
Ramps 73, 76, 78, 98, 101.
for building 56.
Ranefer 243, 245.
Rats 196, 292.
Red Sea 48, 347.
Reed brush 195, 196, 200, 219,
290.
pen 199, 201, 228.
Registers, superposed 115, 116,
215, 217, 230.
Rekhmara 212, 256.
Relative proportions of human
figures 141, 206.
Repousse work 351, 352, 355,
359, 365-
Respondants 300, 327 (see
Ushabtiu).
Reversed capital 65.
Rings 193, 279, 294, 300, 340,
356, 357, 359, 367, 368, 369-
Ritual of embalment 181.
of funerals 187
of opening of the mouth 181.
Riveting 339.
Rock crystal 277.
Rock temples 95 et seq.
tombs 169, 173 et seq., 189,
256, 325-
Roman period 116, 168, 272,
349 (see also Caesars).
Roofs 2, 11, 12, 13, 26, 27, 28,
59, 112, 129.
382
INDEX.
Rosettes 300, 304, 333, 351,
360.
Royal tombs, Abydos 3, 26,
282.
Sacred animals 292.
barks 81, 91, 126.
beetles 278 (see Scarab).
eye 278, 301.
Sacrificial animals 80, 112, 113,
189.
Sahura 163.
Sa"is 33.
art of 264, 265, 267, 268 et
seq.
Sa'ite period 296, 299, 325,
350, 351.
Sakkieh 2 1 .
San 33.
Sanctuary 77, 81, 85, 87, 88,
89, 96/97. 98, 100, 103, 106,
120, 125, 127, 176, 177.
Sandstone 48, 50, 53, 82, 101,
120, 194, 227, 257, 282.
Saqqara 27, 60, 130, 131, 164,
169, 216, 230, 247, 252, 283,
292, 302, 345, 347, 369.
Sarcophagus 161, 163, 165, 181,
185, 188, 189, 265, 294, 319.
Sardinia 278.
Saw 277, 338.
Scarab 278, 279, 297, 335, 362,
used as seal 279.
Scented fat 275.
Sceptre 302, 365, 367.
Schist 76, 233, 298.
Scissors 341.
Scorpion 357, 366.
Scribe 265, 268, 290, 311.
cross-legged 242, 243, 245,
247. 253, 267.
kneeling 243, 248, 267.
Sculptor's models 224, 225.
sketch 219, 220.
trial piece 223.
workshop 258.
Sculpture 107, 163, 186, 194,
218 et seq., 231 et seq., 258.
Seal cylinders 153, 282.
rings 356, 357.
scarabs 282.
Sealings of jars 282.
Sebakh 25, 265.
Sebekemsaf 227, 254.
Sebekhotep III. 254.
Sekenenra 181.
Sekhemka 243.
Sekhet 280, 313, 345.
Semneh 28, 35, 36, 58.
Seneferu 72, 107, 168.
Sennetmu 292, 321, 329.
Senuit 206.
Senusert I. 35, 90, 168.
Senusert II. 168, 359.
Senusert III. 253, 359.
Serdab 77, 143, 144, 165, 176,
189, 190, 243.
Serpent 183, 188, 278, 328,
354- 366.
amulet 276.
Serpentine 194, 221, 222, 264,
265, 276, 277, 282.
Set 113.
Seti I. 56, 93, 94, 102, 118,
221, 260, 263, 303.
tomb of 185, 186, 187, 220,
260.
Sharona 84.
Sheikh abd el Gurneh 296, 342
Sheikh el Beled 243, 247, 248,
-2.53. 310.
Sheikh Said 172.
Shell 359.
Shepseskaf 244.
Sheshonk (Shishak) 41, 263,
303-
Shrine 101, 119.
Shu 345.
Sickle teeth 276.
Silica 293.
Silsilis 50, 51.
Silver 276, 279, 309, 318, 338
et seq., 347, 349, 350, 351
353. 355. 357-
inlay for eyes 345.
Sinai 80, 119.
Sistrum 69, 113, 302.
INDEX.
333
Situ 283.
Siut 132, 173, 174, 251, 269.
Slate 233, 250, 275, 282.
triads of Menkaura 243, 244.
Slaves 48, 212, 250, 305, 315,
316.
Sledge 327, 329.
Sleeping bench 21 (see also
Bed).
Sleeping chamber 13, 21, 25.
Smelting 347.
Snakes 167, 292, 313.
Soda 293.
Solar bark 187 (see Sun).
disc 312.
Sothis 136.
Soul (Ba) 128, 129, 17S, 180,
181, 183, 188, 280.
South Kensington Museum 302 .
Sow 188.
Sparrow hawk 191, 278, 285,
357-
Speos 96 et seq.
Artemidos 49, 96.
Sphinx 74, 100, 104, 105, 121,
253. 254, 255, 345. 362.
avenues of 82, 257.
magic powers of 121, 237.
the Great 74, 162, 237.
Spinning 141.
Spoon 306, 308, 314 et seq., 341.
Square as amulet 280.
Squaring lines 219, 224, 225.
Stables 42, 104.
Stairs 12, 17, 24, 28, 31, 34, 70,
81, 85, 86, 102, 173.
Stars on ceilings 78, no, 187,
334-
Statues 76, 77, 120, 121, 124,
163, 227, 231 et seq., 255,
258, 264, 265, 272, 335,
346, 348.
from favissa at Karnak 124,
256.
in false door 137.
Ka statues 143, 144, 187,
189, 190, 241, 243, 310.
moving oracles 126, 127.
usurpation of 253.
Statuettes 258, 301, 310, 339,
34°. 343, 348, 349, 3"-
Steatite 275.
Steel 222.
Stela 77, 133, 139, 141, 143,
177, 179, 198, 282.
of Bakhtan 127.
upright stones 73, 121.
Stone 104, 275, 277, 282, 325,
346.
blocks 53.
inlay 304.
quarrying of 50.
transporting of 51.
vases 276, 281, 282, 295,
347-
Stools 327, 330.
Store chambers 76, 82.
house 43.
Stories of houses 6, 7, 9, n, 12,
16, 18.
Sudan 347, 368.
Sun, boats of the 80, 126, 183,
187.
identity of deceased with
186.
journey of the 114, 183, 187,
188.
temple of the 78.
Sun-dried brick 131 (see Crude
Brick).
Superposition in drawing 208.
of registers 115, 116, 215,
217, 230.
Sycamore-wood 56, 230, 310,
3i9,325-
Syene 91 (see Assuan).
Syenite 91, 164, 222, 281.
Syria 121, 278, 347.
Table 327.
of offerings 124, 133, 189,
258, 266, 282, 283, 284.
Taharka 60, 93.
Tahuti, cups of 350 et seq.
Takushet 343.
Tanis 2, 53, 121, 225, 254, 262,
343, 346.
art of 254, 255, 262, 264.
384
INDEX.
Tank io, 24, 28.
Tapestry 332, 337, 338.
Taskmasters 48.
Taud 280.
Taurt (Thueris) 265.
Tausert 55, 352, 355.
Taxes 42.
Tefnut 345.
Tell el Amarna 1, 14, 16, 22,
178, 257, 296, 297.
art of 257, 258, 260, 264.
palace of 20 et seq., 303.
Tell el Yahudieh 304.
Tell es Saba 346.
Temple 7, 72 et seq.
as image of the world 107.
ceremonies 81, 112, 113, 119
et seq.
levels of 87.
store-houses 43.
terraced 99, 100.
Tenons in statuary 242.
Tesserae 304.
Teti 165, 166.
Thebaid 271, 306.
Thebes 1, 105, 106, 173, 189,
230, 255, 257, 265, 272,
296, 325. 327. 347. 348>
349-
art of 234, 252, 255, 256,
258, 260, 262, 264, 266.
necropolis of 169, 172, 178,
192.
town walls of 33, 40.
Thinis 282.
Thinite period 148, 231, 275,
282, 303, 307.
graves of 129.
jewellery of 357.
towns of I, 13.
Thmuis, vases of 351.
Thoth 113, 292, 348.
feast of 136.
Thothmes I. 90, 182, 256.
Thothmes II. 91, 182, 322.
Thothmes III. 49, 65, 67, 91,
102, no, 182, 256, 297.
Thothmes IV. 230, 337.
Ti 134, 144.
Tiberius 273.
Tiger 363.
Tin 294, 338, 339.
Toilet-box 309.
Tomb, chamber 142, 145, 146,
161, 162, 165, 170, 171,
178, 183, 189, 190.
chapel 136, 174, 175, 178.
of Rameses III. 185, 186,
187.
of Rameses IV. 184.
of Seti I. 186, 187, 220.
Tombs 129.
excavated 169, 172 et seq.
of the kings 1S1 et seq.
Tortoise 313.
Torus 58.
Towns, plan of 7.
Transmigration 188.
Transport of stone 51, 122.
Trees, varieties in Egypt 310.
Trenches for common graves
192.
Tiiai 308.
Turah 50, 51.
Turin 126, 184, 196, 256, 260,
263, 295, 310, 311.
Turquoise 275, 277, 357, 358,
362, 366.
Tusks, carved 306.
Tyi 300, 318, 331.
Ilaga, feast of 136.
Uazit no.
Una 179.
Unas 164, 165, 166, 186, 187.
Uraei 68, 115, 226, 241, 244,
328, 363, 368.
Usekh necklace 363.
Ushabtiu 190, 191, 290, 300,
327-
Usurpation of statues 253.
Uzat 278 (see also Mystic
Eye).
Valley temples 73, 100, 107,
162. 163, 244.
of the tombs of the kings
182, 296.
INDEX.
38S
Varnish 229, 324-5, 34O.
Vases 189, 284, 289, 292, 296,
300, 340, 341, 344, 347,
35i, 355--
for flowers 290, 291, 353.
stone 276, 281, 347.
Vaulting 59, 174.
Venus 271, 369.
Vessels with cabins 201.
Vignettes 198, 199.
Vitreous paste 35S, 359, 362.
Vultures 229, 301, 329, 334,
336, 350, 362, 363.
Wady es Sabua 98
Wady Genneh 47.
Wady Gerraweh 47.
Wady Hammamat 48.
Wall scenes 112 et seq., 141,
200, 201.
Walls 56 et seq,, 104, 105,
218.
covered with gold 347.
covering 32, 36, 37.
decorated with glazed tiles
3°2, 3°3-
Wasp 359.
Water channel in street 7.
cisterns 48.
of youth and life 114.
Waters of the West 366 (see
Elysian Fields).
Wattle and daub 2, 3, 52.
Weapons in graves 129, 361,
364. 365.
Weaving 141, 332, 336, 337.
Wells 20, 25.
Windows 3, 10, 12, 28, 58, 86,
Wine 42, 43, 206.
Winged disc 328.
Woman's face, in glass 296.
Wood 125, 194, 195, 248, 250,
275, 284, 295, 310, 318,
321, 346, 349, 365.
carving 263, 310, 311.
gilded 347.
Wooden panel of Hesi 236.
Zagazig 351, 369.
Zaru 41.
Zcr 357-
Zeser 168, 303.
Zodiac, signs of the 112.
Zowyet el Aryan 159.
25
TR1NTED BY
I1AZELL, WATSON AND V1NEY, T.D.,
LONDON AND AYLESBURY,
ENGLAND.
Ch
JAN i 7 1959
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