Notwithstanding the fact that Egyptology is now recognised as a science, an exact and communicable knowledge of whose existence and scope it behoves all modern culture to take cognisance, this work of M. Maspero still remains the Handbook of Egyptian Archaeology. But Egyptology is as yet in its infancy; whatever their age, Egyptologists will long die young. Every year, almost every month, fresh material for the study is found, 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 text-books require considerable addition and modification if they are to be of the greatest value to students, who must always start from the foremost vantage-ground.
The increasing demand for the Egyptian Archaeology by English and American tourists, as well as students, decided the English publishers to issue a new edition in as light and portable a form as possible. This edition is carefully corrected, and contains the enlarged letterpress and many fresh illustrations necessary for incorporating within the book adequate accounts of the main archaeological results of recent Egyptian excavations. M. Maspero has himself revised the work, indicated all the numerous additions, and qualified the expression of any views which he has seen reason to modify in the course of his researches during the past eight years. By the headings of the pages, the descriptive titles of the illustrations, and a minute revision of the index, much has been done to facilitate the use of the volume as a book of reference. In that capacity it will be needed by the student long after he first makes acquaintance with its instructive and abundant illustrations and its luminous condensation of the archaeological facts and conclusions which have been elucidated by Egyptology through the devotion of many an arduous lifetime during the present century, and, not least, by the unremitting labours of M. Maspero.
April, 1895.
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.
As regards the practical side of Archaeology, it ought to be unnecessary to point out that its usefulness is strictly parallel with the usefulness 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.
I am much indebted to Mr. W.M. Flinders Petrie, author of The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh, for kindly translating the section on "Pyramids," which is entirely from his pen. I have also to thank him for many valuable notes on subjects dealt with in the first three chapters. To avoid confusion, I have numbered these notes, and placed them at the end of the volume.
My acknowledgments are likewise due to Professor Maspero for the care with which he has read the proof-sheets of this version of his work. In departing from his system of orthography (and that of Mr. Petrie) I have been solely guided by the necessities of English readers. I foresee that Egyptian Archaeology will henceforth be the inseparable companion of all English-speaking travellers who visit the Valley of the Nile; hence I have for the most part adopted the spelling of Egyptian proper names as given by the author of "Murray's Handbook for Egypt."
Touching my own share in the present volume, I will only say that I have tried to present Professor Maspero's inimitable French in the form of readable English, rather than in a strictly word-for-word translation; and that with the hope of still further extending the usefulness of the book, I have added some foot-note references.
AMELIA B. EDWARDS.
WESTBURY-ON-TRYM,
August, 1887.
CHAPTER I.
ARCHITECTURE--CIVIL AND MILITARY.
§ 1. HOUSES: Bricks and Brickmaking, Foundations, Materials, Towns, Plans, Decoration
§ 2. FORTRESSES: Walls, Plans, Migdols, etc.
§ 3. PUBLIC WORKS: Roads, Bridges, Storehouses, Canals, Lake Moeris, Dams, Reservoirs, Quarries
CHAPTER II.
§ 1. MATERIALS; PRINCIPLES OF CONSTRUCTION: Materials of Temples, Foundations of Temples, Sizes of Blocks, Mortars, Mode of hoisting Blocks, Defective Masonry, Walls, Pavements, Vaultings, Supports, Pillars and Columns, Capitals, Campaniform Capitals, Lotus-bud Capitals, Hathor-headed Capitals
§ 2. TEMPLES: Temples of the Sphinx, Temples of Elephantine, Temple at El Kab, Temple of Khonsû, Arrangement of Temples, Levels, Crypts, Temple of Karnak, Temple of Luxor, Philae, The Speos, or Rock-cut Temple, Speos of Horemheb, Rock-cut Temples of Abû Simbel, Temple of Deir el Baharî, Temple of Abydos, Sphinxes, Crio-sphinxes
§ 3. DECORATION: Principles of Decoration, The Temple a Symbolic Representation of the World, Decoration of Parts nearest the Ground, Dadoes, Bases of Columns, Decoration of Ceilings, Decoration of Architraves, Decoration of Wall-surfaces, Magic Virtues of Decoration, Decoration of Pylons, Statues, Obelisks, Libation-tables, Altars, Shrines, Sacred Boats, Moving Statues of Deities
CHAPTER III.
§ 1. MASTABAS: Construction of the Mastaba, The Door of the Living, and the Door of the Dead, The Chapel, Wall Decorations, The Double and his Needs, The Serdab, Ka Statues, The Sepulchral Chamber
§ 2. PYRAMIDS: Plan of the Pyramid comprises three leading features of the Mastaba, Materials of Pyramids, Orientation, Pyramid of Khûfû, Pyramids of Khafra and Menkara, Step Pyramid of Sakkarah, Pyramid of Ûnas, Decoration of Pyramid of Ûnas, Group of Dashûr, Pyramid of Medum
§ 3. TOMBS OF THE THEBAN EMPIRE; THE ROCK-CUT TOMBS: Pyramid-mastabas of Abydos, Pyramid-mastabas of Drah Abû'l Neggah, Rock-cut Tombs of Beni Hasan and Syene, Rock-cut Tombs of Siût, Wall-decoration of Theban Catacombs, Tombs of the Kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty at Thebes, Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, Royal Catacombs, Tomb of Seti I., Wall-decorations of Royal Catacombs, Funerary Furniture of Catacombs, Ûshabtiû, Amulets, Common Graves of the Poor
CHAPTER IV.
§ 1. DRAWING AND COMPOSITION: Supposed Canon of Proportion, Drawing Materials, Sketches, Illustrations to the Book of the Dead, Conventional Treatment of Animal and Human Figures, Naturalistic Treatment, Composition, Grouping, Wall-paintings of Tombs, A Funerary Feast, A Domestic Scene, Military Subjects, Perspective, Parallel between a Wall-painting in a Tomb at Sakkarah and the Mosaic of Palestrina
§ 2. TECHNICAL PROCESSES: The Preparation of Surfaces, Outline, Sculptors' Tools, Iron and Bronze Tools, Impurity of Iron, Methods of Instruction in Sculpture, Models, Methods of cutting Various Stones, Polish, Painted Sculptures, Pigments, Conventional Scale of Colour, Relation of Painting to Sculpture in Ancient Egypt
§ 3. SCULPTURE: The Great Sphinx, Art of the Memphite School, Wood-panels of Hesi, Funerary Statues, The Portrait-statue and the Double , Chefs d'oeuvre of the Memphite School, The Cross-legged Scribe, Diorite Statue of Khafra, Rahotep and Nefert, The Sheikh el Beled, The Kneeling Scribe, The Dwarf Nemhotep, Royal Statues of the Twelfth Dynasty, Hyksos Sphinxes of Tanis, Theban School of the Eighteenth Dynasty, Colossi of Amenhotep III., New School of Tel el Amarna, Its Superior Grace and Truth, Works of Horemheb, School of the Nineteenth Dynasty, Colossi of Rameses II., Decadence of Art begins with Merenptah, Ethiopian Renaissance, Saïte Renaissance, The Attitudes of Statues, Saïte Innovations, Greek Influence upon Egyptian Art, The Ptolemaic and Roman Periods, The School of Meroë, Extinction of Egyptian Art
CHAPTER V.
§ 1. STONE, CLAY, AND GLASS: Precious Stones, Lapidary Art, Beads and Amulets, Scarabaei, Statuettes, Libation Tables, Perfume Vases, Kohl-pots, Pottery, Clay, Glazes, Red and Painted Wares, Ûshabtiû, Funerary Cones, Painted Vases, "Canopic" Vases, Clay Sarcophagi, Glass, Its Chemical Constituents, Clear Glass, Coloured Glass, Imitations of Precious Stones in Glass, Glass Mosaics, Miniature Objects in Coloured Glass, Glass Amulets, Coloured Glass Vases, Enamels, The Theban Blue, The Enamels of Tell el Amarna, Enamelled Ûshabtiû of Amen Ptahmes, Enamelled Tiles of the Step Pyramid at Sakkarah, Enamelled Tiles of Tell el Yahûdeh
§ 2. WOOD, IVORY, LEATHER; TEXTILE FABRICS: Bone and Ivory, Elephant Tusks, Dyed Ivory, Egyptian Woods, Wooden Statuettes, Statuette of Hori, Statuette of Naï, Wooden Toilet Ornaments, Perfume and Unguent Spoons, Furniture, Chests and Coffers, Mummy-cases, Wooden Effigies on Mummy Cases, Huge Outer Cases of Ahmesnefertari and Aahhotep, Funerary Furniture, Beds, Canopies, Sledges, Chairs, Stools, Thrones, Textiles, Methods of Weaving, Leather, Breast-bands of Mummies, Patchwork Canopy in Coloured Leather of Princess Isiemkheb, Embroideries, Muslins, Celebrated Textiles of Alexandria
§ 3. METALS: Iron, Lead, Bronze, Constituents of Egyptian Bronze, Domestic Utensils in Bronze, Mirrors, Scissors, Bronze Statuettes, The Stroganoff Bronze, The Posno Bronzes, The Lion of Apries, Gilding, Gold-plating, Gold-leaf, Statues and Statuettes of Precious Metals , The Silver and Golden Cups of General Tahûti, The Silver Vases of Thmûis, Silver Plate, Goldsmith's Work, Richness of Patterns, Jewellery, Funerary Jewellery, Rings, Seal-rings, Chains, The Jewels of Queen Aahhotep, The Ring of Rameses II., The Ear-rings of Rameses IX., The Bracelet of Prince Psar, Conclusion
FIGURE
1. Brickmaking, tomb of Rekhmara, Eighteenth Dynasty
2. House with vaulted floors, Medinet Habû
3. Plan of the town of Kahûn, Twelfth Dynasty
4. Plan of house, Medinet Habû, Twentieth Dynasty
5. Plan of house, Medinet Habû, Twentieth Dynasty
6. Façade of house of Second Theban Period
7. Plan of house of Second Theban Period
8. Restoration of hall in Twelfth Dynasty house, Kahûn
9. Box representing a house
10. Wall-painting in Twelfth Dynasty house, Kahûn
11. View of mansion, tomb of Anna, Eighteenth Dynasty
12. Porch of mansion of Second Theban Period
13. Porch of mansion of Second Theban Period
14. Plan of Theban house and grounds, Eighteenth Dynasty
15. A perspective view of same
16. Part of palace of Aï, El Amarna tomb, Eighteenth Dynasty
17. Perspective view of part of palace of Aï
18. Frontage of house, Second Theban Period
19. Frontage of house, Second Theban Period
20. Central pavilion of house, Second Theban Period
21. Ceiling decoration from house at Medinet Habû, Twentieth Dynasty
22. Ceiling decoration, Twelfth Dynasty style
23. Ceiling decoration, tomb of Aimadûa, Twentieth Dynasty
24. Door of house, Sixth Dynasty tomb
25. Façade of Fourth Dynasty house, sarcophagus of Khûfû Poskhû
26. Plan of second fortress at Abydos, Eleventh or Twelfth Dynasty
27. Walls of same fortress, restored
28. Façade of fort, tomb at Beni Hasan, Twelfth Dynasty
29. Plan of main gate, second fortress of Abydos
30. Plan of S.E. gate of same
31. Plan of gate, fortress of Kom el Ahmar
32. Plan of walled city at El Kab
33. Plan of walled city at Kom Ombo
34. Plan of fortress of Kûmmeh
35. Plan of fortress of Semneh
36. Section of platform of same
37. Syrian fort, elevation
38. Town walls of Dapûr
39. City of Kaclesh, Ramesseum
40. Plan of pavilion of Medinet Habû, Twentieth Dynasty
41. Elevation of same
42. Canal and bridge of Zarû, Karnak, Nineteenth Dynasty
43. Cellar with amphorae
44. Granary
45. Plan of Store City of Pithom, Nineteenth Dynasty
46. Store-chambers of the Ramesseum
47. Dike at Wady Gerraweh
48. Section of same dike
49. Quarries of Silsilis
50. Draught of Hathor capital, quarry of Gebel Abûfeydeh
51. Transport of blocks, stela of Ahmes, Tûrrah, Eighteenth Dynasty
52. Masonry in temple of Seti I., Abydos
53. Temple wall with cornice
54. Niche and doorway in temple of Seti I., Abydos
55. Pavement in same temple
56. "Corbelled" vault in same temple
57. Hathor pillar in temple of Abû Simbel, Nineteenth Dynasty
58. Pillar of Amenhotep III., Karnak
59. Sixteen-sided pillars, Karnak
60. Fluted pillar, Kalabsheh
61. Polygonal Hathor-headed pillar, El Kab
62. Column with square die, Contra Esneh
63. Column with campaniform capital, Ramesseum
64. Inverted campaniform capital, Karnak
65. Palm capital, Bubastis
66. Compound capital
67. Ornate capitals, Ptolemaic
68. Lotus-bud column, Beni Hasan, Twelfth Dynasty
69. Lotus-bud column, processional hall of Thothmes HI., Karnak
70. Column in aisle of Hypostyle Hall, Karnak
71. Hathor-head capital, Ptolemaic
72. Campaniform and Hathor-headed capital, Philae
73. Section of Hypostyle Hall, Karnak
74. Plan of the temple of the Sphinx
75. South temple of Elephantine
76. Plan of temple of Amenhotep III., El Kab
77. Plan of temple of Hathor, Deir el Medineh
78. Plan of temple of Khonsû, Karnak
79. Pylon with masts, wall-scene, temple of Khonsû, Karnak
80. Ramesseum, restored
81. Plan of sanctuary at Denderah
82. Pronaos, temple of Edfû
83. Plan of same temple
84. Plan of temple of Karnak in reign of Amenhotep III
85. Plan of Hypostyle Hall, Karnak
86. Plan of great temple, Luxor
87. Plan of buildings on island of Philae
88. Plan of Speos, Kalaat Addah
89. Plan of Speos, Gebel Silsileh
90. Plan of Great Speos, Abû Simbel
91. Plan of Speos of Hathor, Abû Simbel
92. Plan of upper portion of temple of Deir el Baharî
93. Plan of temple of Seti I., Abydos
94. Crio-sphinx from temple of Wady Es Sabûah
95. Couchant ram, from Avenue of Sphinxes, Karnak
96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101. Decorative designs from Denderah
102. Decorative group of Nile gods
103. Dado decoration, hall of Thothmes III., Karnak
104. Ceiling decoration, tomb of Bakenrenf, Twenty-sixth Dynasty
105. Zodiacal circle of Denderah
106. Frieze of uraei and cartouches
107. Wall-scene from temple of Denderah
108. Obelisk of Heliopolis, Twelfth Dynasty
109. Obelisk of Begig, Twelfth Dynasty
110. "Table of offerings" from Karnak
111. Limestone altar from Menshîyeh
112. Wooden naos, in Turin Museum
113. A mastaba
114. False door in mastaba
115. Plan of forecourt, mastaba of Kaäpir
116. Plan of forecourt, mastaba of Neferhotep
117. Door in mastaba façade
118. Portico and door of mastaba
119. Plan of chapel, mastaba of Khabiûsokari
120. Plan of chapel, mastaba of Ti
121. Plan of chapel, mastaba of Shepsesptah
122. Plan of chapel, mastaba of Affi
123. Plan of chapel, mastaba of Thenti
124. Plan of chapel, mastaba of Red Scribe
125. Plan of chapel, mastaba of Ptahhotep
126. Stela in mastaba of Merrûka
127. Wall-scene from mastaba of Ptahhotep
128. Wall-scene from mastaba of Ûrkhûû
129. Wall-scene from mastaba of Ptahhotep
130. Plan of serdab in mastaba at Gizeh
131. Plan of serdab and chapel in mastaba of Rahotep
132. Plan of serdab and chapel in mastaba of Thenti
133. Section of mastaba showing shaft and vault, at Gizeh
134. Section of mastaba, at Sakkarah
135. Wall-scene from mastaba of Nenka
136. Section of Great Pyramid
137. The Step Pyramid of Sakkarah
138. Plan and section of pyramid of Ûnas
139. Portcullis and passage, pyramid of Ûnas
140. Section of pyramid of Ûnas
141. Mastabat el Faraûn
142. Pyramid of Medûm
143. Section of passage and vault in pyramid of Medûm
144. Section of "vaulted" brick pyramid, Abydos, Eleventh Dynasty
145. Section of "vaulted" tomb, Abydos
146. Plan of tomb, Abydos
147. Theban tomb with pyramidion, wall-scene, tomb at Sheikh Abd el Gûrneh
148. Similar tomb
149. Section of Apis tomb, Eighteenth Dynasty
150. Tombs in cliff opposite Asûan
151. Façade of rock-cut tomb of Khnûmhotep, Beni Hasan, Twelfth Dynasty
152. Façade of rock-cut tomb, Asûan
153. Plan of tomb of Khnûmhotep, Beni Hasan, Twelfth Dynasty
154. Plan of unfinished tomb, Beni Hasan, Twelfth Dynasty
155. Wall-scene, tomb of Manna, Nineteenth Dynasty
156. Plan of tomb of Rameses IV.
157. Plan of tomb of Rameses IV., from Turin papyrus
158. Plan of tomb of Seti I.
159. Fields of Aalû, wall-scene, tomb of Rameses III.
160. Pestle and mortar for grinding colours
161. Comic sketch on ostrakon
162. Vignette from Book of the Dead, Saïte period
163. Vignette from Book of the Dead, papyrus of Hûnefer
164, 165. Wall-scenes, tomb of Khnûmhotep, Beni Hasan
166. Wall-scene, tomb, Eighteenth Dynasty
167. Wall-scene, tomb of Horemheb
168. Wall-scene, Theban tomb, Ramesside period
169. Wall-scene, tomb of Horemheb
170. Wall-scene, Ramesseum
171. Wall-scene, Medinet Habû
172. Wall-scene, Ramesseum
173. Wall-scene, Ramesseum
174. Wall-scene, tomb of Rekhmara
175. Wall-scene, tomb of Rekhmara
176. Wall-scene, mastaba of Ptahhotep
177. Palestrina mosaic
178. Sculptor's sketch, Ancient Empire tomb
179. Sculptor's sketch, Ancient Empire tomb
180. Sculptor's correction, Medinet Habû, Twentieth Dynasty
181. Bow drill
182. Sculptor's trial-piece, Eighteenth Dynasty
183. The Great Sphinx of Gizeh
184. Wooden panel, mastaba of Hesî
185. Cross-legged scribe, in the Louvre, Ancient Empire
186. Cross-legged scribe, at Gizeh, Ancient Empire
187. King Khafra
188. The "Sheikh el Beled" (Raemka), Ancient Empire
189. Rahotep, Ancient Empire
190. Nefert, wife of Rahotep, Ancient Empire
191. Head of the "Sheikh el Beled," Ancient Empire
192. Wife of the "Sheikh el Beled," Ancient Empire
193. The kneeling scribe, at Gizeh. Ancient Empire
194. A bread-maker, Ancient Empire
195. The dwarf Nemhotep, Ancient Empire
196. One of the Tanis sphinxes, Hyksos period
197. Bas-relief head of Seti I.
198. Amen and Horemheb
199. Head of a queen, Eighteenth Dynasty
200. Head of Horemheb
201. Colossal statue of Rameses 11.
202. Queen Ameniritis.
203. Thûeris, Saïte period
204. Hathor cow, Saïte period
205. Pedishashi, Saïte period
206. Head of a scribe, Saïte period
207. Colossus of Alexander II.
208. Hor, Graeco-Egyptian
209. Group from Naga, Ethiopian School
210. Ta amulet
211. Frog amulet
212. Ûat amulet
213. Ûta amulet
214. A scarab
215, 216, 217. Perfume vases, alabaster
218. Perfume vase, alabaster
219. Vase for antimony powder
220. Turin vases, pottery
221, 222, 223. Decorated vases, pottery
224. Glass-blowers, wall-scene, Twelfth Dynasty
225, 226. Parti-cloured glass vases
227. Parti-coloured glass vase
228. Glass goblets of Nesikhonsû
229. Hippopotamus in blue glaze
232. Cup, glazed ware
233. Interior decoration of bowl, Eighteenth Dynasty
234. Lenticular vase, glazed ware, Saïte period
235. Tiled chamber in Step Pyramid of Sakkarah
236. Tile from same
237. Tile, Tell el Yahûdeh, Twentieth Dynasty
238. Tile, Tell el Yahûdeh, Twentieth Dynasty
239. Inlaid tiles, Tell el Yahûdeh, Twentieth Dynasty
240, 241. Relief tiles, Tell el Yahûdeh, Twentieth Dynasty
242. Spoon
243. Wooden statuette of officer, Eighteenth Dynasty
244. Wooden statuette of priest, Eighteenth Dynasty
245. Wooden statuette of Naï
246, 247, 248, 249, 250, 251, 252, 253, 254. Wooden perfume and unguent spoons
255. Fire-sticks, bow, and unfinished drill- stock, Twelfth Dynasty
256. Dolls, Twelfth Dynasty
257. Tops, tip-cat, and toy boat, Twelfth Dynasty
261. Construction of a mummy-case, wall- scene, Eighteenth Dynasty
262. Mask of Twenty-first Dynasty coffin of Rameses II
263. Mummy-case of Queen Ahmesnefertari
264. Panel portrait from the Fayûm, Graeco- Roman
265. Carved and painted mummy-canopy
266. Canopied mummy-couch, Graeco-Roman
267. Mummy-sledge and canopy
268. Inlaid chair, Eleventh Dynasty
269. Inlaid stool, Eleventh Dynasty
270. Throne-chair, wall-scene, Twentieth Dynasty
271. Women weaving, wall-scene, Twelfth Dynasty
272. Man weaving carpet or hangings, wall- scene, Twelfth Dynasty
273. Cut leather work, Twenty-first Dynasty
274, 275. Barks with cut leather-work sails, Twentieth Dynasty
278. Unguent vase, or spoon (lamp for suspension?)
279. Bronze statuette of Takûshet
280. Bronze statuette of Horus
281. Bronze statuette of Mosû
282. Bronze lion from Horbeit, Saïte period
283. Gold-worker, wall-scene
284. Golden cup of General Tahûti, Eighteenth Dynasty
285. Silver vase of Thmûis
286. Silver vase of Thmûis
287. Piece of plate, wall-scene, Twentieth Dynasty
288, 289, 290, 291, 292, 293, 294, 295. Plate, wall-scenes, Eighteenth Dynasty
296. Signet-ring, with bezel
297. Gold cloisonné pectoral, Dahshur, Twelfth Dynasty
298. Mirror of Queen Aahhotep, Eighteenth Dynasty
301. Diadem of same
302. Gold Ûsekh of same
303. Gold pectoral of same
304, 305. Poignards found with mummy of Queen Aahhotep
306. Battle-axe found with same
307. Model funerary bark found with same
308. Ring of Rameses II
309. Bracelet of Prince Psar
{1} Archaeologists, when visiting Egypt, have so concentrated their attention upon temples and tombs, that not one has devoted himself to a careful examination of the existing remains of private dwellings and military buildings. Few countries, nevertheless, have preserved so many relics of their ancient civil architecture. Setting aside towns of Roman or Byzantine date, such as are found almost intact at Koft (Coptos), at Kom Ombo, and at El Agandiyeh, one-half at least of ancient Thebes still exists on the east and south of Karnak. The site of Memphis is covered with mounds, some of which are from fifty to sixty feet in height, each containing a core of houses in good preservation. At Kahûn, the ruins and remains of a whole provincial Twelfth Dynasty town have been laid bare; at Tell el Mask-hûtah, the granaries of Pithom are yet standing; at Sãn (Tanis) and Tell Basta (Bubastis), the Ptolemaic and Saïtic cities contain quarters of which plans might be made (Note 1), and in many localities which escape the traveller's notice, there may be seen ruins of private dwellings which date back to the age of the Ramessides, {2} or to a still earlier period. As regards fortresses, there are two in the town of Abydos alone, one of which is at least contemporary with the Sixth Dynasty; while the ramparts of El Kab, of Kom el Ahmar, of El Hibeh, and of Dakkeh, as well as part of the fortifications of Thebes, are still standing, and await the architect who shall deign to make them an object of serious study.
1.--PRIVATE DWELLINGS.
The soil of Egypt, periodically washed by the inundation, is a black, compact, homogeneous clay, which becomes of stony hardness when dry. From immemorial time, the fellahin have used it for the construction of their houses. The hut of the poorest peasant is a mere rudely-shaped mass of this clay. A rectangular space, some eight or ten feet in width, by perhaps sixteen or eighteen feet in length, is enclosed in a wickerwork of palm- branches, coated on both sides with a layer of mud. As this coating cracks in the drying the fissures are filled in, and more coats of mud are daubed on until the walls attain a thickness of from four inches to a foot. Finally, the whole is roofed over with palm-branches and straw, the top being covered in with a thin layer of beaten earth. The height varies. In most huts, the ceiling is so low that to rise suddenly is dangerous both to one's head and to the structure, while in others the roof is six or seven feet from the floor. Windows, of course, there are none. Sometimes a hole is left in the middle of the roof to let the smoke out; but this is a refinement undreamed of by many. {3}
At the first glance, it is not always easy to distinguish between these huts of wattle and daub and those built with crude bricks. The ordinary Egyptian brick is a mere oblong block of mud mixed with chopped straw and a little sand, and dried in the sun. At a spot where they are about to build, one man is told off to break up the ground; others carry the clods, and pile them in a heap, while others again mix them with water, knead the clay with their feet, and reduce it to a homogeneous paste. This paste, when sufficiently worked (Note 2), is pressed by the head workman in moulds made of hard wood, while an assistant carries away the bricks as fast as they are shaped, and lays them out in rows at a little distance apart, to dry in the sun (fig. 1). A careful brickmaker will leave them thus for half a day, or even for a whole day, after which the bricks are piled in stacks in such wise that the air can circulate freely among them; and so they remain for a week or two before they are used. More frequently, however, they are exposed for only a few hours to the heat of the sun, and the building is begun while they are yet damp. The mud, however, is so tenacious that, notwithstanding this carelessness, they are not readily put out of shape. The outer {4} faces of the bricks become disintegrated by the action of the weather, but those in the inner part of the wall remain intact, and are still separable. A good modern workman will easily mould a thousand bricks a day, and after a week's practice he may turn out 1,200, 1,500, or even 1,800. The ancient workmen, whose appliances in no wise differed from those of the present day, produced equally satisfactory results. The dimensions they generally adopted were 8.7 x 4.3 x 5.5 inches for ordinary bricks, or 15.0 x 7.1 x 5.5 for a larger size (Note 3), though both larger and smaller are often met with in the ruins. Bricks issued from the royal workshops were sometimes stamped with the cartouches of the reigning monarch; while those made in private factories bore on the side a trade mark in red ochre, a squeeze of the moulder's fingers, or the stamp of the maker. By far the greater number have, however, no distinctive mark. Burnt bricks were not often used before the Roman period (Note 4), nor tiles, either flat or curved. Glazed bricks appear to have been the fashion in the Delta. The finest specimen that I have seen, namely, one in the Gizeh Museum, is inscribed in black ink with the cartouches of Rameses III. The glaze of this brick is green, but other fragments are coloured blue, red, yellow, or white.
The nature of the soil does not allow of deep foundations. It consists
of a thin bed of made earth, which, except in large towns, never reaches
any degree of thickness; below this comes a very dense humus, permeated by
slender veins of sand; and below this again--at the level of infiltration--
comes a bed of mud, more or less soft, according to the season. The native
builders {5} of
the present day are content to remove only the made earth, and lay their
foundations on the primeval soil; or, if that lies too deep, they stop at a
yard or so below the surface. The old Egyptians did likewise; and I have
never seen any ancient house of which the foundations were more than four
feet deep. Even this is exceptional, the depth in most cases being not more
than two feet. They very often did not trouble themselves to cut trenches
at all; they merely levelled the space intended to be covered, and, having
probably watered it to settle the soil, they at once laid the bricks upon
the surface. When the house was finished, the scraps of mortar, the broken
bricks, and all the accumulated refuse of the work, made a bed of eight
inches or a foot in depth, and the base of the wall thus buried served
instead of a foundation. When the new house rose on the ruins of an older
one decayed by time or ruined by accident, the builders did not even take
the trouble to raze the old walls to the ground. Levelling the surface of
the ruins, they-built upon them at a level a few feet higher than before:
thus each town stands upon one or several artificial mounds, the tops of
which may occasionally rise to a height of from sixty to eighty feet above
the surrounding country. The Greek historians attributed these artificial
mounds to the wisdom of the kings, and especially to Sesostris, who, as
they supposed, wished to raise the towns above the inundation. Some modern
writers have even described the process, which they explain thus:--A
cellular framework of brick walls, like a huge chess-board, formed the
substructure, the cells being next filled in with earth, and the houses
built upon this immense platform (Note 5). {6}
Fig 2.--Ancient house with vaulted floors, against the
northern wall of the great temple of Medinet Habù
But where I have excavated, especially at Thebes, I have never found
anything answering to this conception. The intersecting walls which one
finds beneath the later houses are nothing but the ruins of older
dwellings, which in turn rest on others still older. The slightness of the
foundations did not prevent the builders from boldly running up quite lofty
structures. In the ruins of Memphis, I have observed walls still standing
from thirty to forty feet in height. The builders took no precaution beyond
enlarging the base of the wall, and vaulting the floors (fig. 2).[1] The thickness of
an ordinary wall was about sixteen inches for a low house; but for one of
several storeys, it was increased to three or four feet. Large beams,
embedded here and there in the brickwork or masonry, bound the whole
together, and strengthened the structure. The ground floor was also
frequently built with dressed stones, while the upper parts were of brick.
The limestone of the neighbouring hills was the stone commonly used for
such purposes. The fragments of sandstone, granite, and alabaster, which
are often found mixed in with it, are generally from some ruined temple;
the ancient Egyptians having pulled their neglected monuments to pieces
quite as unscrupulously as do their modern successors. The {7} 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 monumental
gateways in the surrounding brick wall.
The gods dwelt in fortified mansions, or at any rate in redoubts to
which the people of the place might fly for safety in the event of any
sudden attack upon their town.
Fig. 4.--Plan of house, Medinet Habû
Such towns as were built all at once by prince or king were fairly regular
in plan, having wide paved streets at right angles to each other, and the
buildings {8} in
line. The older cities, whose growth had been determined by the chances and
changes of centuries, were characterised by no such regularity. Their
houses stood in a maze of blind alleys, and narrow, dark, and straggling
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
women came for water. Somewhere in each town was an open space shaded by
sycamores or acacias, and hither on market days came the peas-ants of the
district two or three times in the month. There were also waste places
where rubbish and refuse was thrown, to be quarrelled over by vultures,
hawks, and dogs.
The lower classes lived in mere huts which, though built of bricks, were no
better than those of the present fellahin.
Fig 5.--Plan of house, Medinet Habû.
At Karnak, in the Pharaonic town; at Kom Ombo, in the Roman town; and at
Medinet Habû, in the Coptic town, the houses in the poorer quarters have
seldom more than twelve or sixteen feet of frontage. They consist of a
ground floor, with sometimes one or two living-rooms above. The middle-
class folk, as shopkeepers, sub-officials, and foremen, were better housed.
Their houses were brick-built and rather small, yet contained some half-
dozen rooms communicating by means of {9} doorways, which were usually arched over, and
having vaulted roofs in some cases, and in others flat ones.
Fig. 6.--Façade of a house toward the street, second Theban period.
Some few of the houses were two or three storeys high, and many were
separated from the street by a narrow court, beyond which the rooms were
ranged on either side of a long passage (fig. 4). More frequently, the
court was surrounded on three sides by chambers (fig. 5); and yet oftener
the house fronted close upon the street. In the latter case the façade
consisted of a high wall, whitewashed or painted, and surmounted by a
cornice.
Fig 7.--Plan of central court of house, second Theban period.
Even in better houses the only ornamentation of their outer walls consisted
in angular grooving, the grooves being surmounted by representations of two
lotus flowers, each pair with the upper parts of the stalks in contact (see
figs. 24, 25). The door was the only opening, save perhaps a few small
windows pierced at irregular intervals (fig. 6). Even in unpretentious
houses, the door was often made of stone. The doorposts projected slightly
beyond the surface of the wall, and the lintel supported a painted or
sculptured cornice. Having crossed the threshold, one passed {10} successively through
two dimly-lighted entrance chambers, the second of which opened into the
central court (fig. 7). The best rooms in the houses of wealthier citizens
were sometimes lighted through a square opening in the centre of a ceiling
supported on wooden columns. In the Twelfth Dynasty town of Kahûn the
shafts of these columns rested upon round stone bases; they were octagonal,
and about ten inches in diameter (fig. 8).
Notwithstanding the prevalence of enteric disease and ophthalmia, the
family crowded together into one or two rooms during the winter, and slept
out on the roof under the shelter of mosquito nets in summer. On the roof
also the women gossiped and cooked. The ground floor included both store-
rooms, barns, and stables. Private granaries were generally in pairs (see
fig. 11), brick-built in the same long conical shape as the state
granaries, and carefully plastered with mud inside and out. Neither did the
people of a house forget to find or to make hiding places in the walls or
floors of their home, where they could secrete their household {11} treasures--such as
nuggets of gold and silver, precious stones, and jewellery for men and
women--from thieves and tax-collectors alike. Wherever the upper floors
still remain standing, they reproduce the ground-floor plan with scarcely
any differences. These upper rooms were reached by an outside staircase,
steep and narrow, and divided at short intervals by small square landings.
Fig 9.--Box representing a house (British Museum).
The rooms were oblong, and were lighted only from the doorway; when it was
decided to open windows on the street, they were mere air-holes near the
ceiling, pierced without regularity or symmetry, fitted with a lattice of
wooden cross bars, and secured by wooden shutters. The floors were bricked
or paved, or consisted still more frequently of merely a layer of rammed
earth. The rooms were not left undecorated; the mud-plaster of the walls,
generally in its native grey, although whitewashed in some cases, was
painted with red or yellow, and ornamented with drawings of interior and
exterior views of a house, and of household vessels and eatables
(fig. 10).
The roof was flat, and made probably, as at the present day, of closely
laid rows of palm-branches covered with a coating of mud thick enough to
withstand the effects of rain.
Fig 11.--View of mansion from the tomb of Anna,
Eighteenth Dynasty.
Sometimes it was surmounted by only one or {12} two of the usual Egyptian
ventilators; but generally there was a small washhouse on the roof (fig.
9), and a little chamber for the slaves or guards to sleep in. The
household fire was made in a hollow 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.
The mansions of the rich and great covered a large space of ground. They most frequently stood in the {13} midst of a garden, or of an enclosed court planted with trees; and, like the commoner houses, they turned a blank front to the street, consisting of bare walls, battlemented like those of a fortress (fig. 11). Thus, home-life was strictly secluded, and the pleasure of seeing was sacrificed for the advantages of not being seen. The door was approached by a flight of two or three steps, or by a porch 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.
Sometimes this was preceded by a pylon-gateway, such as usually heralded the approach to a temple. Inside the enclosure it was like a small town, divided into quarters by irregular walls. The dwelling-house stood at the farther end; the granaries, stabling, and open spaces being distributed in different parts of the grounds, according to some system to which we as yet possess no clue. These arrangements, however, were infinitely varied. If I would convey some idea of the residence of an Egyptian noble,--a residence half palace, half villa,--I cannot do better than reproduce two out of the many pictorial plans which have come down to us among {14} the tomb-paintings of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The first (figs. 14, 15) represent a Theban house. The enclosure is square, and surrounded by an embattled wall. The main gate opens upon a road bordered with trees, which runs beside a canal, or perhaps an arm of the Nile. Low stone walls divide the garden into symmetrical compartments, like those which are seen to this day in the great gardens of Ekhmîm or Girgeh. {15}
In the centre is a large trellis supported on four rows of slender pillars. Four small ponds, two to the right and two to the left, are stocked with ducks and geese. Two nurseries, two summer-houses, and various avenues of sycamores, date-palms, and dôm-palms fill up the intermediate space; while at the end, facing the entrance, stands a small three-storied house surmounted by a painted cornice.
The second plan is copied from one of the rock-cut tombs of Tell el
Amarna (figs. 16, 17). Here we see a house situate at the end of the
gardens of the great lord Aï, son-in-law of the Pharaoh Khûenaten, and
himself afterwards king of Egypt. An oblong stone {16} tank with sloping sides, and two
descending flights of steps, faces the entrance. The building is
rectangular, the width being somewhat greater than the depth. A large
doorway opens in the middle of the front, and gives access to a court
planted with trees and flanked by store-houses fully stocked with
provisions.
Fig 16.--Part of the palace of Aï, from tomb-painting,
Eighteenth Dynasty, El Amarna.
Two small courts, placed symmetrically in the two farthest corners, contain
the staircases which lead up to the roof terrace. This first building,
however, is but the frame which surrounds the owner's dwelling. The two
frontages are each adorned with a pillared portico and a pylon. Passing the
outer door, we enter a sort of long central passage, divided by two walls
pierced with doorways, so as to form three successive courts. The inside
court is bordered by chambers; the two others open to right and left upon
two smaller courts, whence flights of steps lead up to the terraced roof.
This central building is called the Akhonûti, or private dwelling of
kings or nobles, to which only the family and intimate friends had access.
The number of storeys and the arrangement of the {17} façade varied according to the taste
of the owner. The frontage was generally a straight wall. Sometimes it was
divided into three parts, with the middle division projecting, in which
case the two wings were ornamented with a colonnade to each storey (fig.
18), or surmounted by an open gallery (fig. 19).
Fig 17.--Perspective view of the Palace of AT,
Eighteenth Dynasty, El Amarna.
The central pavilion sometimes presents the appearance of a tower, which
dominates the rest of the building (fig. 20). The façade is often decorated
with slender colonnettes of painted wood, which bear no weight, and merely
serve to lighten the somewhat severe aspect of the exterior. Of the
internal arrangements, we know but little. As in the middle-class houses,
the sleeping rooms were probably small and dark; but, on the other hand,
the reception rooms must have been nearly as large as those still in use in
the Arab houses of modern Egypt. {18} The decoration of walls and ceilings in no wise
resembled such scenes or designs as we find in the tombs.
Fig 18.--Frontage of house, second Theban period.
The panels were whitewashed or colour-washed, and bordered with a
polychrome band.
Fig 19.--Frontage of house, second Theban period.
Fig 20.--Central pavilion of house, in form of tower,
second Theban period.
The ceilings were usually left white; sometimes, however {19} they were decorated
with geometrical patterns, which repeated the leading motives employed in
the sepulchral wall-paintings. Thus we find examples of meanders
interspersed with rosettes (fig. 21), parti-coloured squares (fig. 22), ox-
heads seen frontwise, scrolls, and flights of geese (fig. 23).
I have touched chiefly upon houses of the second Theban period,[2] this being in
fact the time of which we have most examples.
Fig 21.--Ceiling pattern from behind, Medinet Habû,
Twentieth Dynasty.
The house-shaped lamps which are found in such large numbers in the Fayûm
date only from Roman times; but the Egyptians of that period continued to
build according to the rules which were in force under the Pharaohs of the
Twelfth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties.
Fig 22.--Ceiling pattern similar to one at El Bersheh, Twelfth
Dynasty.
As regards the domestic architecture of the ancient kingdom, the evidences
are few and obscure. Nevertheless, the stelae, tombs, and coffins of that
period often furnish designs which show us the style of the doorways (fig.
24), and one Fourth Dynasty sarcophagus, that {20} of Khûfû Poskhû, is carved in the
likeness of a house (fig. 25).
2.--FORTRESSES.
Most of the towns, and even most of the larger villages, of ancient
Egypt were walled.
Fig 23.--Ceiling pattern from tomb of Aimadûa, Twentieth Dynasty.
This was an almost necessary consequence of the geographical
characteristics and the political constitution of the country. The mouths
of the defiles which led into the desert needed to be closed against the
Bedawîn; while the great feudal nobles fortified their houses, their towns,
and the villages upon their domains which commanded either the mountain
passes or the narrow parts of the river, against their king or their
neighbours.
The oldest fortresses are those of Abydos, El Kab, and Semneh. Abydos
contained a sanctuary dedicated to Osiris, and was situate at the entrance
to one of the roads leading to the Oasis. As the renown of the temple
attracted pilgrims, so the position of the city caused it to be frequented
by merchants; hence the prosperity which it derived from the influx of both
{21} classes of
strangers exposed the city to incursions of the Libyan tribes.
Fig 24.--Door of a house of the Ancient Empire, from the
wall of a tomb of the Sixth Dynasty.
At Abydos there yet remain two almost perfect strongholds. The older forms,
as it were, the core of that tumulus called by the Arabs "Kom es Sultan,"
or "the Mound of the King." The interior of this building has been
excavated to a point some ten or twelve feet above the ground level, but
the walls outside have not yet been cleared from the surrounding sand and
rubbish. In its present condition, it forms a parallelogram of crude
brickwork measuring 410 feet from north to south, and 223 feet from east to
west. The main axis of the structure extends, therefore, from north to
south. The principal gateway opens in the western wall, not far from the
northwest corner: but there would appear to have been {22} two smaller gates, one in the south
front, and one in the east. The walls, which now stand from twenty-four to
thirty-six feet high, have lost somewhat of their original height. They are
about six feet thick at the top. They were not built all together in
uniform layers, but in huge vertical panels, easily distinguished by the
arrangement of the brickwork. In one division the bedding of the bricks is
strictly horizontal; in the next it is slightly concave, and forms a very
flat reversed arch, of which the extrados rests upon the ground.
Fig 25.--Façade of a Fourth Dynasty house, from the
sarcophagus of Khûfû Poskhû.
The alternation of these two methods is regularly repeated. The object of
this arrangement is obscure; but it is said that buildings thus constructed
are especially fitted to resist earthquake shocks. However this may be, the
fortress is extremely ancient, for in the Fifth Dynasty, the nobles of
Abydos took possession of the interior, and, ultimately, so piled it up
with their graves as to deprive it of all strategic value. A second
stronghold, erected a few hundred yards further to the south-east, replaced
that of Kom {23}
es Sultan about the time of the Twelfth Dynasty, and narrowly
escaped the fate of the first, under the rule of the Ramessides. Nothing,
in fact, but the sudden decline of the city, saved the second from being
similarly choked and buried.
The early Egyptians possessed no engines calculated to make an
impression on very massive walls.
Fig 26.--Plan of second fortress at Abydos, Eleventh or
Twelfth Dynasty.
They knew of but three ways of forcing a stronghold; namely, scaling the
walls, sapping them, or bursting open the gates. The plan adopted by their
engineers in building the second fort is admirably well calculated to
resist each of these modes of attack (fig. 26). The outer walls are long
and straight, without towers or projections of any kind; they measure 430
feet in length from north to south, by 255 feet in width. The foundations
rest on the sand, and do not go down more than a foot. The wall (fig. 27)
is of crude brick, in horizontal {24} courses. It has a slight batter; is solid, without
slits or loopholes; and is decorated outside with long vertical grooves or
panels, like those depicted on the stelae of the ancient empire.
Fig 27.--Walls of second fort at Abydos, restored.
In its present state, it rises to a height of some thirty-six feet above
the plain; when perfect, it would scarcely have exceeded forty feet, which
height would amply suffice to protect the garrison from all danger of
scaling by portable ladders. The thickness of the wall is about twenty feet
at the base, and sixteen feet above. The top is destroyed, but the bas-
reliefs and mural paintings (fig. 28) show that it must have been crowned
with a continuous cornice, boldly projecting, furnished with a slight low
parapet, and surmounted by battlements, which were generally rounded, but
sometimes, though rarely, squared.
Fig 28.--Façade of fort, from wall-scene,
Beni Hasan, Twelfth Dynasty.
The walk round the top of the ramparts, though diminished by the parapet,
was still twelve or fifteen feet wide. It ran uninterruptedly along the
four sides, and was reached by narrow staircases formed in the thickness of
the walls, but now destroyed. There was no ditch, but in order to protect
the base {25}
of the main wall from sappers, they erected, about ten feet in advance of
it, a battlemented covering wall, some sixteen feet in height.
Fig 29.--Plan of main gate, second fortress of Abydos.
These precautions sufficed against sap and scaling; but the gates remained
as open gaps in the circuit. It was upon these weak points that besiegers
and besieged alike concentrated their efforts. The fortress of Abydos had
two gates, the main one being situate at the east end of the north front
(fig. 29).
Fig 30.--Plan of south-east gate, second fortress of Abydos.
A narrow cutting (A), closed by a massive wooden door, marked the place in
the covering wall. Behind it was a small place d'armes (B), cut
partly in the thickness of the wall, and leading to a second gate (C) as
narrow as the first. When, notwithstanding the showers of missiles poured
upon them from the top of the walls, not only in front, but also from both
sides, the attacking party had succeeded in carrying this second door, they
were not yet in the heart of the place.
Fig 31.--Plan of gate, fortress of Kom el Ahmar.
They would still have to traverse an oblong court (D), closely hemmed in
between the outer walls and the cross walls, which last stood at right
angles to the first. Finally, they must force a last postern (E), which was
purposely placed in the most awkward corner. The leading principle in the
{26}
construction of fortress-gates was always the same, but the details varied
according to the taste of the engineer. At the south-east gate of the fort
of Abydos (fig. 30) the place d'armes between the two walls is
abolished, and the court is constructed entirely in the thickness of the
main wall; while at Kom el Ahmar, opposite El Kab (fig. 31), the block of
brickwork in the midst of which the gate is cut projects boldly in front.
Fig 32.--Plan of the walled city at El Kab.
The posterns opening at various points facilitated the movements of the
garrison, and enabled them to multiply their sorties.
The same system of fortification which was in use for isolated
fortresses was also employed for the protection of towns. At Heliopollis,
at Sãn, at Sais, at Thebes, everywhere in short, we find long straight
walls forming plain squares or parallelograms, without towers or bastions,
ditches or outworks. The thickness of the walls, which varied from thirty
to eighty feet, made such precautions needless. The gates, or at all events
the principal ones, had jambs and lintels of stone, decorated with scenes
and inscriptions; as, for instance, that of Ombos, which Champollion beheld
yet in situ, and which dated from the reign of Thothmes III. The
oldest and best preserved walled city in Egypt, namely, {27} El Kab, belongs
probably to the ancient empire (fig. 32). The Nile washed part of it away
some years ago; but at the beginning of the present century it formed an
irregular quadrilateral enclosure, measuring some 2,100 feet in length, by
about a quarter less in breadth. The south front is constructed on the same
principles as the wall at Kom es Sultan, the bricks being bedded in
alternate horizontal and concave sections. Along the north and west fronts
they are laid in undulating layers from end to end.
Fig 33.--Plan of walled city at Kom Ombo.
The thickness is thirty-eight feet, and the average height thirty feet; and
spacious ramps lead up to the walk upon the walls. The gates are placed
irregularly, one in each side to north, east, and west, but none in the
south face; they are, however, in too ruinous a state to admit of any plan
being taken of them. The enclosure contained a considerable population,
whose dwellings were unequally distributed, the greater part being
concentrated towards the north and west, where excavations have disclosed
the remains of a large number of houses. The temples were grouped together
in a square enclosure, concentric with the outer wall; and this second
enclosure served for a keep, where the garrison could hold out long after
the rest of the town had fallen into the hands of the enemy.
The rectangular plan, though excellent in a plain, {28} was not always available in a
hilly country.
Fig 34.--Plan of fortress of Kùmmeh.
When the spot to be fortified was situate upon a height, the Egyptian
engineers knew perfectly well how to adapt their lines of defence to the
nature of the site. At Kom Ombo (fig. 33) the walls exactly followed the
outline of the isolated mound on which the town was perched, and presented
towards the east a front bristling with irregular projections, the style of
which roughly resembles our modern bastions. At Kûmmeh and Semneh, in
Nubia, where the Nile rushes over the rocks of the second cataract, the
engineering arrangements are very ingenious, and display much real skill.
Ûsertesen III. had fixed on this pass as the frontier of Egypt, and the
fortresses which he there constructed were intended to bar the water-way
against the vessels of the neighbouring negro tribes. At Kûmmeh, on the
right bank, the position was naturally strong (fig. 34).
Fig 35.--Plan of fortress of Semneh.
Upon a rocky height {29} surrounded by precipices was planned an irregular
square measuring about 200 feet each way. Two elongated bastions, one on
the north-east and the other on the south-east, guarded respectively the
path leading to the gate, and the course of the river. The covering wall
stood thirteen feet high, and closely followed the line of the main wall,
except at the north and south corners, where it formed two bastion-like
projections. At Semneh, on the opposite bank, the site was less favourable.
Fig 36.--Section of the platform at A B, of the preceding plan.
The east side was protected by a belt of cliffs going sheer down to the
water's edge; but the three other sides were well-nigh open (fig. 35). A
straight wall, about fifty feet in height, carried along the cliffs on the
side next the river; but the walls looking towards the plain rose to eighty
feet, and bristled with bastion-like projections (A.B.) jutting out for a
distance of fifty feet from the curtain wall, measuring thirty feet thick
at the base and thirteen feet at the top, and irregularly spaced, according
to the requirements of the defence. These spurs, which are not
battlemented, served in place of towers.
Fig 37.--Syrian fort.
They added to the strength of the walls, protected the walk round the top,
and enabled the besieged to direct a flank attack against the enemy if any
attempt were made upon the wall of circuit. The intervals between these
spurs are accurately calculated as to distance, in order that the archers
should be able to sweep the intervening ground {30} with their arrows. Curtains and salients
are alike built of crude brick, with beams bedded horizontally in the mass.
The outer face is in two parts, the lower division being nearly vertical,
and the upper one inclined at an angle of about seventy degrees, which made
scaling very difficult, if not impossible. The whole of the ground enclosed
by the wall of circuit was filled in to nearly the level of the ramparts
(fig. 36). Externally, the covering wall of stone was separated from the
body of the fortress by a dry ditch, some 100 to 130 feet in width.
Fig 38.--The town-walls of Dapür.
This wall closely followed the main outline, and rose to a height which
varied according to the situation from six to ten feet above the level of
the plain. On the northward side it was cut by the winding road, which led
down into the plain. These arrangements, skilful as they were, did not
prevent the fall of the place. A large breach in the southward face,
between the two salients nearest to the river, marks the point of attack
selected by the enemy. {31}
New methods of fortification were revealed to the Egyptians in the course
of the great Asiatic wars undertaken by the Pharaohs of the Eighteenth
Dynasty.
Fig 39.--City of Kadesh, Ramesseum.
The nomadic tribes of Syria erected small forts in which they took refuge
when threatened with invasion (fig. 37). The Canaanite and Hittite cities,
as Ascalon, Dapur, and Merom, were surrounded by strong walls, generally
built of stone and flanked with towers (fig. 38). Those which stood in the
open country, as, for instance, Qodshû (Kadesh), were enclosed by a double
moat (fig. 39). Having proved the efficacy of these new types of defensive
architecture in the course of their campaigns, the Pharaohs reproduced them
in the valley of the Nile. From the beginning of the Nineteenth Dynasty,
the eastern frontier of the Delta (always the weakest) was protected by a
line of forts constructed after the Canaanite model.
Fig 40.--Plan of the pavilion of Medinet Habu.
The Egyptians, moreover, not content
with appropriating the thing, appropriated also the name, and called these
frontier towers by the Semitic name of Magdilû or Migdols. For these
purposes, or at all events for cities which were {32} exposed to the incursions of the
Asiatic tribes, brick was not deemed to be sufficiently strong; hence the
walls of Heliopolis, and even those of Memphis, were faced with stone. Of
these new fortresses no ruins remain; and but for a royal caprice which
happens to have left us a model Migdol in that most unlikely place, the
necropolis of Thebes, we should now be constrained to attempt a restoration
of their probable appearance from the representations in certain mural
tableaux.
Fig 41.--Elevation of pavilion, Medinet Habû.
When, however, Rameses III. erected his memorial temple [3] (figs. 40 and 41), he
desired, in remembrance of his Syrian victories, to give it an outwardly
military aspect. Along the eastward front of the enclosure there
accordingly runs a battlemented covering wall of stone, averaging some
thirteen feet in height. The gate, protected by a large quadrangular
bastion, opened in the middle of this wall. It was three feet four inches
in width, and was flanked by two small oblong guard-houses, the flat roofs
of which {33}
stood about three feet higher than the ramparts. Passing this gate, we
stand face to face with a real Migdol. Two blocks of building enclose a
succession of court-yards, which narrow as they recede, and are connected
at the lower end by a kind of gate-house, consisting of one massive gateway
surmounted by two storeys of chambers. The eastward faces of the towers
rise above an inclined basement, which slopes to a height of from fifteen
to sixteen feet from the ground. This answered two purposes. It increased
the strength of the wall at the part exposed to sappers; it also caused the
rebound of projectiles thrown from above, and so helped to keep assailants
at a distance. The whole height is about seventy-two feet, and the width of
each tower is thirty-two feet. The buildings situate at the back, to right
and left of the gate, were destroyed in ancient times. The details of the
decoration are partly religious, partly triumphal, as befits the character
of the structure. It is unlikely, however, that actual fortresses were
adorned with brackets and bas-relief sculptures, such as we here see on
either side of the fore-court. Such as it is, the so-called "pavilion" of
Medinet Habu offers an unique example of the high degree of perfection to
which the victorious Pharaohs of this period had carried their military
architecture.
Material evidence fails us almost entirely, after the reign of Rameses III. Towards the close of the eleventh century B.C., the high-priests of Amen repaired the walls of Thebes, of Gebeleyn, and of El Hibeh opposite Feshn. The territorial subdivision of the country, which took place under the successors of Sheshonk, compelled the provincial princes to multiply {34} their strongholds. The campaign of Piankhi on the banks of the Nile is a series of successful sieges. Nothing, however, leads us to suppose that the art of fortification had at that time made any distinct progress; and when the Greek rulers succeeded the native Pharaohs, they most probably found it at much the same stage as it was left by the engineers of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties.
3.--PUBLIC WORKS.
A permanent network of roads would be useless in a country like Egypt.
The Nile here is the natural highway for purposes of commerce, and the
pathways which intersect the fields suffice 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 shallow enough, and
embanked dams thrown up here and there where the water was too deep for
fordings, completed the system of internal communication. Bridges were
rare. Up to the present time, we know of but one in the whole territory of
ancient Egypt; and whether that one was long or short, built of stone or of
wood, supported on arches or boldly flung across the stream from bank to
bank, we cannot even conjecture. This bridge, close under the very walls of
Zarû, [4]
crossed the canal which {35} separated the eastern frontier of Egypt from the
desert regions of Arabia Petraea. A fortified enclosure protected this
canal on the Asiatic side, as shown in the accompanying illustration (fig.
42).
Fig 42.--Canal and bridge, Zarû, Karnak.
The maintenance of public highways, which figures as so costly an item
in the expenses of modern nations, played, therefore, but a very small part
in the annual disbursements of the Pharaohs, who had only to provide for
the due execution of three great branches of government works,--namely,
storage, irrigation, mining and quarrying.
The taxation of ancient Egypt was levied in kind, and government
servants were paid after the same system. To workmen, there were monthly
distributions of corn, oil, and wine, wherewith to support their families;
while from end to end of the social scale, each functionary, in exchange
for his labour, received cattle, stuffs, manufactured goods, and certain
quantities of copper or precious metals. Thus it became necessary that the
treasury officials should have the command of vast storehouses for the safe
keeping of the various goods collected under the head of taxation. These
were classified and stored in separate quarters, each storehouse being
surrounded by walls and guarded by vigilant keepers.
Fig 43.--Cellar, with amphorae.
There was enormous stabling for cattle; there were cellars where the
amphorae were piled in regular layers (fig. 43), or hung in rows upon the
walls, {36} each
with the date written on the side of the jar; there were oven-shaped
granaries where the corn was poured in through a trap at the top (fig. 44),
and taken out through a trap at the bottom. At Thûkû, identified with
Pithom by M. Naville,[5] the store-chambers (A) are rectangular and of different
dimensions (fig. 45), originally divided by floors, and having no
communication with each other. Here the corn had to be not only put in but
taken out through the aperture at the top.
Fig 44.--Granary.
At the Ramesseum, Thebes, thousands of ostraka and jar-stoppers found upon
the spot prove that the brick-built remains at the back of the temple were
the cellars of the local deity. The ruins consist of a series of vaulted
chambers, originally surmounted by a platform or terrace (fig. 46). At
Philae, Ombos, Daphnae,[6] and most of the frontier towns of {37} the Delta, there were
magazines of this description, and many more will doubtless be discovered
when made the object of serious exploration.
The irrigation system of Egypt is but little changed since the olden
time.
Fig 45.--Plan of Pithom.
Some new canals have been cut, and yet more have been silted up through the
negligence of those in power; but the general scheme, and the methods
employed, continue much the same, and demand but little engineering skill.
Wherever I have investigated the remains of ancient canals, I have been
unable to detect any traces of masonry at the weak points, or at the
mouths, of these cuttings. They are mere excavated ditches, from twenty to
sixty or seventy feet in width. The earth flung out during the work was
thrown to right and left, forming irregular embankments from seven to
fourteen feet in height.
Fig 46.--Store-chambers of the Ramesseum.
The course of the ancient canals was generally straight: but that rule was
not strictly observed, and {38} enormous curves were often described in order to avoid
even slight irregularities of surface. Dikes thrown up from the foot of the
cliffs to the banks of the Nile divided the plain at intervals into a
series of artificial basins, where the overflow formed back-waters at the
time of inundation. These dikes are generally earth-works, though they are
sometimes constructed of baked brick, as in the province of Girgeh. Very
rarely are they built of hewn stone, like that great dike of Kosheish which
was constructed by Mena in primaeval times, in order to divert the course
of the Nile from the spot on which he founded Memphis.[7] The network of canals began
near Silsilis and extended to the sea-board, without ever losing touch of
the river, save at one spot near Beni Sûef, where it throws out a branch in
the direction of the Fayûm. Here, through a narrow and sinuous gorge,
deepened probably by the hand of man, it passes the rocky barrier which
divides that low-lying province from the valley of the Nile, and thence
expands into a fanlike ramification of innumerable channels. Having thus
irrigated the district, the waters flow out again; those nearest the Nile
returning by the same way that they flowed in, while the rest form a series
of lakes, the largest of which is known as the Birket el Kûrûn. If we are
to believe Herodotus, the work was not so simply done. A king, named
Moeris, desired to create a reservoir in the Fayûm which should neutralise
the evil effects of insufficient or superabundant inundations. This {39} reservoir was
named, after him, Lake Moeris. If the supply fell below the average, then
the stored waters were let loose, and Lower Egypt and the Western Delta
were flooded to the needful height. If next year the inundation came down
in too great force, Lake Moeris received and stored the surplus till such
time as the waters began to subside. Two pyramids, each surmounted by a
sitting colossus, one representing the king and the other his queen, were
erected in the midst of the lake. Such is the tale told by Herodotus, and
it is a tale which has considerably embarrassed our modern engineers and
topographers. How, in fact, was it possible to find in the Fayûm a site
which could have contained a basin measuring at least ninety miles in
circumference? Linant supposed "Lake Moeris" to have extended over the
whole of the low-lying land which skirts the Libyan cliffs between Illahûn
and Medinet el Fayûm; but recent explorations have proved that the dikes by
which this pretended reservoir was bounded are modern works, erected
probably within the last two hundred years. Major Brown has lately shown
that the nucleus of "Lake Moeris" was the Birket el Kûrûn.[8] This was known
to the Egyptians as Miri, Mi-ûri, the Great Lake, whence the Greeks
derived their Moiris a name extended also to the inundation of the
Fayûm. If Herodotus did actually visit this province, it was probably in
summer, at the time of the high Nile, when the whole district presents the
appearance of an inland sea. What he took for the shores of this lake were
the embankments which divided it into basins and acted as highways between
the {40} various
towns. His narrative, repeated by the classic authors, has been accepted by
the moderns; and Egypt, neither accepting nor rejecting it, was gratified
long after date with the reputation of a gigantic work which would in truth
have been the glory of her civil engineers, if it had ever existed. I do
not believe that "Lake Moeris" ever did exist.
Fig 47.--Dike at Wady Gerraweh.
The only works of the kind which the Egyptians undertook were much less
pretentious. These consist of stone-built dams erected at the mouths of
many of those lateral ravines, or wadys, which lead down from the mountain
ranges into the valley of the Nile. One of the most important among them
was pointed out, in 1885, by Dr. Schweinfurth, at a distance of about six
miles and a half from the Baths of Helwan, at the mouth of the Wady
Gerraweh (fig. 47). It answered two purposes, firstly, as a means of
storing the water of the inundation for the use of the workmen in the
neighbouring quarries; and, secondly, as a barrier to break the force of
the torrents which rush down from the desert after the heavy rains of
springtime and winter. The ravine measures about 240 feet in width, the
sides being on an average from 40 to 50 feet in height. The dam, which is
143 feet in thickness, consists of three layers {41} of material; at the bottom, a bed of
clay and rubble; next, a piled mass of limestone blocks (A); lastly, a wall
of cut stone built in retreating stages, like an enormous flight of steps
(B). Thirty-two of the original thirty-five stages are yet in situ,
and about one-fourth part of the dam remains piled up against the sides of
the ravine to right and left; but the middle part has been swept away by
the force of the torrent (fig. 48). A similar dike transformed the end of
Wady Genneh into a little lake which supplied the Sinaitic miners with
water.
Most of the localities from which the Egyptians derived their metals and choicest materials in hard stone, were difficult of access, and would have been useless had roads not been made, and works of this kind carried out, so as to make life somewhat less insupportable there.
In order to reach the diorite and grey granite quarries of the Hammamat Valley, the Pharaohs caused a series of rock-cut cisterns to be constructed along the line of route. Some few insignificant springs, skilfully conducted into these reservoirs, made it possible to plant workmen's villages in the neighbourhood of the quarries, and also near the emerald mines on the borders of the Red Sea. Hundreds of hired labourers, slaves, and condemned criminals here led a wretched existence under the rule of some eight or ten overseers, and the brutal surveillance of a company of Libyan or negro mercenary troops. The least political disturbance in Egypt, an unsuccessful {42} campaign, or any untoward incident of a troubled reign, sufficed to break up the precarious stability of these remote establishments. The Bedawîn at once attacked the colony; the workmen deserted; the guards, weary of exile, hastened back to the valley of the Nile, and all was at a standstill.
The choicest materials, as diorite, basalt, black granite, porphyry, and red and yellow breccia, which are only found in the desert, were rarely used for architectural purposes. In order to procure them, it was necessary to organise regular expeditions of soldiers and workmen; therefore they were reserved for sarcophagi and important works of art. Those quarries which supplied building materials for temples and funerary monuments, such as limestone, sandstone, alabaster, and red granite, were all found in the Nile valley, and were, therefore, easy of access. When the vein which it was intended to work traversed the lower strata of the rock, the miners excavated chambers and passages, which were often prolonged to a considerable distance. Square pillars, left standing at intervals, supported the superincumbent mass, while tablets sculptured in the most conspicuous places commemorated the kings and engineers who began or continued the work. Several exhausted or abandoned quarries have been transformed into votive chapels; as, for instance, the Speos Artemidos, which was consecrated by Hatshepsut, Thothmes III. and Seti I. to the local goddess Pakhet.[9]
The most important limestone quarries are at Tûrah {43} and Massarah, nearly opposite
Memphis. This stone lends itself admirably to the most delicate touches of
the chisel, hardens when exposed to the air, and acquires a creamy tone
most restful to the eye. Hence it was much in request by architects and
sculptors. The most extensive sandstone formations are at Silsilis (fig.
49). Here the cliffs were quarried from above, and under the open sky.
Fig 49.--Quarries of Silsilis.
Clean cut and absolutely vertical, they rise to a height of from forty to
fifty feet, sometimes presenting a smooth surface from top to bottom, and
sometimes cut in stages accessible by means of steps {44} scarcely large enough for one
man at a time. The walls of these cuttings are covered with parallel
striae, sometimes horizontal, sometimes slanting to the left, and sometimes
to the right, so forming lines of serried chevrons framed, as it were,
between grooves an inch, or an inch and a half, in width, by nine or ten
feet in length.
Fig 50.--Draught of Hathor capital in quarry of Gebel
Abûfeydeh.
These are the scars left upon the surface by the tools of the ancient
workmen, and they show the method employed in detaching the blocks. The
size was outlined in red ink, and this outline sometimes indicated the form
which the stone was to take in the projected building. The members of the
French Commission, when they visited the quarries of Gebel Abûfeydeh,
copied the diagrams and squared designs of several capitals, one being of
the campaniform pattern, and others prepared for the Hathor-head {45} pattern (fig. 50).[10] The
outline made, the vertical faces of the block were divided by means of a
long iron chisel, which was driven in perpendicularly or obliquely by heavy
blows of the mallet. In order to detach the horizontal faces, they made use
of wooden or bronze wedges, inserted the way of the natural strata of the
stone. Very frequently the stone was roughly blocked out before being
actually extracted from the bed. Thus at Syene (Asûan) we see a couchant
obelisk of granite, the under side of which is one with the rock itself;
and at Tehneh there are drums of columns but half disengaged.
Fig 51.--Bas-relief from one of the stelae of Ahmes, at
Tûrrah, Eighteenth Dynasty.
The transport of quarried stone was effected in various ways. At Syene, at
Silsilis, at Gebel Sheikh Herideh, and at Gebel Abûfeydeh, the quarries are
literally washed by the waters of the Nile, so that the stone was lowered
at once into the barges. At Kasr es Saîd,[11] at Tûrah, and other
localities situate at some distance from the river, canals dug expressly
for the purpose conveyed the transport boats to the foot of the cliffs.
When water transit was out of the question, the stone was placed on sledges
drawn by oxen (fig. 51), or dragged to its destination by gangs of
labourers, and by the help of rollers.
{46}In the civil and military architecture of Ancient Egypt brick played the principal part; but in the religious architecture of the nation it occupied a very secondary position. The Pharaohs were ambitious of building eternal dwellings for their deities, and stone was the only material which seemed sufficiently durable to withstand the ravages of time and man.
1.--MATERIALS AND PRINCIPLES OF CONSTRUCTION.
It is an error to suppose that the Egyptians employed only large blocks for building purposes. The size of their materials varied very considerably according to the uses for which they were destined. Architraves, drums of columns, lintel-stones, and door-jambs were sometimes of great size. The longest architraves known--those, namely, which bridge the nave of the hypostyle hall of Karnak--have a mean length of 30 feet. They each contain 40 cubic yards, and weigh about 65 tons. Ordinarily, however, the blocks are not much larger than those now used in Europe. They measure, that is to say, about 2-1/2 to 4 feet in height, from 3 to 8 feet in length, and from 2 to 6 feet in thickness.
Some temples are built of only one kind of stone; {47} but more frequently materials of different kinds are put together in unequal proportions. Thus the main part of the temples of Abydos consists of very fine limestone; but in the temple of Seti I., the columns, architraves, jambs, and lintels,--all parts, in short, where it might be feared that the limestone would not offer sufficient resistance,--the architect has had recourse to sandstone; while in that of Rameses II., sandstone, granite, and alabaster were used. At Karnak, Luxor, Tanis, and Memphis, similar combinations may be seen. At the Ramesseum, and in some of the Nubian temples, the columns stand on massive supports of crude brick. The stones were dressed more or less carefully, according to the positions they were to occupy. When the walls were of medium thickness, as in most partition walls, they are well wrought on all sides. When the wall was thick, the core blocks were roughed out as nearly cubic as might be, and piled together without much care, the hollows being filled up with smaller flakes, pebbles, or mortar. Casing stones were carefully wrought on the faces, and the joints dressed for two-thirds or three-quarters of the length, the rest being merely picked with a point (Note 6). The largest blocks were reserved for the lower parts of the building; and this precaution was the more necessary because the architects of Pharaonic times sank the foundations of their temples no deeper than those of their houses. At Karnak, they are not carried lower than from 7 to 10 feet; at Luxor, on the side anciently washed by the river, three courses of masonry, each measuring about 2-1/2 feet in depth, form a great platform on which the walls rest; while at the Ramesseum, the {48} brickwork bed on which the colonnade stands does not seem to be more than 10 feet deep. These are but slight depths for the foundations of such great buildings, but the experience of ages proves that they are sufficient. The hard and compact humus of which the soil of the Nile valley is composed, contracts every year after the subsidence of the inundation, and thus becomes almost incompressible. As the building progressed, the weight of the superincumbent masonry gradually became greater, till 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.
The system of construction in force among the ancient Egyptians
resembles in many respects that of the Greeks. The stones are often placed
together with dry joints, and without the employment of any binding
contrivance, the masons relying on the mere weight of the materials to keep
them in place. Sometimes they are held together by metal cramps, or
sometimes--as in the temple of Seti I., at Abydos--by dovetails of sycamore
wood bearing the cartouche of the founder. Most commonly, they are united
by a mortar-joint, more or less thick. All the mortars of which I have
collected samples are thus far of three kinds: the first is white, and
easily reduced to an impalpable powder, being of lime only; the others are
grey, and rough to the touch, being mixtures of lime and sand; while some
are of a reddish colour, owing to the pounded brick powder with which they
are mixed. A judicious use of these various methods enabled the Egyptians
to rival the Greeks in their treatment of regular courses, {49} equal blocks, and
upright joints in alternate bond. If they did not always work equally well,
their shortcomings must be charged to the imperfect mechanical means at
their disposal. The enclosure walls, partitions, and secondary façades were
upright; and they raised the materials by means of a rude kind of crane
planted on the top. The pylon walls and the principal façades (and
sometimes even the secondary façades) were sloped at an angle which varied
according to the taste of the architect. In order to build these, they
formed inclined planes, the slopes of which were lengthened as the
structure rose in height.
Fig 52.--Masonry in temple of Seti I. at Abydos.
These two methods were equally perilous; for, however carefully the blocks
might be protected while being raised, they were constantly in danger of
losing their edges or corners, or of being fractured before they reached
the top (Note 7). Thus it was almost always necessary to re-work them; and
the object being to sacrifice as little as possible of the stone, the
workmen often left them of most abnormal shapes (fig. 52). They would level
off one of the side faces, and then the joint, instead of being vertical,
leaned askew. If the block had neither height nor length to spare, they
made up the loss by means of a supplementary slip. Sometimes even they left
a projection which fitted into a corresponding hollow in the next upper or
lower course. Being first of all expedients designed to remedy accidents,
these methods degenerated into habitually careless ways of working. The
masons who had inadvertently hoisted too large a {50} block, no longer troubled
themselves to lower it back again, but worked it into the building in one
or other of the ways before mentioned. The architect neglected to duly
supervise the dressing and placing of the blocks. He allowed the courses to
vary, and the vertical joints, two or three deep, to come one over the
other. The rough work done, the masons dressed down the stone, reworked the
joints, and overlaid the whole with a coat of cement or stucco, coloured to
match the material, which concealed the faults of the real work. The walls
rarely end with a sharp edge.
Fig 53.--Temple wall with cornice.
Bordered with a torus, around which a sculptured riband is entwined, they
are crowned by the cavetto cornice surmounted by a flat band (fig.
53); or, as at Semneh, by a square cornice; or, as at Medinet Habu, by a
line of battlements. Thus framed in, the walls looked like enormous panels,
each panel complete in itself, without projections and almost without
openings. Windows, always rare in Egyptian architecture, are mere
ventilators when introduced into the walls of temples, being intended to
light the staircases, as in the second pylon of Horemheb at Karnak, or else
to support decorative woodwork on festival days. The doorways project but
slightly from the body of the buildings (fig. 54), except where the lintel
is over-shadowed by a projecting cornice. Real windows occur only in the
pavilion of Medinet Habu; but that building was constructed on the model of
a fortress, and must rank as an exception among religious monuments.{51}
The ground-level of the courts and halls was flagged with rectangular
paving stones, well enough fitted, except in the intercolumniations, where
the architects, hopeless of harmonising the lines of the pavement with the
curved bases of the columns, have filled in the space with small pieces,
set without order or method (fig. 55). Contrary to their practice when
house building, they have scarcely ever employed the vault or arch in
temple architecture. We nowhere meet with it, except at Deir el Baharî, and
in the seven parallel sanctuaries of Abydos.
Fig 55.--Pavement of the portico of Osiris in the
temple of Seti I. at Abydos.
Even in these instances, the arch is produced by "corbelling"; that is to
say, the curve is formed by three or four superimposed horizontal courses
of stone, chiselled out to the form required (fig. 56). The ordinary
roofing consists of flat paving slabs. When the space between the walls was
not too wide, these slabs bridged it over at a single stretch; otherwise
the roof had to be supported at intervals, and the wider the space the more
these supports needed {52} to be multiplied. The supports were connected by
immense stone architraves, on which the roofing slabs rested.
The supports are of two types,--the pillar and the column. Some are cut
from single blocks. Thus, the monolithic pillars of the temple of the
sphinx (Note 8), the oldest hitherto found, measure 16 feet in height by
4-1/2 feet in width.
Fig 56.--"Corbelled" arch, temple of Seti I. at Abydos.
Monolithic columns of red granite are also found among the ruins of
Alexandria, Bubastis,[12] and Memphis, which date from the reigns of Horemheb and
Rameses II., and measure some 20 to 26 feet in height. But columns and
pillars are commonly built in courses, which are often unequal and
irregular, like those of the walls which surround them. The great columns
of Luxor are not even solid, two-thirds of the diameter being filled up
with yellow cement, which has lost its strength, and crumbles between the
fingers. The capital of the column of Taharka at Karnak contains three
courses, each about 48 inches high. The last and most projecting course is
made up of twenty-six convergent stones, which are held in place by merely
the weight of the abacus. The same carelessness which we have already noted
in the workmanship {53} of the walls is found in the workmanship of the
columns.
The quadrangular pillar, with parallel or slightly inclined sides, and
generally without either base or capital, frequently occurs in tombs of the
ancient empire. It reappears later at Medinet Habû, in the temple of
Thothmes III., and again at Karnak, in what is known as the processional
hall.
Fig 57.--Hathor pillar, Abû Simbel.
The sides of these square pillars are often covered with painted scenes,
while the front faces were more decoratively treated, being sculptured with
lotus or papyrus stems in high relief, as on the pillar-stelae of Karnak,
or adorned with a head of Hathor crowned with the sistrum, as in the small
speos of Abû Simbel (fig. 57), or sculptured with a full-length standing
figure of Osiris, as in the second court of Medinet Habû; or, as at
Denderah and Gebel Barkal, with the figure of the god Bes. At Karnak, in an
edifice which was probably erected by Horemheb with building material taken
from the ruins of a sanctuary of Amenhotep II. and III., the pillar is
capped by a cornice, separated from the architrave by a thin abacus (fig.
58). By cutting away its four edges, the square pillar becomes an octagonal
prism, and further, by cutting off the eight new edges, it becomes a
sixteen-sided prism.
Fig 58.--Pillar of Amenhotep III., Karnak.
Some pillars in the tombs of Asûan and Beni Hasan, and in the processional
hall at Karnak (fig. 59), as well as in the chapels of Deir el Baharî, are
of this type. Besides the forms thus regularly evolved, there are {54} others of irregular
derivation, with six, twelve, fifteen, or twenty sides, or verging almost
upon a perfect circle. The portico pillars of the temple of Osiris at
Abydos come last in the series; the drum is curved, but not round, the
curve being interrupted at both extremities of the same diameter by a flat
stripe. More frequently the sides are slightly channelled; and sometimes,
as at Kalabsheh, the flutings are divided into four groups of five each by
four vertical flat stripes (fig. 60). The polygonal pillar has always a
large, shallow plinth, in the form of a rounded disc. At El Kab it bears
the head of Hathor, sculptured in relief upon the front (fig. 61); but
almost everywhere else it is crowned with a simple square abacus, which
joins it to the architrave. Thus treated, it {55} bears a certain family likeness to the
Doric column; and one understands how Jomard and Champollion, in the first
ardour of discovery, were tempted to give it the scarcely justifiable name
of "proto-Doric."
The column does not rest immediately upon the soil. It is always furnished with a base like that of the polygonal pillar, sometimes square with the ground, and sometimes slightly rounded. This base is either plain, or ornamented only with a line of hieroglyphs. The principal forms fall into three types: (1) the column with campaniform, or lotus-flower capital; (2) the column with lotus-bud capital; (3) the column with Hathor-head capital. {56}
I. Columns with Campaniform Capitals.--The shaft is generally
plain, or merely engraved with inscriptions or bas-reliefs.
Fig 60.--Fluted pillar, Kalabsheh.
Sometimes, however, as at Medamot, it is formed of six large and six small
colonnettes in alternation. In Pharaonic times, it is bulbous, being curved
inward at the base, and ornamented with triangles one within another,
imitating the large leaves which sheathe the sprouting plant. The curve is
so regulated that the diameter at the base and the top shall be about
equal. In the Ptolemaic period, the bulb often disappears, owing probably
to Greek influences. The columns which surround the first court at Edfû
rise straight from their plinths. The shaft always tapers towards the top.
Fig 61.--Polygonal Hathor-headed pillar, El Kab.
It is finished by three or five flat bands, one above the other. At
Medamot, where the shaft is clustered, the architect has doubtless thought
that one tie at the top appeared insufficient to hold in a dozen
colonnettes; he has therefore marked two other rings of bands at regular
intervals. The campaniform capital is decorated from the spring of the
curve {57} with a
row of leaves, like those which sheathe the base. Between these are figured
shoots of lotus and papyrus in flower and bud.
Fig 62.--Column with square die, Contra Esneh.
The height of the capital, and the extent of its projection beyond the line
of the shaft, varied with the taste of the architect.
Fig 63.--Column with campaniform capital,
Ramesseum.
At Luxor, the campaniform capitals are eleven and a half feet in diameter
at the neck, eighteen feet in diameter at the top, and eleven and a half
feet in height. At Karnak, in the hypostyle hall, the height of the capital
is twelve and a quarter feet, and the greatest diameter twenty-one feet. A
square die surmounts the whole. This die is almost hidden by the curve of
the capital, though occasionally, as at Denderah, it is higher, and bears
on each face a figure of the god Bes (fig. 62).
The column with campaniform capital is mostly employed in the middle
avenue of hypostyle halls, as at Karnak, the Ramesseum, and Luxor (fig.
63); but it was not restricted to this position, for we also find it in
porticoes, as at Medinet Habû, Edfû, and {58} Philae.
Fig 64.--Inverted campaniform capital, Karnak.
The processional hall[13] of Thothmes III., at Karnak, contains one most curious
variety (fig. 64); the flower is inverted like a bell, and the shaft is
turned upside down, the smaller end being sunk in the plinth, while the
larger is fitted to the wide part of the overturned bell.
Fig 65.--Palm capital, Bubastis.
This ungraceful innovation achieved no success, and is found nowhere else.
Other novelties were happier, especially those which enabled the artist to
introduce decorative elements taken from the flora of the country. In the
earlier examples at Soleb, Sesebeh, Bubastis, and Memphis, we find a crown
of palm branches springing from the band, their heads being curved beneath
the weight of the abacus (fig. 65). Later on, as we approach the Ptolemaic
period, the date and the half-unfolded lotus were added to the palm-
branches (fig. 66).
Fig 66.--Compound capital.
Under the Ptolemies and the Caesars the capital became a complete basket of
flowers and leaves, ranged row above row, and painted in the brightest
colours (fig. 67.)
Fig 67.--Ornate capitals, Ptolemaic.
At Edfû, Ombos, and {59} Philae one would fancy that the designer had vowed never
to repeat the same pattern in the same portico.
II. Columns with Lotus-bud Capitals.--Originally these may
perhaps have represented a bunch of lotus plants, the buds being bound
together at the neck to form the capital. The columns of Beni Hasan consist
of four rounded stems (fig. 68).
Fig 68.--Lotus-bud column, Beni Hasan.
Fig 69.--Lotus-bud column, processional hall, Thothmes
III., Karnak.
Those of the Labyrinth, of the processional hall of Thothmes III., and of
Medamot, consist of eight stems, each presenting a sharp edge on the outer
side (fig. 69). The bottom of the column is bulbous, and set round with
triangular leaves. The top is surrounded by three or five bands. A moulding
composed of groups of three vertical stripes hangs like a fringe from the
lowest {60}
band in the space between every two stems. So varied a surface does not
admit of hieroglyphic decoration; therefore the projections were by degrees
suppressed, and the whole shaft was made smooth. In the hypostyle hall at
Gûrneh, the shaft is divided in three parts, the middle one being smooth
and covered with sculptures, while the upper and lower divisions are formed
of clustered stems.
Fig 70.--Column in the aisles of the hypostyle hall
at Karnak.
In the temple of Khonsû, in the aisles of the hypostyle hall of Karnak, and
in the portico of Medinet Habû, the shaft is quite smooth, the fringe alone
being retained below the top bands, while a slight ridge between each of
the three bands recalls the original stems (fig. 70). The capital underwent
a like process of degradation. At Beni Hasan, it is finely clustered
throughout its height. In the processional hall of Thothmes III., at Luxor,
and at Medamot, a circle of small pointed leaves and channellings around
the base lessens the effect, and reduces it to a mere grooved and truncated
cone. In the hypostyle hall of Karnak, at Abydos, at the Ramesseum, and at
Medinet Habû, various other ornaments, as triangular leaves, hieroglyphic
inscriptions, {61}
or bands of cartouches flanked by uraei, fill the space thus unfortunately
obtained. Neither is the abacus hidden as in the campaniform capital, but
stands out boldly, and displays the cartouche of the royal founder.
III. Columns with Hathor-head Capitals.--We find examples of the
Hathor-headed column dating from ancient times, as at Deir el Baharî; but
this order is best known in buildings of the Ptolemaic period, as at Contra
Latopolis, Philae, and Denderah.
Fig 71.--Hathor-head capital, Ptolemaic.
The shaft and the base present no special characteristics. They resemble
those of the campaniform columns. The capital is in two divisions. Below we
have a square block, bearing on each face a woman's head in high relief and
crowned with a naos. The woman has the ears of a heifer. Her hair, confined
over the brow by three vertical bands, falls behind the ears, and hangs
long on the shoulders. Each head supports a fluted cornice, on which stands
a naos framed between two volutes, and crowned by a slender abacus (fig.
71). Thus each column has for its capital four heads of Hathor. Seen from a
distance, it at once recalls the form of the sistrum, so frequently
represented in the bas-reliefs as held in the hands of queens and
goddesses. It is in fact a sistrum, in which the regular proportions of the
parts are disregarded. The handle is gigantic, while the upper part of the
instrument is unduly reduced. This notion so pleased the Egyptian fancy
that architects did not hesitate to {62} combine the sistrum design with elements
borrowed from other orders. The four heads of Hathor placed above a
campaniform capital, furnished Nectenebo with a composite type for his
pavilion at Philae (fig. 72). I cannot say that the compound is very
satisfactory, but the column is in reality less ugly than it appears in
engravings.
Shafts of columns were regulated by no fixed rules of proportion or
arrangement.
Fig 72.--Campaniform and Hathor-headed capital,
Philae.
The architect might, if he chose, make use of equal heights with very
different diameters, and, regardless of any considerations apart from those
of general harmony, might design the various parts according to whatever
scale best suited him. The dimensions of the capital had no invariable
connection with those of the shaft, nor was the height of the shaft
dependent on the diameter of the column. At Karnak, the campaniform columns
of the hypostyle hall measure 10 feet high in the capital, and 55 feet high
in the shaft, with a lower diameter of 11 feet 8 inches. At Luxor, the
capital measures 11-1/2 feet, the shaft 49 feet, and the diameter at the
spring of the base 11-1/4 feet. At the Ramesseum, the shaft and capital
measure 35 feet, and the spring diameter is 6-1/2 feet. The lotus-bud or
clustered column gives similar results. At Karnak, in the aisles of the
hypostyle hall, the capital is 10 feet high, the shaft 33 feet, and the
base diameter 6-3/4 feet. At the Ramesseum, the capital is 5-1/2 feet high,
the shaft 24-1/2 {63} feet, and the base diameter 5 feet 10 inches. We find
the same irregularity as to architraves. Their height is determined only by
the taste of the architect or the necessities of the building. So also with
the spacing of columns. Not only does the inter-columnar space vary
considerably between temple and temple, or chamber and chamber, but
sometimes--as in the first court at Medinet Habû--they vary in the same
portico.
Fig 73.--Section of the hypostyle hall at Karnak to show
the arrangement of the two varieties: campaniform and lotus-bud
columns.
We have thus far treated separately of each type; but when various
types were associated in a single building, no fixed relative proportions
were observed. In the hypostyle hall at Karnak, the {64} campaniform columns support
the nave, while the lotus-bud variety is relegated to the aisles (fig. 73).
There are halls in the temple of Khonsû where the lotus-bud column is the
loftiest, and others where the campaniform dominates the rest. In what
remains of the Medamot structure, campaniform and lotus-bud columns are of
equal height. Egypt had no definite orders like those of Greece, but tried
every combination to which the elements of the column could be made to lend
themselves; hence, we can never determine the dimensions of an Egyptian
column from those of one of its parts.
2. THE TEMPLE.
Most of the famous sanctuaries--Denderah, Edfû, Abydos--were founded
before Men a by the Servants of Hor.[14] Becoming dilapidated or
ruined in the course of ages, they have been restored, rebuilt, remodelled,
one after the other, till nothing remains of the primitive design to show
us what the first Egyptian architecture was like. The funerary temples
built by the kings of the Fourth Dynasty have left some traces.[15] That of the
second pyramid of Gizeh was so far preserved at the beginning of the last
century, that Maillet saw four large pillars standing. It is now almost
entirely {65}
destroyed; but this loss has been more than compensated by the discovery,
in 1853, of a temple situate about fifty yards to the southward of the
sphinx (fig. 74). The façade is still hidden by the sand, and the inside is
but partly uncovered. The core masonry is of fine Tûrah limestone. The
casing, pillars, architraves, and roof were constructed with immense blocks
of alabaster or red granite (Note 9).
Fig 74.--Plan of temple of the Sphinx.
The plan is most simple: In the middle (A) is a great hall in shape of the
letter T, adorned with sixteen square pillars 16 feet in height; at the
north-west corner of this hall is a narrow passage on an inclined plane
(B), by which the building is now entered;[16] at the south-west corner is a
recess (C) which contains six niches, in pairs one over the other. A long
gallery opening at each end into a square chamber, now filled with rubbish
(E), completes the plan. Without any main door, without windows, and
entered through a passage too long to admit the light of day, the building
can only have received light and air through slanting air-slits in the
roofing, of which {66} traces are yet visible on the tops of the
walls (e, e) on each side of the main hall (Note 10).
Inscriptions, bas-reliefs, paintings, such as we are accustomed to find
everywhere in Egypt, are all wanting; and yet these bare walls produce as
great an impression upon the spectator as the most richly decorated temples
of Thebes. Not only grandeur but sublimity has been achieved in the mere
juxtaposition of blocks of granite and alabaster, by means of purity of
line and exactness of proportion.
Some few scattered ruins in Nubia, the Fayûm, and Sinai, do not suffice to prove whether the temples of the Twelfth Dynasty merited the praises lavished on them in contemporary inscriptions or not. Those of the Theban kings, of the Ptolemies, and of the Caesars which are yet standing are in some cases nearly perfect, while almost all are easy of restoration to those who conscientiously study them upon the spot. At first sight, they seem to present an infinite variety as to arrangement; but on a closer view they are found to conform to a single type. We will begin with the sanctuary. This is a low, small, obscure, rectangular chamber, inaccessible to all save Pharaoh and the priests. As a rule it contained neither statue nor emblem, but only the sacred bark, or a tabernacle of painted wood placed upon a pedestal. A niche in the wall, or an isolated shrine formed of a single block of stone, received on certain days the statue, or inanimate symbol of the local god, or the living animal, or the image of the animal, sacred to that god. A temple must necessarily contain this one chamber; and if it {67} contained but this one chamber, it would be no less a temple than the most complex buildings. Very rarely, however, especially in large towns, was the service of the gods thus limited to the strictly necessary. Around the sanctuary, or "divine house," was grouped a series of chambers in which sacrificial and ceremonial objects were stored, as flowers, perfumes, stuffs, and precious vessels. In advance of this block of buildings were next built one or more halls supported on columns; and in advance of these came a courtyard, where the priests and devotees assembled. This courtyard was surrounded by a colonnade to which the public had access, and was entered through a gateway flanked by two towers, in front of which were placed statues, or obelisks; the whole being surrounded by an enclosure wall of brickwork, and approached through an avenue of sphinxes. Every Pharaoh was free to erect a hall still more sumptuous in front of those which his predecessors had built; and what he did, others might do after him. Thus, successive series of chambers and courts, of pylons and porticoes, were added reign after reign to the original nucleus; and--vanity or piety prompting the work--the temple continued to increase in every direction, till space or means had failed.
The most simple temples were sometimes the most beautiful. This was the
case as regards the sanctuaries erected by Amenhotep III. in the island of
Elephantine, which were figured by the members of the French expedition at
the end of the last century, and destroyed by the Turkish governor of Asûan
in 1822. The best preserved, namely, the south temple (fig. 75), consisted
of but a single chamber of sandstone, {68} 14 feet high, 31 feet wide, and 39 feet long.
The walls, which were straight, and crowned with the usual cornice, rested
on a platform of masonry some 8 feet above the ground. This platform was
surrounded by a parapet wall, breast high. All around the temple ran a
colonnade, the sides each consisting of seven square pillars, without
capital or base, and the two façades, front and back, being supported by
two columns with the lotus-bud capital.
Fig 75.--South Temple of Amenhotep III. at
Elephantine.
Both pillars and columns rose direct from the parapet; except on the east
front, where a flight of ten or twelve steps, enclosed between two walls of
the same height as the platform, led up to the cella. The two
columns at the head of the steps were wider apart than those of the
opposite face, and through the space thus opened was seen a richly-
decorated door. A second door opened at the other end, beneath the portico.
Later, in Roman times, this feature was utilised in altering the building.
The inter-columnar space at the end was filled up, and thus was obtained a
second hall, rough and bare, but useful for the purposes of the temple
service. These {69} Elephantine sanctuaries bring to mind the peripteral
temples of the
Greeks, and this resemblance to one of the most familiar forms of classical
architecture explains perhaps the boundless admiration with which they were
regarded by the French savants. Those of Mesheikh, of El Kab, and of
Sharonah are somewhat more elaborate.
Fig 76.--Plan of temple of Amenhotep III., at El
Kab.
The building at El Kab is in three divisions (fig. 76); first, a hall of
four columns (A); next, a chamber (B) supported by four Hathor-headed
pillars; and in the end wall, opposite the door, a niche (C), approached by
four steps. Of these small oratories the most complete model now remaining
belongs to the Ptolemaic period; namely, the temple of Hathor at Deir el
Medineh (fig. 77). Its length is just double its breadth. The walls are
built with a batter inclining inwards,[17] and are externally bare, save
at the door, which is framed in a projecting border covered with finely-
sculptured scenes. The interior {70} is in three parts: A portico (B), supported by two
lotus flower columns; a pronaos (C), reached by a flight of four steps, and
separated from the portico by a wall which connects the two lotus flower
columns with two Hathor-headed pilasters in antis; lastly, the
sanctuary (D), flanked by two small chambers (E, E), which are lighted by
square openings cut in the ceiling.
Fig 77.--Plan of temple of Hathor, Deir el Medineh.
The ascent to the terrace is by way of a staircase, very ingeniously placed
in the south corner of the portico, and furnished with a beautiful open
window (F). This is merely a temple in miniature; but the parts, though
small, are so well proportioned that it would be impossible to conceive
anything more delicate or graceful.
We cannot say as much for the temple which the Pharaohs of the Twentieth
Dynasty erected to the south of Karnak, in honour of the god Khonsû (fig.
78); but if the style is not irreproachable, the plan is nevertheless so
clear, that one is tempted to accept it as the type of an Egyptian temple,
in preference to others more elegant or majestic. On analysis, it resolves
itself into two parts separated by a thick wall (A, A). In the centre of
the lesser division is the Holy of Holies (B), open at both ends and
isolated from the rest of the building {71} by a surrounding passage (C) 10 feet
in width. To the right and left of this sanctuary are small dark chambers
(D, D), and behind it is a hall of four columns (E), from which open seven
other chambers (F, F). Such was the house of the god, having no
communication with the adjoining parts, except by two doors (G) in the
southern wall (A, A).
Fig 78.--Plan of temple of Khonsû, Karnak.
These opened into a wide and shallow hypostyle hall (H), divided into nave
and aisles. The nave is supported by four lotus-flower columns, 23 feet in
height; the aisles each contain two lotus-bud columns 18 feet high. The
roof of the nave is, therefore, 5 feet higher than that of the sides. This
elevation was made use of for lighting purposes, the clerestory being
fitted with stone gratings, which admitted the daylight. The court (I) was
square, and surrounded by a double colonnade entered by way of four side-
gates and a great central gateway flanked by two quadrangular towers with
sloping fronts. This pylon (K) measures 105 feet in length, 33 feet in
width, and 60 feet in height. It contains no chambers, but only a narrow
staircase, which leads to the top of the gate, and thence up to the towers.
Four long grooves in the façade, reaching to a third of its height,
correspond to four quadrangular openings cut through. {72} the whole thickness of the
masonry. Here were fixed four great wooden masts, formed of joined beams
and held in place by a wooden framework fixed in the four openings above
mentioned.
Fig 79.--Pylon, with masts, from a bas-relief in the
temple of Khonsû at Karnak.
From these masts floated long streamers of various colours (fig. 79). Such
was the temple of Khonsû, and such, in their main features, were the
majority of the greater temples of Theban and Ptolemaic times, as Luxor,
the Ramesseum, Medinet Habû, Edfû, and Denderah. Though for the most part
half in ruins, they affect one with a strange and disquieting sense of
oppression. As mystery was a favourite attribute of the Egyptian gods, even
so the plan of their temples is in such wise devised as to lead gradually
from the full sunshine of the outer world to the obscurity of their
retreats.
Fig 80.--The Ramesseum restored, to show the rising of
the ground.
At the entrance we find large open spaces, where air and light
stream freely in. The hypostyle hall is pervaded by a sober twilight; the
sanctuary is more than half lost in a vague darkness; and at the end of the
building, in the farthest of the {73} chambers, night all but reigns completely. The
effect of distance which was produced by this gradual diminution of light,
was still further heightened by various structural artifices.
Fig 81.--Crypts in the thickness of the walls, round the
sanctuary at Denderah.
The parts, for instance, are not on the same level. The ground rises from
the entrance (fig. 80), and there are always a few steps to mount in
passing from one part to another. In the {74} temple of Khonsû the difference of
level is not more than 5-1/4 feet, but it is combined with a lowering of
the roof, which in most cases is very strongly marked. From the pylon to
the wall at the farther end, the height decreases continuously.
Fig 82.--The pronaos of Edfû, as seen from the top of
the eastern pylon.
The peristyle is loftier than the hypostyle hall, and the hypostyle hall is
loftier than the sanctuary. The last hall of columns and the farthest
chamber are lower and lower still. The architects of Ptolemaic times
changed certain details of arrangement. They erected chapels and oratories
on the terraced roofs, and reserved space for the construction {75} of secret passages
and crypts in the thickness of the walls, wherein to hide the treasure of
the god (fig. 81). They, however, introduced only two important
modifications of the original plan. The sanctuary was formerly entered by
two opposite doors; they left but one.
Fig 83.--Plan of temple, Edfû.
Also the colonnade, which was originally continued round the upper end of
the court, or, where there was no court, along the façade of the temple,
became now the pronaos, so forming an additional chamber. The columns of
the outer row are retained, but built into a wall reaching to about half
their height. This connecting wall is surmounted by a cornice, which thus
forms a screen, and so prevented the outer throng from seeing what took
place within (fig. 82). The pronaos is supported by two, three, or even
four rows of columns, according to the size of the edifice. For the rest,
it is useful to compare the plan of the temple of Edfû (fig. 83) with that
of the temple of Khonsû, observing how little they differ the one from the
other.
Thus designed, the building sufficed for all the needs of worship. If
enlargement was needed, the {76} sanctuary and surrounding chambers were generally
left untouched, and only the ceremonial parts of the building, as the
hypostyle halls, the courts, or pylons, were attacked.
Fig 84.--Plan of the temple of Karnak in the reign of
Amenhotep III.
The procedure of the Egyptians under these circumstances is best
illustrated by the history of the great temple of Karnak. Founded by
Ûsertesen I., probably on the site of a still earlier temple, it was but a
small building, constructed of limestone and sandstone, with granite
doorways. The inside was decorated with sixteen-sided pillars. The second
and third Amenemhats added some work to it, and the princes of the
Thirteenth and Fourteenth Dynasties adorned it with statues and tables of
offerings. It was still unaltered when, in the eighteenth century B.C.,
Thothmes I., enriched with booty of war, resolved to enlarge it. In advance
of what already stood there, he erected two chambers, preceded by a court
and flanked by two {77} isolated chapels. In advance of these again, he
erected three successive pylons, one behind the other. The whole presented
the appearance of a vast rectangle placed crosswise at the end of another
rectangle. Thothmes II. and Hatshepsût[18] covered the walls erected by
their father with bas-relief sculptures, but added no more buildings.
Hatshepsût, however, in order to bring in her obelisks between the pylons
of Thothmes I., opened a breach in the south wall, and overthrew sixteen of
the columns which stood in that spot. Thothmes III., probably finding
certain parts of the structure unworthy of the god, rebuilt the first
pylon, and also the double sanctuary, which he renewed in the red granite
of Syene. To the eastward, he rebuilt some old chambers, the most important
among them being the processional hall, used for the starting-point and
halting-place of ceremonial processions, and these he surrounded with a
stone wall. He also made the lake whereon the sacred boats were launched on
festival days; and, with a sharp change of axis, he built two pylons facing
towards the south, thus violating the true relative proportion which had
till then subsisted between the body and the front of the general mass of
the building. The outer enclosure was now too large for the earlier pylons,
and did not properly accord with the later ones.
Fig 85.--Plan of Hypostyle Hall, Karnak.
Amenhotep III. corrected this defect. He erected a sixth and yet more
massive pylon, which was, therefore, better suited for the façade. As it
now stood (fig. 84), the temple surpassed even the boldest {78} architectural
enterprises hitherto attempted; but the Pharaohs of the Nineteenth Dynasty
succeeded in achieving still more. They added only a hypostyle hall (fig.
85) and a pylon; but the hypostyle hall measured 170 feet in length by 329
feet in breadth. Down the centre they carried a main avenue of twelve
columns, with lotus-flower capitals, being the loftiest ever erected in the
interior of a building; while in the aisles, ranged in seven rows on either
side, they planted 122 columns with lotus-bud capitals. The roof of the
great nave rose to a height of 75 feet above the level of the ground, and
the pylon stood some fifty feet higher still.
Fig 86.--Plan of great temple, Luxor.
During a whole century, three kings laboured to perfect this hypostyle
hall. Rameses I. conceived the idea; Seti I. finished the bulk of the work,
and Rameses II. wrought nearly the whole of the decoration. The Pharaohs of
the next following dynasties vied with each other for such blank spaces as
might be found, wherein to engrave their names upon the columns, and so to
share the glory of the three founders; but farther they did not venture.
Left thus, however, the monument was still incomplete. It still needed one
last pylon and a colonnaded court. Nearly three centuries {79} elapsed before the task
was again taken in hand. At last the Bubastite kings decided to begin the
colonnades, but their work was as feeble as their, resources were limited.
Taharkah, the Ethiopian, imagined for a moment that he was capable of
rivalling the great Theban Pharaohs, and planned a hypostyle hall even
larger than the first; but he made a false start. The columns of the great
nave, which were all that he had time to erect, were placed too wide apart
to admit of being roofed over; so they never supported anything, but
remained as memorials of his failure. Finally, the Ptolemies, faithful to
the traditions of the native monarchy, threw themselves into the work; but
their labours were interrupted by revolts at Thebes, and the earthquake of
the year 27 B.C. destroyed part of the temple, so that the pylon remained
for ever unfinished. The history of Karnak is identical with that of all
the great Egyptian temples. When closely studied, the reason why they are
for the most part so irregular becomes evident. The general plan is
practically the same, and the progress {80} of the building was carried forward in
the same way; but the architects could not always foresee the future
importance of their work, and the site was not always favourable to the
development of the building.
Fig 87.--Plan of the Isle of Philae.
At Luxor (fig. 86), the progress went on methodically enough under
Amenhotep III. and Seti I., but when Rameses II. desired to add to the work
of his predecessors, a bend in the river compelled him to turn eastwards.
His pylon is not parallel to that of Amenhotep III., and his colonnades
make a distinct angle with the general axis of the earlier work. At Philae
(fig. 87) the deviation is still greater. Not only is the larger pylon out
of alignment with the smaller, but the two colonnades are not parallel with
each other. Neither are they attached to the pylon with a due regard to
symmetry. This arises neither from negligence nor {81} wilfulness, as is popularly
supposed.
Fig 88.--Plan of Speos, Kalaat Addah, Nubia.
The first plan was as regular as the most symmetrically-minded designer
could wish; but it became necessary to adapt it to the requirements of the
site, and the architects were thenceforth chiefly concerned to make the
best of the irregularities to which they were condemned by the
configuration of the ground. Such difficulties were, in fact, a frequent
source of inspiration; and Philae shows with what skill the Egyptians
extracted every element of beauty and picturesqueness from enforced
disorder.
The idea of the rock-cut temple must have occurred to the Egyptians at
an early period.
Fig 90.--Plan of the Great Speos, Abû Simbel.
They carved the houses of the dead in the mountain side; why, therefore,
should they not in like manner carve the houses of the {82} gods? Yet the earliest
known Speos-sanctuaries date from only the beginning of the Eighteenth
Dynasty. They are generally found in those parts of the valley where the
cultivable land is narrowest, as near Beni Hasan, at Gebel Silsileh, and in
Nubia. All varieties of the constructed temple are found in the rock-cut
temple, though more or less modified by local conditions. The Speos
Artemidos is approached by a pillared portico, but contains only a square
chamber with a niche at the end for the statue of the goddess Pakhet.
Fig 91.--Speos of Hathor, Abû Simbel.
At Kalaat Addah (fig. 88), a flat narrow façade (A) faces the river, and is
reached by a steep flight of steps; next comes a hypostyle hall (B),
flanked by two dark chambers (C), and lastly a sanctuary in two storeys,
one above the other (D). The chapel of Horemheb (fig. 89), at Gebel
Silsileh, is formed of a gallery parallel to the river (A), supported by
four massive pillars left in the rock. From this gallery, the sanctuary
chamber opens at right angles. At Abû Simbel, the two temples are excavated
{83} entirely in
the cliff. The front of the great speos (fig. 90) imitates a sloping pylon
crowned with a cornice, and guarded as usual by four seated colossi flanked
by smaller statues.
Fig 92.--Plan of the upper portion of the temple of Deir
el Baharî, showing the state of the excavations, the Speos of Hathor (A);
the rock-cut sanctuary (B); the rock-cut funerary chapel of Thothmes I.
(C); the Speos of Anubis (D); and the excavated niches of the northern
colonnade. Reproduced from Plate III. of the Archaeological Report of
the Egypt Exploration Fund for 1893-4.
These colossi are sixty-six feet high. The doorway passed, there comes a
first hall measuring 130 feet in length by 60 feet in width, which
corresponds to the usual peristyle. Eight Osiride statues backed by {84} as many
square pillars, seem to bear the mountain on their heads. Beyond this come
(1) a hypostyle hall; (2) a transverse gallery, isolating the sanctuary,
and (3) the sanctuary itself, between two smaller chambers. Eight crypts,
sunk at a somewhat lower level than that of the main excavation, are
unequally distributed to right and left of the peristyle.
Fig 93.--Plan of temple of Seti I., at Abydos.
The whole excavation measures 180 feet from the doorway to the end of the
sanctuary. The small speos of Hathor, about a hundred paces to the
northward, is of smaller dimensions. The façade is adorned with six
standing colossi, four representing Rameses II., and two his wife,
Nefertari. The peristyle and the crypts are lacking (fig. 91), and the
small chambers are placed at either end of the transverse passage, instead
of being parallel with the sanctuary. The hypostyle hall, however, is
supported by six Hathor-headed pillars. Where space permitted, the rock-cut
temple was but partly excavated in the cliff, the forepart being
constructed outside with blocks cut and dressed, and becoming half grotto,
half building. In the hemi-speos at Derr, the peristyle is external to the
cliff; at Beit el Wally, the pylon and {85} court are built; at Gerf Husein and
Wady Sabûah, pylon, court, and hypostyle hall are all outside the mountain,
The most celebrated and original hemi-speos is that built by Queen
Hatshepsût, at Deir el Baharî, in the Theban necropolis (fig. 92),[19] The
sanctuary and chapels which, as usual, accompany it, were cut about 100 ft.
above the level of the valley. In order to arrive at that height, slopes
were made and terraces laid out according to a plan which was not
understood until the site was thoroughly excavated.
Between the hemi-speos and the isolated temple, the Egyptians created yet another variety, namely, the built temple backed by, but not carried into, the cliff. The temple of the sphinx at Gizeh, and the temple of Seti I. at Abydos, may be cited as two good examples. I have already described the former; the area of the latter (fig. 93) was cleared in a narrow and shallow belt of sand, which here divides the plain from the desert. It was sunk up to the roof, the tops of the walls but just showing above the level of the ground. The staircase which led up to the terraced roof led also to the top of the hill. The front, which stood completely out, seemed in nowise extraordinary. It was approached by two pylons, two courts, and a shallow portico supported on square pillars. The unusual part of the building only began beyond this point. First, there were two hypostyle halls instead of one. These are separated by a wall with seven doorways. There is no nave, and the sanctuary opens direct from the {86} second hall. This, as usual, consists of an oblong chamber with a door at each end; but the rooms by which it is usually surrounded are here placed side by side in a line, two to the right and four to the left; further, they are covered by "corbelled" vaults, and are lighted only from the doors. Behind the sanctuary are further novelties. Another hypostyle hall (K) abuts on the end wall, and its dependencies are unequally distributed to right and left. As if this were not enough, the architect also constructed, to the left of the main building, a court, five chambers of columns, various passages and dark chambers--in short, an entire wing branching off at right angles to the axis of the temple proper, with no counterbalancing structures on the other side. These irregularities become intelligible when the site is examined. The cliff is shallow at this part, and the smaller hypostyle hall is backed by only a thin partition of rock. If the usual plan had been followed, it would have been necessary to cut the cliff entirely away, and the structure would have forfeited its special characteristic--that of a temple backed by a cliff--as desired by the founder. The architect, therefore, distributed in width those portions of the edifice which he could not carry out in length; and he even threw out a wing. Some years later, when Rameses II. constructed a monument to his own memory, about a hundred yards to the northward of the older building, he was careful not to follow in his father's footsteps. Built on the top of an elevation, his temple had sufficient space for development, and the conventional plan was followed in all its strictness.
Most temples, even the smallest, should be surrounded {87} by a square enclosure or
temenos.[20] At Medinet Habu, this enclosure wall is of sandstone--
low, and embattled. The innovation is due to a whim of Rameses III., who,
in giving to his monument the outward appearance of a fortress, sought to
commemorate his Syrian victories. Elsewhere, the doorways are of stone, and
the walls are built in irregular courses of crude bricks. The great
enclosure wall was not, as frequently stated, intended to isolate the
temple and screen the priestly ceremonies from eyes profane. It marked the
limits of the divine dwelling, and served, when needful, to resist the
attacks of enemies whose cupidity might be excited by the accumulated
riches of the sanctuary. As at Karnak, avenues of sphinxes and series of
pylons led up to the various gates, and formed triumphal approaches. The
rest of the ground was in part occupied by stables, cellarage, granaries,
and private houses. Just as in Europe during the Middle Ages the population
crowded most densely round about the churches and abbeys, so in Egypt they
swarmed around the temples, profiting by that security which the terror of
his name and the solidity of his ramparts ensured to the local deity. A
clear space was at first reserved round the pylons and the walls; but in
course of time the houses encroached upon this ground, and were even built
up against the boundary wall. Destroyed and rebuilt century after century
upon the self-same spot, the débris of these surrounding dwellings
so raised the level of the soil, that the temples ended for the most part
by being gradually buried in a hollow formed by the artificial {88} elevation of the
surrounding city. Herodotus noticed this at Bubastis, and on examination it
is seen to have been the same in many other localities. At Ombos, at Edfû,
at Denderah, the whole city nestled inside the precincts of the divine
dwelling.
Fig 94.--Crio-sphinx from Wady Es Sabûah.
At El Kab, where the temple temenos formed a separate enclosure within the
boundary of the city walls, it served as a sort of donjon, or keep, in
which the garrison could seek a last refuge.
Fig 95.--Couchant ram, with statuette of royal founder,
restored from the Avenue of Sphinxes at Karnak.
At Memphis and at Thebes, there were as many keeps as there were great
temples, and these sacred fortresses, each at first standing alone in the
midst of houses, were, from the time of the Eighteenth Dynasty, connected
each with each by avenues of {89} sphinxes. These were commonly andro-sphinxes,
combining the head of a man and the body of a lion; but we also find crio-
sphinxes, which united a ram's head with a lion's body (fig. 94).
Elsewhere, in places where the local worship admitted of such substitution,
a couchant ram, holding a statuette of the royal founder between his bent
forelegs, takes the place of the conventional sphinx (fig. 95). The avenue
leading from Luxor to Karnak was composed of these diverse elements. It was
one mile and a quarter in length, and there were many bends in it; but this
fact affords no fresh proof of Egyptian "symmetrophobia." The enclosures of
the two temples were not oriented alike, and the avenues which started
squarely from the fronts of each could never have met had they not deviated
from their first course. Finally, it may be said that the inhabitants of
Thebes saw about as much of their temples as we see at the present day. The
sanctuary and its immediate surroundings were closed against them; but they
had access to the façades, the courts, and even the hypostyle halls, and
might admire the masterpieces of their architects as freely as we admire
them now.
3.--DECORATION.
Ancient tradition affirmed that the earliest Egyptian temples contained neither sculptured images, inscriptions, nor symbols; and in point of fact, the Temple of the Sphinx is bare. But this is a unique example. The fragments of architraves and masonry bearing the name of Khafra, which were used for building material in the northern pyramid of Lisht, show that this primitive simplicity had already been abandoned by the time of the {90} Fourth Dynasty. During the Theban period, all smooth surfaces, all pylons, wall-faces, and shafts of columns, were covered with figure-groups and inscriptions. Under the Ptolemies and the Caesars, figures and hieroglyphs became so crowded that the stone on which they are sculptured seems to be lost under the masses of ornament with which it is charged. We recognise at a glance that these scenes are not placed at random. They follow in sequence, are interlinked, and form as it were a great mystic book in which the official relations between gods and men, as well as between men and gods, are clearly set forth for such as are skilled to read them. The temple was built in the likeness of the world, as the world was known to the Egyptians. The earth, as they believed, was a flat and shallow plane, longer than its width. The sky, according to some, extended overhead like an immense iron ceiling, and according to others, like a huge shallow vault. As it could not remain suspended in space without some support, they imagined it to be held in place by four immense props or pillars. The floor of the temple naturally represented the earth. The columns, and if needful the four corners of the chambers, stood for the pillars. The roof, vaulted at Abydos, flat elsewhere, corresponded exactly with the Egyptian idea of the sky. Each of these parts was, therefore, decorated in consonance with its meaning. Those next to the ground were clothed with vegetation. The bases of the columns were surrounded by leaves, and the lower parts of the walls were adorned with long stems of lotus or papyrus (fig. 96), in the midst of which animals were occasionally depicted. Bouquets of water-plants emerging from the water (fig. 97), {91} enlivened the bottom of the wall-space in certain chambers.
Figs. 96 to 101.--DECORATIVE DESIGNS, FROM DENDERAH.
Elsewhere, we find full-blown flowers interspersed with buds (fig. 98),
or tied together with cords (fig. 99); or those emblematic plants which
symbolise the union of Upper and Lower Egypt under the rule of a single
Pharaoh (fig. 100); or birds with human hands and arms, perched in an
attitude of adoration on the sign which represents a solemn festival; or
kneeling prisoners tied to the stake in couples, each couple consisting of
an Asiatic and a negro (fig. 101).
Fig 98. Fig. 99.
Male and female Niles (fig. 102), laden with flowers and fruits, either
kneel, or advance in majestic procession, along the ground level. These are
the nomes, lakes, and districts {92} of Egypt, bringing offerings of their products to
the god.
Fig 100. Fig. 101.
In one instance, at Karnak, Thothmes III. caused the fruits, flowers, and
animals indigenous to the foreign lands which he had conquered, to be
sculptured on the lower courses of his walls (fig. 103).
Fig 102.--Two Nile-gods, bearing lotus flowers and
libation vases.
The ceilings were painted blue, and sprinkled with five-pointed stars
painted yellow, occasionally interspersed with the cartouches of the royal
founder. The monotony of this Egyptian heaven was also relieved by long
bands of hieroglyphic inscriptions. The vultures of Nekheb and Ûati, the
goddesses of the south and north, crowned and armed with divine emblems
(fig. 104), hovered above the nave of the hypostyle halls, and on the under
side of the lintels of the great doors, above the head of the king as he
passed through on his way to the sanctuary.
Fig 103.--Dado decoration, hall of Thothmes III.,
Karnak.
At the Ramesseum, at Edfû, at Philae, at Denderah, at Ombos, at Esneh, the
depths of the firmament seemed {93} to open to the eyes of the faithful, revealing the
dwellers therein. There the celestial ocean poured forth its floods
navigated by the sun and moon with their attendant escort of planets,
constellations, and decani; and there also the genii of the months and days
marched in long procession.
Fig 104.--Ceiling decoration, from tomb of Bakenrenf
(Bocchoris), Sakkarah, Twenty-sixth Dynasty.
In the Ptolemaic age, zodiacs fashioned after Greek models were sculptured
side by side with astronomical tables of purely native origin (fig. 105).
The decoration of the architraves which supported the massive roofing slabs
was entirely independent of that of the ceiling itself. On these were
wrought nothing save boldly cut inscriptions, in which {94} the beauty of the temple, the
names of the builder-kings who had erected it, and the glory of the gods to
whom it was consecrated, are emphatically celebrated. Finally, the
decoration of the lowest part of the walls and of the ceiling was
restricted to a small number of subjects, which were always similar: the
most important and varied scenes being suspended, as it were, between earth
and heaven, on the sides of the chambers and the pylons.
These scenes illustrate the official relations which subsisted between
Egypt and the gods. The people had {95} no right of direct intercourse with the deities. They
needed a mediator, who, partaking of both human and divine nature, was
qualified to communicate with both. The king alone, Son of the Sun, was of
sufficiently high descent to contemplate the god in his temple, to serve
him, and to speak with him face to face. Sacrifices could be offered only
by him, or through him, and in his name. Even the customary offerings to
the dead were supposed to pass through his hands, and the family availed
themselves of his name in the formula sûten ta hotep to forward them
to the other world. The king is seen, therefore, in all parts of the
temple, standing, seated, kneeling, slaying the victim, presenting the
parts, pouring out the wine, the milk, and the oil, and burning the
incense. All humankind acts through him, and through him performs its duty
towards the gods. When the ceremonies to be performed required the
assistance of many persons, then alone did mortal subordinates (consisting,
as much as possible, of his own family) appear by his side. The queen,
standing behind him like Isis behind Osiris, uplifts her hand to protect
him, shakes the sistrum, beats the tambourine to dispel evil spirits, or
holds the libation vase or bouquet. The eldest son carries the net or
lassoes the bull, and recites the prayer while his father successively
presents to the god each object prescribed by the ritual. A priest may
occasionally act as substitute for the prince, but other men perform only
the most menial offices. They are slaughterers or servants, or they bear
the boat or canopy of the god. The god, for his part, is not always alone.
He has his wife and his son by his side; next after them the gods of the
neighbouring {96}
homes, and, in a general way, all the gods of Egypt. From the moment that
the temple is regarded as representing the world, it must, like the world,
contain all gods, both great and small. They are most frequently ranged
behind the principal god, seated or standing; and with him they share in
the homage paid by the king. Sometimes, however, they take an active part
in the ceremonies. The spirits of On and Khonû[21] kneel before the sun, and
proclaim his praise. Hor, Set, or Thoth conducts Pharaoh into the presence
of his father Amen Ra, or performs the functions elsewhere assigned to the
prince or the priest. They help him to overthrow the victim or to snare
birds for the sacrifice; and in order to wash away his impurities, they
pour upon his head the waters of youth and life. The position and functions
of these co-operating gods were strictly defined in the theology. The sun,
travelling from east to west, divided the universe into two worlds, the
world of the north and the world of the south. The temple, like the
universe, was double, and an imaginary line passing through the axis of the
sanctuary divided it into two temples --the temple of the south on the
right hand, and the temple of the north on the left. The gods and their
various manifestations were divided between these two temples, according as
they belonged to the northern or southern hemisphere. This fiction of
duality was carried yet further. Each chamber was divided, in imitation of
the temple, into two halves, the right half belonging to the south, and the
left half to the north. The royal homage, to be complete, {97} must be rendered in the
temples of the south and of the north, and to the gods of the south and of
the north, and with the products of the south and of the north. Each
sculptured tableau must, therefore, be repeated at least twice in each
temple--on a right wall and on a left wall.
Fig 106.--Frieze of uraei and cartouches.
Amen, on the right, receives the corn, the wine, the liquids of the south;
while on the left he receives the corn, the wine, and the liquids of the
north. As with Amen, so with Maut, Khonsû, Mentû, and many other gods. Want
of space frequently frustrated the due execution of this scheme, and we
often meet with a tableau in which the products of north and south together
are placed before an Amen who represents both Amen of the south and Amen of
the north. These departures from decorative usage are, however,
exceptional, and the dual symmetry is always observed where space
permits.
In Pharaonic times, the tableaux were not over-crowded. The wall-surface intended to be covered was marked off below by a line carried just above the ground level decoration, and was bounded above by the usual cornice, or by a frieze. This frieze might be composed of uraei, or of bunches of lotus; or of royal cartouches (fig. 106) supported on either side by divine symbols; or of emblems borrowed from the local cult (by heads of Hathor, for instance, in a temple dedicated to Hathor); or of a horizontal line of dedicatory inscription engraved in large and deeply-cut hieroglyphs. The wall space thus framed in contained sometimes a single scene {98} and sometimes two scenes, one above the other. The wall must be very lofty, if this number is exceeded. Figures and inscriptions were widely spaced, and the scenes succeeded one another with scarcely a break. The spectator had to discover for himself where they began or ended. The head of the king was always studied from the life, and the faces of the gods reproduced the royal portrait as closely as possible. As Pharaoh was the son of the gods, the surest way to obtain portraits of the gods was to model their faces after the face of the king. The secondary figures were no less carefully wrought; but when these were very numerous, they were arranged on two or three levels, the total height of which never exceeded that of the principal personages. The offerings, the sceptres, the jewels, the vestments, the head-dresses, and all the accessories were treated with a genuine feeling for elegance and truth. The colours, moreover, were so combined as to produce in each tableau the effect of one general and prevailing tone; so that in many temples there were chambers which can be justly distinguished as the Blue Hall, the Red Hall, or the Golden Hall. So much for the classical period of decoration.
As we come down to later times, these tableaux are multiplied, and under
the Greeks and Romans they become so numerous that the smallest wall
contained not less than four (fig. 107), five, six, or even eight
registers. The principal figures are, as it were, compressed, so as to
occupy less room, and all the intermediate space is crowded with thousands
of tiny hieroglyphs. The gods and kings are no longer portraits of the
reigning sovereign, but mere conventional types without {99} vigour or life.
Fig 107.--Wall of a chamber at Denderah, to show the
arrangement of the tableaux.
As for the secondary figures and accessories, the sculptor's only care is
to crowd in as many as possible. This was not due to a defect of taste, and
to the prevalence of a religious idea which decided but {100} enforced these
changes. The object of decoration was not merely the delight of the eye.
Applied to a piece of furniture, a coffin, a house, a temple, decoration
possessed a certain magic property, of which the power and nature were
determined by each being or action represented, by each word inscribed or
spoken, at the moment of consecration. Every subject was, therefore, an
amulet as well as an ornament. So long as it endured, it ensured to the god
the continuance of homage rendered, or sacrifices offered, by the king. To
the king, whether living or dead, it confirmed the favours granted to him
by the god in recompense for his piety. It also preserved from destruction
the very wall upon which it was depicted. At the time of the Eighteenth
Dynasty, it was thought that two or three such amulets sufficed to compass
the desired effect; but at a later period it was believed that their number
could not be too freely multiplied, and the walls were covered with as many
as the surface would contain. An average chamber of Edfû or Denderah yields
more material for study than the hypostyle hall of Karnak; and the chapel
of Antoninus Pius at Philae, had it been finished, would have contained
more scenes than the sanctuary of Luxor and the passages by which it is
surrounded.
Observing the variety of subjects treated on the walls of any one temple, one might at first be tempted to think that the decoration does not form a connected whole, and that, although many series of scenes must undoubtedly contain the development of an historic idea or a religious dogma, yet that others are merely strung together without any necessary link. At Luxor, and again at the Ramesseum, each face of the pylon is {101} a battle- field on which may be studied, almost day for day, the campaign of Rameses II. against the Kheta, which took place in the fifth year of his reign. There we see the Egyptian camp attacked by night; the king's bodyguard surprised during the march; the defeat of the enemy; their flight; the garrison of Kadesh sallying forth to the relief of the vanquished; and the disasters which befell the prince of the Kheta and his generals. Elsewhere, it is not the war which is represented, but the human sacrifices which anciently celebrated the close of each campaign. The king is seen in the act of seizing his prostrate prisoners by the hair of their heads, and uplifting his mace as if about to shatter their heads at a single blow. At Karnak, along the whole length of the outer wall, Seti I. pursues the Bedawîn of Sinai. At Medinet Habû Rameses III. destroys the fleet of the peoples of the great sea, or receives the cut-off hands of the Libyans, which his soldiers bring to him as trophies. In the next scene, all is peace; and we behold Pharaoh pouring out a libation of perfumed water to his father Amen. It would seem as if no link could be established between these subjects, and yet the one is the necessary consequence of the others. If the god had not granted victory to the king, the king in his turn would not have performed these ceremonies in the temple. The sculptor has recorded the events in their order:--first the victory, then the sacrifice. The favour of the god precedes the thank-offering of the king. Thus, on closer examination, we find this multitude of episodes forming the several links of one continuous chain, while every scene, including such as seem at first sight to be wholly {102} unexplained, represents one stage in the development of a single action which begins at the door, is carried through the various halls, and penetrates to the farthest recesses of the sanctuary. The king enters the temple. In the courts, he is everywhere confronted by reminiscences of his victories; and here the god comes forth to greet him, hidden in his shrine and surrounded by priests. The rites prescribed for these occasions are graven on the walls of the hypostyle hall in which they were performed. These being over, king and god together take their way to the sanctuary. At the door which leads from the public hall to the mysterious part of the temple, the escort halts. The king crosses the threshold alone, and is welcomed by the gods. He then performs in due order all the sacred ceremonies enjoined by usage. His merits increase by virtue of his prayers; his senses become exalted; he rises to the level of the divine type. Finally he enters the sanctuary, where the god reveals himself unwitnessed, and speaks to him face to face. The sculptures faithfully reproduce the order of this mystic presentation:--the welcoming reception on the part of the god; the acts and offerings of the king; the vestments which he puts on and off in succession; the various crowns which he places on his head. The prayers which he recites and the favours which are conferred upon him are also recorded upon the walls in order of time and place. The king, and the few who accompany him, have their backs towards the entrance and their faces towards the door of the sanctuary. The gods, on the contrary, or at least such as do not make part of the procession, face the entrance, and have their backs turned towards the sanctuary. If {103} during the ceremony the royal memory failed, the king needed but to raise his eyes to the wall, whereon his duties were mapped out for him.
Nor was this all.
Fig 108.--Obelisk of Ûsertesen I., of Heliopolis.
Each part of the temple had its accessory decoration and its furniture. The
outer faces of the pylons were ornamented, not only with the masts and
streamers before mentioned, but with statues and obelisks. The statues,
four or six in number, were of limestone, granite, or sandstone. They
invariably represented the royal founder, and were sometimes of prodigious
size. The two Memnons seated at the entrance of the temple of Amenhotep
III., at Thebes, measured about fifty feet in height. The colossal Rameses
II. of the Ramesseum measured fifty-seven feet, and that of Tanis at least
seventy feet. The greater number, however, did not exceed twenty feet. They
mounted guard before the temple, facing outwards, as if confronting an
approaching enemy. The obelisks of Karnak are mostly hidden amid the
central courts; and those of Queen Hatshepsut were imbedded for seventeen
feet of their height in masses of masonry which concealed their bases.
These are {104}
accidental circumstances, and easy of explanation. Each of the pylons
before which they are stationed had in its turn been the entrance to the
temple, and was thrown into the rear by the works of succeeding Pharaohs.
The true place of all obelisks was in front of the colossi, on each side of
the main entrance.[22] They are always in pairs, but often of unequal height.
Some have professed to see in them the emblem of Amen, the Generator; or a
finger of the god; or a ray of the sun. In sober truth, they are a more
shapely form of the standing stone, or menhir, which is raised by semi-
civilised peoples in commemoration of their gods or their dead. Small
obelisks, about three feet in height, are found in tombs as early as the
Fourth Dynasty. They are placed to right and left of the stela; that is to
say, on either side of the door which leads to the dwelling of the dead.
Erected before the pylon-gates of temples, they are made of granite, and
their dimensions are considerable. The obelisk of Heliopolis (fig. 108)
measures sixty-eight feet in the shaft, and the obelisks of Luxor stand
seventy-seven and seventy-five and a half feet high, respectively. The
loftiest known is the obelisk of Queen Hatshepsût at Karnak, which rises to
a height of 109 feet. To convey such masses, and to place them in
equilibrium, was a sufficiently difficult task, and one is at a loss to {105} understand
how the Egyptians succeeded in erecting them with no other appliances than
ropes and sacks of sand. Queen Hatshepsût boasts that her obelisks were
quarried, shaped, transported, and erected in seven months; and we have no
reason to doubt the truth of her statement.[23]
Obelisks were almost always square, with the faces slightly convex, and
a slight slope from top to bottom.
Fig 109.--Obelisk of Ûsertesen I., Begig, Fayûm.
The pedestal was formed of a single square block adorned with inscriptions,
or with cynocephali in high relief, adoring the sun. The point was cut as a
pyramidion, and sometimes covered with bronze or gilt copper. Scenes of
offerings to Ra Harmakhis, Hor, Tûm, or Amen are engraved on the sides of
the pyramidion and on the upper part of the prism. The four upright faces
are generally decorated with only vertical lines of inscription in praise
of the king (Note 11). Such is the usual type of obelisk; but we here and
there meet with exceptions. That of Begig in the Fayûm (fig. 109) is in
shape a rectangular oblong, with a blunt top. A groove upon it shows that
it was surmounted by some emblem in metal, perhaps a hawk, like the obelisk
represented on {106} a funerary stela in the Gizeh Museum. This form, which
like the first is a survival of the menhir, was in vogue till the last days
of Egyptian art. It is even found at Axûm, in the middle of Ethiopia,
dating from about the fourth century of our era, at a time when in Egypt
the ancient obelisks were being carried out of the country, and none
dreamed of erecting new ones. Such was the accessory decoration of the
pylon. The inner courts and hypostyle halls of the temple contained more
colossi. Some, placed with their backs against the outer sides of pillars
or walls, were half engaged in the masonry, and built up in courses. At
Luxor under the peristyle, and at Karnak between each column of the great
nave, were also placed statues of Pharaoh; but these were statues of
Pharaoh the victor, clad in his robe of state. The right of consecrating a
statue in the temple was above all a royal prerogative; yet the king
sometimes permitted private persons to dedicate their statues by the side
of his own. This was, however, a special favour, and such monuments always
bear an inscription stating that it is "by the king's grace" that they
occupy that position. Rarely as this privilege was granted, it resulted in
a vast accumulation of votive statues, so that in the course of centuries
the courts of some temples became crowded with them. At Karnak, the
sanctuary enclosure was furnished outside with a kind of broad bench,
breast high, like a long base. Upon this the statues were placed, with
their backs to the wall. Attached to each was an oblong block of stone,
with a projecting spout on one side; these are known as "tables of
offerings" (fig. 110). The upper face is more or less hollowed, {107} and is often
sculptured with bas-relief representations of loaves, joints of beef,
libation vases, and other objects usually presented to the dead or to the
gods.
Fig 110.--Table of offerings, Karnak.
Those of King Ameni Entef Amenemhat, at Gizeh, are blocks of red
granite more than three feet in length, the top of which is hollowed out in
regular rows of cup-holes, each cup-hole being reserved for one particular
offering. There was, in fact, an established form of worship provided for
statues, and these tables were really altars upon which were deposited
sacrificial offerings of meat, cakes, fruits, vegetables, and the like.
The sanctuary and the surrounding chambers contained the objects used in
the ceremonial of worship. The bases of altars varied in shape, some being
square and massive, others polygonal or cylindrical.
Fig 111.--Limestone altar.
Some of these last are in form not unlike a small cannon, which is the name
given to them by the Arabs. The most ancient are those of the Fifth
Dynasty; the most beautiful is one dedicated by Seti I., now in the Gizeh
Museum. The only perfect specimen of an altar known to me was discovered at
Menshîyeh in 1884 (fig. 111). It is of white limestone, hard and polished
like marble. It stands upon a pedestal in the form of a long cone, having
no other ornament than a torus about half an inch below the top. Upon this
{108} pedestal,
in a hollow specially prepared for its reception, stands a large
hemispherical basin. The shrines are little chapels of wood or stone (fig.
112), in which the spirit of the deity was supposed at all times to dwell,
and which, on ceremonial occasions, contained his image. The sacred barks
were built after the model of the Bari, or boat, in which the sun performed
his daily course.
Fig 112.--Naos of wood in the Museum at Turin.
The shrine was placed amidship of the boat, and covered with a veil, or
curtain, to conceal its contents from all spectators. The crew were also
represented, each god being at his post of duty, the pilot at the helm, the
look-out at the prow, the king upon his knees before the door of the
shrine. We have not as yet discovered any of the statues employed in the
ceremonial, but we know what {109} they were like, what part they played, and of what
materials they were made. They were animated, and in addition to their
bodies of stone, metal, or wood, they had each a soul magically derived
from the soul of the divinity which they represented. They spoke, moved,
acted--not metaphorically, but actually. The later Ramessides ventured upon
no enterprises without consulting them. They stated their difficulties, and
the god replied to each question by a movement of the head. According to
the Stela of Bakhtan,[24] a statue of Khonsû places its hands four times on the
nape of the neck of another statue, so transmitting the power of expelling
demons. It was after a conversation with the statue of Amen in the dusk of
the sanctuary, that Queen Hatshepsût despatched her squadron to the shores
of the Land of Incense.[25] Theoretically, the divine soul of the image was
understood to be the only miracle worker; practically, its speech and
motion were the {110} results of a pious fraud. Interminable avenues of
sphinxes, gigantic obelisks, massive pylons, halls of a hundred columns,
mysterious chambers of perpetual night--in a word, the whole Egyptian
temple and its dependencies--were built by way of a hiding-place for a
performing puppet, of which the wires were worked by a priest. {111}
The Egyptians regarded man as composed of various different entities, each having its separate life and functions. First, there was the body; then the Ka or double, which was a less solid duplicate of the corporeal form--a coloured but ethereal projection of the individual, reproducing him feature for feature. The double of a child was as a child; the double of a woman was as a woman; the double of a man was as a man. After the double (Ka) came the Soul (Bi or Ba), which was popularly represented as a human-headed bird; after the Soul came the "Khû," or "the Luminous," a spark from the divine fire. None of these elements were in their own natures imperishable. Left to themselves, they would hasten to dissolution, and the man would thus die a second time; that is to say, he would be annihilated. The piety of the survivors found means, however, to avert this catastrophe. By the process of embalmment, they could for ages suspend the decomposition of the body; while by means of prayer and offerings, they saved the Double, the Soul, and the "Luminous" from the second death, and secured to them all that was necessary for the prolongation of their existence. The Double never left the place where the mummy reposed: but the Soul and {112} the "Khû" went forth to follow the gods. They, however, kept perpetually returning, like travellers who come home after an absence. The tomb was therefore a dwelling-house, the "Eternal House" of the dead, compared with which the houses of the living were but wayside inns; and these Eternal Houses were built after a plan which exactly corresponded to the Egyptian idea of the after-life. The Eternal House must always include the private rooms of the Soul, which were closed on the day of burial, and which no living being could enter without being guilty of sacrilege. It must also contain the reception rooms of the Double, where priests and friends brought their wishes or their offerings; the two being connected by a passage of more or less length. The arrangement of these three parts[26] varied according to the period, the place, the nature of the ground, and the caprice of each person. The rooms accessible to the living were frequently built above ground, and formed a separate edifice. Sometimes they were excavated in the mountain side, as well as the tomb itself. Sometimes, again, the vault where the mummy lay hidden, and the passages leading to that vault, were in one place, while the place of prayer and offering stood far off in the plain. But whatever variety there may be found as to detail and arrangement, the principle is always the same. The tomb is a dwelling, and it is constructed in such wise as may best promote the well-being, and ensure the preservation, of the dead.{113}
1.--Mastabas.
The most ancient monumental tombs are found in the necropolis of
Memphis, between Abû Roash and Dahshûr, and in that of Medûm;[27] they belong
to the mastaba type (Note 12). The mastaba (fig. 113) is a quadrangular building,
which from a distance might be taken for a truncated pyramid. Many mastabas
are from 30 to 40-feet in height, 150 feet in length, and 80 feet in width;
while others do not exceed 10 feet in height or 15 feet in length.
Fig 113.--A Mastaba.
The faces are symmetrically inclined and generally smooth, though sometimes
the courses retreat like steps. The materials employed are stone or brick.
The stone is limestone, cut in blocks about two and a half feet long, two
feet high, and twenty inches thick. Three sorts of limestone were employed:
for the best tombs, the fine white limestone of Tûrah, or the compact
siliceous limestone of Sakkarah; for ordinary tombs, the marly limestone of
the Libyan hills. This last, impregnated with salt and veined with
crystalline gypsum, is a friable material, and unsuited for ornamentation.
The bricks are of two kinds, both being merely sun-dried. The most ancient
kind, which ceased to be used about the time of the Sixth Dynasty, is small
(8.7 X 4.3 X 5.5 inches), yellowish, and made of nothing but sand, mixed
with a little clay and grit.
{114}The later kind is of mud mixed with straw, black, compact, carefully moulded, and of a fair size (15.0 X 7.1 X 5.5 inches). The style of the internal construction differs according to the material employed by the architect. In nine cases out of ten, the stone mastabas are but outwardly regular in construction. The core is of roughly quarried rubble, mixed with rubbish and limestone fragments hastily bedded in layers of mud, or piled up without any kind of mortar. The brick mastabas are nearly always of homogeneous construction. The facing bricks are carefully mortared, and the joints inside are filled up with sand. That the mastaba should be canonically oriented, the four faces set to the four cardinal points, and the longer axis laid from north and south, was indispensable; but, practically, the masons took no special care about finding the true north, and the orientation of these structures is seldom exact. At Gizeh, the mastabas are distributed according to a symmetrical plan, and ranged in regular streets. At Sakkarah, at Abûsîr, and at Dahshûr, they are scattered irregularly over the surface of the plateau, crowded in some places, and wide apart in others. The Mussulman cemetery at Siût perpetuates the like arrangement, and enables us to this day to realise the aspect of the Memphite necropolis towards the close of the ancient empire.
A flat, unpaved platform, formed by the top course of the core ( Note 13),
covers the top of the mass of the mastaba. This platform is scattered over
with terracotta vases, nearly buried in the loose rubbish. These lie
thickly over the hollow interior, but are more sparsely deposited
elsewhere. The walls are bare. The doors {115} face to the eastward side. They
occasionally face towards the north or south side, but never towards the
west. In theory, there should be two doors, one for the dead, the other for
the living. In practice, the entrance for the dead was a mere niche, high
and narrow, cut in the eastward face, near the north-east corner. At the
back of this niche are marked vertical lines, framing in a closed
space.
Fig 114.--False door in mastaba, from Mariette's Les
Mastabahs
Fig. 115.--Plan of forecourt of mastaba of Kâpir.
Even this imitation of a door was sometimes omitted, and the soul was left
to manage as best it might. The door of the living was made more or less
important, according to the greater or less development of the chamber to
which it led. The chamber and door are in some cases represented by only a
shallow recess decorated with a stela and a table of offerings (fig. 114).
This is sometimes protected by a wall which projects from the façade, thus
forming a kind of forecourt open to the north. The forecourt is square in
the tomb of Kâpir (fig. 114), and irregular in that of Neferhotep at
Sakkarah {116}
(fig. 116).
Fig 116.--Plan of forecourt, mastaba of Neferhotep.
When the plan includes one or more chambers, the door sometimes
opens in the middle of a small architectural façade (fig. 117), or under a
little portico supported by two square pillars without either base or
abacus (fig. 118). The doorway is very simple, the two jambs being
ornamented with bas-reliefs representing the deceased, and surmounted by a
cylindrical drum engraved with his name and titles.
Fig 117.--Door in façade of mastaba.
In the tomb of Pohûnika at Sakkarah the jambs are two pilasters, each
crowned with two lotus flowers; but this example is, so far, unique.
The chapel was usually small, and lost in the mass of the building (fig.
119), but no precise rule determined its size. In the tomb of Ti there is
first a portico (A), then a square ante-chamber with pillars (B), then a
passage (C) with a small room (D) on the right, leading to the last chamber
(E) (fig. 120). There was room enough in this tomb for many persons, and,
in point of fact, the wife of Ti {117} reposed by the side of her husband.
Fig 118.--Portico and door, from Mariette's Les
Mastabahs.
When the monument belonged to only one person, the structure was less
complicated. A short and narrow passage led to an oblong chamber upon which
it opened at right angles, so that the place is in shape of a T (fig. 121).
The end wall is generally smooth; but sometimes it is recessed just
opposite the entrance passage, and then the plan forms a cross, of which
the head is longer or shorter (fig. 122). This was the ordinary
arrangement, but the architect was free to reject it, if he so pleased.
Fig 119.--Plan of chapel in mastaba of Khabiûsokari,
Fourth Dynasty.
Here, a chapel consists of two parallel lobbies connected by a cross
passage {118}
(fig. 123). Elsewhere, the chamber opens from a corner of the passage (fig.
124).
Fig 120.--Plan of chapel in mastaba of Ti, Fifth
Dynasty.
Fig. 121.--Plan of chapel in mastaba of Shepsesptah,
Fourth Dynasty.
Fig. 122.--Plan of chapel in mastaba of Affi, Sakkarah,
Fourth Dynasty.
Again, in the tomb of Ptahhotep, the site was hemmed in by older
buildings, and was not large enough.
Fig 123.--Plan of chapel in mastaba of Thenti II.,
Fourth Dynasty, Sakkarah.
The builders therefore joined the new mastaba to the older one in such wise
as to give them one entrance in common, and thus the chapel of the one is
enlarged by absorbing the whole of the space occupied by the other (fig.
125).
The chapel was the reception room of the Double. It was there that the
relations, friends, and priests celebrated the funerary sacrifices on the
days prescribed by law; that is to say, "at the feasts of the commencement
of the seasons; at the feast of Thoth on the first day of the year; at the
feast of Ûaga; at the great feast of Sothis; on the day of the procession
of the god Min; at the feast of shew-bread; at the feasts of the months and
the half months, and the days of the week."
Fig 124.--Plan of chapel in mastaba of the Red
Scribe, Fourth Dynasty, Sakkarah.
Offerings were placed in the principal room, at the foot of the west wall,
at the exact spot leading to the {119} entrance of the "eternal home" of the dead. Unlike
the Kiblah of the mosques, or Mussulman oratories, this point is not
always oriented towards the same quarter of the compass, though often found
to the west. In the earliest times it was indicated by a real door, low and
narrow, framed and decorated like the door of an ordinary house, but not
pierced through.
Fig 125.--Plan of chapel in mastaba of Ptahhotep, Fifth
Dynasty, Sakkarah.
An inscription graven upon the lintel in large readable characters,
commemorated the name and rank of the owner. His portrait, either sitting
or standing, was carved upon the jambs; and a scene, sculptured or painted
on the space above the door, represented him seated before a small round
table, stretching out his hand towards the repast placed upon it. A flat
slab, or offering table, built into the floor between the two uprights of
the doorway, received the votive meats and {120}drinks.
The {121} general appearance of the recess is that of a somewhat narrow doorway. As a rule it was empty, but occasionally it contained a portrait statue of the dead standing with one foot forward as though about to cross the gloomy threshold of his tomb, descend the few steps before him, advance into his reception room or chapel, and pass out into the sunlight (fig. 126). As a matter of fact, the stela symbolised the door leading to the private apartments of the dead, a door closed and sealed to the living. It was inscribed on door-posts and lintels, and its inscription was no mere epitaph for the information of future generations; all the details which it gave as to the name, rank, functions, and family of the deceased were intended to secure the continuity of his individuality and civil status in the life beyond death. A further and essential object of its inscriptions was to provide him with food and drink by means of prayers or magic formulae constraining one of the gods of the dead--Osiris or Anubis--to act as intermediary between him and his survivors and to set apart for his use some portion of the provisions offered for his sake in sacrifice to one or other of these deities. By this agency the Kas or Doubles of these provisions were supposed to be sent on into the next world to gladden and satisfy the human Ka indicated to the divine intermediary. Offerings of real provisions were not indispensable to this end; any chance visitor in times to come who should simply repeat the formula of the stela aloud would thereby secure the immediate enjoyment of all the good things enumerated to the unknown dead whom he evoked.
The living having taken their departure, the Double {122} was supposed to come out of his
house and feed. In principle, this ceremony was bound to be renewed year by
year, till the end of time; but the Egyptians ere long discovered that this
could not be. After two or three generations, the dead of former days {123} were
neglected for the benefit of those more recently departed. Even when a
pious foundation was established, with a revenue payable for the expenses
of the funerary repasts and of the priests whose duty it was to prepare
them, the evil hour of oblivion was put off for only a little longer.
Sooner or later, there came a time when the Double was reduced to seek his
food among the town refuse, and amid the ignoble and corrupt filth which
lay rejected on the ground. Then, in order that the offerings consecrated
on the day of burial might for ever preserve their virtues, the survivors
conceived the idea of drawing and describing them on the walls of the
chapel (fig. 127). The painted or sculptured reproduction of persons and
things ensured the reality of those persons and things for the benefit of
the one on whose account they were executed. Thus the Double saw himself
depicted upon the walls in the act of eating and drinking, and he ate and
drank. This notion once accepted, the theologians and artists carried it
out to the fullest extent. Not content with offering mere pictured
provisions, they added thereto the semblance of the domains which produced
them, together with the counterfeit presentment of the herds, workmen, and
slaves belonging to the same. Was a supply of meat required to last for
eternity? It was enough, no doubt, to represent the several parts of an ox
or a gazelle--the shoulder, the leg, the ribs, the breast, the heart, the
liver, the head, properly prepared for the spit; but it was equally easy to
retrace the whole history of the animal--its birth, its life in the
pasture-lands, its slaughter, the cutting up of the carcass, and the
presentation {124} of the joints.
Fig 128.--Wall-painting, funeral voyage; mastaba of
Urkhuû, Gizeh, Fourth Dynasty.
So also as regarded the cakes and bread-offerings, there was no reason why
the whole process of tillage, harvesting, corn-threshing, storage, and
dough-kneading should not be rehearsed. Clothing, ornaments, and furniture
served in like manner as a pretext for the introduction of spinners,
weavers, goldsmiths, and cabinet-makers.
Fig 129.--Wall-scene from mastaba of Ptahhotep, Fifth Dynasty.
The master is of {125} superhuman proportions, and towers above his people
and his cattle. Some prophetic tableaux show him in his funeral bark,
speeding before the wind with all sail set, having started on his way to
the next world the very day that he takes possession of his new abode (fig.
128). Elsewhere, we see him as actively superintending his imaginary
vassals as formerly he superintended his vassals of flesh and blood (fig.
129). Varied and irregular as they may appear, these scenes are not placed
at random upon the walls.
Fig 130.--Plan of serdab in mastaba at Gizeh, Fourth Dynasty.
They all converge towards that semblance of a door which was supposed to
communicate with the interior of the tomb. Those nearest to the door
represent the sacrifice and the offering; the earlier stages of preparation
and preliminary work being depicted in retrograde order as that door is
left farther and farther behind. At the door itself, the figure of the
master seems to await his visitors and bid them welcome.
The details are of infinite variety. The inscriptions run to a less or greater length according to the caprice of the scribe; the false door loses its architectural character, and is frequently replaced by a mere stela engraved with the name and rank of the master; yet, whether large or small, whether richly decorated or not decorated at all, the chapel is always the dining-room--or, rather, the larder--to which the dead man has access when he feels hungry.{126}
On the other side of the wall was constructed a hiding-place in the form
of either a high and narrow cell, or a passage without outlet. To this
hiding-place archaeologists have given the Arab name of "serdab."
Most mastabas contain but one; others contain three or four (fig. 130).
These serdabs communicated neither with each other nor with the
chapel; and are, as it were, buried in the masonry (fig. 131). If connected
at all with the outer world, it is by means of an aperture in the wall
about as high up as a man's head (fig. 132), and so small that the hand can
with difficulty pass through it.
Fig 131.--Plan of serdab and chapel in mastaba of
Rahotep at Sakkarah, Fourth Dynasty.
Fig. 132.--Plan of serdab and chapel in mastaba of Thenti I. at
Sakkarah,
Fourth Dynasty.
To this orifice came the priests, with murmured prayers and perfumes of
incense. Within lurked the Double, ready to profit by these memorial rites,
or to accept them through the medium of his statues. As when he lived upon
earth, the man needed a body in which to exist. His corpse, disfigured by
the process of embalmment, bore but a distant resemblance to its former
self. The mummy, again, was destructible, and might easily be burned,
dismembered, scattered to the winds. Once it had disappeared, what was to
become of the Double? The portrait statues walled up inside the
serdab became, when consecrated, the stone, or {127} wooden, bodies of the defunct.
The pious care of his relatives multiplied these bodies, and consequently
multiplied the supports of the Double. A single body represented a single
chance of existence for the Double; twenty bodies represented twenty such
chances. For the same reason, statues also of his wife, his children, and
his servants were placed with the statues of the deceased, the servants
being modelled in the act of performing their domestic duties, such as
grinding corn, kneading dough, and applying a coat of pitch to the inside
surfaces of wine-jars. As for the figures which were merely painted on the
walls of the chapel, they detached themselves, and assumed material bodies
inside the serdab. Notwithstanding these precautions, all possible
means were taken to guard the remains of the fleshly body from natural
decay and the depredations of the spoiler. In the tomb of Ti, an inclined
passage, starting from the middle of the first hall, leads from the upper
world to the sepulchral vault; but this is almost a solitary exception.
Generally, the vault is reached by way of a vertical shaft constructed in
the centre of the platform (fig. 133), or, more rarely, in a corner of the
chapel. The depth of this shaft varies from 10 to 100 feet. It is carried
down through the masonry: it pierces the rock; and at the bottom, a low
passage, in which it is not possible to walk upright, leads in a southward
direction to the vault. There sleeps the mummy in a massive sarcophagus of
limestone, red granite, or basalt. Sometimes, though rarely, the
sarcophagus bears the name and titles of the deceased. Still more rarely,
it is decorated with ornamental sculpture. Some examples are known {128} which reproduce the
architectural decoration of an Egyptian house, with its doors and
windows.[28] The furniture of the vault is of the simplest
character,--some alabaster perfume vases; a few cups into which the priest
had poured drops of the various libation liquids offered to the dead; some
large red pottery jars for water; a head-rest of wood or alabaster; a
scribe's votive palette.
Fig 133.--Section showing shaft and vault of mastaba at
Gizeh, Fourth Dynasty.
Having laid the mummy in the sarcophagus and cemented the lid, the workmen
strewed the floor of the vault with the quarters of oxen and gazelles which
had just been sacrificed. They next carefully walled up the entrance into
the passage, and filled the shaft to the top with a mixture of sand, earth,
and stone chips. Being profusely watered, this mass solidified, and became
an almost impenetrable body of concrete. The corpse, left to itself,
received no visits now, save from the Soul, which from time to time quitted
the celestial regions wherein it voyaged with the gods, and came down to
re-unite itself with the body. The sepulchral vault was the abode of the
Soul, as the funerary chapel was the abode of the Double.
Up to the time of the Sixth Dynasty, the walls of {129} the vault are left bare. Once
only did Mariette find a vault containing half-effaced inscriptions from
The Book of the Dead. In 1881, I however discovered some tombs at
Sakkarah, in which the vault is decorated in preference to the chapel.
These tombs are built with large bricks, a niche and a stela sufficing for
the reception of sacrificial offerings. In place of the shaft, they contain
a small rectangular court, in the western corner of which was placed the
sarcophagus.
Fig 134.--Section of mastaba, Sakkarah, Sixth Dynasty.
Over the sarcophagus was erected a limestone chamber just as long and as
wide as the sarcophagus itself, and about three and a half feet high. This
was roofed in with flat slabs. At the end, or in the wall to the right, was
a niche, which answered the purpose of a serdab; and above the flat
roof was next constructed an arch of about one foot and a half radius, the
space above the arch being filled in with horizontal courses of brickwork
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 stone
walls rest on the lid of the sarcophagus, the chamber having evidently been
built after the interment had taken place (fig. 134). Generally speaking,
however, these walls rest on brick supports, so that the sarcophagus may be
opened or closed when {130} required. The decoration, which is sometimes painted,
sometimes sculptured, is always the same. Each wall was a house stocked
with the objects depicted or catalogued upon its surface, and each was,
therefore, carefully provided with a fictitious door, through which the
Double had access to his goods.
Fig 135.--Wall painting of funerary offerings, from
mastaba of Nenka, Sakkarah, Sixth Dynasty.
On the left wall he found a pile of provisions (fig. 135)[29] and a table
of offerings; on the end wall a store of household utensils, as well as a
supply of linen and perfumes, the name and quantity of each being duly
registered. These paintings more briefly sum up the scenes depicted {131} in the
chapels of ordinary mastabas. Transferred from their original position to
the walls of an underground cellar, they were the more surely guaranteed
against such possible destruction as might befall them in chambers open to
all comers; while upon their preservation depended the length of time
during which the dead man would retain possession of the property which
they represented.
2.--THE PYRAMIDS.
[For the following translation of this section of Professor Maspero's book I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. W. M. Flinders Petrie, whose work on The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh, published with the assistance of a grant from the Royal Society in 1883, constitutes our standard authority on the construction of these Pyramids.--A.B.E.]
The royal tombs have the form of pyramids with a square base, and are the equivalent in stone or brick of the tumulus of heaped earth which was piled over the body of the warrior chief in prehistoric times (Note 14). The same ideas prevailed as to the souls of kings as about those of private men; the plan of the pyramid consists, therefore, of three parts, like the mastaba,--the chapel, the passage, and the sepulchral vault.
The chapel is always separate. At Sakkarah no trace of it has been found; it was probably, as later on at Thebes, in a quarter nearer to the town. At Medûm, Gizeh, Abûsîr, and Dahshûr, these temples stood at the east or north fronts of the pyramids. They were true temples, with chambers, courts, and passages. {132} The fragments of bas-reliefs hitherto found show scenes of sacrifice, and prove that the decoration was the same as in the public halls of the mastabas. The pyramid, properly speaking, contained only the passages and sepulchral vault. The oldest of which the texts show the existence, north of Abydos, is that of Sneferû; the latest belong to the princes of the Twelfth Dynasty. The construction of these monuments was, therefore, a continuous work, lasting for thirteen or fourteen centuries, under government direction. Granite, alabaster, and basalt for the sarcophagus and some details were the only materials of which the use and the quantity was not regulated in advance, and which had to be brought from a distance. To obtain them, each king sent one of the great men of his court on a mission to the quarries of Upper Egypt; and the quickness with which the blocks were brought back was a strong claim upon the sovereign's favour. The other material was not so costly. If mainly brick, the bricks were moulded on the spot with earth taken from the foot of the hill. If of stone, the nearest parts of the plateau provided the common marly limestone in abundance (Note 15). The fine limestone of Tûrah was usually reserved for the chambers and the casing, and this might be had without even sending specially for it to the opposite side of the Nile; for at Memphis there were stores always full, upon which they continually drew for public buildings, and, therefore, also for the royal tombs. The blocks being taken from these stores, and borne by boats to close below the hill, were raised to their required places along gently sloping causeways. The {133} internal arrangement of the pyramids, the lengths of the passages and their heights, were very variable; the pyramid of Khûfû (Cheops) rose to 475 feet above the ground, the smallest was not 30 feet high. The difficulty of imagining now what motives determined the Pharaohs to choose such different proportions has led some to think that the mass built was in direct proportion to the time occupied in building; that is to say, to the length of each reign. Thus it was supposed that the king would begin by hastily erecting a pyramid large enough to contain the essential parts of a tomb; and then, year by year, would add fresh layers around the first core, until the time when his death for ever arrested the growth of the monument. But the facts do not justify this hypothesis. The smallest of the pyramids of Sakkarah is that of Ûnas, who reigned thirty years; while the two imposing pyramids of Gizeh were raised by Khûfû and Khafra (Chephren), who governed Egypt, the one for twenty-four, and the other for twenty-three years. Merenra, who died very young, had a pyramid as large as that of Pepi II., whose reign lasted more than ninety years (Note 16). The plan of each pyramid was laid down, once for all, by the architect, according to the instructions which he had received, and the resources placed at his disposal. He then followed it out to the end of the work, without increasing or reducing the scale (Note 17).
The pyramids were supposed to have their four faces to the four cardinal
points, like the mastabas; but, either from bad management or neglect, the
greater part are not oriented exactly, and many vary distinctly {134} from the true north
(Note 18). Without speaking of the ruins of Abû Roash or Zowyet el
Aryan, which have not been studied closely enough, they naturally form six
groups, distributed from north to south on the border of the Libyan
plateau, from Gizeh to the Fayûm, by Abûsîr, Sakkarah, Dahshûr, and Lisht.
The Gizeh group contains nine, including those of Khûfû, Khafra, and
Menkara, which were anciently reckoned among the wonders of the world. The
ground on which the pyramid of Khûfû stands was very irregular at the time
of construction. A small rocky height which rose above the surface was
roughly cut (fig. 136) and enclosed in the masonry, the rest being smoothed
and covered with large slabs, some of which still remain (Note 19). The
pyramid itself was 481 feet high and 755 feet wide, dimensions which the
injuries of time have reduced to 454 feet and 750 feet respectively. It
preserved, until the Arab conquest, a casing of stones of different colours
(Note 20), so skilfully joined as to appear like one block from
base to summit. The casing work was begun from the top, and the cap placed
on first, the steps being covered one after the other, until they reached
the bottom (Note 21). In the inside all was arranged so as to hide the exact
place of the sarcophagus, and to baffle any spoilers whom chance or
perseverance had led aright. The first point was to discover the entrance
under the casing, which masked it. It was nearly in the middle of the north
face (fig. 136), but at the level of the eighteenth course, at about forty-
five feet from the ground. When the block which closed it was displaced, an
inclined passage, 41.2 inches wide and 47.6 inches {135} high, was revealed, the lower
part of which was cut in the rock. This descended for 317 feet, passed
through an unfinished chamber, and ended sixty feet farther in a blind
passage. This would be a first disappointment to the spoilers. If, however,
they were not discouraged, but examined the passage with care, they would
find in the roof, sixty-two feet distant from the door, a block of granite
(Note 22) among the surrounding limestone.
Fig 136.--Section of the Great Pyramid.
[30]
It was so hard that the seekers, after having vainly tried to break or
remove it, took the course of forcing a way through the softer stone around
(Note 23). This obstacle past, they came into an ascending passage
which joins the first at an angle of 120° (Note
24), and is divided into
two branches. One branch runs horizontally into the centre of the pyramid,
and ends in a limestone chamber with pointed roof, which is called, without
any good {136}
reason, "The Queen's Chamber." The other, continuing upward, changes its
form and appearance. It becomes a gallery 148 feet long and 28 feet high,
built of Mokattam stone, so polished and finely wrought that it is
difficult to put a "needle or even a hair" into the joints (Note 25). The
lower courses are vertical; the seven others "corbel" forwards, until at
the roof they are only twenty-one inches apart. A fresh obstacle arose at
the end of this gallery. The passage which led to the chamber of the
sarcophagus was closed by a slab of granite (Note
26); farther on was a
small vestibule divided in equal spaces by four portcullises of granite (Note 27), which would need to be broken. The royal sepulchre is a
granite chamber with a flat roof, nineteen feet high, thirty-four feet
long, and seventeen feet wide. Here are neither figures nor inscriptions;
nothing but a granite sarcophagus, lidless and mutilated. Such were the
precautions taken against invaders; and the result showed that they were
effectual, for the pyramid guarded its deposit during more than four
thousand years (Note 28). But the very weight of the materials was a more
serious danger. To prevent the sepulchral chamber from being crushed by the
three hundred feet of stone which stood over it, five low hollow spaces,
one over the other, were left above it. The last is sheltered by a pointed
roof, formed of two enormous slabs (Note 29) leaning one against the other.
Thanks to this device, the central pressure was thrown almost entirely on
the side faces, and the chamber was preserved. None of the stones which
cover it have been crushed; none have yielded a {137} fraction since the day when the
workmen cemented them into their places (Note 30).
The pyramids of Khafra and Menkara were built on a different plan inside
to that of Khûfû. Khafra's had two entrances, both to the north, one from
the platform before the pyramid, the other fifty feet above the ground.
Menkara's still preserves the remains of its casing of red granite (Note 31).
The entrance passage descends at an angle of twenty-six degrees, and soon
runs into the rock.
Fig 137.--The Step Pyramid of Sakkarah.
The first chamber is decorated with panels sculptured in the stone, and was
closed at the further end by three portcullises of granite. The second
chamber appears to be unfinished, but this was a trap to deceive the
spoilers. A passage cut in the floor, and carefully hidden, gave access to
a lower chamber. There lay the mummy in a sarcophagus of sculptured basalt.
The sarcophagus was still perfect at the beginning of this century. Removed
thence by Colonel Howard Vyse, it foundered on the Spanish coast with the
ship which was bearing it to England.{138}
The same variety of arrangement prevails in the groups of Abûsîr, and in
one part of the Sakkarah group. The great pyramid of Sakkarah is not
oriented with exactness. The north face is turned 4° 21' E. of the true
north. It is not a perfect square, but is elongated from east to west, the
sides being 395 and 351 feet. It is 196 feet high, and is formed of six
great steps with inclined faces, each retreating about seven feet; the step
nearest the ground is thirty-seven and a half feet high, and the top one is
twenty-nine feet high (fig. 137).
Fig 138.--Plan and Section of the Pyramid of Ûnas.
It is built entirely of limestone, quarried from the neighbouring hills.
The blocks are small and badly cut, and the courses are concave, according
to a plan applied both to quays and to fortresses. On examining the
breaches in the masonry, it is seen that the outer face of each step is
coated with two layers, each of which has its regular casing (Note 32). The
mass is solid, the chambers being cut in the rock below the pyramid. It has
four entrances, the main one being in the north; and the passages form a
perfect labyrinth, which it is perilous to enter. Porticoes with columns,
galleries, and chambers, all end in a kind of pit, in the bottom of which a
hiding place was contrived, doubtless intended to contain the {139} most precious objects
of the funeral furniture. The pyramids which surround this extraordinary
monument have been nearly all built on one plan, and only differ in their
proportions. The door (fig. 138, A) opens close below the first course,
about the middle of the north face, and the passage (B) descends by a
gentle slope between two walls of limestone. It is plugged up all along by
large blocks (Note 33), which needed to be broken up before the first chamber
could be entered (C).
Fig 139.--Portcullis and passage, pyramid of Ûnas.
Beyond this chamber, it is carried for some way through the limestone rock;
then it passes between walls, ceiling and floor of polished syenite; after
which the limestone re-appears, and the passage opens into the vestibule
(E). The part built of granite is interrupted thrice, at intervals of two
to two and a half feet, by three enormous portcullises of granite (D).
Above each of these a hollow is left, in which the portcullis stone could
be held up by props, and thus leave a free passage (fig. 139). The mummy
once placed inside, the workmen, as they left, removed the supports, and
the portcullises fell into place, cutting off all communication with the
outside. The vestibule was flanked on the east by a flat-roofed
serdab (F) divided into three niches, and encumbered with chips of
stone swept hastily in by the workmen when they cleared the {140} chambers to receive
the mummy. The pyramid of Ûnas has all three niches preserved; but in the
pyramids of Teti and of Merenra, the separating walls have been neatly cut
away in ancient times, without leaving any trace but a line of attachment,
and a whiter colour in the stone where it had been originally covered. The
sarcophagus chamber (G) extends west of the vestibule; the sarcophagus was
placed there along the west wall, feet to the south, head to the north. The
roof over the two main chambers was pointed (fig. 140). It was formed of
large beams of limestone, joined at the upper ends, and supported below
upon a low bench (1) which surrounded the chamber outside (Note 34). The
first beams were covered by two others, and these by two more; and the six
together (J) thoroughly protected the vestibule of the vault.
The pyramids of Gizeh belonged to the Pharaohs of the Fourth Dynasty, and those of Abûsir to the Pharaohs of the Fifth. The five pyramids of Sakkarah, of which the plan is uniform, belonged to Ûnas and to the first four kings of the Sixth Dynasty, Teti, Pepi I., Merenra, and Pepi II., and are contemporary with the mastabas with painted vaults which I have mentioned above (p. 129). It is, therefore, no matter {141} of surprise to find them inscribed and decorated. The ceilings are covered with stars, to represent the night-sky. The rest of the decoration is very simple. In the pyramid of Ûnas, which is the most ornamented, the decoration occupies only the end wall of the sepulchral chamber; the part against the sarcophagus was lined with alabaster, and engraved to represent great monumental doors, through which the deceased was supposed to enter his storerooms of provisions. The figures of men and of animals, the scenes of daily life, the details of the sacrifice, are not here represented, and, moreover, would not be in keeping; they belong to those places where the Double lived his public life, and where visitors actually performed the rites of offering; the passages and the vault in which the soul alone was free to wander needed no ornamentation except that which related to the life of the soul. The texts are of two kinds. One kind--of which there are the fewest--refer to the nourishment of the Double, and are literal transcriptions of the formulae by which the priests ensured the transmission of each object to the other world; this was a last resource for him, in case the real sacrifices should be discontinued, or the magic scenes upon the chapel walls be destroyed. The greater part of the inscriptions were of a different kind. They referred to the soul, and were intended to preserve it from the dangers which awaited it, in heaven and on earth. They revealed to it the sovereign incantations which protected it against the bites of serpents and venomous animals, the passwords which enabled it to enter into the company of the good gods, and the exorcisms which counteracted the influence of the {142} evil gods. The destiny of the Double was to continue to lead the shadow of its terrestrial life, and fulfil it in the chapel; the destiny of the Soul was to follow the sun across the sky, and it, therefore, needed the instructions which it read on the walls of the vault. It was by their virtue that the absorption of the dead into Osiris became complete, and that they enjoyed hereafter all the immunity of the divine state. Above, in the chapel, they were men, and acted as men; here they were gods, and acted as gods.
The enormous rectangular mass which the Arabs call Mastabat el
Faraûn, "the seat of Pharaoh" (fig. 141), stands beside the pyramid of
Pepi II. Some have thought it to be an unfinished pyramid, some a tomb
surmounted by an obelisk; in reality it is a pyramid which was left
unfinished by its builder, King Ati of the Sixth Dynasty. Recent
excavations have, on the other hand, shown that the brick pyramids of
Dahshûr probably belonged to the Twelfth Dynasty. The stone pyramids of
that group, which may be older, furnish a curious variation from the usual
type. One of these stone pyramids has the lower half inclined at 54° 41',
while the upper part changes sharply to {143} 42° 59'; it might be called a mastaba
(Note 35) crowned by a gigantic attic. At Lisht, where the two
pyramids now standing are of the same period (one of them was erected by
Ûsertesen I.), the structure is again changed. The sloping passage ends in
a vertical shaft, at the bottom of which open chambers now filled by the
infiltration of the Nile. The pyramids of Illahûn and Hawara, which
contained the remains of Ûsertesen II. and Amenemhat III., are of the same
type as those at Lisht.
Fig 142.--Pyramid of Medûm.
Their rooms are now filled with water. The pyramid of Medûm is empty,
having been violated before the Ramesside age. It consists of three square
towers (Note 36) with sides slightly sloping, placed in retreating stages
one over the other (fig. 142). The entrance is on the north, at about 53
feet above the sand. After 60 feet, the passage goes into the rock; at 174
feet it runs level; at 40 feet farther it stops, and turns perpendicularly
towards the surface, opening in the floor of a vault twenty-one feet higher
(fig. 143). A set of beams and ropes still in place above the opening {144} show that the
spoilers drew the sarcophagus out of the chamber in ancient times. Its
small chapel, built against the eastern slope of the pyramid, with
courtyard containing a low flat altar between two standing stelae nearly 14
feet high, was found intact. The walls of the chapel were uninscribed, and
bare; but the graffiti found there prove that the place was much
visited during the times of the Eighteenth Dynasty by scribes, who recorded
their admiration of the beauty of the monument, and believed that King
Sneferû had raised it for himself and for his queen Meresankhû.
The custom of building pyramids did not end with the Twelfth Dynasty; there are later pyramids at Manfalût, at Hekalli to the south of Abydos, and at Mohammeriyeh to the south of Esneh. Until the Roman period, the semi-barbarous sovereigns of Ethiopia held it as a point of honour to give the pyramidal form to their tombs. The oldest, those of Nûrri, where the Pharaohs of Napata sleep, recall by their style the pyramids of Sakkarah; the latest, those of Meroë, present fresh characteristics. They are higher than they are wide, are built of small blocks, and are sometimes decorated at the angles with rounded borderings. The east face has a false window, surmounted by a cornice, and is flanked by a chapel, which is preceded by a pylon. These pyramids are not {145} all dumb. As in ordinary tombs, the walls contain scenes borrowed from the "Ritual of Burial," or showing the vicissitudes of the life beyond the grave.
3.--THE TOMBS OF THE THEBAN EMPIRE.
Excavated Tombs.
Two subsequent systems replaced the mastaba throughout Egypt. The first
preserved the chapel constructed above ground, and combined the pyramid
with the mastaba;
Fig 144.--Section of "vaulted" brick pyramid, Abydos.
the second excavated the whole tomb in the rock, including the chapel.
The necropolis quarter of Abydos, in which were interred the earlier
generations of the Theban Empire, furnishes the most ancient examples of
the first system. The tombs are built of large, black, unbaked bricks, made
without any mixture of straw or grit. The lower part is a mastaba with a
square or oblong rectangular base, the greatest length of the latter being
sometimes forty or fifty feet. The walls are perpendicular, and are seldom
high enough for a man to stand upright inside the tomb. On this kind of
pedestal was erected a pointed pyramid of from 12 to 30 feet in height,
covered externally with a smooth coat of clay painted white. {146} The defective nature
of the rock below forbade the excavation of the sepulchral chamber; there
was no resource, therefore, except to hide it in the brickwork. An oven-
shaped chamber with "corbel" vault was constructed in the centre (fig.
144); but more frequently the sepulchral chamber is found to be half above
ground in the mastaba and half sunk in the foundations, the vaulted space
above being left only to relieve the weight (fig. 145).
Fig 145.--Section of "vaulted" tomb, Abydos.
In many cases there was no external chapel; the stela, placed in the
basement, or set in the outer face, alone marking the place of offering. In
other instances a square vestibule was constructed in front of the tomb
where the relations assembled (fig. 146).
Fig 146.--Plan of tomb, at Abydos.
Occasionally a breast-high enclosure wall surrounded the monument, and
defined the boundaries of the ground belonging to the tomb. This mixed form
was {147} much
employed in Theban cemeteries from the beginning of the Middle Empire. Many
kings and nobles of the Eleventh Dynasty were buried at Drah Abû'l Neggeh,
in tombs like those of Abydos (fig. 147). The relative proportion of
mastaba and pyramid became modified during the succeeding centuries.
Fig 147.--Theban tomb, with pyramidion, from scene in a
tomb at Sheikh Abd el Gûrneh.
The mastaba--often a mere insignificant substructure--gradually returned to
its original height, while the pyramid as gradually decreased, and ended by
being only an unimportant pyramidion (fig. 148).
Fig 148.--Theban tomb, with pyramidion, from scene in a
tomb at Sheikh Abd el Gûrneh.
All the monuments of this type which ornamented the Theban necropolis
during the Ramesside period have perished, but contemporary tomb-paintings
show many varieties, and the chapel of an Apis which died during the reign
of Amenhotep III. still remains to show that this fashion extended as far
as Memphis. Of the pyramidion, scarcely any traces remain; but the mastaba
is intact. It is a square mass of limestone, raised on a base, supported by
four columns at the corners, and surmounted by an {148} overhanging cornice; a flight of
five steps leads up to the inner chamber (fig. 149).
The earliest examples of the second kind are those found at Gizeh among
the mastabas of the Fourth Dynasty, and these are neither large nor much
ornamented. They begin to be carefully wrought about the time of the Sixth
Dynasty, and in certain distant places, as at Bersheh, Sheîkh Saîd, Kasr es
Saîd, Asûan, and Negadeh.
Fig 149.--Section of Apis tomb, tempo Amenhotep III.
The rock-cut tomb did not, however, attain its full development until the
times of the last Memphite kings and the early kings of the Theban
line.
In these rock-cut tombs we find all the various parts of the mastaba. The designer selected a prominent vein of limestone, high enough in the cliff side to risk nothing from the gradual rising of the soil, and yet low enough for the funeral procession to reach it without difficulty. The feudal lords of Minieh slept at Beni Hasan; those of Khmûnû at Bersheh; those of Siût and Elephantine at Siût and in the cliff opposite Asûan (fig. 150). Sometimes, as at Siût, Bersheh, and Thebes, the tombs are excavated at various levels; sometimes, as at Beni Hasan, they follow the line of the stratum, and are ranged in nearly horizontal terraces.[31] A flight of steps, {149} rudely constructed in rough-hewn stones, leads up from the plain to the entrance of the tomb. At Beni Hasan and Thebes, these steps are either destroyed or buried in sand; but recent excavations have brought to light a well- preserved example leading up to a tomb at Asûan.[32]
The funeral procession, having slowly scaled the cliff-side, halted for
a moment at the entrance to the chapel. The plan was not necessarily
uniform throughout any one group of tombs. Several of the Beni Hasan tombs
have porticoes, the pillars, bases, and entablatures being all cut in the
rock; those of Ameni and Khnûmhotep have porticoes supported on two
polygonal columns {150} (fig. 151). At Asûan (fig. 152), the doorway forms a
high and narrow recess cut in the rock wall, but is divided, at about one-
third of its height, by a rectangular lintel, thus making a smaller doorway
in the doorway itself. At Siût, the tomb of Hapizefa was entered by a true
porch about twenty-four feet in height, with a "vaulted" roof elegantly
sculptured and painted.
Fig 151.--Façade of tomb of Khnûmhotep, at Beni Hasan,
Twelfth Dynasty.
More frequently the side of the mountain was merely cut away, and the stone
dressed over a more or less extent of surface, according to the intended
dimensions of the tomb. This method ensured the twofold advantage of
clearing a little platform closed in on three sides in front of the tomb,
and also of forming an upright façade which could be decorated or left
plain, according to the taste of the proprietor. The door, sunk in the
middle of this {151} façade, has sometimes no framework; sometimes,
however, it has two jambs and a lintel, all slightly projecting. The
inscriptions, when any occur, are very simple, consisting of one or two
horizontal lines above, and one or two vertical lines down each side, with
the addition perhaps of a sitting or standing figure.
Fig 152.--Façade of tomb, Asûan.
These inscriptions contain a prayer, as well as the name, titles, and
parentage of the deceased. The chapel generally consists of a single
chamber, either square or oblong, with a flat or a slightly vaulted
ceiling. Light is admitted only through the doorway. Sometimes a few
pillars, left standing in the rock at the time of excavation, give this
chamber the aspect of a little hypostyle hall. Four such pillars decorate
the chapels of Ameni and Khnûmhotep at Beni Hasan (fig. 153). Other chapels
there contain six or eight, and are very irregular in plan. One tomb,
unfinished, was in the first instance a simple oblong hall, with a barrel
roof and six {152} columns. Later on, it was enlarged on the right side,
the new part forming a kind of flat-roofed portico supported on four
columns (fig. 154).
To form a serdab in the solid rock was almost impossible; while
on the other hand, movable statues, if left in a room accessible to all
comers, would be exposed to theft or mutilation.
Fig 153.--Plan of tomb of Khnûmhotep, at Beni
Hasan.
The serdab, therefore, was transformed, and combined with the stela
of the ancient mastabas. The false door of the olden time became a niche
cut in the end wall, almost always facing the entrance. Statues of the
deceased and his wife, carved in the solid rock, were there enthroned. The
walls were decorated with scenes of offerings, and the entire decoration of
the tomb converged towards the niche, as that of the mastaba converged
towards the stela. The series of tableaux is, on the whole, much the same
as of old, though with certain noteworthy additions. The funeral
procession, {153} and the scene where the deceased enters into
possession of his tomb, both merely indicated in the mastaba, are displayed
in full upon the walls of the Theban sepulchre. The mournful cortège
is there, with the hired mourners, the troops of friends, the bearers of
offerings, the boats for crossing the river, and the catafalque drawn by
oxen. It arrives at the door of the tomb.
Fig 154.--Plan of unfinished tomb, Beni Hasan.
The mummy, placed upright upon his feet, receives the farewell of his
family; and the last ceremonies, which are to initiate him into the life
beyond the grave, are duly represented (fig. 155). The sacrifices, with all
the preliminary processes, as tillage, seed-growing, harvesting, stock-
breeding, and the practice of various kinds of handicraft, are either
sculptured or painted, as before. Many details, however, which are absent
from tombs of the earlier dynasties are here given, while others which are
invariably met with in the neighbourhood of the pyramids are lacking.
Twenty centuries work many changes in the usages of daily life, even in
conservative Egypt. We look almost in vain for herds of gazelles upon the
walls of the Theban tombs, for the reason that these animals, in Ramesside
times, had ceased to be bred in a state of domestication. The horse, on the
other hand, had been imported into the valley of the Nile, {154} and is depicted
pawing the ground where formerly the gazelle was seen cropping the
pasturage. The trades are also more numerous and complicated; the workmen's
tools are more elaborate; the actions of the deceased are more varied and
personal.
Fig 155.--Funeral processions and ceremonies from wall-
painting in tomb of Manna, Thebes, Nineteenth Dynasty.
In former times, when first the rules of tomb decoration were formulated,
the notion of future retribution either did not exist, or was but dimly
conceived. The deeds which he had done here on earth in no wise influenced
the fate which awaited the man after death. Whether good or bad, from the
moment when the funeral rites were performed and the necessary prayers
recited, he was rich and happy. In order to establish his identity, it was
enough to record his name, {155} his title, and his parentage; his past was taken for
granted. But when once a belief in rewards and punishments to come had
taken possession of men's minds, they bethought them of the advisability of
giving to each dead man the benefit of his individual merits. To the
official register of his social status, they now therefore added a brief
biographical notice. At first, this consisted of only a few words; but
towards the time of the Sixth Dynasty (as where Ûna recounts his public
services under four kings), these few words developed into pages of
contemporary history. With the beginning of the New Empire, tableaux and
inscriptions combine to immortalise the deeds of the owner of the tomb.
Khnûmhotep of Beni Hasan records in full the origin and greatness of his
ancestors. Khetî displays upon his walls all the incidents of a military
life--parades, war-dances, sieges, and sanguinary battle scenes. In this
respect, as in all others, the Eighteenth Dynasty perpetuated the tradition
of preceding ages. Aï, in his fine tomb at Tell el Amarna, recounts the
episode of his marriage with the daughter of Khûenaten. Neferhotep of
Thebes, having received from Horemheb the decoration of the Golden Collar,
complacently reproduces every little incident of his investiture, the words
spoken by the king, as also the year and the day when this crowning reward
was conferred upon him. Another, having conducted a survey, is seen
attended by his subordinates with their measuring chains; elsewhere he
superintends a census of the population, just as Ti formerly superintended
the numbering of his cattle. The stela partakes of these new
characteristics in wall-decoration. {156} In addition to the usual prayers, it now
proclaims the praises of the deceased, and gives a summary of his life.
This is too seldom followed by a list of his honours with their dates.
When space permitted, the vault was excavated immediately below the chapel. The shaft was sometimes sunk in a corner of one of the chambers, and sometimes outside, in front of the door of the tomb. In the great cemeteries, as for instance at Thebes and Memphis, the superposition of these three parts--the chapel, the shaft, and the vault--was not always possible. If the shaft were carried to its accustomed depth, there was sometimes the risk of breaking into tombs excavated at a lower level. This danger was met either by driving a long passage into the rock, and then sinking the shaft at the farther end, or by substituting a slightly sloping or horizontal disposition of the parts for the old vertical arrangement of the mastaba model. The passage in this case opens from the centre of the end wall, its average length being from 20 to 130 feet. The sepulchral vault is always small and plain, as well as the passage. Under the Theban dynasties, as under the Memphite kings, the Soul dispensed with decorations; but whenever the walls of the vault are decorated, the figures and inscriptions are found to relate chiefly to the life of the Soul, and very slightly to the life of the Double. In the tomb of Horhotep, which is of the time of the Ûsertesens, and in similar rock-cut sepulchres, the walls (except on the side of the door) are divided into two registers. The upper row belongs to the Double, and contains, besides the table {157} of offerings, pictured representations of the same objects which are seen in certain mastabas of the Sixth Dynasty; namely, stuffs, jewels, arms, and perfumes, all needful to Horhotep for the purpose of imparting eternal youth to his limbs. The lower register belonged to both the Soul and the Double, and is inscribed with extracts from a variety of liturgical writings, such as The Book of the Dead, the Ritual of Embalmment, and the Funeral Ritual, all of which were possessed of magic properties which protected the Soul and supported the Double. The stone sarcophagus, and even the coffin, are also covered with closely-written inscriptions. Precisely as the stela epitomised the whole chapel, so did the sarcophagus and coffin epitomise the sepulchral chamber, thus forming, as it were, a vault within a vault. Texts, tableaux, all thereon depicted, treat of the life of the Soul, and of its salvation in the world to come.
At Thebes, as at Memphis, the royal tombs are those which it is most necessary to study, in order to estimate the high degree of perfection to which the decoration of passages and sepulchral chambers was now carried. The most ancient were situated either in the plain or on the southern slopes of the western mountain; and of these, no remains are extant. The mummies of Amenhotep I., and Thothmes III., of Sekenenra, and Aahhotep have survived the dwellings of solid stone designed for their protection. Towards the middle of the Eighteenth Dynasty, however, all the best places were taken up, and some unoccupied site in which to establish a new royal cemetery had to be sought. At first they went to a considerable distance, namely, to the end {158} of the valley (known as the Western Valley), which opens from near Drah Abû'l Neggeh. Amenhotep III., Aï, and perhaps others, were there buried. Somewhat later, they preferred to draw nearer to the city of the living. Behind the cliff which forms the northern boundary of the plain of Thebes, there lay a kind of rocky hollow closed in on every side, and accessible from the outer world by only a few perilous paths. It divides into two branches, which cross almost at right angles. One branch turns to the south-east, while the other, which again divides into secondary branches, turns to the south-west. Westward rises a mountain which recalls upon a gigantic scale the outline of the great step-pyramid of Sakkarah (fig. 137). The Egyptian engineers of the time observed that this hollow was separated from the ravine of Amenhotep III. by a mere barrier some 500 cubits in thickness. In this there was nothing to dismay such practised miners. They therefore cut a trench some fifty or sixty cubits deep through the solid rock, at the end of which a narrow passage opens like a gateway into the hidden valley beyond. Was it in the time of Horemheb, or during the reign of Rameses I., that this gigantic work was accomplished? Rameses I. is, at all events, the earliest king whose tomb has as yet been found in this spot. His son, Seti I., then his grandson, Rameses II., came hither to rest beside him. The Ramesside Pharaohs followed one after the other. Herhor may perhaps have been the last of the series. These crowded catacombs caused the place to be called "The Valley of the Tombs of the Kings,"--a name which it retains to this day.
{159}These tombs are not complete. Each had its chapel; but those chapels stood far away in the plain, at Gûrneh, at the Ramesseum, at Medinet Habû; and they have already been described. The Theban rock, like the Memphite pyramid, contained only the passages and the sepulchral chamber. During the daytime, the pure Soul was in no serious danger; but in the evening, when the eternal waters which flow along the vaulted heavens fall in vast cascades adown the west and are engulfed in the bowels of the earth, the Soul follows the bark of the Sun and its escort of luminary gods into a lower world bristling with ambuscades and perils. For twelve hours, the divine squadron defiles through long and gloomy corridors, where numerous genii, some hostile, some friendly, now struggle to bar the way, and now aid it in surmounting the difficulties of the journey. Great doors, each guarded by a gigantic serpent, were stationed at intervals, and led to an immense hall full of flame and fire, peopled by hideous monsters and executioners whose office it was to torture the damned. Then came more dark and narrow passages, more blind gropings in the gloom, more strife with malevolent genii, and again the joyful welcoming of the propitious gods. At midnight began the upward journey towards the eastern regions of the world; and in the morning, having reached the confines of the Land of Darkness, the sun emerged from the east to light another day. The tombs of the kings were constructed upon the model of the world of night. They had their passages, their doors, their vaulted halls, which plunged down into the depths of the mountain. Their positions in the valley were determined by no consideration of dynasty or succession. {160}
Each king attacked the rock at any point where he might hope to find a
suitable bed of stone; and this was done with so little regard for his
predecessors, that the workmen were sometimes obliged to change the
direction of the excavation in order not to invade a neighbouring
catacomb.
Fig 156.--Plan of tomb of Rameses IV.
The designer's plan was a mere sketch, to be modified when necessary, and
which was by no means intended to be strictly carried out. Hence the plan
and measurement of the actual tomb of Rameses IV. (fig. 156) differ in the
outline of the sides and in the general arrangement from the plan of that
same tomb which is preserved on a papyrus in the Turin Museum (fig.
153).
Fig 157.--Plan of tomb of Rameses IV., from Turin
papyrus.
Nothing, however, could be more simple than the ordinary distribution of
the parts. A square door, very sparingly ornamented, opened upon a passage
leading to a chamber of more or less extent. From the further end of this
chamber opened a second passage leading to a second chamber, and thence
sometimes to more chambers, the last of which contained the sarcophagus. In
some tombs, the whole excavation is {161} carried down a gently inclined plane, broken
perhaps by only one or two low steps between the entrance and the end. In
others, the various parts follow each other at lower and lower levels. In
the catacomb of Seti I. (fig. 158) a long and narrow flight of stairs and a
sloping corridor (A) lead to a little antechamber and two halls (B)
supported on pillars. A second staircase (C) leads through a second
antechamber to another pillared hall (D), which was the hiding-place of the
sarcophagus. The tomb did not end here.
Fig 158.--Plan of tomb of Seti I.
A third staircase (E) opening from the end of the principal hall was in
progress, and would no doubt have led to more halls and chambers, had not
the work been stopped by the death of the king.[33] If we go from catacomb to
catacomb, we do not find many variations from this plan. The entrance
passage in the tomb of Rameses III. is flanked by eight small lateral
chambers. In almost every other instance, the lesser or greater length of
the passages, and the degree of finish given to the wall paintings,
constitute the only differences between one tomb and another. The smallest
of these catacombs {162} comes to an end at fifty-three feet from the entrance;
that of Seti I., which is the longest, descends to a distance of 470 feet,
and there remains unfinished. The same devices to which the pyramid
builders had recourse, in order to mislead the spoiler, were adopted by the
engineers of the Theban catacombs. False shafts were sunk which led to
nothing, and walls sculptured and painted were built across the passages.
When the burial was over, the entrance was filled up with blocks of rock,
and the natural slope of the mountain side was restored as skilfully as
might be.
The most complete type of this class of catacomb is that left to us by
Seti I.; figures and hieroglyphs alike are models of pure design and
elegant execution. The tomb of Rameses III. already points to decadence. It
is for the most part roughly painted. Yellow is freely laid on, and the raw
tones of the reds and blues are suggestive of the early daubs of our
childhood. Mediocrity ere long reigned supreme, the outlines becoming more
feeble, the colour more and more glaring, till the latest tombs are but
caricatures of those of Seti I. and Rameses III. The decoration is always
the same, and is based on the same principles as the decoration of the
pyramids. At Thebes as at Memphis, the intention was to secure to the
Double the free enjoyment of his new abode, and to usher the Soul into the
company of the gods of the solar cycle and the Osirian cycle, as well as to
guide it through the labyrinth of the infernal regions. But the Theban
priests exercised their ingenuity to bring before the eyes of the deceased
all that which the Memphites consigned to his memory by means of writing,
thus {163}
enabling him to see what he had formerly been obliged to read upon the
walls of his tomb. Where the texts of the pyramid of Ûnas relate how Ûnas,
being identified with the sun, navigates the celestial waters or enters the
Fields of Aalû, the pictured walls of the tomb of Seti I. show Seti sailing
in the solar bark, while a side chamber in the tomb of Rameses III. shows
Rameses III. in the Fields of Aalû (fig. 159).
Fig 159.--Wall-painting of the Fields of Aalû, tomb of
Rameses III.
Where the walls of the pyramid of Ûnas give the prayers recited over the
mummy to open his mouth, to restore the use of his limbs, to clothe, to
perfume, to feed him, the walls of Seti's catacomb contain representations
of the actual mummy, of the Ka statues which are the supports of his
Double, and of the priests who open their mouths, who clothe them, perfume
them, and offer them the various meats and drinks of the funeral feast. The
ceilings of the pyramid chambers were sprinkled over with stars to resemble
the face of the heavens; but there was nothing to instruct the Soul as to
the names of those heavenly bodies. On the ceilings of some of the Theban
catacombs, we not only find the constellations {164} depicted, each with its personified
image, but astronomical tables giving the aspect of the heavens fortnight
by fortnight throughout the months of the Egyptian year, so that the Soul
had but to lift its eyes and see in what part of the firmament its course
lay night after night. Taken as a series, these tableaux form an
illustrated narrative of the travels of the sun and the Soul throughout the
twenty-four hours of the day and night. Each hour is represented, as also
the domain of each hour with its circumscribed boundary, the door of which
is guarded by a huge serpent. These serpents have their various names, as
"Fire-Face," "Flaming Eye," "Evil Eye," etc. The fate of Souls was decided
in the third hour of the day. They were weighed by the god Thoth, who
consigned them to their future abode according to the verdict of the
scales. The sinful Soul was handed over to the cynocephalous-ape assessors
of the infernal tribunal, who hunted and scourged it, after first changing
it into a sow, or some other impure animal. The righteous Soul, on the
contrary, passed in the fifth hour into the company of his fellows, whose
task it was to cultivate the Fields of Aalû and reap the corn of the
celestial harvest, after which they took their pleasure under the
guardianship of the good genii. After the fifth hour, the heavenly ocean
became a vast battlefield. The gods of light pursued, captured, and
bound the serpent Apapi, and at the twelfth hour they strangled him. But
this triumph was not of long duration. Scarcely had the sun achieved this
victory when his bark was borne by the tide into the realm of the night
hours, and from that moment he was assailed, {165} like Virgil and Dante at the Gates of
Hell, by frightful sounds and clamourings. Each circle had its voice, not
to be confounded with the voices of other circles. Here the sound was as an
immense humming of wasps; yonder it was as the lamentations of women for
their husbands, and the howling of she-beasts for their mates; elsewhere it
was as the rolling of the thunder. The sarcophagus, as well as the walls,
was covered with these scenes of joyous or sinister import. It was
generally of red or black granite. As it was put in hand last of all, it
frequently happened that the sculptors had not time to finish it. When
finished, however, the scenes and texts with which it was covered contained
an epitome of the whole catacomb.[34] Thus, lying in his
sarcophagus, the dead man found his future destinies depicted thereon, and
learned to understand the blessedness of the gods. The tombs of private
persons were not often so elaborately decorated. Two tombs of the period of
the Twenty-sixth Dynasty--that of Petamenoph at Thebes and that of
Bakenrenf at Memphis--compete in this respect, however, with the royal
catacombs. Their walls are not only sculptured with the text (more or less
complete) of The Book of the Dead, but also with long extracts from
The Book of the Opening of the Mouth and the religious formulae
found in the pyramids.
As every part of the tomb had its special decoration, so also it had its special furniture. Of the chapel {166} furniture few traces have been preserved. The table of offerings, which was of stone, is generally all that remains. The objects placed in the serdab, in the passages, and in the sepulchral chamber, have suffered less from the ravages of time and the hand of man. During the Ancient Empire, the funerary portrait statues were always immured in the serdab. The sepulchral vault contained, besides the sarcophagus, head-rests of limestone or alabaster; geese carved in stone; sometimes (though rarely) a scribe's palette; generally some terra-cotta vases of various shapes: and lastly a store of food-cereals, and the bones of the victims sacrificed on the day of burial. Under the Theban Dynasties, the household goods of the dead were richer and more numerous. The Ka statues of his servants and family, which in former times were placed in the serdab with those of the master, were now consigned to the vault, and made on a smaller scale. On the other hand, many objects which used to be merely depicted on the walls were now represented by models, or by actual specimens. Thus we find miniature funeral boats, with crew, mummy, mourners, and friends complete; imitation bread-offerings of baked clay, erroneously called "funerary cones," stamped with the name of the deceased; bunches of grapes in glazed ware; and limestone moulds wherewith the deceased was supposed to make pottery models of oxen, birds, and fish, which should answer the purpose of fish, flesh, and fowl. Toilet and kitchen utensils, arms, and instruments of music abound. These are mostly broken--piously slain, in order that their souls should go hence to wait upon the soul of the dead man in {167} the next world. Little statuettes in stone, wood, and enamel--blue, green, and white--are placed by hundreds, and even by thousands, with these piles of furniture, arms, and provisions. Properly speaking, they are reduced serdab-statues, destined, like their larger predecessors, to serve as bodies for the Double, and (by a later conception) for the Soul. They were at first represented clothed like the individual whose name they bore. As time went on, their importance dwindled, and their duties were limited to merely answering for their master when called by Thoth to the corvée, and acting as his substitutes when he was summoned by the gods to work in the Fields of Aalû. Thenceforth they were called "Respondents" (Ûshabtiû), and were represented with agricultural implements in their hands. No longer clothed as the man was clothed when living, they were made in the semblance of a mummified corpse, with only the face and hands unbandaged. The so-called "canopic vases," with lids fashioned like heads of hawks, cynocephali, jackals, and men, were reserved from the time of the Eleventh Dynasty for the viscera, which were extracted from the body by the embalmers. As for the mummy, it continued, as time went on, to be more and more enwrapped in cartonnage, and more liberally provided with papyri and amulets; each amulet forming an essential part of its magic armour, and serving to protect its limbs and soul from destruction.
Theoretically, every Egyptian was entitled to an eternal dwelling constructed after the plan which I have here described with its successive modifications; but the poorer folk were fain to do without those things {168} which were the necessities of the wealthier dead. They were buried wherever it was cheapest--in old tombs which had been ransacked and abandoned; in the natural clefts of the rock; or in common pits. At Thebes, in the time of the Ramessides, great trenches dug in the sand awaited their remains. The funeral rites once performed, the grave-diggers cast a thin covering of sand over the day's mummies, sometimes in lots of two or three, and sometimes in piles which they did not even take the trouble to lay in regular layers. Some were protected only by their bandages; others were wrapped about with palm-branches, lashed in the fashion of a game-basket. Those most cared for lie in boxes of rough-hewn wood, neither painted nor inscribed. Many are huddled into old coffins which have not even been altered to suit the size of the new occupant, or into a composite contrivance made of the fragments of three or four broken mummy-cases. As to funerary furniture, it was out of the question for such poor souls as these. A pair of sandals of painted cardboard or plaited reeds; a staff for walking along the heavenly highways; a ring of enamelled ware; a bracelet or necklace of little blue beads; a tiny image of Ptah, of Osiris, of Anubis, of Hathor, or of Bast; a few mystic eyes or scarabs; and, above all, a twist or two of cord round the arm, the neck, the leg, or the body, intended to preserve the corpse from magical influences,--are the only possessions of the pauper dead.{169}
The statues and bas-reliefs which decorated the temples and tombs of Ancient Egypt were for the most part painted. Coloured stones, such as granite, basalt, diorite, serpentine, and alabaster, sometimes escaped this law of polychrome; but in the case of sandstone, limestone, or wood it was rigorously enforced. If sometimes we meet with uncoloured monuments in these materials, we may be sure that the paint has been accidentally rubbed off, or that the work is unfinished. The sculptor and the painter were therefore inseparably allied. The first had no sooner finished his share of the task than the other took it up; and the same artist was often as skilful a master of the brush as of the chisel.
1.--DRAWING AND COMPOSITION.
Of the system upon which drawing was taught by the Egyptian masters, we
know nothing. They had learned from experience to determine the general
proportions of the body, and the invariable relations of the various parts
one with another; but they never troubled themselves to tabulate those
proportions, or to reduce them to a system. Nothing in what remains {170} to us of
their works justifies the belief that they ever possessed a canon based
upon the length of the human finger or foot. Theirs was a teaching of
routine, and not of theory. Models executed by the master were copied over
and over again by his pupils, till they could reproduce them with absolute
exactness. That they also studied from the life is shown by the facility
with which they seized a likeness, or rendered the characteristics and
movements of different kinds of animals. They made their first attempts
upon slabs of limestone, on drawing boards covered with a coat of red or
white stucco, or on the backs of old manuscripts of no value.
Fig 160.--Pestle and mortar for grinding colours.
New papyrus was too dear to be spoiled by the scrawls of tyros. Having
neither pencil nor stylus, they made use of the reed, the end of which,
when steeped in water, opened out into small fibres, and made a more or
less fine brush according to the size of the stem. The palette was of thin
wood, in shape a rectangular oblong, with a groove in which to lay the
brush at the lower end. At the upper end were two or more cup-like hollows,
each fitted with a cake of ink; black and red being the colours most in
use. A tiny pestle and mortar for colour-grinding (fig. 160), and a cup of
water in which to clip and wash the brush, completed the apparatus of the
student. Palette in hand, he squatted cross-legged before his copy, and,
without any kind of support for his wrist, endeavoured to reproduce the
outline in black. The master looked over his work when done, and corrected
the errors in red ink.
{171} The
few designs which have come down to us are drawn on pieces of limestone,
and are for the most part in sufficiently bad preservation. The British
Museum possesses two or three subjects in red outline, which may perhaps
have been used as copies by the decorators of some Theban tomb about the
time of the Twentieth Dynasty. A fragment in the Museum of Gizeh contains
studies of ducks or geese in black ink; and at Turin may be seen a sketch
of a half-nude female figure bending backwards, as about to turn a
somersault. The lines are flowing, the movement is graceful, the modelling
delicate. The draughtsman was not hampered then as now, by the rigidity of
the instrument between his fingers. The reed brush attacked the surface
perpendicularly; broadened, diminished, or prolonged the line at will; and
stopped or turned with the utmost readiness. So supple a medium was
admirably adapted to the rapid rendering of the humorous or ludicrous
episodes of daily life. The Egyptians, naturally laughter-loving and
satirical, were caricaturists from an early period. One of the Turin papyri
chronicles the courtship of a shaven priest and a songstress of Amen in a
series of spirited vignettes; while on the back of the same sheet are
sketched various serio-comic scenes, in which animals parody the pursuits
of civilised man. An ass, a lion, a crocodile, and an ape are represented
in the act of giving a vocal and instrumental concert; a lion and a gazelle
play at draughts; the Pharaoh of all the rats, in a chariot drawn by dogs,
gallops to the assault of a fortress garrisoned by cats; a cat of fashion,
with a flower on her head, has come to blows with a goose, {172} and the hapless fowl,
powerless in so unequal a contest, topples over with terror. Cats, by the
way, were the favourite animals of Egyptian caricaturists. An ostrakon in
the New York Museum depicts a cat of rank en grande toilette, seated
in an easy chair, and a miserable Tom, with piteous mien and tail between
his legs, serving her with refreshments (fig. 161). Our catalogue of comic
sketches is brief; but the abundance of pen-drawings with which certain
religious works were illustrated compensates for our poverty in secular
subjects.
Fig 161.--Comic sketch on ostrakon in New York Museum.
These works are The Book of the Dead and The Book of Knowing That
which is in Hades, which were reproduced by hundreds, according to
standard copies preserved in the temples, or handed down through families
whose hereditary profession it was to conduct the services for the dead.
When making these illustrations, the artist had no occasion to draw upon
his imagination. He had but to imitate the copy as skilfully as he could.
Of The Book of Knowing That which is in Hades we have no examples
earlier than the time of the Twentieth Dynasty, and these are poor enough
in point of workmanship, the figures being little better than dot-and-line
forms, badly proportioned and hastily scrawled. The extant specimens of
The Book of the Dead are so numerous that a history {173} of the art of
miniature painting in ancient Egypt might be compiled from this source
alone. The earliest date from the Eighteenth Dynasty, the more recent being
contemporary with the first Caesars. The oldest copies are for the most
part remarkably fine in execution. Each chapter has its vignette
representing a god in human or animal form, a sacred emblem, or the
deceased in adoration before a divinity.
Fig 162.--Vignette from The Book of the Dead,
Saïte period
These little subjects are sometimes ranged horizontally at the top of the
text, which is written in vertical columns (fig. 162); sometimes, like the
illuminated capitals in our mediaeval manuscripts, they are scattered
throughout the pages. At certain points, large subjects fill the space from
top to bottom of the papyrus. The burial scene comes at the beginning; the
judgment of the soul about the middle; and the arrival of the deceased in
the Fields of Aalû at the end of the work. In these, the artist seized the
opportunity to display his skill, and show what he could do. We here see
the mummy of Hûnefer placed upright before his stela and his tomb (fig.
163). The {174}
women of his family bewail him; the men and the priest present offerings.
The papyri of the princes and princesses of the family of Pinotem in the
Museum of Gizeh show that the best traditions of the art were yet in force
at Thebes in the time of the Twenty-first Dynasty.
Fig 163.--Vignette from The Book of the Dead,
from the papyrus of Hûnefer.
Under the succeeding dynasties, that art fell into rapid decadence, and
during some centuries the drawings continue to be coarse and valueless. The
collapse of the Persian {175} rule produced a period of Renaissance. Tombs of the
Greek time have yielded papyri with vignettes carefully executed in a dry
and minute style which offers a singular contrast to the breadth and
boldness of the Pharaonic ages. The broad-tipped reed-pen was thrown aside
for the pen with a fine point, and the scribes vied with each other as to
which should trace the most attenuated lines. The details with which they
overloaded their figures, the elaboration of the beard and the hair, and
the folds of the garments, are sometimes so minute that it is scarcely
possible to distinguish them without a magnifying glass. Precious as these
documents are, they give a very insufficient idea of the ability and
technical methods of the artists of ancient Egypt. It is to the walls of
their temples and tombs that we must turn, if we desire to study their
principles of composition.
Their conventional system differed materially from our own. Man or
beast, the subject was never anything but a profile relieved against a flat
background. Their object, therefore, was to select forms which presented a
characteristic outline capable of being reproduced in pure line upon a
plane surface. As regarded animal life, the problem was in no wise
complicated. The profile of the back and body, the head and neck, carried
in undulating lines parallel with the ground, were outlined at one sweep of
the pencil. The legs also are well detached from the body. The animals
themselves are lifelike, each with the gait and action and flexion of the
limbs peculiar to its species. The slow and measured tread of the ox; the
short step, the meditative ear, the ironical mouth of the ass; the {176} abrupt little trot
of the goat, the spring of the hunting greyhound, are all rendered with
invariable success of outline and expression. Turning from domestic animals
to wild beasts, the perfection of treatment is the same. The calm strength
of the lion in repose, the stealthy and sleepy tread of the leopard, the
grimace of the ape, the slender grace of the gazelle and the antelope, have
never been better expressed than in Egypt. But it was not so easy to
project man--the whole man--upon a plane surface without some departure
from nature. A man cannot be satisfactorily reproduced by means of mere
lines, and a profile outline necessarily excludes too much of his person.
The form of the forehead and the nose, the curvature of the lips, the cut
of the ear, disappear when the head is drawn full face; but, on the other
hand, it is necessary that the bust should be presented full face, in order
to give the full development of the shoulders, and that the two arms may be
visible to right and left of the body. The contours of the trunk are best
modelled in a three-quarters view, whereas the legs show to most advantage
when seen sidewise. The Egyptians did not hesitate to combine these
contradictory points of view in one single figure. The head is almost
always given in profile, but is provided with a full-face eye and placed
upon a full-face bust. The full-face bust adorns a trunk seen from a three-
quarters point of view, and this trunk is supported upon legs depicted in
profile. Very seldom do we meet with figures treated according to our own
rules of perspective. Most of the minor personages represented in the tomb
of Khnûmhotep seem, however, to have made an effort to emancipate {177} themselves from the
law of malformation. Their bodies are given in profile, as well as their
heads and legs; but they thrust forward first one shoulder and then the
other, in order to show both arms (fig. 164), and the effect is not happy.
Yet, if we examine the treatment of the farm servant who is cramming a
goose, and, above all, the figure of the standing man who throws his weight
upon the neck of a gazelle to make it kneel down (fig. 165), we shall see
that the action of the arms and hips is correctly rendered, that the form
of the back is quite right, and that the prominence of the chest--thrown
forward in proportion as the shoulders and arms are thrown back--is drawn
without any exaggeration.
Figs. 164 and 165.--Scenes from the tomb of Khnûmhotep at
Beni Hasan, Twelfth Dynasty.
The wrestlers of the Beni Hasan tombs, the dancers and servants of the
Theban catacombs, attack, struggle, posture, and go about their work with
perfect naturalness and ease (fig. 166). These, however, are exceptions.
Tradition, as a rule, was stronger than nature, and to the end of the
chapter, the Egyptian masters continued to deform the human figure. Their
men and women are actual monsters from the point of view of the anatomist;
and yet, after all, they are neither so ugly nor so ridiculous as might be
supposed by those who have seen only the wretched copies so often made by
our modern artists. The wrong parts {178} are joined to the right parts with so much skill
that they seem to have grown there. The natural lines and the fictitious
lines follow and complement each other so ingeniously, that the former
appear to give rise of necessity to the latter. The conventionalities of
Egyptian art once accepted, we cannot sufficiently admire the technical
skill displayed by the draughtsman. His line was pure, firm, boldly begun,
and as boldly prolonged. Ten or twelve strokes of the brush sufficed to
outline a figure the size of life.
Fig 166.--From a tomb-painting in the British Museum,
Eighteenth Dynasty.
The whole head, from the nape of the neck to the rise of the throat above
the collar-bone, was executed at one sweep. Two long undulating lines gave
the external contour of the body from the armpits to the ends of the feet.
Two more determined the outlines of the legs, and two the arms. The details
of costume and ornaments, at first but summarily indicated, were afterwards
taken up one by one, and minutely finished. We may almost count the locks
of the hair, the plaits of the linen, the inlayings of the girdles and
bracelets. This mixture of artless science and intentional awkwardness, of
rapid execution and patient finish, excludes neither {179} elegance of form, nor grace of
attitude, nor truth of movement. These personages are of strange aspect,
but they live; and to those who will take the trouble to look at them
without prejudice, their very strangeness has a charm about it which is
often lacking to works more recent in date and more strictly true to
nature.
We admit, then, that the Egyptians could draw. Were they, as it has been
ofttimes asserted, ignorant of the art of composition? We will take a scene
at hazard from a Theban tomb--that scene which represents the funerary
repast offered to Prince Horemheb by the members of his family
(fig. 167).
Fig 167.--Funerary repast, tomb of Horemheb, Eighteenth Dynasty.
The subject is half ideal, half real. The dead man, and those belonging to
him who are no longer of this world, are depicted in the society of the
living. They are present, yet aloof. They assist at the banquet, but they
do not actually take part in it. Horemheb sits on a folding stool to the
left of the spectator. He dandles on his knee a little princess, daughter
of Amenhotep III., whose foster-father he was, and who died before him. His
mother, Sûit, sits at his right hand a little way behind, enthroned in a
large chair. She holds his arm with her left hand, and with the right she
offers him {180}
a lotus blossom and bud. A tiny gazelle which was probably buried with her,
like the pet gazelle discovered beside Queen Isiemkheb in the hiding-place
at Deir el Baharî, is tied to one of the legs of the chair. This ghostly
group is of heroic size, the rule being that gods are bigger than men,
kings bigger than their subjects, and the dead bigger than the living.
Horemheb, his mother, and the women standing before them, occupy the front
level, or foreground. The relations and friends are ranged in line facing
their deceased ancestors, and appear to be talking one with another. The
feast has begun. The jars of wine and beer, placed in rows upon wooden
stands, are already unsealed. Two young slaves rub the hands and necks of
the living guests with perfumes taken from an alabaster vase. Two women
dressed in robes of ceremony present offerings to the group of dead,
consisting of vases filled with flowers, perfumes, and grain. These they
place in turn upon a square table. Three others dance, sing, and play upon
the lute, by way of accompaniment to those acts of homage. In the picture,
as in fact, the tomb is the place of entertainment. There is no other
background to the scene than the wall covered with hieroglyphs, along which
the guests were seated during the ceremony. Elsewhere, the scene of action,
if in the open country, is distinctly indicated by trees and tufts of
grass; by red sand, if in the desert; and by a maze of reeds and lotus
plants, if in the marshes. A lady of quality comes in from a walk (fig.
168). One of her daughters, being athirst, takes a long draught from a
"gûllah"; two little naked children with shaven heads, a boy and a girl,
who ran to meet their mother {181}at the gate, are made happy with toys brought home and
handed to them by a servant.
Fig 168.--From a wall-painting, Thebes, Ramesside period.
{182} A
trellised enclosure covered with vines, and trees laden with fruit, are
shown above; yonder, therefore, is the garden, but the lady and her
daughters have passed through it without stopping, and are now indoors. The
front of the house is half put in and half left out, so that we may observe
what is going on inside. We accordingly see three attendants hastening to
serve their mistresses with refreshments. The picture is not badly
composed, and it would need but little alteration if transferred to a
modern canvas. The same old awkwardness, or rather the same old obstinate
custom, which compelled the Egyptian artist to put a profile head upon a
full-face bust, has, however, prevented him from placing his middle
distance and background behind his foreground. He has, therefore, been
reduced to adopt certain more or less ingenious contrivances, in order to
make up for an almost complete absence of perspective.
Again, when a number of persons engaged in the simultaneous performance
of any given act were represented on the same level, they were isolated as
much as possible, so that each man's profile might not cover that of his
neighbour. When this was not done, they were arranged to overlap each
other, and this, despite the fact that all stood on the one level; so that
they have actually but two dimensions and no thickness. A herdsman walking
in the midst of his oxen plants his feet upon precisely the same ground-
line as the beast which interposes between his body and the spectator. The
most distant soldier of a company which advances in good marching order to
the sound of the trumpet, {183} has his head and feet on exactly the same level; as
the head and feet of the foremost among his comrades (fig. 169).
Fig 169.--From wall-scene in tomb of Horemheb.
When a squadron of chariots defiles before Pharaoh, one would declare that
their wheels all ran in the self-same ruts, were it not that the body of
the first chariot partly hides the horse by which the second chariot is
drawn (fig. 170). In these examples the people and objects are, either
accidentally or naturally, placed so near together, that the anomaly does
not strike one as too glaring.
Fig 170.--From wall-scene, Ramesseum.
In taking these liberties, the Egyptian artist but anticipated a
contrivance adopted by the Greek sculptor of a later age. Elsewhere, the
Egyptian has occasionally approached nearer to truth of treatment. {184} The archers of
Rameses III. at Medinet Habû make an effort, which is almost successful, to
present themselves in perspective. The row of helmets slopes downwards, and
the row of bows slopes upwards, with praiseworthy regularity; but the men's
feet are all on the same level, and do not, therefore, follow the direction
of the other lines (fig. 171). This mode of representation is not uncommon
during the Theban period.
Fig 171.--Archers, as represented on walls of Medinet
Habû.
It was generally adopted when men or animals, ranged in line, had to be
shown in the act of doing the same thing; but it was subject to the grave
drawback (or what was in Egyptian eyes the grave drawback) of showing the
body of the first man only, and of almost entirely hiding the rest of the
figures. When, therefore, it was found impossible to range all upon the
same level without hiding some of their number, the artist frequently broke
his masses up into groups, and placed one above the other on the same
vertical plane. Their height in no wise depends on the place they occupy in
the perspective of the tableau, but only upon the number of rows required
by the artist to carry out his idea.
Fig 172.--Phalanx of Egyptian infantry, Ramesseum.
If two rows of figures are sufficient, he divides his space horizontally
into equal parts; if he requires three rows, he divides it into three
parts; and so on. When, however, it is a question of mere accessories, {185} they are made
out upon a smaller scale. Secondary scenes are generally separated by a
horizontal line, but this line is not indispensable. When masses of figures
formed in regular order had to be shown, the vertical planes lapped over,
so to speak, according to the caprice of the limner. At the battle of
Kadesh, the files of Egyptian infantry rise man above man, waist high, from
top to bottom of the phalanx (fig. 172); while those of the Kheta, or
Hittite battalions, show but one head above another (fig. 173).
It was not only in their treatment of men and animals that the
Egyptians allowed themselves this latitude. Houses, trees, land and
water, were as freely misrepresented.
Fig 173.--Hittite battalion, Ramesseum.
An oblong rectangle placed upright, or on its side, and covered with
regular zigzags, represents a canal. Lest one should be in doubt as to its
meaning, fishes and crocodiles are put in, to show that it is water, and
nothing but water. Boats are seen floating {186} upright upon this edgewise surface;
the flocks ford it where it is shallow; and the angler with his line marks
the spot where the water ends and the bank begins. Sometimes the rectangle
is seen suspended like a framed picture, at about half way of the height of
several palm trees (fig. 174); whereby we are given to understand a tank
bordered on both sides by trees.
Fig 174.--Pond and palm-trees, from wall painting in
tomb of Rekhmara, Eighteenth Dynasty.
Sometimes, again, as in the tomb of Rekhmara, the trees are laid down in
rows round the four sides of a square pond, while a profile boat conveying
a dead man in his shrine, hauled by slaves also shown in profile, floats on
the vertical surface of the water (fig. 175). The Theban catacombs of the
Ramesside period supply abundant examples of contrivances of this kind;
and, having noted them, we end by not knowing which most to wonder at--the
obstinacy of the Egyptians in not seeking to discover the natural laws of
perspective, or the inexhaustible wealth of resource which enabled them to
invent so many false relations between the various parts of their
subjects.
When employed upon a very large scale, their methods of composition
shock the eye less than when applied to small subjects. We instinctively
feel that even the ablest artist must sometimes have played fast and loose
with the laws of perspective, if tasked to cover the enormous surfaces of
Egyptian pylons.{187} Hence the unities of the subject are never strictly
observed in these enormous bas-reliefs. The main object being to perpetuate
the memory of a victorious Pharaoh, that Pharaoh necessarily plays the
leading part; but instead of selecting from among his striking deeds some
one leading episode pre-eminently calculated to illustrate his greatness,
the Egyptian artist delighted to present the successive incidents of his
campaigns at a single coup d'oeil.
Fig 175.--Scene from tomb of Rekhmara, Eighteenth
Dynasty.
Thus treated, the pylons of Luxor and the Ramesseum show a Syrian night
attack upon the Egyptian camp; a seizure of spies sent by the prince of the
Kheta for the express purpose of being caught and giving false intelligence
of his movements; the king's household troops surprised and broken by the
Khetan chariots; the battle of Kadesh and its various incidents, so
furnishing us, as {188} it were, with a series of illustrated despatches of
the Syrian campaign undertaken by Rameses II. in the fifth year of his
reign. After this fashion precisely did the painters of the earliest
Italian schools depict within the one field, and in one uninterrupted
sequence, the several episodes of a single narrative.
Fig 176.--Scene from Mastaba of Ptahhotep, Fifth
Dynasty.
The scenes are irregularly dispersed over the surface of the wall, without
any marked lines of separation, and, as with the bas-reliefs upon the
column of Trajan, one is often in danger of dividing the groups in the
wrong place, and of confusing the characters. This method is reserved
almost exclusively for official art. In the interior decoration of temples
and tombs, the various {189} parts of the one subject are distributed in rows
ranged one above the other, from the ground line to the cornice. Thus
another difficulty is added to the number of those which prevent us from
understanding the style and intention of Egyptian design. We often imagine
that we are looking at a series of isolated scenes, when in fact we have
before our eyes the disjecta membra of a single composition. Take,
for example, one wall-side of the tomb of Ptahhotep at Sakkarah (fig. 176).
If we would discover the link which divides these separate scenes, we shall
do well to compare this wall-subject with the mosaic at Palestrina (fig.
177), a monument of Graeco-Roman time which represents almost the same
scenes, grouped, however, after a style more familiar to our ways of seeing
and thinking. The Nile occupies the immediate foreground of the picture,
and extends as far as the foot of the mountains in the distance. Towns rise
from the water's edge; and not only towns, but obelisks, farm-houses, and
towers of Graeco-Italian style, more like the buildings depicted in
Pompeian landscapes than the monuments of the Pharaohs. Of these buildings,
only the large temple in the middle distance to the right of the picture,
with its pylon gateway and its four Osirian colossi, recalls the general
arrangement of Egyptian architecture. To the left, a party of sportsmen in
a large boat are seen in the act of harpooning the hippopotamus and
crocodile. To the right, a group of legionaries, drawn up in front of a
temple and preceded by a priest, salute a passing galley. Towards the
middle of the foreground, in the shade of an arched trellis thrown across a
small branch {190} of the Nile, some half-clad men and women are singing
and carousing. Little papyrus skiffs, each rowed by a single boatman, and
other vessels fill the vacant spaces of the composition.
Fig 177.--Palestrina mosaic.
Behind the buildings we see the commencement of the desert. The water forms
large pools at the base of overhanging hills, and various animals, real or
imaginary, are pursued by shaven-headed hunters in the upper part of the
picture. Now, precisely after the manner of the Roman mosaicist, the old {191} Egyptian
artist placed himself, as it were, on the Nile, and reproduced all that lay
between his own standpoint and the horizon. In the wall-painting (fig. 176)
the river flows along the line next the floor, boats come and go, and
boatmen fall to blows with punting poles and gaffs. In the division next
above, we see the river bank and the adjoining flats, where a party of
slaves, hidden in the long grasses, trap and catch birds. Higher still,
boat-making, rope-making, and fish-curing are going on. Finally, in the
highest register of all, next the ceiling, are depicted the barren hills
and undulating plains of the desert, where greyhounds chase the gazelle,
and hunters trammel big game with the lasso. Each longitudinal section
corresponds, in fact, with a plane of the landscape; but the artist,
instead of placing his planes in perspective, has treated them separately,
and placed them one above the other. We find the same disposition of the
parts in all Egyptian tomb paintings. Scenes of inundation and civil life
are ranged along the base of the wall, mountain subjects and hunting scenes
being invariably placed high up. Sometimes, interposed between these two
extremes, the artist has introduced subjects dealing with the pursuits of
the herdsman, the field labourer, and the craftsman. Elsewhere, he
suppresses these intermediary episodes, and passes abruptly from the watery
to the sandy region. Thus, the mosaic of Palestrina and the tomb-paintings
of Pharaonic Egypt reproduce the same group of subjects, treated after the
conventional styles and methods of two different schools of art. Like the
mosaic, the wall scenes of the tomb formed, not a series of independent
scenes, but an ordinary composition, {192} the unity of which is readily recognised by such
as are skilled to read the art-language of the period.
2.--TECHNICAL PROCESSES.
The preparation of the surface about to be decorated demanded much time
and care. Seeing how imperfect were the methods of construction, and how
impossible it was for the architect to ensure a perfectly level surface for
the facing stones of his temple-walls and pylons, the decorator had
perforce to accommodate himself to a surface slightly rounded in some
places and slightly hollowed in others. Even the blocks of which it was
formed were scarcely homogeneous in texture. The limestone strata in which
the Theban catacombs were excavated were almost always interspersed with
flint nodules, fossils, and petrified shells. These faults were variously
remedied according as the decoration was to be sculptured or painted. If
painted, the wall was first roughly levelled, and then overlaid with a coat
of black clay and chopped straw, similar to the mixture used for brick-
making. If sculptured, then the artist had to arrange his subject so as to
avoid the inequalities of the stone as much as possible. When these
occurred in the midst of the figure subjects, and if they did not offer too
stubborn a resistance to the chisel, they were simply worked over;
otherwise the piece was cut out and a new piece fitted in, or the hole was
filled up with white cement. This mending process was no trifling matter.
We could point to tomb-chambers where every wall is thus inlaid to the
extent of one quarter of its surface. The preliminary work being done, the
whole was {193}
covered with a thin coat of fine plaster mixed with white of egg, which hid
the mud-wash or the piecing, and prepared a level and polished surface for
the pencil of the artist. In chambers, or parts of chambers, which have
been left unfinished, and even in the quarries, we constantly find sketches
of intended bas-reliefs, outlined in red or black ink. The copy was
generally executed upon a small scale, then squared off, and transferred to
the wall by the pupils and assistants of the master.
Fig 178.--Sculptor's sketch from Ancient Empire tomb.
As in certain scenes carefully copied by Prisse from the walls of Theban
tombs, the subject is occasionally indicated by only two or three rapid
strokes of the reed (fig. 178). Elsewhere, the outline is fully made out,
and the figures only await the arrival of the sculptor. Some designers took
pains to determine the position of the shoulders, and the centre of gravity
of the bodies, by vertical and horizontal lines, upon which, by means of a
dot, they noted the height of the knee, the hips, and other parts (fig.
179). Others again, more self-reliant, attacked their subject at once, and
drew in the figures without the aid of guiding points. Such were {194} the artists who
decorated the catacomb of Seti I., and the southern walls of the temple of
Abydos. Their outlines are so firm, and their facility is so surprising,
that they have been suspected of stencilling; but no one who has closely
examined their figures, or who has taken the trouble to measure them with a
compass, can maintain that opinion. The forms of some are slighter than the
forms of others; while in some the contours of the chest are more
accentuated, and the legs farther apart, than in others. The master had
little to correct in the work of these subordinates.
Fig 179.--Sculptor's sketch from Ancient Empire
tomb.
Here and there he made a head more erect, accentuated or modified the
outline of a knee, or improved some detail of arrangement. In one instance,
however, at Kom Ombo, on the ceiling of a Graeco-Roman portico, some of the
divinities had been falsely oriented, their feet being placed where their
arms should have been. The master consequently outlined them afresh, and on
the same squared surface, without effacing the first drawing. Here, at all
events, the mistake was discovered in time. At Karnak, on the north wall of
the hypostyle hall, and again at Medinet Habu, the faults of the original
design were not noticed till the sculptor had finished his part of the
work. The figures of Seti I. and Rameses III. were thrown too far back, and
threatened to overbalance themselves; so they were smoothed over with
cement and cut anew. Now, the cement has flaked off, and {195} the work of the first
chisel is exposed to view. Seti I. and Rameses III. have each two profiles,
the one very lightly marked, the other boldly cut into the surface of the
stone (fig. 180).
The sculptors of ancient Egypt were not so well equipped as those of our
own day. A kneeling scribe in limestone at the Gizeh Museum has been carved
with the chisel, the grooves left by the tool being visible on his skin. A
statue in grey serpentine, in the same collection, bears traces of the use
of two different tools, the body being spotted all over with point-marks,
and the unfinished head being blocked out splinter by splinter with a small
hammer. Similar observations, and the study of the monuments, show that the
drill (fig. 181), the toothed-chisel, and the gouge were also employed.
Fig 181.--Bow drill.
There have been endless discussions as to whether these tools were of iron
or of bronze. Iron, it is argued, was deemed impure. No one could make use
of it, even for the basest needs of daily life, without incurring a taint
prejudicial to the soul both in this world and the next. But the impurity
of any given object never sufficed to prevent the employment of it when
required. Pigs also were impure; yet the Egyptians bred them. They bred
them, indeed, so abundantly in certain districts, that our worthy Herodotus
{196} tells us
how the swine were turned into the fields after seed-sowing, in order that
they might tread in the grain. So also iron, like many other things in
Egypt, was pure or impure according to circumstances. If some traditions
held it up to odium as an evil thing, and stigmatised it as the "bones of
Typhon," other traditions equally venerable affirmed that it was the very
substance of the canopy of heaven. So authoritative was this view, that
iron was currently known as "Ba-en-pet," or the celestial metal.[35] The
only fragment of metal found in the great pyramid is a piece of plate-
iron;[36] and if ancient iron objects are nowadays of exceptional
rarity as compared with ancient bronze objects, it is because iron differs
from bronze, inasmuch as it is not protected from destruction by its oxide.
Rust speedily devours it, and it needs a rare combination of favourable
circumstances to preserve it intact. If, however, it is quite certain that
the Egyptians were acquainted with, and made use of, iron, it is no less
certain that they were wholly unacquainted with steel. This being the case,
one asks how they can possibly have dealt at will upon the hardest rocks,
even upon such as we ourselves hesitate to attack, namely, diorite, basalt,
and the granite of Syene. The manufacturers of antiquities who sculpture
granite for the benefit of tourists, have found a simple solution of this
problem. They work with some {197} twenty common iron chisels at hand, which after a very
few turns are good for nothing. When one is blunted, they take up another,
and so on till the stock is exhausted. Then they go to the forge, and put
their tools into working order again. The process is neither so long nor so
difficult as might be supposed. In the Gizeh Museum is a life-size head,
produced from a block of black and red granite in less than a fortnight by
one of the best forgers in Luxor. I have no doubt that the ancient
Egyptians worked in precisely the same way, and mastered the hardest stones
by the use of iron. Practice soon taught them methods by which their labour
might be lightened, and their tools made to yield results as delicate and
subtle as those which we achieve with our own. As soon as the learner knew
how to manage the point and the mallet, his master set him to copy a series
of graduated models representing an animal in various stages of completion,
or a part of the human body, or the whole human body, from the first rough
sketch to the finished design (fig. 182). Every year, these models are
found in sufficient number to establish examples of progressive series.
Apart from isolated specimens which are picked up everywhere, the Gizeh
collection contains a set of fifteen from Sakkarah, forty-one from Tanis,
and a dozen from Thebes and Medinet Habû. They were intended partly for the
study of bas-reliefs, partly for the study of sculpture proper; and they
reveal the method in use for both.[37]
The Egyptians treated bas-relief in three ways: either as a simple
engraving executed by means of {198} incised lines; or by cutting away the surface of the
stone round the figure, and so causing it to stand out in relief upon the
wall; or by sinking the design below the wall-surface and cutting it in
relief at the bottom of the hollow.
Fig 182.--Sculptor's trial-piece, Eighteenth Dynasty.
The first method has the advantage of {199} being expeditious, and the
disadvantage of not being sufficiently decorative. Rameses III. made use of
it in certain parts of his temple at Medinet Habû; but, as a rule, it was
preferred for stelae and small monuments. The last-named method lessened
not only the danger of damage to the work, but the labour of the workman.
It evaded the dressing down of the background, which was a distinct economy
of time, and it left no projecting work on the surface of the walls, the
design being thus sheltered from accidental blows. The intermediate process
was, however, generally adopted, and appears to have been taught in the
schools by preference. The models were little rectangular tablets, squared
off in order that the scholar might enlarge or reduce the scale of his
subject without departing from the traditional proportions. Some of these
models are wrought on both sides; but the greater number are sculptured on
one side only. Sometimes the design represents a bull; sometimes the head
of a cynocephalous ape, of a ram, of a lion, of a divinity. Occasionally,
we find the subject in duplicate, side by side, being roughly blocked out
to the left, and highly finished to the right. In no instance does the
relief exceed a quarter of an inch, and it is generally even less. Not but
that the Egyptians sometimes cut boldly into the stone. At Medinet Habû and
Karnak--on the higher parts of these temples, where the work is in granite
or sandstone, and exposed to full daylight--the bas-relief decoration
projects full 6-3/8 inches above the surface. Had it been lower, the
tableaux would have been, as it were, absorbed by the flood of light poured
upon them, and to the eye of the spectator would have presented only a
confused network of lines. The models {200} designed for the study of the round
are even more instructive than the rest. Some which have come down to us
are plaster casts of familiar subjects. The head, the arms, the legs, the
trunk, each part of the body, in short, was separately cast. If a complete
figure were wanted, the disjecta membra were put together, and the
result was a statue of a man, or of a woman, kneeling, standing, seated,
squatting, the arms extended or falling passively by the sides. This
curious collection was discovered at Tanis, and dates probably from
Ptolemaic times.[38] Models of the Pharaonic ages are in soft limestone, and
nearly all represent portraits of reigning sovereigns. These are best
described as cubes measuring about ten inches each way. The work was begun
by covering one face of a cube with a network of lines crossing each other
at right angles; these regulated the relative position of the features.
Then the opposite side was attacked, the distances being taken from the
scale on the reverse face. A mere oval was designed on this first block; a
projection in the middle and a depression to right and left, vaguely
indicating the whereabouts of nose and eyes. The forms become more definite
as we pass from cube to cube, and the face emerges by degrees. The limit of
the contours is marked off by parallel lines cut vertically from top to
bottom. The angles were next cut away and smoothed down, so as to bring out
the forms. Gradually the features become disengaged from the block, the eye
looks out, the nose gains refinement, the mouth {201} is developed. When the last cube is
reached, there remains nothing to finish save the details of the head-dress
and the basilisk on the brow. No scholar's model in basalt has yet been
found;[39] but the Egyptians, like our monumental masons, always
kept a stock of half-finished statues in hard stone, which could be turned
out complete in a few hours. The hands, feet, and bust needed only a few
last touches; but the heads were merely blocked out, and the clothing left
in the rough. Half a day's work then sufficed to transform the face into a
portrait of the purchaser, and to give the last new fashion to the kilt.
The discovery of some two or three statues of this kind has shown us as
much of the process as a series of teacher's models might have done.
Volcanic rocks could not be cut with the continuity and regularity of
limestone. The point only could make any impression upon these obdurate
materials. When, by force of time and patience, the work had thus been
finished to the degree required, there would often remain some little
irregularities of surface, due, for example, to the presence of nodules and
heterogeneous substances, which the sculptor had not ventured to attack,
for fear of splintering away part of the surrounding surface. In order to
remove these irregularities, another tool was employed; namely, a stone cut
in the form of an axe. Applying the sharp edge of this instrument to the
projecting nodule, the artist struck it with a round stone in place of a
mallet. A succession of carefully calculated blows with these rude tools
pulverised the obtrusive knob, which disappeared {202} in dust. All minor defects being
corrected, the monument still looked dull and unfinished. It was necessary
to polish it, in order to efface the scars of point and mallet. This was a
most delicate operation, one slip of the hand, or a moment's forgetfulness,
being enough to ruin the labour of many weeks. The dexterity of the
Egyptian craftsman was, however, so great that accidents rarely happened.
The Sebekemsaf of Gizeh, the colossal Rameses II. of Luxor, challenge the
closest examination. The play of light upon the surface may at first
prevent the eye from apprehending the fineness of the work; but, seen under
favourable circumstances, the details of knee and chest, of shoulder and
face, prove to be no less subtly rendered in granite than in limestone.
Excess of polish has no more spoiled the statues of Ancient Egypt than it
spoiled those of the sculptors of the Italian Renaissance.
A sandstone or limestone statue would have been deemed imperfect if left to show the colour of the stone in which it was cut, and was painted from head to foot. In bas-relief, the background was left untouched and only the figures were coloured. The Egyptians had more pigments at their disposal than is commonly supposed. The more ancient painters' palettes--and we have some which date from the Fifth Dynasty--have compartments for yellow, red, blue, brown, white, black, and green.[40] Others, of the time of the Eighteenth Dynasty, provide for three varieties of yellow, three of brown, two of red, two of blue, and two of green; making in all some fourteen or sixteen different tints.{203} Black was obtained by calcining the bones of animals. The other substances employed in painting were indigenous to the country. The white is made of gypsum, mixed with albumen or honey; the yellows are ochre, or sulphuret of arsenic, the orpiment of our modern artists; the reds are ochre, cinnabar, or vermilion; the blues are pulverised lapis- lazuli, or silicate of copper. If the substance was rare or costly, a substitute drawn from the products of native industry was found. Lapis- lazuli, for instance, was replaced by blue frit made with an admixture of silicate of copper, and this was reduced to an impalpable powder. The painters kept their colours in tiny bags, and, as required, mixed them with water containing a little gum tragacanth. They laid them on by means of a reed, or a more or less fine hair brush. When well prepared, these pigments are remarkably solid, and have changed but little during the lapse of ages. The reds have darkened, the greens have faded, the blues have turned somewhat green or grey; but this is only on the surface. If that surface is scraped off, the colour underneath is brilliant and unchanged. Before the Theban period, no precautions were taken to protect the painter's work from the action of air and light. About the time of the Twentieth Dynasty, however, it became customary to coat painted surfaces with a transparent varnish which was soluble in water, and which was probably made from the gum of some kind of acacia. It was not always used in the same manner. Some painters varnished the whole surface, while others merely glazed the ornaments and accessories, without touching the flesh-tints or the clothing. This varnish has cracked from the effects of {204} age, or has become so dark as to spoil the work it was intended to preserve. Doubtless, the Egyptians discovered the bad effects produced by it, as we no longer meet with it after the close of the Twentieth Dynasty.
Egyptian painters laid on broad, flat, uniform washes of colour; they did not paint in our sense of the term; they illuminated. Just as in drawing they reduced everything to lines, and almost wholly suppressed the internal modelling, so in adding colour they still further simplified their subject by merging all varieties of tone, and all play of light and shadow, in one uniform tint. Egyptian painting is never quite true, and never quite false. Without pretending to the faithful imitation of nature, it approaches nature as nearly as it may; sometimes understating, sometimes exaggerating, sometimes substituting ideal or conventional renderings for strict realities. Water, for instance, is always represented by a flat tint of blue, or by blue covered with zigzag lines in black. The buff and bluish hues of the vulture are translated into bright red and vivid blue. The flesh-tints of men are of a dark reddish brown, and the flesh-tints of women are pale yellow. The colours conventionally assigned to each animate and inanimate object were taught in the schools, and their use handed on unchanged from generation to generation. Now and then it happened that a painter more daring than his contemporaries ventured to break with tradition. In the Sixth Dynasty tombs at Deir el Gebrawî, there are instances where the flesh tint of the women is that conventionally devoted to the depiction of men. At Sakkarah, under the Fifth Dynasty, and at Abû Simbel, under the Nineteenth {205} Dynasty, we find men with skins as yellow as those of the women; while in the tombs of Thebes and Abydos, about the time of Thothmes IV. and Horemheb, there occur figures with flesh-tints of rose- colour.[41]
It must not, however, be supposed that the effect produced by this artificial system was grating or discordant. Even in works of small size, such as illuminated MSS. of The Book of the Dead, or the decoration of mummy-cases and funerary coffers, there is both sweetness and harmony of colour. The most brilliant hues are boldly placed side by side, yet with full knowledge of the relations subsisting between these hues, and of the phenomena which must necessarily result from such relations. They neither jar together, nor war with each other, nor extinguish each other. On the contrary, each maintains its own value, and all, by mere juxtaposition, give rise to the half-tones which harmonise them.
Turning from small things to large ones, from the page of papyrus, or the panel of sycamore wood, to the walls of tombs and temples, we find the skilful employment of flat tints equally soothing and agreeable to the eye. Each wall is treated as a whole, the harmony of colour being carried out from bottom to top throughout the various superimposed stages into which the surface was divided. Sometimes the colours are distributed according to a scale of rhythm, or symmetry, balancing and counterbalancing {206} each other. Sometimes one special tint predominates, thus determining the general tone and subordinating every other hue. The vividness of the final effect is always calculated according to the quality and quantity of light by which the picture is destined to be seen. In very dark halls the force of colour is carried as far as it will go, because it would not otherwise have been visible by the flickering light of lamps and torches. On outer wall- surfaces and on pylon-fronts, it was as vivid as in the darkest depths of excavated catacombs; and this because, no matter how extreme it might be, the sun would subdue its splendour. But in half-lighted places, such as the porticoes of temples and the ante-chambers of tombs, colour is so dealt with as to be soft and discreet. In a word, painting was in Egypt the mere humble servant of architecture and sculpture. We must not dream of comparing it with our own, or even with that of the Greeks; but if we take it simply for what it is, accepting it in the secondary place assigned to it, we cannot fail to recognise its unusual merits. Egyptian painting excelled in the sense of monumental decoration, and if we ever revert to the fashion of colouring the façades of our houses and our public edifices, we shall lose nothing by studying Egyptian methods or reproducing Egyptian processes.
3.--WORKS OF SCULPTURE.
To this day, the most ancient statue known is a colossus--namely, the
Great Sphinx of Gizeh. It was already in existence in the time of Khûfû
(Cheops), and perhaps we should not be far wrong if we ventured to ascribe
it to the generations before Mena, called {207} in the priestly chronicles "the
Servants of Horus."
Fig 183.--The Great Sphinx of Gizeh.
Hewn in the living rock at the extreme verge of the Libyan plateau, it
seems, as the representative of Horus, to uprear its head in order to be
the first to {208} catch sight of his father, Ra, the rising sun, across
the valley (fig. 183). For centuries the sands have buried it to the chin,
yet without protecting it from ruin. Its battered body preserves but the
general form of a lion's body. The paws and breast, restored by the
Ptolemies and the Caesars, retain but a part of the stone facing with which
they were then clothed in order to mask the ravages of time. The lower part
of the head-dress has fallen, and the diminished neck looks too slender to
sustain the enormous weight of the head. The nose and beard have been
broken off by fanatics, and the red hue which formerly enlivened the
features is almost wholly effaced. And yet, notwithstanding its fallen
fortunes, the monster preserves an expression of sovereign strength and
greatness. The eyes gaze out afar with a look of intense and profound
thoughtfulness; the mouth still wears a smile; the whole countenance is
informed with power and repose. The art which conceived and carved this
prodigious statue was a finished art; an art which had attained self-
mastery, and was sure of its effects. How many centuries had it taken to
arrive at this degree of maturity and perfection? In certain pieces
belonging to various museums, such as the statues of Sepa and his wife at
the Louvre, and the bas-reliefs of the tomb of Khabiûsokarî at Gizeh,
critics have mistakenly recognised the faltering first efforts of an
unskilled people. The stiffness of attitude and gesture, the exaggerated
squareness of the shoulders, the line of green paint under the eyes,--in a
word, all those characteristics which are quoted as signs of extreme
antiquity, are found in certain monuments of {209} the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties. The
contemporary sculptors of any given period were not all equally skilful. If
some were capable of doing good work, the greater number were mere
craftsmen; and we must be careful not to ascribe awkward manipulation, or
lack of teaching, to the timidity of archaism. The works of the primitive
dynasties yet sleep undiscovered beneath seventy feet of sand at the foot
of the Sphinx; those of the historic dynasties are daily exhumed from the
depths of the neighbouring tombs. These have not yielded Egyptian art as a
whole; but they have familiarised us with one of its schools--the school of
Memphis. The Delta, Hermopolis, Abydos, the environs of Thebes and Asûan[42], do
not appear upon the stage earlier than towards the Sixth Dynasty; and even
so, we know them through but a small number of sepulchres long since
violated and despoiled. The loss is probably not very great. Memphis was
the capital; and thither the presence of the Pharaohs must have attracted
all the talent of the vassal principalities. Judging from the results of
our excavations in the Memphite necropolis alone, it is possible to
determine the characteristics of both sculpture and painting in the time of
Seneferû and his successors with as much exactness as if we were already in
possession of all the monuments which the {210} valley of the Nile yet holds in
reserve for future explorers.
The lesser folk of the art-world excelled in the manipulation of brush
and chisel, and that their skill was of a high order is testified by the
thousands of tableaux they have left behind them.
Fig 184. --Panel from tomb of Hesi.
The relief is low; the colour sober; the composition learned. Architecture,
trees, vegetation, irregularities of ground, are summarily indicated, and
are introduced only when necessary to the due interpretation of the scene
represented. Men and animals, on the other hand, are rendered with a wealth
of detail, a truth of character, and sometimes a force of treatment, to
which the later schools of Egyptian art rarely attained. Six wooden panels
from the tomb of Hesi in the Gizeh Museum represent perhaps the finest
known specimens of this branch of art. Mariette ascribed them to the Third
Dynasty, and he may perhaps have been right; though for my own part I
incline to date them from the Fifth Dynasty. In these panels there is
nothing that can be called a "subject." Hesi either sits or stands (fig.
184), and has four or five columns of hieroglyphs above his head; but the
firmness of line, the subtlety of modelling, the ease of execution, are {211} unequalled.
Never has wood been cut with a more delicate chisel or a firmer hand.
The variety of attitude and gesture which we so much admire in the Egyptian bas-relief is lacking to the statues. A mourner weeping, a woman bruising corn for bread, a baker rolling dough, are subjects as rare in the round as they are common in bas-relief. In sculpture, the figure is generally represented either standing with the feet side by side and quite still, or with one leg advanced in the act of walking; or seated upon a chair or a cube; or kneeling; or, still more frequently, sitting on the ground cross-legged, as the fellahin are wont to sit to this day. This intentional monotony of style would be inexplicable if we were ignorant of the purpose for which such statues were intended. They represent the dead man for whom the tomb was made, his family, his servants, his slaves, and his kinsfolk. The master is always shown sitting or standing, and he could not consistently be seen in any other attitude. The tomb is, in fact, the house in which he rests after the labours of life, as once he used to rest in his earthly home; and the scenes depicted upon the walls represent the work which he was officially credited with performing. Here he superintends the preliminary operations necessary to raise the food by which he is to be nourished in the form of funerary offerings; namely, seed-sowing, harvesting, stock-breeding, fishing, hunting, and the like. In short, "he superintends all the labour which is done for the eternal dwelling." When thus engaged, he is always standing upright, his head uplifted, his hands pendent, or holding the staff and baton of command. {212} Elsewhere, the diverse offerings are brought to him one by one, and then he sits in a chair of state. These are his two attitudes, whether as a bas-relief subject or a statue. Standing, he receives the homage of his vassals; sitting, he partakes of the family repast. The people of his household comport themselves before him as becomes their business and station. His wife either stands beside him, sits on the same chair or on a second chair by his side, or squats beside his feet as during his lifetime. His son, if a child at the time when the statue was ordered, is represented in the garb of infancy; or with the bearing and equipment proper to his position, if a man. The slaves bruise the corn, the cellarers tar the wine jars, the hired mourners weep and tear their hair. His little social world followed the Egyptian to his tomb, the duties of his attendants being prescribed for them after death, just as they had been prescribed for them during life. And the kind of influence which the religious conception of the soul exercised over the art of the sculptor did not end here. From the moment that the statue is regarded as the support of the Double, it becomes a condition of primary importance that the statue shall reproduce, at least in the abstract, the proportions and distinctive peculiarities of the corporeal body; and this in order that the Double shall more easily adapt himself to his new body of stone or wood.[43] The head is therefore always a faithful portrait; but the body, on the contrary, is, as it were, a medium kind of body, representing the original at his highest development, and consequently able to {213} exert the fulness of his physical powers when admitted to the society of the gods. Hence men are always sculptured in the prime of life, and women with the delicate proportions of early womanhood. This conventional idea was never departed from, unless in cases of very marked deformity. The statue of a dwarf reproduced all the ugly peculiarities of the dwarf's own body; and it was important that it should so reproduce them. If a statue of the ordinary type had been placed in the tomb of the dead man, his "Ka," accustomed during life to the deformity of his limbs, would not be able to adapt itself to an upright and shapely figure, and would therefore be deprived of the conditions necessary to his future well- being. The artist was free to vary the details and arrange the accessories according to his fancy; but without missing the point of his work, he could not change the attitude, or depart from the general style of the conventional portrait statue. This persistent monotony of pose and subject produces a depressing effect upon the spectator,--an effect which is augmented by the obtrusive character given to the supports. These statues are mostly backed by a kind of rectangular pediment, which is either squared off just at the base of the skull, or carried up in a point and lost in the head-dress, or rounded at the top and showing above the head of the figure. The arms are seldom separated from the body, but are generally in one piece with the sides and hips. The whole length of the leg which is placed in advance of the other is very often connected with the pediment by a band of stone. It has been conjectured that this course was imposed upon the sculptor by reason {214} of the imperfection of his tools, and the consequent danger of fracturing the statue when cutting away the superfluous material- -an explanation which may be correct as regards the earliest schools, but which does not hold good for the time of the Fourth Dynasty. We could point to more than one piece of sculpture of that period, even in granite, in which all the limbs are free, having been cut away by means of either the chisel or the drill. If pediment supports were persisted in to the end, their use must have been due, not to helplessness, but to routine, or to an exaggerated respect for ancient method.
Most museums are poor in statues of the Memphite school; France and
Egypt possess, however, some twenty specimens which suffice to ensure it an
honourable place in the history of art. At the Louvre we have the "Cross-
legged Scribe,"[44] and the statues of Skemka and Pahûrnefer; at Gizeh
there are the "Sheikh el Beled"[45] and his wife, Khafra[46], Ranefer,
the Prince and General Rahotep, and his wife, Nefert, a "Kneeling Scribe,"
and a "Cross-legged Scribe." The original of the "Cross-legged Scribe" of
the Louvre was not a handsome man (fig. 185), but the vigour and fidelity
of his portrait amply compensate for the absence of ideal beauty. His legs
are crossed and laid flat to the ground in one of those attitudes common
among {215}
Orientals, yet all but impossible to Europeans. The bust is upright, and
well balanced upon the hips. The head is uplifted.
Fig 185.--The Cross-legged Scribe at the Louvre, Old
Empire.
The right hand holds the reed pen, which pauses in its place on the open
papyrus scroll. Thus, for six thousand years he has waited for his master
to go on with the long-interrupted dictation. The face is square-cut, and
the strongly-marked features {216} indicate a man in the prime of life. The mouth, wide
and thin-lipped, rises slightly towards the corners, which are lost in the
projecting muscles by which it is framed in. The cheeks are bony and lank;
the ears are thick and heavy, and stand out well from the head; the thick,
coarse hair is cut close above the brow. The eyes, which are large and well
open, owe their lifelike vivacity to an ingenious contrivance of the
ancient artist. The orbit has been cut out from the stone, the hollow being
filled with an eye composed of enamel, white and black. The edges of the
eyelids are of bronze, and a small silver nail inserted behind the iris
receives and reflects the light in such wise as to imitate the light of
life. The contours of the flesh are somewhat full and wanting in firmness,
as would be the case in middle life, if the man's occupation debarred him
from active exercise. The forms of the arm and back are in good relief; the
hands are hard and bony, with fingers of somewhat unusual length; and the
knees are sculptured with a minute attention to anatomical details. The
whole body is, as it were, informed by the expression of the face, and is
dominated by the attentive suspense which breathes in every feature. The
muscles of the arm, of the bust, and of the shoulder are caught in half
repose, and are ready to return at once to work. This careful observance of
the professional attitude, or the characteristic gesture, is equally marked
in the Gizeh Cross-legged Scribe, and in all the Ancient Empire statues
which I have had an opportunity of studying.
The Cross-legged Scribe of Gizeh (fig. 186) was discovered {217} by M. de Morgan at Sakkarah in the beginning of 1893. This statue exhibits a no less surprising vigour and certainty of intention and execution on the part of the sculptor than does its fellow of the Louvre, while representing a younger man of full, firm, and supple figure.
Khafra is a king (fig. 187). He sits squarely upon his chair of state,
his hands upon his knees, his chest thrown forward, his head erect, his
gaze confident. Had the emblems of his rank been destroyed, and the {218} inscription
effaced which tells his name, his bearing alone would have revealed the
Pharaoh. Every trait is characteristic of the man who from childhood
upwards has known himself to be invested with sovereign authority. Ranefer
belonged to one of the great feudal families of his time.
Fig 187, 188.--King Khafra, Fourth Dynasty.--Sheikh el Beled, Old
Empire.
He stands upright, his arms down, his left leg forward, in the attitude of
a prince inspecting a march-past of his vassals. The countenance is
haughty, the attitude bold; but Ranefer does not impress us with the almost
superhuman calm and decision of Khafra.
{219} General
Rahotep[47] (fig. 189), despite his title and his high military
rank, looks as if he were of inferior birth. Stalwart and square-cut, he
has somewhat of the rustic in his physiognomy.
Fig 189.--Rahotep, Ancient Empire.
Nefert, on the contrary (fig. 190), was a princess of the blood royal; and
her whole person is, as it were, informed with a certain air of resolution
and command, which the sculptor has expressed very happily. She wears a
close-fitting garment, opening to a point in front. The shoulders, bosom,
and bodily contours are modelled {220} under the drapery with a grace and reserve which it
is impossible to praise too highly. Her face, round and plump, is framed in
masses of fine black hair, confined by a richly-ornamented bandeau.
Fig 190.--Nefert, wife of Rahotep, Ancient Empire.
This wedded pair are in limestone, painted; the husband being coloured of a
reddish brown hue, and the wife of a tawny buff.
Turning to the "Sheikh el Beled" (figs. 188, 191), we descend several
degrees in the social scale. Raemka was a "superintendent of works," which
probably means that he was an overseer of corvée labour at the time of
building the great pyramids. He belonged to the middle class; and his whole
person expresses {221} vulgar contentment and self-satisfaction. We seem to
see him in the act of watching his workmen, his staff of acacia wood in his
hand. The feet of the statue had perished, but have been restored. The body
is stout and heavy, and the neck thick. The head (fig. 191), despite its
vulgarity, does not lack energy.
Fig 191.--Head of the Sheikh el Beled.
The eyes are inserted, like those of the "Cross-legged Scribe." By a
curious coincidence, the statue, which was found at Sakkarah, happened to
be strikingly like the local Sheikh el Beled, or head-man, of the village.
Fig 192.--Wife of the Sheikh el Beled, Old Empire.
Always quick to seize upon the amusing side of an incident, the Arab
diggers at once called it the "Sheikh el Beled," and it has retained the
name ever since. The statue of his wife, interred beside his own, is
unfortunately mutilated. It is a mere trunk, {222} without legs or arms (fig. 192); yet
enough remains to show that the figure represented a good type of the
Egyptian middle-class matron, commonplace in appearance and somewhat acid
of temper. The "Kneeling Scribe" of the Gizeh collection (fig. 193) belongs
to the lowest middle-class rank, such as it is at the present day. Had he
not been dead more than six thousand years, I could protest that I had not
long ago met him face to face, in one of the little towns of Upper Egypt.
He has just brought a roll of papyrus, or a tablet covered with writing,
for his master's approval. Kneeling in the prescribed attitude of an
inferior, his hands crossed, his shoulders rounded, his head slightly bent
forward, he waits till the great man shall have read it through. Of what is
he thinking? A scribe might feel some not unreasonable apprehensions, when
summoned {223}
thus into the presence of his superior.
Fig 193.--The Kneeling Scribe, Old Empire.
The stick played a prominent part in official life, and an error of
addition, a fault in orthography, or an order misunderstood, would be
enough to bring down a shower of blows. The sculptor has, with inimitable
skill, seized that expression of resigned uncertainty and passive
gentleness which is the result of a whole life of servitude. There is a
smile upon his lips, but it is the smile of etiquette, in which there is no
gladness. The nose and cheeks are puckered up in harmony with the forced
grimace upon the mouth. His large eyes (again in enamel) have the fixed
look of one who waits vacantly, without making any effort to concentrate
his sight or his thoughts upon a definite object. The face lacks both {224} intelligence
and vivacity; but his work, after all, called for no special nimbleness of
wit. Khafra is in diorite; Raemka and his wife are carved in wood; the
other statues named are of limestone; yet, whatever the material employed,
the play of the chisel is alike free, subtle, and delicate.
Fig 194.--A Bread-maker, Old Empire.
The head of the scribe and the bas-relief portrait of Pharaoh Menkaûhor, in
the Louvre, the dwarf Nemhotep (fig. 195), and the slaves who prepare food-
offerings at Gizeh, are in no wise inferior to the "Cross-legged Scribe" or
the "Sheikh el Beled." The baker kneading his dough (fig. 194) is
thoroughly in his work. His half-stooping attitude, and the way in which he
leans upon the kneading-trough, are admirably natural. The dwarf has a {225} big,
elongated head, balanced by two enormous ears (fig. 195).
Fig 195.--The dwarf Nemhotep, Old Empire.
He has a foolish face, an ill-shapen mouth, and narrow slits of eyes,
inclining upwards to the temples. The bust is well developed, but the trunk
is out of proportion with the rest of his person. The artist has done his
best to disguise the lower limbs under a fine white tunic; but one feels
that it is too long for the little man's arms and legs.{226}
The thighs could have existed only in a rudimentary form, and Nemhotep, standing as best he can upon his misshapen feet, seems to be off his balance, and ready to fall forward upon his face. It would be difficult to find another work of art in which the characteristics of dwarfdom are more cleverly reproduced.
The sculpture of the first Theban empire is in close connection with
that of Memphis. Methods, materials, design, composition, all are borrowed
from the elder school; the only new departure being in the proportions
assigned to the human figure. From the time of the Eleventh Dynasty, the
legs become longer and slighter, the hips smaller, the body and the neck
more slender. Works of this period are not to be compared with the best
productions of the earlier centuries. The wall-paintings of Siût, of
Bersheh, of Beni Hasan, and of Asûan, are not equal to those in the
mastabas of Sakkarah and Gizeh; nor are the most carefully-executed
contemporary statues worthy to take a place beside the "Sheikh el Beled" or
the "Cross-legged Scribe." Portrait statues of private persons, especially
those found at Thebes, are, so far as I have seen, decidedly bad, the
execution being rude and the expression vulgar. The royal statues of this
period, which are nearly all in black or grey granite, have been for the
most part usurped by kings of later date. Ûsertesen III., whose head and
feet are in the Louvre, was appropriated by Amenhotep III., as the sphinx
of the Louvre and the colossi of Gizeh were appropriated by Rameses II.
Many museums possess specimens of supposed Ramesside Pharaohs which, upon
more careful inspection, we are compelled to ascribe to the Thirteenth or
Fourteenth {227} Dynasty. Those of undisputed identity, such as the
Sebekhotep III. of the Louvre, the Mermashiû of Tanis, the Sebekemsaf of
Gizeh, and the colossi of the Isle of Argo, though very skilfully executed,
are wanting in originality and vigour. One would say, indeed, that the
sculptors had purposely endeavoured to turn them all out after the one
smiling and commonplace pattern.
Fig 196.--One of the Tanis Sphinxes.
Great is the contrast when we turn from these giant dolls to the black
granite sphinxes discovered by Mariette at Tanis in 1861, and by him
ascribed to the Hyksos period. Here energy, at all events, is not lacking.
Wiry and compact, the lion body is shorter than in sphinxes of the usual
type. The head, instead of wearing the customary "klaft," or head-gear of
folded linen, is clothed with an ample mane, which also surrounds the face.
The eyes are small; the nose is {228} aquiline and depressed at the tip; the cheekbones are
prominent; the lower lip slightly protrudes. The general effect of the face
is, in short, so unlike the types we are accustomed to find in Egypt, that
it has been accepted in proof of an Asiatic origin (fig. 196). These
sphinxes are unquestionably anterior to the Eighteenth Dynasty, because one
of the kings of Avaris, named Apepi, has cut his name upon the shoulder of
each. Arguing from this fact, it was, however, too hastily concluded that
they are works of the time of that prince. On a closer examination, we see
that they had already been dedicated to some Pharaoh of a yet earlier
period, and that Apepi had merely usurped them; and M. Golenischeff has
shown that they were made for Amenemhat III., of the Twelfth Dynasty, and
with his features. Those so-called Hyksos monuments may be the products of
a local school, the origin of which may have been independent, and its
traditions quite different from the traditions of the Memphite workshops.
But except at Abydos, El Kab, Asûan, and some two or three other places,
the provincial art of ancient Egypt is so little known to us that I dare
not lay too much stress upon this hypothesis. Whatever the origin of the
Tanite School, it continued to exist long after the expulsion of the Hyksos
invaders, since one of its best examples, a group representing the Nile of
the North and the Nile of the South, bearing trays laden with flowers and
fish, was consecrated by Pisebkhanû of the Twenty-first Dynasty.
The first three dynasties of the New Empire[48] have {229} bequeathed us more monuments
than all the others put together. Painted bas-reliefs, statues of kings and
private persons, colossi, sphinxes, may be counted by hundreds between the
mouths of the Nile and the fourth cataract. The old sacerdotal cities,
Memphis, Thebes, Abydos, are naturally the richest; but so great was the
impetus given to art, that even remote provincial towns, such as Abû
Simbel, Redesîyeh, and Mesheikh, have their chefs-d'oeuvre, like the
great cities. The official portraits of Amenhotep I. at Turin, of Thothmes
I. and Thothmes III. at the British Museum, at Karnak, at Turin, and at
Gizeh, are conceived in the style of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Dynasties,
and are deficient in originality; but 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; the effects of perspective are more carefully worked out. The wall-
subjects of Deir el Baharî, the tableaux in the tombs of Hûi, of Rekhmara,
of Anna, of Khamha, and of twenty more at Thebes, are surprisingly rich,
brilliant, and varied. Awakening to a sense of the picturesque, artists
introduced into their compositions all those details of architecture, of
uneven ground, of foreign plants, and the like, which formerly they
neglected, or barely indicated. The taste for the colossal, which had
fallen somewhat into abeyance since the time of the Great Sphinx, came once
again to the surface, and was developed anew. Amenhotep III. was not
content with statues of twenty-five or thirty feet in height, such as were
in favour among his ancestors. Those which he erected in advance of his
memorial chapel on the left bank {230} of the Nile in Western Thebes, one of which is the
Vocal
Memnon of the classic writers, sit fifty feet high. Each was carved from a
single block of sandstone, and they are as elaborately finished as though
they were of ordinary size.
Fig 197.--Bas-relief head of Seti I.
The avenues of sphinxes which this Pharaoh marshalled before the temples of
Luxor and Karnak do not come to an end at fifty or a hundred yards from the
gateway, but are prolonged for great distances. In one avenue, they have
the human head upon the lion's body; in another, they are fashioned in the
semblance of kneeling rams. Khûenaten, the revolutionary successor of
Amenhotep III., far from discouraging this movement, did what he could to
promote it. Never, perhaps, were Egyptian sculptors more unrestricted than
by him at Tell el Amarna. Military reviews, chariot-driving, popular
festivals, state receptions, the distribution of honours and rewards by the
king in person, representations of palaces, villas, and gardens, were among
the subjects which they were permitted to treat; and these subjects
differed in so many respects from traditional routine that they could give
free play to their fancy and {231} to their natural genius.
Fig 198.--The god Amen, and Horemheb.
The spirit and gusto with which they took advantage of their opportunities
would scarcely be believed by one who had not seen their works at Tell el
Amarna. Some of their bas-reliefs are designed in almost correct
perspective; and in all, the life and stir of large crowds are rendered
with irreproachable truth. The political and religious reaction which
followed this reign arrested the evolution of art, and condemned sculptors
and painters to return to the observance of traditional rules. Their
personal influence and their teaching continued, however, to make
themselves felt under Horemheb, under Seti I., and even under Rameses II.
If, during more than a century, Egyptian art remained free, graceful, and
refined, that improvement was due to the school of Tell el Amarna. In no
instance perhaps did it produce work more perfect than the bas-reliefs of
the {232} temple
of Abydos, or those of the tomb of Seti I. The head of the conqueror (fig.
197), always studied con amore, is a marvel of reserved and
sensitive grace. Rameses II. charging the enemy at Abû Simbel is as fine as
the portraits of Seti I., though in another style. The action of the arm
which brandishes the lance is somewhat angular, but the expression of
strength and triumph which animates the whole person of the warrior king,
and the despairing resignation of the vanquished, compensate for this one
defect.
Fig 199.--Head of a Queen, Eighteenth Dynasty.
The group of Horemheb and the god Amen (fig. 198), in the Museum of Turin,
is a little dry in treatment. The faces of both god and king lack
expression, and their bodies are heavy and ill-balanced. The fine colossi
in red granite which Horemheb placed against the uprights of the inner door
of his first pylon at Karnak, the bas-reliefs on the walls of his speos at
Silsilis, his own portrait and that of one of the ladies of his family now
in the museum of Gizeh, are, so to say, spotless and faultless. The queen's
face (fig. 199) is animated and intelligent; the eyes are large and
prominent; the mouth is wide, but well shaped. This head is carved in hard
limestone of a creamy tint which seems to soften the somewhat satirical
expression of her eyes and smile. The king (fig. 200) is in black {233} granite; and the
sombre hue of the stone at once produces a mournful impression upon the
spectator.
Fig 200.--Head of Horemheb.
His youthful face is pervaded by an air of melancholy, such as we rarely
see depicted in portraits of Pharaohs of the great period. The nose is
straight and delicate, the eyes are long, the lips are large, full,
somewhat contracted at the corners, and strongly defined at the edges. The
chin is overweighted by the traditional false beard. Every detail is
treated with as much skill as if the sculptor were dealing with a soft
stone instead of with a material which resisted the chisel. Such, indeed,
is the mastery of the execution, that one forgets the difficulties of the
task in the excellence of the results.{234}
It is unfortunate that Egyptian artists never signed their works; for
the sculptor of this portrait of Horemheb deserves to be remembered. Like
the Eighteenth Dynasty, the Nineteenth Dynasty delighted in colossi.
Fig 201.--Colossal statue of Rameses II., Luxor.
Those of Rameses II. at Luxor measured from eighteen to twenty feet in
height (fig. 201); the colossal Rameses of the Ramesseum sat sixty feet
high; and that of Tanis about seventy.[49] The colossi of Abû Simbel,
without being of quite such formidable proportions, face the river in
imposing array. To say that the decline of Egyptian art began with Rameses
II. is a commonplace of contemporary criticism; yet nothing is less true
than an axiom of this kind. Many statues and bas-reliefs executed during
his reign are no doubt inconceivably rude and ugly; but these are chiefly
found in provincial towns where the schools were indifferent, and {235} where the artists
had no fine examples before them. At Thebes, at Memphis, at Abydos, at
Tanis, in those towns of the Delta where the court habitually resided, and
even at Abû Simbel and Beit el Wally, the sculptors of Rameses II. yield
nothing in point of excellence to those of Seti I. and Horemheb.
Fig 202.--Queen Ameniritis.
The decadence did not begin till after the reign of Merenptah. When civil
war and foreign invasion brought Egypt to the brink of destruction, the
arts, like all else, suffered and rapidly declined. It is sad to follow
their downward progress under the later Ramessides, whether in the wall-
subjects of the royal tombs, or in the bas-reliefs of the temple of Khonsû,
or on the columns of the hypostyle hall at Karnak. Wood carving maintained
its level during a somewhat longer period. The admirable statuettes of
priests and children at Turin date from the Twentieth Dynasty. The advent
of Sheshonk and the internecine strife of the provinces at length completed
the ruin of Thebes, and the school which had produced so many masterpieces
perished miserably.
The Renaissance did not dawn till near the end of the Ethiopian Dynasty,
some three hundred years later. The over-praised statue of Queen
Ameniritis[50] {236} (fig. 202) already manifests some noteworthy
qualities. The limbs, somewhat long and fragile, are delicately treated;
but the head is heavy, being over-weighted by the wig peculiar to
goddesses. Psammetichus I., when his victories had established him upon the
throne, busied himself in the restoration of the temples.
Fig 203.--The goddess Thûeris. Saïte work.
Under his auspices, the valley of the Nile became one vast studio of
painting and sculpture. The art of engraving hieroglyphs attained a high
degree of excellence, fine statues and bas-reliefs were everywhere
multiplied, and a new school arose. A marvellous command of material, a
profound knowledge of detail, and a certain elegance tempered by severity,
are the leading characteristics of this new school. The Memphites preferred
limestone; the Thebans selected red or grey granite; but the Saïtes
especially attacked basalt, breccia, and serpentine, and with these fine-
grained and almost homogeneous substances, they achieved extraordinary
results. They seem to have sought difficulties for the mere pleasure of
triumphing over them; and we have proof of the way in which artists of real
merit bestowed years and years on {237} the chasing of sarcophagus lids and the carving of
statues in blocks of the hardest material. The Thûeris, and the four
monuments from the tomb of Psammetichus[51] in the Gizeh Museum, are the
most remarkable objects hitherto discovered in this class of work.
Thûeris[52] (fig. 203) was the especial protectress of maternity,
and presided over childbirth. Her portrait was discovered by some native
sebakh diggers[53] in the midst of the mounds of the ancient city of
Thebes. She was found standing upright in a little chapel of white
limestone which had been dedicated to her by one Pibesa, a priest, in the
name of Queen Nitocris, daughter of Psammetichus I. This charming
hippopotamus, whose figure is perhaps more plump than graceful, is a fine
example of difficulties overcome; but I do not know that she has any other
merit. The group belonging to Psammetichus has at all events some artistic
value. It consists of four pieces of green basalt; namely, a table of
offerings, a statue of Osiris, a statue of Nephthys, and a Hathor-cow
supporting a statuette of the deceased (fig. 204). All four are somewhat
flaccid, somewhat artificial; but the faces of {238} the divinities and the deceased are
not wanting in sweetness; the action of the cow is good; and the little
figure under her protection falls naturally into its place. Certain other
pieces, less known than these, are however far superior. The Saïte style is
easy of recognition.
Fig 204.--Hathor-cow in green basalt. Saïte work.
It lacks the breadth and learning of the first Memphite school; it also
lacks the grand, and sometimes rude, manner of the great Theban school. The
proportions of the human body are reduced and elongated, and the limbs lose
in vigour what they gain in elegance. A noteworthy change in the choice of
attitudes will also be remarked. Orientals find repose in postures which
would be inexpressibly fatiguing to ourselves. For hours together they will
kneel; or sit tailor-wise, with the legs crossed and laid down flat to the
ground; or squat, sitting upon their heels, with no other support than is
afforded by that part of the sole of the foot which rests upon the ground;
or they will sit upon the floor with their legs close together, and their
arms crossed upon their knees. These four attitudes were customary among
the people from the time of the ancient empire.
{239} This we
know from the bas-reliefs. But the Memphite sculptors, deeming the two last
ungraceful, excluded them from the domain of art, and rarely, if ever,
reproduced them.
Fig 205.--Squatting statue of Pedishashi. Saïte work.
The "Cross-legged Scribe" of the Louvre and the "Kneeling Scribe" of Gizeh
show with what success they could employ the two first. The third was
neglected (doubtless for the same reason) by the Theban sculptors. The
fourth began to be currently adopted about the time of the Eighteenth
Dynasty.
It may be that this position was not in fashion among the moneyed
classes, which alone could afford to order statues; or it may be that the
artists themselves objected to an attitude which caused their sitters to
look like square parcels with a human head on the top. The sculptors of the
Saïte period did not inherit that repugnance. They have at all events
combined the action of the limbs in such wise as may least offend the eye,
and the position almost ceases {240} to be ungraceful. The heads also are modelled to such
perfection that they make up for many shortcomings. That of Pedishashi
(fig. 205) has an expression of youth and intelligent gentleness such as we
seldom meet with from an Egyptian hand. Other heads, on the contrary, are
remarkable for their almost brutal frankness of treatment.
Fig 206.--Head of a scribe. Saïte work.
In the small head of a scribe (fig. 206), lately purchased for
the Louvre, and in another belonging to Prince Ibrahim at Cairo, the
wrinkled brow, the crow's-feet at the corners of the eyes, the hard lines
about the mouth, and the knobs upon the skull, are brought out with
scrupulous fidelity. The Saïte school was, in fact, divided into two
parties. One sought inspiration in the past, and, by a return to the
methods of the old Memphite school, endeavoured to put fresh life into the
effeminate style of the day. This it accomplished, and so successfully,
that its works are sometimes mistaken for the best productions of the
Fourth and Fifth Dynasties. The other, without too openly departing from
established tradition, preferred to study from the life, and thus drew
nearer to nature than in any previous age. This school would, perhaps, have
prevailed, had Egyptian art not been directed into a new channel by the
Macedonian conquest, and by centuries of intercourse with the Greeks.
{241}
The new departure was of slow development.
Fig 207.--Colossus of Alexander II.
Sculptors began by clothing the successors of Alexander in Egyptian garb
and transforming them into Pharaohs, just as they had in olden time
transformed the Hyksos and the Persians. Works dating from the reigns of
the first Ptolemies scarcely differ from those of the best Saïte period,
and it is only here and there that we detect traces of Greek influence.
Thus, the colossus of Alexander II., at Gizeh (fig. 207), wears a flowing
head-dress, from beneath which his crisp curls have found their way. Soon,
however, the sight of Greek masterpieces led the Egyptians of Alexandria,
of Memphis, and of the cities of the Delta to modify their artistic
methods. Then arose a mixed school, which combined certain elements of the
national art with certain other elements borrowed from Hellenic art. The
Alexandrian Isis of the Gizeh Museum is clad as the Isis of Pharaonic
times; but she has lost the old slender shape and straitened bearing. A
mutilated effigy of a Prince of {242} Siût, also at Gizeh, would almost pass for an
indifferent Greek statue.
The most forcible work of this hybrid class which has come down to us is
the portrait-statue of one Hor (fig. 208), discovered in 1881 at the foot
of Kom ed Damas, the site of the tomb of Alexander. The head is good,
though in a somewhat dry style. The long, pinched nose, the close-set eyes,
the small mouth with drawn-in corners, the square chin,--every feature, in
short, contributes to give a hard and obstinate character to the face. The
hair is closely cropped, yet not so closely as to prevent it from dividing
naturally into thick, short curls. The body, clothed in the chlamys, is
awkwardly shapen, and too narrow for the head. One arm hangs pendent; the
other is brought round to the front; the feet are lost.
Fig 208.--Statue of Hor, Graeco-Egyptian.
All these monuments are the results of few excavations; and I do not
{243} doubt that
the soil of Alexandria would yield many such, if it could be methodically
explored. The school which produced them continued to draw nearer and
nearer to the schools of Greece, and the stiff manner, which it never
wholly lost, was scarcely regarded as a defect at an epoch when certain
sculptors in the service of Rome especially affected the archaic style. I
should not be surprised if those statues of priests and priestesses wearing
divine insignia, with which Hadrian adorned the Egyptian rooms of his villa
at Tibur, might not be attributed to the artists of this hybrid school. In
those parts which were remote from the Delta, native art, being left to its
own resources, languished, and slowly perished. Nor was this because Greek
models, or even Greek artists, were lacking. In the Thebaid, in the Fayûm,
at Syene, I have both discovered and purchased statuettes and statues of
Hellenic style, and of correct and careful execution. One of these, from
Coptos, is apparently a miniature replica of a Venus analogous to the Venus
of Milo. But the provincial sculptors were too dull, or too ignorant, to
take such advantage of these models as was taken by their Alexandrian
brethren. When they sought to render the Greek suppleness of figure and
fulness of limb, they only succeeded in missing the rigid but learned
precision of their former masters. In place of the fine, delicate, low
relief of the old school, they adopted a relief which, though very
prominent, was soft, round, and feebly modelled. The eyes of their
personages have a foolish leer; the nostrils slant upwards; the corners of
the mouth, the chin, and indeed all the features, are drawn up {244} as if converging
towards a central point, which is stationed in the middle of the ear. Two
schools, each independent of the other, have bequeathed their works to us.
The least known flourished in Ethiopia, at the court of the half-civilised
kings who resided at Meroë.
Fig 209.--Group from Naga.
A group brought from Naga in 1882, and now in the Gizeh collection, shows
the work of this school during the first century of our era (fig. 209). A
god and a queen, standing side by side, are roughly cut in a block of grey
granite. The work is coarse and heavy, but not without energy. Isolated and
lost in the midst of savage tribes, the school which produced it sank
rapidly into barbarism, and expired towards the end of the age of the
Antonines. The Egyptian school, sheltered by the power of Rome, survived a
little longer. As sagacious as the Ptolemies, the Caesars knew that by
flattering the religious prejudices of their Egyptian subjects they
consolidated their own rule in the valley of the Nile. At an enormous cost,
they restored and rebuilt the temples of the national gods, working after
the old plans and in the old spirit of Pharaonic times. The great
earthquake of B.C. 22 had destroyed Thebes, which now became a mere place
of pilgrimage, whither devotees repaired to listen to the voice of {245} Memnon at the
rising of Aurora. But at Denderah and Ombos, Tiberius and Claudius finished
the decoration of the great temples. Caligula worked at Coptos, and the
Antonines enriched Esneh and Philae. The gangs of workmen employed in their
names were still competent to cut thousands of bas-reliefs according to the
rules of the olden time. Their work was feeble, ungraceful, absurd,
inspired solely by routine; yet it was founded on antique tradition--
tradition enfeebled and degenerate, but still alive. The troubles which
convulsed the third century of our era, the incursions of barbarians, the
progress and triumph of Christianity, caused the suspension of the latest
works and the dispersion of the last craftsmen. With them died all that yet
survived of the national art.[54]{246}
I have treated briefly of the Noble Arts; it remains to say something of the Industrial Arts. All classes of society in Egypt were, from an early period, imbued with the love of luxury, and with a taste for the beautiful. Living or dead, the Egyptian desired to have jewels and costly amulets upon his person, and to be surrounded by choice furniture and elegant utensils. The objects of his daily use must be distinguished, if not by richness of material, at least by grace of form; and in order to satisfy his requirements, the clay, the stone, the metals, the woods, and other products of distant lands were laid under contribution.
1.--STONE, CLAY, AND GLASS.
It is impossible to pass through a gallery of Egyptian antiquities
without being surprised by the prodigious number of small objects in
pietra dura which have survived till the present time. As yet we
have found neither the diamond, the ruby, nor the sapphire; but with these
exceptions, the domain of the lapidary was almost as extensive as at the
present day.
Fig 210.--The Ta, or girdle-buckle of Isis.
That domain included the amethyst, the emerald, the garnet, the aquamarine,
the chrysoprase, the innumerable varieties {247} of agate and jasper, lapis lazuli,
felspar, obsidian; also various rocks, such as granite, serpentine, and
porphyry; certain fossils, as yellow amber and some kinds of turquoise;
organic remains, as coral, mother-of-pearl, and pearls; metallic ores and
carbonates, such as hematite and malachite, and the calaite, or Oriental
turquoise. These substances were for the most part cut in the shape of
round, square, oval, spindle-shaped, pear-shaped, or lozenge-shaped beads.
Strung and arranged row above row, these beads were made into necklaces,
and are picked up by myriads in the sands of the great cemeteries at
Memphis, Erment, Ekhmîm, and Abydos.
Fig 211.--Frog amulet.
The perfection with which many are cut, the deftness with which they are
pierced, and the beauty of the polish, do honour to the craftsmen who made
them. But their skill did not end here. With the point, saw, drill, and
grindstone, they fashioned these materials into an infinity of shapes--
hearts, human fingers, serpents, animals, images of divinities.
Fig 212.--The Ûat, or lotus-column amulet.
All these were amulets; and they were probably less valued for the charm of
the workmanship than for the supernatural virtues which they were supposed
to possess. The girdle-buckle in carnelian (fig. 210) symbolised the blood
of Isis, and washed away the sins of the wearer. The frog (fig. 211) was
emblematic of renewed birth. The little lotus-flower column in green
felspar (fig. 212) typified the divine gift of eternal youth. The "Ûat," or
sacred eye (fig. 213), tied to the wrist or the {248} arm by a slender string, protected
against the evil eye, against words spoken in envy or anger, and against
the bites of serpents. Commerce dispersed these objects throughout all
parts of the ancient world, and many of them, especially those which
represented the sacred beetle, were imitated abroad by the Phoenicians and
Syrians, and by the craftsmen of Greece, Asia Minor, Etruria, and Sardinia.
Fig 213.--An Ûta, or sacred eye.
This insect was called kheper in Egyptian, and its name was supposed
to be derived from the root khepra, "to become." By an obvious
play upon words, the beetle was made the emblem of terrestrial life, and of
the successive "becomings" or developments of man in the life to come. The
scarabaeus amulet (fig. 214) is therefore a symbol of duration, present or
future; and to wear one was to provide against annihilation.
Fig 214.--A scarabaeus.
A thousand mystic meanings were evolved from this first idea, each in some
subtle sense connected with one or other of the daily acts or usages of
life, so that scarabaei were multiplied ad infinitum. They are found
in all materials and sizes; some having hawks' heads, some with rams'
heads, some with heads of men or bulls. Some are wrought or inscribed on
the underside; others are left flat and plain underneath; and others again
but vaguely recall the form of the insect, and are called scarabaeoids.
These amulets are pierced longwise, the hole being large enough to admit
the passage of a fine wire of bronze or silver, or of a thread, for {249} suspension.
The larger sort were regarded as images of the heart. These, having
outspread wings attached, were fastened to the breast of the mummy, and are
inscribed on the underside with a prayer adjuring the heart not to bear
witness against the deceased at the day of judgment. In order to be still
more efficacious, some scenes of adoration were occasionally added to the
formula: e.g., the disc of the moon adorned by two apes upon the
shoulder; two squatting figures of Amen upon the wing-sheaths; on the flat
reverse, a representation of the boat of the Sun; and below the boat,
Osiris mummified, squatting between Isis and Nephthys, who overshadow him
with their wings. The small scarabs, having begun as phylacteries, ended by
becoming mere ornaments without any kind of religious meaning, just as
crosses are now worn without thought of significance by the women of our
own day. They were set as rings, as necklace pendants, as earrings, and as
bracelets. The underside is often plain, but is more commonly ornamented
with incised designs which involve no kind of modelling. Relief-cutting,
properly so called (as in cameo-cutting), was unknown to Egyptian
lapidaries before the Greek period. Scarabaei and the subjects engraved on
them have not as yet been fully classified and catalogued.[55] The subjects
consist of simple combinations of lines; of scrolls; of interlacings
without any precise signification; of symbols to which the {250} owner attached a
mysterious meaning, unknown to everyone but himself; of the names and
titles of individuals; of royal ovals, which are historically interesting;
of good wishes; of pious ejaculations; and of magic formulae. The earliest
examples known date from the Fourth Dynasty, and are small and fine.
Sometimes Sixth Dynasty scarabs are of obsidian and crystal, and early
Middle Kingdom scarabs of amethyst, emerald, and even garnet. From the time
of the Eighteenth Dynasty scarabs may be counted by millions, and the
execution is more or less fine according to the hardness of the stone. This
holds good for amulets of all kinds. The hippopotamus-heads, the hearts,
the Ba birds (p. 111), which one picks up at Taûd, to the south of
Thebes, are barely roughed out, the amethyst and green felspar of which
they are made having presented an almost unconquerable resistance to the
point, saw, drill, and wheel. The belt-buckles, angles, and head-rests in
red jasper, carnelian, and hematite, are, on the contrary, finished to the
minutest details, notwithstanding that carnelian and red jasper are even
harder than green felspar. Lapis lazuli is insufficiently homogeneous,
almost as hard as felspar, and seems as if it were incapable of being
finely worked. Yet the Egyptians have used it for images of certain
goddesses--Isis, Nephthys, Neith, Sekhet,--which are marvels of delicate
cutting. The modelling of the forms is carried out as boldly as if the
material were more trustworthy, and the features lose none of their
excellence if examined under a magnifying glass. For the most part,
however, a different treatment was adopted. {251} Instead of lavishing high finish upon
the relief, it was obtained in a more summary way, the details of
individual parts being sacrificed to the general effect. Those features of
the face which project, and those which retire, are strongly accentuated.
The thickness of the neck, the swell of the breast and shoulder, the
slenderness of the waist, the fulness of the hips, are all exaggerated. The
feet and hands are also slightly enlarged. This treatment is based upon a
system, the results being boldly and yet judiciously calculated. When the
object has to be sculptured in miniature, a mathematical reduction of the
model is not so happy in its effect as might be supposed. The head loses
character; the neck looks too weak; the bust is reduced to a cylinder with
a slightly uneven surface; the feet do not look strong enough to support
the weight of the body; the principal lines are not sufficiently distinct
from the secondary lines. By suppressing most of the accessory forms and
developing those most essential to the expression, the Egyptians steered
clear of the danger of producing insignificant statuettes. The eye
instinctively tones down whatever is too forcible, and supplies what is
lacking. Thanks to these subtle devices of the ancient craftsman, a tiny
statuette of this or that divinity measuring scarcely an inch and a quarter
in height, has almost the breadth and dignity of a colossus.
The earthly goods of the gods and of the dead were mostly in solid
stone. I have elsewhere described the little funerary obelisks, the altar
bases, the statues, and the tables of offerings found in tombs of the
ancient empire. These tables were made of alabaster and {252} limestone during the
Pyramid period, of granite or red sandstone under the Theban kings, and of
basalt or serpentine from the time of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. But the
fashions were not canonical, all stones being found at all periods. Some
offering-tables are mere flat discs, or discs very slightly hollowed.
Others are rectangular, and are sculptured in relief with a service of
loaves, vases, fruits, and quarters of beef and gazelle. In one instance--
the offering-table of Sitû--the libations, instead of running off, fell
into a square basin which is marked off in divisions, showing the height of
the Nile at the different seasons of the year in the reservoirs of Memphis;
namely, twenty-five cubits in summer during the inundation, twenty-three in
autumn and early winter, and twenty-two at the close of winter and in
spring-time. In these various patterns there was little beauty; yet one
offering-table, found at Sakkarah, is a real work of art. It is of
alabaster. Two lions, standing side by side, support a sloping, rectangular
tablet, whence the libation ran off by a small channel into a vase placed
between the tails of the lions. The alabaster geese found at Lisht are not
without artistic merit. They are cut length-wise down the middle, and
hollowed out, in the fashion of a box. Those which I have seen elsewhere,
and, generally speaking, all simulacra of offerings, as loaves, cakes,
heads of oxen or gazelles, bunches of black grapes, and the like, in carved
and painted limestone, are of doubtful taste and clumsy execution. They are
not very common, and I have met with them only in tombs of the Fifth and
Twelfth Dynasties. "Canopic" vases, on the contrary, were always carefully
wrought. They {253} were generally made in two kinds of stone, limestone
and alabaster; but the heads which surmounted them were often of painted
wood.
Fig 215.--Perfume vase, alabaster.
The canopic vases of Pepi I. are of alabaster; and those of a king buried
in the southernmost pyramid at Lisht are also of alabaster, as are the
human heads upon the lids. One, indeed, is of such fine execution that I
can only compare it with that of the statue of Khafra.
Fig 216.--Perfume vase, alabaster.
The most ancient funerary statuettes yet found--those, namely, of the
Eleventh Dynasty--are of alabaster, like the canopic vases; but from the
time of the Thirteenth Dynasty, they were cut in compact limestone. The
workmanship is very unequal in quality. Some are real chefs-
d'oeuvre, and reproduce the physiognomy of the deceased as faithfully
as a portrait statue. Lastly, there are the perfume vases, which complete
the list of objects found in temples and tombs.
Fig 217.--Perfume vase, alabaster.
The names of these vases are far from being satisfactorily established, and
most of the special designations furnished in the texts remain as yet
without equivalents in our language. The greater number were of alabaster,
turned and polished. Some are heavy, and ugly (fig. 215), while others are
distinguished by an elegance and diversity of form which do honour to the
inventive talent of the craftsmen. Many are spindle-shaped and pointed at
the end (fig. 216), or round in the body, narrow in the neck, and flat at
the bottom (fig. 217).{254}
They are unornamented, except perhaps by two lotus-bud handles, or two
lions' heads, or perhaps a little female head just at the rise of the neck
(fig. 218). The smallest of these vases were not intended for liquids, but
for pomades, medicinal ointments, and salves made with honey.
Fig 218.--Perfume vase, alabaster.
Some of the more important series comprise large-bodied flasks, with an
upright cylindrical neck and a flat cover (fig. 219). In these, the
Egyptians kept the antimony powder with which they darkened their eyes and
eyebrows. The Kohl-pot was a universal toilet requisite; perhaps the only
one commonly used by all classes of society. When designing it, the
craftsman gave free play to his fancy, borrowing forms of men, plants, and
animals for its adornment.
Fig 219.--Vase for antimony powder.
Now it appears in the guise of a full-blown lotus; now it is a hedgehog; a
hawk; a monkey clasping a column to his breast, or climbing up the side of
a jar; a grotesque figure of the god Bes; a kneeling woman, whose scooped-
out body contained the powder; a young girl carrying a wine-jar. Once
started upon this path, the imagination of the artists knew no limits. As
for materials, everything was made to serve in turn--granite, diorite,
breccia, red jade, alabaster, and soft limestone, which lent itself more
readily to caprices of form; finally, a still more plastic and facile
substance--clay, painted and glazed.
It was not for want of material that the art of modelling and baking clays failed to be as fully developed in Egypt as in Greece, The valley of the {255} Nile is rich in a fine and ductile potter's clay, with which the happiest results might have been achieved, had the native craftsman taken the trouble to prepare it with due care. Metals and hard stone were, however, always preferred for objects of luxury; the potter was fain, therefore, to be content with supplying only the commonest needs of household and daily life. He was wont to take whatever clay happened to be nearest to the place where he was working, and this clay was habitually badly washed, badly kneaded, and fashioned with the finger upon a primitive wheel worked by the hand. The firing was equally careless. Some pieces were barely heated at all, and melted it they came into contact with water, while others were as hard as tiles. All tombs of the ancient empire contain vases of a red or yellow ware, often mixed, like the clay of bricks, with finely-chopped straw or weeds. These are mostly large solid jars with oval bodies, short necks, and wide mouths, but having neither foot nor handles. With them are also found pipkins and pots, in which to store the dead man's provisions; bowls more or less shallow; and flat plates, such as are still used by the fellahin. The poorer folk sometimes buried miniature table and kitchen services with their dead, as being less costly than full-sized vessels. The surface is seldom glazed, seldom smooth and lustrous; but is ordinarily covered with a coat of whitish, unbaked paint, which scales off at a touch. Upon this surface there is neither incised design, nor ornament in relief, nor any kind of inscription, but merely some four or five parallel lines in red, black, or yellow, round the neck. {256}
The pottery of the earliest Theban dynasties which I have collected at
El Khozam and Gebeleyn is more carefully wrought than the pottery of the
Memphite period. It may be classified under two heads. The first comprises
plain, smooth-bodied vases, black below and dark red above. On examining
this ware where broken, we see that the colour was mixed with the clay
during the kneading, and that the two zones were separately prepared,
roughly joined, and then uniformly glazed. The second class comprises vases
of various and sometimes eccentric forms, moulded of red or tawny clay.
Fig 220.
Some are large cylinders closed at one end; others are flat; others oblong
and boat-shaped; others, like cruets, joined together two and two, yet with
no channel of communication[56] (fig. 220). The ornamentation is carried over
the whole surface, and generally consists of straight parallel lines, cross
lines, zigzags, dotted lines, or small crosses and lines in geometrical
combination; all these patterns being in white when the ground is red, or
in reddish brown when the ground is yellow or whitish. Now and then we find
figures of men and animals interspersed among the geometrical combinations.
The drawing is rude, almost childish; and it is difficult to tell whether
the subjects represent herds of antelopes or scenes of gazelle-hunting. The
craftsmen who produced these rude attempts were nevertheless contemporary
with the artists who decorated the rock-cut tombs at Beni {257} Hasan. As regards the
period of Egypt's great military conquests, the Theban tombs of that age
have supplied objects enough to stock a museum of pottery; but
unfortunately the types are very uninteresting. To begin with, we find
hand-made sepulchral statuettes modelled in summary fashion from an oblong
lump of clay. A pinch of the craftsman's fingers brought out the nose; two
tiny knobs and two little stumps, separately modelled and stuck on,
represented the eyes and arms. The better sort of figures were pressed in
moulds of baked clay, of which several specimens have been found. They were
generally moulded in one piece; then lightly touched up; then baked; and
lastly, on coming out of the oven, were painted red, yellow, or white, and
inscribed with the pen. Some are of very good style, and almost equal those
made in limestone. The ûshabtiû of the scribe Hori, and those of the
priest Horûta (Saïte) found at Hawara, show what the Egyptians could have
achieved in this branch of the art if they had cared to cultivate it.
Funerary cones were objects purely devotional, and the most consummate art
could have done nothing to make them elegant. A funerary cone consists of a
long, conical mass of clay, stamped at the larger end with a few rows of
hieroglyphs stating the name, parentage, and titles of the deceased, the
whole surface being coated with a whitish wash. These are simulacra of
votive cakes intended for the eternal nourishment of the Double. Many of
the vases buried in tombs of this period are painted to imitate alabaster,
granite, basalt, bronze, and even gold; and were cheap substitutes for
those vases made in precious materials {258} which wealthy mourners were wont to
lavish on their dead.
Fig 221.
Among those especially intended to contain water or flowers, some are
covered with designs drawn in red and black (fig. 221), such as concentric
lines and circles (fig. 222), meanders, religious emblems (fig. 223),
cross-lines resembling network, festoons of flowers and buds, and long
leafy stems carried downward from the neck to the body of the vase, and
upward from the body of the vase to the neck. Those in the tomb of Sennetmû
were decorated on one side with a large necklace, or collar, like the
collars found upon mummies, painted in very bright colours to simulate
natural flowers or enamels.
Fig 222.
Canopic vases in baked clay, though rarely met with under the Eighteenth
Dynasty, became more and more common as the prosperity of Thebes declined.
Fig 223.
The heads upon the lids are for the most part prettily turned, especially
the human heads.[57] Modelled with the hand, scooped out to diminish the
weight, and then slowly baked, each was finally painted with the colours
especially pertaining to the genius whose head was represented. Towards the
time of the Twentieth Dynasty, it became customary to enclose the bodies of
sacred animals in vases of this {259} type. Those found near Ekhmîm contain jackals and
hawks; those of Sakkarah are devoted to serpents, eggs, and mummified rats;
those of Abydos hold the sacred ibis. These last are by far the finest. On
the body of the vase, the protecting goddess Khûit is depicted with
outspread wings, while Horus and Thoth are seen presenting the bandage and
the unguent vase; the whole subject being painted in blue and red upon a
white ground. From the time of the Greek domination, the national poverty
being always on the increase, baked clay was much used for coffins as well
as for canopic vases. In the Isthmus of Suez, at Ahnas el Medineh, in the
Fayûm, at Asûan, and in Nubia, we find whole cemeteries in which the
sarcophagi are made of baked clay. Some are like oblong boxes rounded at
each end, with a saddle-back lid. Some are in human form, but barbarous in
style, the heads being surmounted by a pudding-shaped imitation of the
ancient Egyptian head-dress, and the features indicated by two or three
strokes of the modelling tool or the thumb. Two little lumps of clay stuck
awkwardly upon the breast indicate the coffin of a woman. Even in these
last days of Egyptian civilisation, it was only the coarsest objects which
were left of the natural hue of the baked clay. As of old, the surfaces
were, as a rule, overlaid with a coat of colour, or with a richly gilded
glaze.
Glass was known to the Egyptians from the remotest period, and glass-
blowing is represented in tombs which date from some thousands of years
before our era (fig. 224). The craftsman, seated before the furnace, takes
up a small quantity of the fused substance upon {260} the end of his cane and blows it
circumspectly, taking care to keep it in contact with the flame, so that it
may not harden during the operation. Chemical analysis shows the
constituent parts of Egyptian glass to have been nearly identical with our
own; but it contains, besides silex, lime, alumina, and soda, a relatively
large proportion of extraneous substances, as copper, oxide of iron, and
oxide of manganese, which they apparently knew not how to eliminate. Hence
Egyptian glass is scarcely ever colourless, but inclines to an uncertain
shade of yellow or green. Some ill-made pieces are so utterly decomposed
that they flake away, or fall to iridescent dust, at the lightest touch.
Fig 224.--Glass-blowers from Twelfth Dynasty tomb.
Others have suffered little from time or damp, but are streaky and full of
bubbles. A few are, however, perfectly homogenous and limpid. Colourless
glass was not esteemed by the Egyptians as it is by ourselves; whether
opaque or transparent, they preferred it coloured. The dyes were obtained
by mixing metallic oxides with the ordinary ingredients; that is to say,
copper and cobalt for the blues, copperas for the greens, manganese for the
violets and browns, iron for the yellows, and lead or tin for the whites.
One variety of red contains 30 per cent of bronze, and becomes coated with
verdegris if exposed to damp. All this chemistry was empirical, and
acquired by instinct. Finding the necessary elements at hand, or being
supplied with them from a distance, they made use of them at hazard, and
without being too certain of {261} obtaining the effects they sought. Many of their most
harmonious combinations were due to accident, and they could not reproduce
them at will. The masses which they obtained by these unscientific means
were nevertheless of very considerable dimensions. The classic authors tell
of stelae, sarcophagi, and columns made in one piece. Ordinarily, however,
glass was used only for small objects, and, above all, for counterfeiting
precious stones. However cheaply they may have been sold in the Egyptian
market, these small objects were not accessible to all the world. The
glass-workers imitated the emerald, jasper, lapis lazuli, and carnelian to
such perfection that even now we are sometimes embarrassed to distinguish
the real stones from the false. The glass was pressed into moulds made of
stone or limestone cut to the forms required, as beads, discs, rings,
pendants, rods, and plaques covered with figures of men and animals, gods
and goddesses. Eyes and eyebrows for the faces of statues in stone or
bronze were likewise made of glass, as also bracelets. Glass was inserted
into the hollows of incised hieroglyphs, and hieroglyphs were also cut out
in glass. In this manner, whole inscriptions were composed, and let into
wood, stone, or metal. The two mummy-cases which enclosed the body of
Netemt, mother of the Pharaoh Herhor Seamen, are decorated in this style.
Except the headdress of the effigy and some minor details, these cases are
gilded all over; the texts and the principal part of the ornamentation
being formed of glass enamels, which stand out in brilliant contrast with
the dead gold ground. Many Fayûm mummies were coated with plaster or
stucco, the texts and {262} religious designs, which are generally painted, being
formed of glass enamels incrusted upon the surface of the plaster. Some of
the largest subjects are made of pieces of glass joined together and
retouched with the chisel, in imitation of bas-relief. Thus the face,
hands, and feet of the goddess Ma are done in turquoise blue, her headdress
in dark blue, her feather in alternate stripes of blue and yellow, and her
raiment in deep red. Upon a wooden shrine recently discovered in the
neighbourhood of Daphnae,[58] and upon a fragment of mummy-case in the Museum of
Turin, the hieroglyphic forms of many-coloured glass are inlaid upon the
sombre ground of the wood, the general effect being inconceivably rich and
brilliant. Glass filigrees, engraved glass, cut glass, soldered glass,
glass imitations of wood, of straw, and of string, were all known to the
Egyptians of old. I have under my hand at this present moment a square rod
formed of innumerable threads of coloured glass fused into one solid body,
which gives the royal oval of one of the Amenemhats at the part where it is
cut through. The design is carried through the whole length of the rod, and
wherever that rod may be cut, the royal oval reappears.[59] One glass case in the
Gizeh Museum is entirely stocked with small objects {263} in coloured glass. Here we see
an ape on all fours, smelling some large fruit which lies upon the ground;
yonder, a woman's head, front face, upon a white or green ground surrounded
by a red border.
Fig 225.--Parti-coloured glass vase, inscribed Thothmes III.
Most of the plaques represent only rosettes, stars, and single flowers or
posies. One of the smallest represents a black-and-white Apis walking, the
work being so delicate that it loses none of its effect under the
magnifying glass. The greater number of these objects date from, and after,
the first Saïte dynasty; but excavations in Thebes and Tell el Amarna have
proved that the manufacture of coloured glass prevailed in Egypt earlier
than the tenth century before our era.
Fig 226.--Parti-coloured glass vase.
At Kûrnet Murraee and Sheikh Abd el Gûrneh, there have been found, not only
amulets for the use of the dead, such as colonnettes, hearts, mystic eyes,
hippopotami walking erect, and ducks in pairs, done in parti-coloured
pastes, blue, red, and yellow, but also vases of a type which we have been
accustomed to regard as of Phoenician and Cypriote manufacture.[60] Here, for
example, is a little aenochoe, of a light blue semi-opaque glass (fig.
225); the inscription in the name of Thothmes III., the ovals on the neck,
and the palm-fronds on the body of the vase being in yellow. Here again is
a lenticular phial, three and a quarter inches in height {264} (fig. 226), the
ground colour of a deep ocean blue, admirably pure and intense, upon which
a fern-leaf pattern in yellow stands out both boldly and delicately.
Fig 227.--Parti-coloured glass vase.
A yellow thread runs round the rim, and two little handles of light green
are attached to the neck. A miniature amphora of the same height (fig. 227)
is of a dark, semi-transparent olive green. A zone of blue and yellow
zigzags, bounded above and below by yellow bands, encircles the body of the
vase at the part of its largest circumference. The handles are pale green,
and the thread round the lip is pale blue. Princess Nesikhonsû had beside
her, in the vault at Deir el Baharî, some glass goblets of similar work.
Seven were in whole colours, light green and blue; four were of black glass
spotted with white; one only was decorated with many-coloured fronds
arranged in two rows (fig. 228). The national glass works were therefore in
full operation during the {265} time of the great Theban dynasties. Huge piles of
scoriae mixed with slag yet mark the spot where their furnaces were
stationed at Tell el Amarna, the Ramesseum, at El Kab, and at the Tell of
Eshmûneyn.
The Egyptians also enamelled stone. One half at least of the scarabaei,
cylinders, and amulets contained in our museums are of limestone or schist,
covered with a coloured glaze. Doubtless the common clay seemed to them
inappropriate to this kind of decoration, for they substituted in its place
various sorts of earth--some white and sandy; another sort brown and fine,
which they obtained by the pulverisation of a particular kind of limestone
found in the neighbourhood of Keneh, Luxor, and Asûan; and a third sort,
reddish in tone, and mixed with powdered sandstone and brick-dust. These
various substances are known by the equally inexact names of Egyptian
porcelain and Egyptian faïence. The oldest specimens, which are hardly
glazed at all, are coated with an excessively thin slip. This vitreous
matter has, however, generally settled into the hollows of the hieroglyphs
or figures, where its lustre stands out in strong contrast with the dead
surface of the surrounding parts. The colour most frequently in use under
the ancient dynasties was green; but yellow, red, brown, violet, and blue
were not disdained.[61] Blue predominated in the Theban factories from the
earliest beginning of the Middle Empire. This blue was brilliant, yet
tender, in imitation of turquoise or lapis lazuli. The Gizeh Museum
formerly contained three hippopotamuses of this shade, discovered in the
tomb of an {266}
Entef[62] at Drah Abû'l Neggeh[63] One was lying down, the two
others were standing in the marshes, their bodies being covered by the
potter with pen-and-ink sketches of reeds and lotus plants, amid which
hover birds and butterflies (fig. 229). This was his naïve way of depicting
the animal amid his natural surroundings. The blue is splendid, and we must
overleap twenty centuries before we again find so pure a colour among the
funerary statuettes of Deir el Baharî.
Fig 229.--Hippopotamus in blue glaze.
Green reappears under the Saïte dynasties, but paler than that of more
ancient times, and it prevailed in the north of Egypt, at Memphis,
Bubastis, and Sais, without entirely banishing the blue. The other colours
before mentioned were in current use for not more than four or five
centuries; that is to say, from the time of Ahmes I. to the time of the
Ramessides. It was then, and only then, that ûshabtiû of white or
red glaze, rosettes and lotus flowers in yellow, red, and violet, and
parti-coloured kohl-pots abounded. The potters of the time of Amenhotep
III. affected greys and violets. The olive-shaped amulets which are
inscribed with the names of this Pharaoh and the princesses of his family
are decorated with pale blue hieroglyphs upon a delicate {267} mauve ground. The
vase of Queen Tii in the Gizeh collection is of grey and blue, with
ornaments in two colours round the neck.
Fig 230.--Glazed ware from Thebes.
The fabrication of many-coloured enamels seems
to have attained its greatest development under Khûenaten; at all events,
it was at Tell el Amarna that I found the brightest and most delicately
fashioned specimens, such as yellow, green, and violet rings, blue and
white fleurettes, fish, lutes, figs, and bunches of grapes.[64] One little
statuette of Horus has a red face and a blue body; a ring bezel bears the
name of a king in violet upon a ground of light blue. However restricted
the space, the various colours are laid in with so sure a hand that they
never run one into the other, but stand out separately and vividly.
Fig 231.--Glazed ware from Thebes.
A vase to contain antimony powder, chased and mounted on a pierced stand,
is glazed with reddish brown (fig. 230). Another, in the shape of a mitred
hawk, is blue picked out with black spots. It belonged of old to Ahmes I. A
third, hollowed out of the body of an energetic little hedgehog, is of a
changeable green (fig. 231). A Pharaoh's head in dead blue wears a
klaft[65] with dark-blue stripes.{268} Fine as these pieces are, the chef-
d'oeuvre of the series is a statuette of one Ptahmes, first Prophet of
Amen, now in the Gizeh Museum.
Fig 232.
Fig 233.--Interior decoration of cup, Eighteenth Dynasty.
The hieroglyphic inscriptions as well as the details of the mummy bandages
are chased in relief upon a white ground of admirable smoothness afterwards
filled in with enamel. The face and hands are of turquoise blue; the head-
dress is yellow, with violet stripes; the hieroglyphic characters of the
inscription, and the vulture with outspread wings upon the breast of the
figure, are also violet. The whole is delicate, brilliant, and harmonious;
not a flaw mars the purity of the contours or the clearness of the lines.
Glazed pottery was common from the earliest times. Cups with a foot
(fig. 232), blue bowls, rounded at the bottom and decorated in black ink
with mystic eyes, lotus flowers, fishes (fig. 233), and palm-leaves, date,
as a rule, from the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, or Twentieth Dynasties.
Lenticular {269}
ampullae coated with a greenish glaze, flanked by two crouching monkeys for
handles, decorated along the edge with pearl or egg-shaped ornaments, and
round the body with elaborate collars (fig. 234), belong almost without
exception to the reigns of Apries and Amasis.[66] Sistrum handles, saucers,
drinking-cups in the form of a half-blown lotus, plates, dishes--in short,
all vessels in common use--were required to be not only easy to keep clean,
but pleasant to look upon. Did they carry their taste for enamelled ware so
far as to cover the walls of their houses with glazed tiles? Upon this
point we can pronounce neither affirmatively nor negatively; the few
examples of this kind of decoration which we possess being all from royal
{270} buildings.
Fig 235.--Chamber decorated with tiles in step pyramid of Sakkarah.
Upon a yellow brick, we have the family name and Ka name of Pepi I.;
upon a green brick, the name of Rameses III.; upon certain red and white
fragments, the names of Seti I. and Sheshonk.
Up to the beginning of the present century, one of the chambers in the
step pyramid at Sakkarah yet retained its mural decoration of glazed ware
(fig. 235). For three-fourths of the wall-surface it was covered with green
tiles, oblong in shape, flat at the back, and slightly convex on the face
(fig. 236). A square tenon, pierced through with a hole large enough to
receive a wooden rod, served to fix them together in horizontal pyramid of
rows.[67] The three rows which frame in the doorway are inscribed
with the titles of an unclassed Pharaoh belonging to one of the first
Memphite dynasties.
Fig 237.--Tile inlay, Tell el Yahûdeh.
The hieroglyphs are relieved in blue, red, green, and yellow, upon a tawny
ground. Twenty centuries later, Rameses III. originated a new style at Tell
el Yahûdeh. This time the question of ornamentation concerned, not a single
chamber, but a whole temple. The mass of the building was of limestone and
alabaster; but the pictorial subjects, instead of being sculptured
according to custom, were of a kind of mosaic made with almost equal parts
of stone tesserae and glazed ware.
The most frequent item in the scheme of decoration was a roundel moulded
of a sandy frit coated with {271} blue or grey slip, upon which is a cream-coloured
rosette (fig. 237). Some of these rosettes are framed in geometrical
designs (fig. 238) or spider-web patterns; some represent open flowers. The
central boss is in relief; the petals and tracery are encrusted in the
mass.
Fig 238.--Tile inlay, Tell el Yahûdeh.
These roundels, which are of various diameters
ranging from three-eighths of an inch to four inches, were fixed to the
walls by means of a very fine cement. They were used to form many different
designs, as scrolls, foliage, and parallel fillets, such as may be seen on
the foot of an altar and the base of a column preserved in the Gizeh
Museum. The royal ovals were mostly in one piece; so also were the figures.
The details, either incised or modelled upon the clay before firing, were
afterwards painted with such colours as might be suitable.
Fig 239.--Inlaid tiles, Tell el Yahûdeh.
The lotus flowers and leaves which were carried along the bottom of the
walls or the length of the cornices, were, on the contrary, made up of
independent pieces; each colour being a separate morsel cut to fit exactly
into the pieces by which it was surrounded (fig. 239). This temple was
rifled at the beginning of the present century, and some figures of
prisoners brought thence have been in the Louvre collection ever since the
time of Champollion. All that remained of the building and its decoration
was demolished a few years ago by certain dealers in antiquities, and the
débris are now dispersed in all directions.
Fig 240.--Relief tile, Tell el Yahûdeh.
Mariette, though with {272} great difficulty, recovered some of the more important
fragments, such as the name of Rameses III., which dates the building; some
borderings of lotus flowers and birds with human hands (fig. 240); and some
heads of Asiatics and negro prisoners (fig. 241).[68]
Fig 241.--Relief tile, Tell el Yahûdeh.
The destruction of this monument is the more grievous because the Egyptians
cannot have constructed many after the same type. Glazed bricks, painted
tiles, and enamelled mosaics are readily injured; and in the judgment of a
people enamoured of stability and eternity, that would be the gravest of
radical defects.
2.--WOOD, IVORY, LEATHER, AND TEXTILE FABRICS.
Objects in ivory, bone, and horn are among the rarities of our museums;
but we must not for this reason conclude that the Egyptians did not make
ample use of those substances. Horn is perishable, and is eagerly devoured
by certain insects, which {273} rapidly destroy it. Bone and ivory soon deteriorate
and become friable. The elephant was known to the Egyptians from the
remotest period. They may, perhaps, have found it inhabiting the Thebaid
when first they established themselves in that part of the Nile Valley, for
as early as the Fifth Dynasty we find the pictured form of the elephant in
use as the hieroglyphic name of the island of Elephantine.
Fig 242.--Spoon.
Ivory in tusks and half tusks was imported into Egypt from the regions of
the Upper Nile. It was sometimes dyed green or red, but was more generally
left of its natural colour. It was largely employed by cabinet makers for
inlaying furniture, as chairs, bedsteads, and coffers. Combs, dice, hair-
pins, toilette ornaments, delicately wrought spoons (fig. 242), Kohl
bottles hollowed out of a miniature column surmounted by a capital,
incense-burners in the shape of a hand supporting a bronze cup in which the
perfumes were burned, and boomerangs engraved with figures of gods and
fantastic animals, were also made of ivory. Some of these objects are works
of fine art; as for instance at Gizeh, a poignard-handle in the form of a
lion; the plaques in bas-relief which adorn the draught-box of one Tûaï,
who lived towards the end of the Seventeenth Dynasty; a Fifth Dynasty
figure, unfortunately mutilated, which yet retains traces of rose colour;
and a miniature statue of Abi, who died at the time of the Thirteenth
Dynasty. This little personage, perched on the top of a lotus-flower
column, looks straight before him with a majestic air which contrasts
somewhat {274}
comically with the size and prominence of his ears. The modelling of the
figure is broad and spirited, and will bear comparison with good Italian
ivories of the Renaissance period.
Egypt produces few trees, and of these few the greater number are
useless to the sculptor. The two which most abound--namely, the date palm
and the dôm palm--are of too coarse a fibre for carving, and are too
unequal in texture. Some varieties of the sycamore and acacia are the only
trees of which the grain is sufficiently fine and manageable to be wrought
with the chisel. Wood was, nevertheless, a favourite material for cheap and
rapid work. It was even employed at times for subjects of importance, such
as Ka statues; and the Wooden Man of Gizeh shows with what boldness and
amplitude of style it could be treated. But the blocks and beams which the
Egyptians had at command were seldom large enough for a statue. The Wooden
Man himself, though but half life-size, consists of a number of pieces held
together by square pegs. Hence, wood-carvers were wont to treat their
subjects upon such a scale as admitted of their being cut in one block, and
the statues of olden time became statuettes under the Theban dynasties. Art
lost nothing by the reduction, and more than one of these little figures is
comparable to the finest works of the ancient empire. The best, perhaps, is
at the Turin Museum, and dates from the Twentieth Dynasty. It represents a
young girl whose only garment is a slender girdle. She is of that
indefinite age when the undeveloped form is almost as much like that of a
boy as of a girl. The expression of the head is gentle, yet {275} saucy.
Fig 244.--Wooden statuette of priest, Eighteenth Dynasty.
It is, in fact, across thirty centuries of time, a portrait of one of those
graceful little maidens of Elephantine, who, without immodesty or
embarrassment, walk unclothed in sight of strangers.
Fig 243.--Wooden statuette of officer, Eighteenth Dynasty.
Three little wooden men in the Gizeh Museum are probably contemporaries of
the Turin figure. They wear full dress, as, indeed, they should, for one
was a king's favourite named Hori, and surnamed Ra. They are walking with
calm and measured tread, the bust thrown forward, and the head high. The
expression upon their faces is knowing, and somewhat sly. An officer who
has retired on half-pay at the Louvre (fig. 243) wears an undress uniform
of the time of Amenhotep III.; that is to say, a small wig, a close-fitting
vest with short sleeves, and a kilt drawn tightly over the hips, reaching
scarcely half-way down the thigh, and trimmed in front with a piece {276} of puffing
plaited longwise. His companion is a priest (fig. 244), who wears his hair
in rows of little curls one above the other, and is clad in a long
petticoat falling below the calf of the leg and spreading out in front in a
kind of plaited apron. He holds a sacred standard consisting of a stout
staff surmounted by a ram's head crowned with the solar disc.
Fig 245.--Wooden statuette of priest, Eighteenth Dynasty.
Both officer and priest are painted red brown, with the exception of the
hair, which is black; the cornea of the eyes, which is white; and the
standard, which is yellow. Curiously enough, the little lady Naï, who
inhabits the same glass case, is also painted reddish brown, instead of
buff, which was the canonical colour for women (fig. 245). She is taken in
a close-fitting garment trimmed down the front with a band of white
embroidery. Round her neck she wears a necklace consisting of a triple row
of gold pendants. Two golden bracelets adorn her wrists, and on her head
she carries a wig with long curls. The right arm hangs by her side, the
hand holding some object now lost, which was probably a mirror. The left
arm is raised, and with the left hand she presses a lotus lily to her
breast. The body is easy and well formed, the figure indicates youth, the
face is open, smiling, pleasant, and somewhat plebeian. To modify the
unwieldy mass of the headdress was beyond the skill of the artist, but the
bust is delicately and elegantly modelled, the clinging garment gives
discreet emphasis to the shape, and the action {277} of the hand which holds the flower is
rendered with grace and naturalness. All these are portraits, and as the
sitters were not persons of august rank, we may conclude that they did not
employ the most fashionable artists. They, doubtless, had recourse to more
unpretending craftsmen; but that such craftsmen were thus highly trained in
knowledge of form and accuracy of execution, shows how strongly even the
artisan was influenced by the great school of sculpture which then
flourished at Thebes.
This influence becomes even more apparent when we study the knick-knacks
of the toilet table, and such small objects as, properly speaking, come
under the head of furniture. To pass in review the hundred and one little
articles of female ornament or luxury to which the fancy of the designer
gave all kinds of ingenious and novel forms, would be no light task. The
handles of mirrors, for instance, generally represented a stem of lotus or
papyrus surmounted by a full-blown flower, from the midst of which rose a
disk of polished metal. For this design is sometimes substituted the figure
of a young girl, either nude, or clad in a close-fitting garment, who holds
the mirror on her head. The tops of hair-pins were carved in the semblance
of a coiled serpent, or of the head of a jackal, a dog, or a hawk. The pin-
cushion in which they are placed is a hedgehog or a tortoise, with holes
pierced in a formal pattern upon the back. The head-rests, which served for
pillows, were decorated with bas-reliefs of subjects derived from the myths
of Bes and Sekhet, the grimacing features of the former deity being carved
on the ends or on the base.
Fig 246.--Spoon.
But it is in the carving of perfume-spoons and kohl-bottles {278} that the inventive
skill of the craftsman is most brilliantly displayed.
Not to soil their fingers the Egyptians made use of spoons for
essences, pomades, and the variously-coloured preparations with which both
men and women stained their cheeks, lips, eyelids, nails, and palms.
Fig 247.--Spoon.
The designer generally borrowed his subjects from the fauna or flora of the
Nile valley. A little case at Gizeh is carved in the shape of a couchant
calf, the body being hollowed out, and the head and back forming a
removable lid.
Fig 248.--Spoon.
A spoon in the same collection represents a dog running away with an
enormous fish in his mouth (fig. 246), the body of the fish forming the
bowl of the spoon. Another shows a cartouche springing from a full-blown
lotus; another, a lotus fruit laid upon a bouquet of flowers (fig. 247);
and here is a simple triangular bowl, the handle decorated with a stem and
two buds (fig. 248). The most elaborate specimens combine these subjects
with the human figure. A young girl, clad in a mere girdle, is represented
in the act of swimming (fig. 249). Her head is well lifted above the water,
and her outstretched arms support a duck, the body of which is hollowed
out, while the wings, being movable, serve as a cover. We have also a young
girl in the Louvre collection, but she stands in a maze of lotus plants
(fig. 250), and is in the act of gathering a {279} bud. A bunch of stems, from which
emerge
two full-blown blossoms, unites the handle to the bowl of the spoon, which
is in reverse position, the larger end being turned outwards and the point
inwards.
Fig 249.--Spoon.
Elsewhere, a young girl (fig. 251) playing upon a long-necked lute as she
trips along, is framed in by two flowering stems.
Fig 250.--Spoon.
Sometimes the fair musician is standing upright in a tiny skiff (fig. 252);
and sometimes a girl bearing offerings is substituted for the lute player.
Fig 251. --Spoon.
Another example represents a slave toiling under the weight of an enormous
sack. The age and physiognomy of each of these personages is clearly
indicated. The lotus gatherer is of good birth, as may be seen by her
carefully plaited hair and tunic. The Theban ladies wore long robes; but
this damsel has gathered up her skirts that she may thread her way among
the reeds without wetting her garments. The two musicians and the swimming
girl belong, on the contrary, to an inferior, or servile, class. Two of
them wear only a girdle, and {280} the third has a short garment negligently fastened.
The
bearer of offerings (fig. 253) wears the long pendent tresses distinctive
of childhood, and is one of those slender, growing girls of the fellahîn
class whom one sees in such numbers on the banks of the Nile.
Fig 253.--Spoon.
Her lack of clothing is, however, no evidence of want of birth, for not
even the children of nobility were wont to put on the garments of their sex
before the period of adolescence.
Fig 252.--Spoon.
Lastly, the slave (fig. 254), with his thick lips, his high shoulders, his
flat nose, his heavy, animal jaw, his low brow, and his bare, conical head,
is evidently a caricature of some foreign prisoner. The dogged sullenness
with which he trudges under his burden is admirably caught, while the
angularities of the body, the type of the head, and the general arrangement
of the parts, remind one of the terra-cotta grotesques of Asia Minor. In
these subjects, all the minor details, the fruits, the flowers, the various
kinds of birds, are rendered with much truth and cleverness. Of the three
ducks which are tied by the feet and slung over the arms of the girl
bearing offerings, two are resigned to their fate, and hang swinging with
open eyes and outstretched necks; but the third flaps her wings and {281} lifts her
head protestingly. The two small water-fowl perched upon the lotus flowers
listen placidly to the lute-player's music, their beaks resting on their
crops.
Fig 254.--Spoon.
They have learned by experience not to put themselves out of the way
for a song, and they know that there is nothing to fear from a young girl,
unless she is armed. They are put to flight in the bas-reliefs by the mere
sight of a bow and arrows, just as a company of rooks is put to flight
nowadays by the sight of a gun. The Egyptians were especially familiar with
the ways of animals and birds, and reproduced them with marvellous
exactness. The habit of minutely observing minor facts became instinctive,
and it informed their most trifling works with that air of reality which
strikes us so forcibly at the present day.
Household furniture was no more abundant in ancient Egypt than it is in
the Egypt of to-day. In the time of the Twelfth Dynasty an ordinary house
contained no bedsteads, but low frameworks like the Nubian angareb;
or mats rolled up by day on which the owners lay down at night in their
clothes, pillowing their heads on earthenware, stone, or wooden head-rests.
Fig 255.--Fire-sticks, bow, and unfinished drill-stock,
Twelfth Dynasty; Illahûn, Kahun, and Gurob, W.M.F. Petrie, Plate
VII., p. 11.
There were also two or three simple stone seats, some wooden chairs or
stools with carved legs, chests and boxes of various sizes for clothes and
{282} tools, and
a few common vessels of pottery or bronze. For making fire there were fire-
sticks, and the bow-drill for using them (figs. 255 and 181); children's
toys were even then found in great variety though of somewhat quaint
construction.
Fig 256.--Remains of two Twelfth Dynasty dolls;
Kahun, Gurob and Hawara, W.M.F. Petrie, Plate VIII. p. 30.
There were dolls with wigs and movable limbs, made in stone, pottery, and
wood (fig. 256); figures of men, and animals, and terra-cotta boats, balls
of wood and stuffed leather, whip-tops, and tip-cats (fig. 257).
The art of the cabinet-maker was nevertheless carried to a high degree
of perfection, from the time of the ancient dynasties. Planks were dressed
down {283} with
the adze, mortised, glued, joined together by means of pegs cut in hard
wood, or acacia thorns (never by metal nails), polished, and finally
covered with paintings.
Fig 257.--Tops, tip-cat, and a terra-cotta toy boat,
Twelfth Dynasty; Kahun, Gurob, and Hawara, W.M.F. Petrie, Plates
VIII., IX., p. 30.
Chests generally stand upon four straight legs, and are occasionally thus
raised to some height from the ground.
Fig 258.--Chest
The lid is flat, or rounded according to a special curvature (fig. 258)
much in favour among the Egyptians of all periods. Sometimes, though
rarely, it is gable-shaped, like our house-roofs (fig. 259).
Fig 259.--Chest
Generally speaking, the lid lifts off bodily; but it often turns upon a peg
inserted in one of the uprights. Sometimes, also, it turns upon wooden
pivots (fig. 260). The panels, which are large and admirably suited for
decorative art, are enriched with paintings, or inlaid with ivory, silver,
precious woods, or enamelled plaques. It may be that we are scarcely in a
position justly to appraise the skill of Egyptian cabinet-makers, or the
variety of designs produced at various periods.
Fig 260.--Chest
Nearly all the furniture which has come down to our day has been found in
tombs, and, being destined for burial in the sepulchre, may either be of a
character exclusively destined for the use of the mummy, or {284} possibly a cheap
imitation of a more precious class of goods.
The mummy was, in fact, the cabinet-maker's best customer. In other
lands, man took but a few objects with him into the next world; but the
defunct Egyptian required nothing short of a complete outfit. The mummy-
case alone was an actual monument, in the construction of which a whole
squad of workmen was employed (fig. 261).
Fig 261.--Construction of a mummy-case, wall scene,
Eighteenth Dynasty.
The styles of mummy-cases varied from period to period. Under the Memphite
and first Theban empires, we find only rectangular chests in sycamore wood,
flat at top and bottom, and made of many pieces joined together by wooden
pins. The pattern is not elegant, but the decoration is very curious. The
lid has no cornice. Outside, it is inscribed down the middle with a long
column of hieroglyphs, sometimes merely written in ink, sometimes laid on
in colour, sometimes carved in hollowed-out signs filled in with some kind
of bluish paste. The inscription records only the name and titles of the
deceased, accompanied now and then by a short form of prayer in his favour.
The inside is covered with a thick coat of stucco or whitewash.
{285} Upon
this surface, the seventeenth chapter of The Book of the Dead was
generally written in red and black inks, and in fine cursive hieroglyphs.
The body of the chest is made with three horizontal planks for the bottom,
and eight vertical planks, placed two and two, for the four sides. The
outside is sometimes decorated with long strips of various colours ending
in interlaced lotus-leaves, such as are seen on stone sarcophagi. More
frequently, it is ornamented on the left side with two wide-open eyes and
two monumental doors, and on the right with three doors exactly like those
seen in contemporary catacombs. The sarcophagus is in truth the house of
the deceased; and, being his house, its four walls were bound to contain an
epitome of the prayers and tableaux which covered the walls of his
tomb. The necessary formulae and pictured scenes were, therefore,
reproduced inside, nearly in the same order in which they appear in the
mastabas. Each side is divided in three registers, each register containing
a dedication in the name of the deceased, or representations of objects
belonging to him, or such texts from the Ritual as need to be repeated for
his benefit. Skilfully composed, and painted upon a background made to
imitate some precious wood, the whole forms a boldly-designed and
harmoniously-coloured picture. The cabinet-maker's share of the work was
the lightest, and the long boxes in which the dead of the earliest period
were buried made no great demand upon his skill. This, however, was not the
case when in later times the sarcophagus came to be fashioned in the
likeness of the human body. Of this style we have two leading types. In the
most ancient, the mummy serves as the {286} model for his case. His outstretched
feet and legs are in one. The form of the knee, the swell of the calf, the
contours of the thigh and the trunk, are summarily indicated, and are, as
it were, vaguely modelled under the wood. The head, apparently the only
living part of this inert body, is wrought out in the round. The dead man
is in this wise imprisoned in a kind of statue of himself; and this statue
is so well balanced that it can stand on its feet if required, as upon a
pedestal. In the other type of sarcophagus, the deceased lies at full
length upon his tomb, and his figure, sculptured in the round, serves as
the lid of his mummy-case. On his head is seen the ponderous wig of the
period. A white linen vest and a long petticoat cover his chest and legs.
His feet are shod with elegant sandals. His arms lie straight along his
sides, or are folded upon his breast, the hands grasping various emblems,
as the Ankh, the girdle-buckle, the Tat;[69] or, as in the case of
the wife of Sennetmû at Gizeh, a garland of ivy. This mummiform type of
sarcophagus is rarely met with under the Memphite dynasties, though that of
Menkara, the Mycerinus of the Greeks, affords a memorable example. Under
the Eleventh Dynasty, the mummy-case is frequently but a hollowed tree-
trunk, roughly sculptured outside, with a head at one end and feet at the
other. The face is daubed with bright colours, yellow, red, and green; the
wig and headdress are striped with black and blue, and an elaborate collar
is depicted on the breast. The rest of the case is either covered with the
long, gilded wings of Isis and Nephthys, or {287} with a uniform tint of white or
yellow, and sparsely decorated with symbolic figures, or columns of
hieroglyphs painted blue and black.
Fig 262.--Mask of Twenty-first Dynasty coffin of Rameses II.
Among the sarcophagi belonging to kings of the Seventeenth Dynasty which I
recovered from Deir el Baharî, the most highly finished belonged to this
type, and were only remarkable for the really extraordinary skill with
which the craftsman had reproduced the features of the deceased sovereigns.
The mask of Ahmes I., that of Amenhotep I., and that of Thothmes II., are
masterpieces in their way. The mask of {288} Rameses II. shows no sign of paint,
except a black line which accentuates the form of the eye.
Fig 263.--Mask of Twenty-first Dynasty coffin of Rameses II.
The face is doubtless modelled in the likeness of the Pharaoh Herhor, who
restored the funerary outfit of his puissant ancestor, and it will almost
bear comparison with the best works of contemporary sculpture (fig. 262).
Two mummy-cases found in the same place--namely, those of Queen
Ahmesnefertari and her daughter, Aahhotep II.--are of gigantic size, and
measure more than ten and a half feet in height (fig. 263). Standing
upright, they might almost be taken for two of the caryatid statues from
the first court at Medinet Habû, though on a smaller scale. The bodies are
represented as bandaged, and but vaguely indicate the contours of the human
form. The shoulders and bust of each are covered with a kind of network in
relief, every mesh standing out in blue upon a yellow ground. The hands
emerge from this mantle, are crossed upon the breast, and grasp the
Ankh, or Tau-cross, symbolic of eternal life. The heads are
portraits. The faces are round, the eyes large, the expression mild and
characterless. Each is crowned with the flat-topped cap and {289} lofty plumes of Amen
or Maut. We cannot but wonder for what reason these huge receptacles were
made. The two queens were small of stature, and their mummies--which were
well-nigh lost in the cases--had to be packed round with an immense
quantity of rags, to prevent them from shifting, and becoming injured.
Apart from their abnormal size, these cases are characterised by the same
simplicity which distinguishes other mummy-cases of royal or private
persons of the same period. Towards the middle of the Nineteenth Dynasty,
the fashion changed. The single mummy-case, soberly decorated, was
superseded by two, three, and even four cases, fitting the one into the
other, and covered with paintings and inscriptions. Sometimes the outer
receptacle is a sarcophagus with convex lid and square ears, upon which the
deceased is pictured over and over again upon a white ground, in adoration
before the gods of the Osirian cycle. When, however, it is shaped in human
form, it retains somewhat of the old simplicity. The face is painted; a
collar is represented on the chest, a band of hieroglyphs extends down the
whole length of the body to the feet, and the rest is in one uniform tone
of black, brown, or dark yellow. The inner cases were extravagantly rich,
the hands and faces being red, rose-coloured, or gilded; the jewellery
painted, or sometimes imitated by means of small morsels of enamel
encrusted in the wood-work; the surfaces frequently covered with many-
coloured scenes and legends, and the whole heightened by means of the
yellow varnish already mentioned. The lavish ornamentation of this period
is in striking contrast with the sobriety of earlier times; but in order to
grasp {290} the
reason of this change, one must go to Thebes, and visit the actual
sepulchres of the dead. The kings and private persons of the great
conquering dynasties[70] devoted their energies, and all the means at their
disposal, to the excavation of catacombs. The walls of those catacombs were
covered with sculptures and paintings. The sarcophagus was cut in one
enormous block of granite or alabaster, and admirably wrought. It was
therefore of little moment if the wooden coffin in which the mummy reposed
were very simply decorated. But the Egyptians of the decadence, and their
rulers, had not the wealth of Egypt and the spoils of neighbouring
countries at command. They were poor; and the slenderness of their
resources debarred them from great undertakings. They for the most part
gave up the preparation of magnificent tombs, and employed such wealth as
remained to them in the fabrication of fine mummy-cases carved in sycamore
wood. The beauty of their coffins, therefore, but affords an additional
proof of their weakness and poverty. When for a few centuries the Saïte
princes had succeeded in re-establishing the prosperity of the country,
stone sarcophagi came once more into requisition, and the wooden coffin
reverted to somewhat of the simplicity of the great period. But this
Renaissance was not destined to last.
Fig 264.--Panel portrait from the Graeco-Roman Cemetery at Hawara,
now in the National Gallery, London. (Hawara, Biahmu,
and Arsinoe, W.M.F. Petrie, Plate X., page 10.)
The Macedonian conquest brought back the same revolution in funerary
fashions which followed the fall of the Ramessides, and double and triple
mummy cases, over-painted and over-gilded, were again in demand. If the {291} craftsmen of
Graeco-Roman time who attired the dead of Ekhmîm for their last resting
places were less skilful than those of earlier date, their bad taste was,
at all events, not surpassed by the Theban coffin-makers who lived and
worked under the latest princes of the royal line of Rameses.
A series of Graeco-Roman examples from the Fayûm exhibit the stages by which portraiture in the flat there 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 {292} panel-portrait of the dead, as he was in life (fig. 264).
The remainder of the funerary outfit supplied the cabinet-maker with as much work as the coffin-maker. Boxes of various shapes and sizes were required for the wardrobe of the mummy, for his viscera, and for his funerary statuettes. He must also have tables for his meals; stools, chairs, a bed to lie upon, a boat and sledge to convey him to the tomb, and sometimes even a war-chariot and a carriage in which to take the air.[71] The boxes for canopic vases, funerary statuettes, and libation-vases, are divided in several compartments. A couchant jackal is sometimes placed on the top, and serves for a handle by which to take off the lid. Each box was provided with its own little sledge, upon which it was drawn in the funeral procession on the day of burial. Beds are not very uncommon. Many are identical in structure with the Nubian angarebs, and consist merely of some coarse fabric, or of interlaced strips of leather, stretched on a plain wooden frame. Few exceed fifty-six inches in length; the sleeper, therefore, could never lie outstretched, but must perforce assume a doubled-up position. The frame is generally horizontal, but sometimes it slopes slightly downwards from the head to the foot. It was often raised to a considerable height above the level of the floor, and a stool, or a little portable set of steps, was used in mounting it. These details were known to us by the wall-paintings only until I {293} myself discovered two perfect specimens in 1884 and 1885; one at Thebes, in a tomb of the Thirteenth Dynasty, and the other at Ekhmîm, in the Graeco-Roman necropolis. In the former, two accommodating lions have elongated their bodies to form the framework, their heads doing duty for the head of the bed, and their tails being curled up under the feet of the sleeper.
The bed is surmounted by a kind of canopy, under which the mummy lay in
state. Rhind had already found a similar canopy, which is now in the Museum
of Edinburgh[72] (fig. 265). In shape it is a temple, the rounded roof
being supported by elegant colonnettes of painted wood. A doorway guarded
by serpents is supposed to give access to the miniature edifice. Three {294} winged discs,
each larger than the one below it, adorn three superimposed cornices above
the door, the whole frontage being surmounted by a row of erect uraei,
crowned with the solar disc. The canopy belonging to the Thirteenth Dynasty
bed is much more simple, being a mere balustrade in cut and painted wood,
in imitation of the water-plant pattern with which temple walls were
decorated; the whole is crowned with an ordinary cornice. In the bed of
Graeco-Roman date (fig. 266), carved and painted figures of the goddess Ma,
sitting with her feather on her knee, are substituted for the customary
balustrades.
Fig 266.--Canopied mummy-couch, Graeco-Roman.
Isis and Nephthys stand with their winged arms outstretched at the head and
foot. The roof is open, save for a row of vultures hovering above the
mummy, which is wept over by two kneeling statuettes of Isis and Nephthys,
one at each end.
Fig 267.--Mummy-sledge and canopy.
The sledges upon which mummies were dragged to the sepulchre were also
furnished with canopies, but in a totally different style. The sledge
canopy is a panelled shrine, like those which I discovered in 1886, in the
tomb of Sennetmû at Kûrnet Murraee. If light was {295} admitted, it came through a square
opening, showing the head of the mummy within.
Fig 268.--Inlaid-chair, Eleventh Dynasty.
Wilkinson gives an illustration of a sledge canopy of this kind, from the
wall paintings of a Theban tomb (fig. 267). The panels were always made to
slide. As soon as the mummy was laid upon his sledge, the panels were
closed, the corniced roof placed over all, and the whole closed in. With
regard to chairs, many of those in the Louvre and the British Museum were
made about the time of the Eleventh Dynasty.
These are not the least beautiful specimens which have come down to us, one
in particular (fig. 268) having preserved an extraordinary brilliancy of
colour. The framework, formerly fitted with a seat of strong netting, was
originally supported on four legs with lions' feet. The back is ornamented
with two lotus flowers, and with a row of lozenges inlaid in ivory and
ebony upon a red ground. Stools of similar workmanship (fig. 269), and {296} folding
stools, the feet of which are in the form of a goose's head, may be seen in
all museums.
Fig 269.--Inlaid stool, Eleventh Dynasty.
Pharaohs and persons of high rank affected more elaborate designs. Their
seats were sometimes raised very high, the arms being carved to resemble
running lions, and the lower supports being prisoners of war, bound back to
back (fig. 270). A foot-board in front served as a step to mount by, and as
a foot-stool for the sitter. Up to the present time, we have found no
specimens of this kind of seat.[73]
We learn from the tomb paintings that netted or cane-bottomed chairs were
covered with stuffed seats and richly worked cushions. These cushions and
stuffed seats have perished, but it is to be concluded that they were
covered with tapestry. Tapestry was undoubtedly known to the Egyptians, and
a bas-relief subject at Beni Hasan {297}(fig. 271)[74] shows the process of weaving.
The frame, which is of the simplest structure, resembles that now in use
among the weavers of Ekhmîm. It is horizontal, and is formed of two slender
cylinders, or rather of two rods, about fifty-four inches apart, each held
in place by two large pegs driven into the ground about three feet distant
from each other. The warps of the chain were strongly fastened, then rolled
round the top cylinder till they were stretched sufficiently tight. Mill
sticks placed at certain distances facilitated the insertion of the needles
which carried the thread. As in the Gobelins factory, the work was begun
from the bottom. The texture was regulated and equalised by means of a
coarse comb, and was rolled upon the lower cylinder as it increased {298} in length.
Hangings and carpets were woven in this manner; some with figures, others
with geometrical designs, zigzags, and chequers (fig. 272).
Fig 271.--Women weaving. From wall-scene in tomb of
Khnûmhotep, Beni Hasan, Twelfth Dynasty.
A careful examination of the monuments has, however, convinced me that most
of the subjects hitherto supposed to represent examples of tapestry
represent, in fact, examples of cut and painted leather. The leather-
worker's craft flourished in ancient Egypt. Few museums are without a pair
of leather sandals, or a specimen of mummy braces with ends of stamped
leather bearing the effigy of a god, a Pharaoh, a hieroglyphic legend, a
rosette, or perhaps all combined.
Fig 272.--Man weaving hangings, or carpet. From Beni
Hasan, Twelfth Dynasty.
These little relics are not older than the time of the priest-kings, or the
earlier Bubastites. It is to the same period that we must attribute the
great cut-leather canopy in the Gizeh Museum. The catafalque upon which the
mummy was laid when transported from the mortuary establishment to the
tomb, was frequently adorned with a covering made of stuff or soft leather.
Sometimes the sidepieces hung down, and sometimes they were drawn aside
with bands, like curtains, and showed the coffin.{299}
The canopy of Deir el Baharî 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 III.
Fig 273.--Border pattern of cut leather canopy of
Isiemkheb, Twenty-first Dynasty.
The centrepiece, in shape an oblong square, is divided into three bands of
sky-blue leather, now faded to pearl-grey. The two side-pieces are
sprinkled with yellow stars. Upon the middle piece are rows of vultures,
whose outspread wings protect the mummy. Four other pieces covered with red
and green chequers are attached to the ends and sides. The longer pieces
which hung over the sides are united to the centre-piece by an ornamental
bordering. On the right, scarabaei with extended wings alternate with the
cartouches of King Pinotem II., and are surmounted by a lance-head frieze.
On the left side, the pattern is more complicated (fig. 273). In the centre
we see a bunch of lotus lilies flanked by royal cartouches. Next come two
antelopes, each kneeling upon a basket; then two bouquets of papyrus; then
two more scarabaei, similar to those upon the other border. The lance-head
frieze finishes it above, as on the opposite side. The {300} technical process is very
curious. The hieroglyphs and figures were cut out from large pieces of
leather; then, under the open spaces thus left, were sewn thongs of leather
of whatever colour was required for those ornaments or hieroglyphs.
Finally, in order to hide the patchwork effect presented at the back, the
whole was lined with long strips of white, or light yellow, leather.
Fig 274.--Bark with cut leather sail; wall-painting
tomb of Rameses III.
Despite the difficulties of treatment which this work presented, the result
is most remarkable.[75] The outlines of the gazelles, scarabaei, and flowers
are as clean-cut and as elegant as if drawn with the pen upon a wall-
surface or a page of papyrus. The choice of subjects is happy, and the
colours employed are both lively and harmonious.{301}The craftsmen who designed and executed
the canopy of Isiemkheb had profited by a long experience of this system of
decoration, and of the kind of patterns suitable to the material. For my
own part, I have not the slightest doubt that the cushions of chairs and
royal couches, and the sails of funeral and sacred boats used for the
transport of mummies and divine images, were most frequently made in
leather-work.
Fig 275.--Bark with cut leather sail; wall-painting
tomb of Rameses III.
The chequer-patterned sail represented in one of the boat subjects painted
on the wall of a chamber in the tomb of Rameses III. (fig. 274), might be
mistaken for one of the side pieces of the canopy at Gizeh. The vultures
and fantastic birds depicted upon the sails of another boat (fig. 275) are
neither more strange nor more difficult to make in cut leather than the
vultures and gazelles of Isiemkheb.
{302} We have it upon the authority of ancient writers that the Egyptians of olden time embroidered as skilfully as those of the Middle Ages. The surcoats given by Amasis, one to the Lacedaemonians, and the other to the temple of Athena at Lindos, were of linen embroidered with figures of animals in gold thread and purple, each thread consisting of three hundred and sixty-five distinct filaments. To go back to a still earlier period, the monumental tableaux show portraits of the Pharaohs wearing garments with borders, either woven or embroidered, or done in appliqué work. The most simple patterns consist of one or more stripes of brilliant colour parallel with the edge of the material. Elsewhere we see palm patterns, or rows of discs and points, leaf-patterns, meanders, and even, here and there, figures of men, gods, or animals, worked most probably with the needle. None of the textile materials yet found upon royal mummies are thus decorated; we are therefore unable to pronounce upon the quality of this work, or the method employed in its production. Once only, upon the body of one of the Deir el Baharî princesses, did I find a royal cartouche embroidered in pale rose-colour. The Egyptians of the best periods seem to have attached special value to plain stuffs, and especially to white ones. These they wove with marvellous skill, and upon looms in every respect identical with those used in tapestry work. Those portions of the winding sheet of Thothmes III. which enfolded the royal hands and arms, are as fine as the finest India muslin, and as fairly merit the name of "woven air" as the gauzes of the island of Cos. This, of course, is a mere question of manufacture, {303} apart from the domain of art. Embroideries and tapestries were not commonly used in Egypt till about the end of the Persian period, or the beginning of the period of Greek rule. Alexandria became partly peopled by Phoenician, Syrian, and Jewish colonists, who brought with them the methods of manufacture peculiar to their own countries, and founded workshops which soon developed into flourishing establishments. It is to the Alexandrians that Pliny ascribes the invention of weaving with several warps, thus producing the stuff called brocades (polymita); and in the time of the first Caesars, it was a recognised fact that "the needle of Babylon was henceforth surpassed by the comb of the Nile." The Alexandrian tapestries were not made after exclusively geometrical designs, like the products of the old Egyptian looms; but, according to the testimony of the ancients, were enriched with figures of animals, and even of men. Of the masterpieces which adorned the palaces of the Ptolemies no specimens remain. Many fragments which may be attributed to the later Roman time have, however, been found in Egypt, such as the piece with the boy and goose described by Wilkinson, and a piece representing marine divinities bought by myself at Coptos.[76] The numerous embroidered winding sheets with woven borders which have recently been discovered near Ekhmîm, and in the {304} Fayûm, are nearly all from Coptic tombs, and are more nearly akin to Byzantine art than to the art of Egypt.
3.--METALS.
The Egyptians classified metals under two heads--namely, the noble metals, as gold, electrum, and silver; and the base metals, as copper, iron, lead, and, at a later period, tin. The two lists are divided by the mention of certain kinds of precious stones, such as lapis lazuli and malachite.
Iron was reserved for weapons of war, and tools, in use for hard substances, such as sculptors' and masons' chisels, axe and adze heads, knife-blades, and saws. Lead was comparatively useless, but was sometimes used for inlaying temple-doors, coffers, and furniture. Also small statuettes of gods were occasionally made in this metal, especially those of Osiris and Anubis. Copper was too yielding to be available for objects in current use; bronze, therefore, was the favourite metal of the Egyptians. Though often affirmed, it is not true that they succeeded in tempering bronze so that it became as hard as iron or steel; but by varying the constituents and their relative proportions, they were able to give it a variety of very different qualities. Most of the objects hitherto analysed have yielded precisely the same quantities of copper and tin commonly used by the bronze founders of the present day. Those analysed by Vauquelin in 1825 contained 84 per cent. of copper 14 per cent. of tin, and 1 per cent. of iron and other substances. A chisel brought from Egypt by Sir {305} Gardner Wilkinson contained only from 5 to 9 per cent. of tin, 1 per cent. of iron, and 94 of copper. Certain fragments of statuettes and mirrors more recently subjected to analysis have yielded a notable quantity of gold and silver, thus corresponding with the bronzes of Corinth. Other specimens resemble brass, both in their colour and substance. Many of the best Egyptian bronzes offer a surprising resistance to damp, and oxidise with difficulty. While yet hot from the mould, they were rubbed with some kind of resinous varnish which filled up the pores and deposited an unalterable patina upon the surface. Each kind of bronze had its special use. The ordinary bronze was employed for weapons and common amulets; the brazen alloys served for household utensils; the bronzes mixed with gold and silver were destined only for mirrors, costly weapons, and statuettes of value. In none of the tomb-paintings which I have seen is there any representation of bronze-founding or bronze-working; but this omission is easily supplemented by the objects themselves. Tools, arms, rings, and cheap vases were sometimes forged, and sometimes cast whole in moulds of hard clay or stone. Works of art were cast in one or several pieces according to circumstances; the parts were then united, soldered, and retouched with the burin. The method most frequently employed was to prepare a core of mixed clay and charcoal, or sand, which roughly reproduced the modelling of the mould into which it was introduced. The layer of metal between this core and the mould was often so thin that it would have yielded to any moderate pressure, had they not taken {306} the precaution to consolidate it by having the core for a support.
Domestic utensils and small household instruments were mostly made in
bronze.
Fig 276.--Bronze jug.
Such objects are exhibited by thousands in our museums, and frequently
figure in bas-reliefs and mural paintings. Art and trade were not
incompatible in Egypt; and even the coppersmith sought to give elegance of
form, and to add ornaments in a good style, to the humblest of his works.
The saucepan in which the cook of Rameses III. concocted his masterpieces
is supported on lions' feet. Here is a hot-water jug which looks as if it
were precisely like its modern successors (fig. 276); but on a closer
examination we shall find that the handle is a full-blown lotus, the
petals, which are bent over at an angle to the stalk, resting against the
edge of the neck (fig. 277).
Fig 277.--Same jug seen from above.
The handles of knives and spoons are almost always in the form of a duck's
or goose's neck, slightly curved. The bowl is sometimes fashioned like an
animal--as, for instance, a gazelle ready bound for the sacrifice (fig.
278). On the hilt of a sabre we find a little crouching jackal; and the
larger limb of a pair of scissors in the Gizeh Museum is made in the
likeness of an Asiatic captive, his arms tied behind his back. A lotus leaf
forms the disk of a mirror, and its stem is the handle. One perfume box is
a fish, another is a bird, another {307} is a grotesque deity. The lustration vases, or
situlae, carried by priests and priestesses for the purpose of
sprinkling either the faithful, or the ground traversed by religious
processions, merit the special consideration of connoisseurs.
Fig 278.--Spoon (or lamp?).
They are ovoid or pointed at the bottom, and decorated with subjects either
chased or in relief. These sometimes represent deities, each in a separate
frame, and sometimes scenes of worship. The work is generally very
minute.
Bronze came into use for statuary purposes from a very early period; but
time unfortunately has preserved none of those idols which peopled the
temples of the ancient empire. Whatsoever may be said to the contrary, we
possess no bronze statuettes of any period anterior to the expulsion of the
Hyksos. Some Theban figures date quite certainly from the Eighteenth and
Nineteenth Dynasties. The chased lion's head found with the jewels of Queen
Aahhotep, the Harpocrates of Gizeh inscribed with the names of Kames and
Ahmes I., and several statuettes of Amen, said to have been discovered at
Medinet Habû and Sheikh Abd el Gûrneh, are of that period. Our most
important bronzes belong, however, to the Twenty-second Dynasty, or, later
still, to the time of the Saïte Pharaohs. Many are not older than the first
Ptolemies. A fragment found in the ruins of Tanis {308} and now in the possession of
Count Stroganoff, formed part of a votive statue dedicated by King
Pisebkhanû.
Fig 279.--Bronze statuette of the Lady Takûshet.
It was originally two-thirds the size of life, and is the largest specimen
known. A portrait statuette of the Lady Takûshet, given to the Museum of
Athens by M. Demetrio, the four statuettes from the Posno collection now at
the Louvre, and the kneeling genius of Gizeh, are all from the site of
Bubastis, and date probably from the years which immediately preceded the
accession of Psammetichus I. The Lady Takûshet is standing, the left foot
advanced, the right arm hanging down, the left raised and brought close to
the body (fig. 279). She wears a short robe embroidered with religious
subjects, and has bracelets on her arms and wrists. Upon her head she has a
wig with flat curls, row above row. The details both of her robe and jewels
{309} are
engraved in incised lines upon the surface of the bronze, and inlaid with
silver threads. The face is evidently a portrait, and represents a woman of
mature age.
Fig 280.--Bronze statuette of Horus.
The form, according to the traditions of Egyptian art, is that of a younger
woman, slender, firm, and supple. The copper in this bronze is largely
intermixed with gold, thus producing a chastened lustre which is admirably
suited to the richness of the embroidered garment. The kneeling genius of
Gizeh is as rude and repellent as the Lady Takûshet is delicate and
harmonious. He has a hawk's head, and he worships the sun, as is the duty
of the Heliopolitan genii. His right arm is uplifted, his left is pressed
to his breast. The style of the whole is dry, and the granulated surface of
the skin adds to the hard effect of the figure. The action, however, is
energetic and correct, and the bird's head is adjusted with surprising
skill to the man's neck {310} and shoulders. The same qualities and the same faults
distinguish the Horus of the Posno collection (fig. 280). Standing, he
uplifted a libation vase; now lost, and poured the contents upon a king who
once stood face to face with him. This roughness of treatment is less
apparent in the other three Posno figures; above all in that which bears
the name of Mosû engraved over the place of the heart (fig. 281).
Fig 281.--Bronze statuette of one Mosû.
Like the Horus, this Mosû stands upright, his left foot advanced, and his
left arm pendent. His right hand is raised, as grasping the wand of office.
The trunk is naked, and round his loins he wears a striped cloth with a
squared end falling in front. His head is clad in a short wig covered with
short curls piled one above the other. The ear is round and large. The eyes
are well opened, and were originally of silver; but have been stolen by
some Arab. The features have a remarkable expression of pride and dignity.
After these, what can be said for the thousands of statuettes of Osiris, of
Isis, of Nephthys, of Horus, of Nefertûm, which have been found in the
sands and ruins of Sakkarah, Bubastis, and other cities of the Delta? Many
are, without doubt, charming objects for glass-cases, and are to be admired
for perfection of casting and delicacy {311} of execution; but the greater number
are mere articles of commerce, made upon the same pattern, and perhaps in
the self-same moulds, century after century, for the delight of devotees
and pilgrims. They are rounded, vulgar, destitute of originality, and have
no more distinction than the thousands of coloured statuettes of saints and
Virgins which stock the shelves of our modern dealers in pious wares. An
exception must, however, be made in favour of the images of animals, such
as rams, sphinxes, and lions, which to the last retained a more pronounced
stamp of individuality. The Egyptians had a special predilection for the
feline race. They have represented the lion in every attitude--giving chase
to the antelope; springing upon the hunter; wounded, and turning to bite
his wound; couchant, and disdainfully calm--and no people have depicted him
with a more thorough knowledge of his habits, or with so intense a
vitality. Several gods and goddesses, as Shû, Anhûr, Bast, Sekhet, Tefnût,
have the form of the lion or of the cat; and inasmuch as the worship of
these deities was more popular in the Delta than elsewhere, so there never
passes a year when from amid the ruins of Bubastis, Tanis, Mendes, or some
less famous city, there is not dug up a store of little figures of lions
and lionesses, or of men and women with lions' heads, or cats' heads. The
cats of Bubastis and the lions of Tell es Seba crowd our museums. The lions
of Horbeit may be reckoned among the chefs-d'oeuvre of Egyptian
statuary. Upon one of the largest among them is inscribed the name of
Apries (fig. 282); but if even this evidence were lacking, the style of the
piece would compel us to {312} attribute it to the Saïte period. It formed part of
the ornamentation of a temple or naos door; and the other side was either
built into a wall or imbedded in a piece of wood. The lion is caught in a
trap, or, perhaps, lying down in an oblong cage, with only his head and
fore feet outside. The lines of the body are simple and full of power; the
expression of the face is calm and strong. In breadth and majesty he almost
equals the fine limestone lions of Amenhotep III.
The idea of inlaying gold and other precious metals upon the surface of
bronze, stone, or wood was already ancient in Egypt in the time of Khûfû.
The gold is often amalgamated with pure silver. When amalgamated to the
extent of 20 per cent, it changes its name, and is called electrum
(asimû). This electrum is of a fine light-yellow colour. It pales as
the proportion of silver becomes larger, and at 60 per cent. it is nearly
white. The silver came chiefly from Asia, in rings, sheets, and bricks of
standard weight. The gold and electrum came partly from Syria in bricks {313} and rings;
and partly from the Soudan in nuggets and gold-dust. The processes of
refining and alloying are figured on certain monuments of the early
dynasties. In a bas-relief at Sakkarah, we see the weighed gold entrusted
to the craftsman for working; in another example (at Beni Hasan) the
washing and melting down of the ore is represented; and again at Thebes,
the goldsmith is depicted seated in front of his crucible, holding the
blow-pipe to his lips with the left hand, and grasping his pincers with the
right, thus fanning the flame and at the same time making ready to seize
the ingot (fig. 283). The Egyptians struck neither coins nor medals.
Fig 283.--Gold worker.
With these exceptions, they made the same use of the precious metals as we
do ourselves. We gild the crosses and cupolas of our churches; they covered
the doors of their temples, the lower part of their wall-surfaces, certain
bas-reliefs, pyramidions of obelisks, and even whole obelisks, with plates
of gold. The obelisks of Queen Hatshepsût at Karnak were coated with
electrum. "They were visible from both banks of the Nile, and when the sun
rose between them as he came up from the heavenly horizon, they flooded the
two Egypts with their dazzling rays."[77] These plates of metal were
forged with hammer and anvil. For smaller objects, they made use of little
pellets beaten flat between two pieces of parchment. In the Museum of the
Louvre we have a gilder's book, and {314} the gold-leaf which it contains is as thin as the
gold-leaf used by the German goldsmiths of the past century. Gold was
applied to bronze surfaces by means of an ammoniacal solvent. If the object
to be gilt were a wooden statuette, the workman began by sticking a piece
of fine linen all over the surface, or by covering it with a very thin coat
of plaster; upon this he laid his gold or silver leaf. It was thus that
wooden statuettes of Thoth, Horus, and Nefertûm were gilded, from the time
of Khûfû. The temple of Isis, the "Lady of the Pyramid," contained a dozen
such images; and this temple was not one of the largest in the Memphite
necropolis. There would seem to have been hundreds of gilded statues in the
Theban temples, at all events in the time of the victorious dynasties of
the new empire; and as regards wealth, the Ptolemaic sanctuaries were in no
wise inferior to those of the Theban period.
Bronze and gilded wood were not always good enough for the gods of
Egypt. They exacted pure gold, and their worshippers gave them as much of
it as possible. Entire statues of the precious metals were dedicated by the
kings of the ancient and middle empires; and the Pharaohs of the Eighteenth
and Nineteenth Dynasties, who drew at will upon the treasures of Asia,
transcended all that had been done by their predecessors. Even in times of
decadence, the feudal lords kept up the traditions of the past, and, like
Prince Mentûemhat, replaced the images of gold and silver which had been
carried off from Karnak by the generals of Sardanapalus at the time of the
Assyrian invasions. The quantity of metal thus consecrated to the service
of the gods must have been considerable, {315} If many figures were less than an inch
in height, many others measured three cubits, or more. Some were of gold,
some of silver; others were part gold and part silver. There were even some
which combined gold with sculptured ivory, ebony, and precious stones, thus
closely resembling the chryselephantine statues of the Greeks. Aided by the
bas-relief subjects of Karnak, Medinet Habû, and Denderah, as well as by
the statues in wood and limestone which have come down to our day, we can
tell exactly what they were like. However the material might vary, the
style was always the same. Nothing is more perishable than works of this
description. They are foredoomed to destruction by the mere value of the
materials in which they are made. What civil war and foreign invasion had
spared, and what had chanced to escape the rapacity of Roman princes and
governors, fell a prey to Christian iconoclasm. A few tiny statuettes
buried as amulets upon the bodies of mummies, a few domestic divinities
buried in the ruins of private houses, a few ex-votos forgotten, perchance,
in some dark corner of a fallen sanctuary, have escaped till the present
day. The Ptah and Amen of Queen Aahhotep, another golden Amen also at
Gizeh, and the silver vulture found in 1885 at Medinet Habû, are the only
pieces of this kind which can be attributed with certainty to the great
period of Egyptian art. The remainder are of Saïte or Ptolemaic work, and
are remarkable only for the perfection with which they are wrought.
Fig 284.--Golden cup of General Tahûti, Eighteenth Dynasty.
The gold and silver vessels used in the service of the temples, and in the
houses of private persons, shared the fate of the statues. At the beginning
of the present century, the {316} Louvre acquired some flat-bottomed cups which Thothmes
III. presented as the reward of valour to one of his generals named Tahûti.
The silver cup is much mutilated, but the golden cup is intact and
elegantly designed (fig. 284). The upright sides are adorned with a
hieroglyphic legend. A central rosette is engraved at the bottom. Six fish
are represented in the act of swimming round the rosette; and these again
are surrounded by a border of lotus-bells united by a curved line.
Fig 285.--Silver vase of Thmûis.
The five vases of Thmûis, in the Gizeh Museum, are of silver. They formed
part of the treasure of the temple, and had been buried in a hiding-place,
where they remained till our own day. We have no indication of their
probable age; but whether they belong to the Greek or the Theban period,
the workmanship is purely Egyptian. Of one vessel, only the cover is left,
the handle being formed of two flowers upon one stem. The others are
perfect, and are decorated in repoussé work with lotus-lilies in bud
and blossom (fig. 285).{317} The form is simple and elegant, the ornamentation
sober and delicate; the relief low.
Fig 286.--Silver vase of Thmûis.
One is, however, surrounded by a row of ovoid bosses (fig. 286), which
project in high relief, and somewhat alter the shape of the body of the
vase. These are interesting specimens; but they are so few in number that,
were it not for the wall-paintings, we should have but a very imperfect
idea of the skill of the Egyptian goldsmiths.
The Pharaohs had not our commercial resources, and could not circulate
the gold and silver tribute-offerings of conquered nations in the form of
coin. When the gods had received their share of the booty, there was no
alternative but to melt the rest down into ingots, fashion it into personal
ornaments, or convert it into gold and silver plate.
Fig 287.--Ornamental basket in precious metal. From
wall-painting, Twentieth Dynasty.
What was true of the kings held good also for their subjects. For the space
of at least six or eight centuries, dating from the time of Ahmes I., the
taste for plate was carried to excess. Every good house was not only
stocked with all that was needful for the service of the table, such as
cups, goblets, plates, ewers, and ornamental baskets chased with figures of
fantastic animals (fig. 287); but also with large ornamental vases which
were dressed with flowers, and displayed to visitors on gala days. Some of
these vases were of extraordinary richness. {318} Here, for instance, is a crater, the
handles modelled as two papyrus buds, and the foot as a full-blown papyrus.
Fig 288.--Crater of precious metal, borne by slaves.
Wall-painting, Eighteenth Dynasty.
Fig 289.--Enamelled cruet. Wall-painting, Eighteenth Dynasty.
Two Asiatic slaves in sumptuous garments are represented in the act of
upheaving it with all their strength (fig. 288). Here, again, is a kind of
hydria with a lid in the form of an inverted lotus flanked by the heads of
two gazelles (fig. 289). The heads and necks of two horses, bridled and
fully caparisoned, stand back to back on either side of the foot of the
vase. The body is divided into a series of horizontal zones, the middle
zone being in the likeness of a marshland, with an antelope coursing at
full speed among the reeds.
Two enamelled cruets (fig. 290) have elaborately wrought lids, one
fashioned as the head of a plumed eagle, and the other as the head of the
god Bes flanked by two vipers (fig. 291). But foremost among them all is a
golden centrepiece offered by a viceroy of Ethiopia to Amenhotep III.
Fig 290.--Enamelled cruet. Wall-painting, Eighteenth Dynasty.
Fig 291.--Enamelled cruet. Wall-painting, Eighteenth Dynasty.
The design reproduces one of the most popular subjects connected with the
foreign conquests of Egypt (fig. 292). Men and apes are seen gathering
fruits in a forest of dôm palms. Two natives, each with a single feather on
his head and a striped {319} kilt about his loins, lead tame giraffes with halters.
Others, apparently of the same nationality, kneel with upraised hands, as
if begging for quarter. Two negro prisoners lying face downwards upon the
ground, lift their heads with difficulty. A large vase with a short foot
and a lofty cone-shaped cover stands amid the trees.[78] The craftsmen who made
this piece evidently valued elegance and beauty less than richness. They
cared little for the heavy effect and bad taste of the whole, provided only
that they were praised for their skill, and for the quantity of metal which
they had succeeded in using.
Fig 292.--Gold centre-piece of Amenhotep III.
Wall-painting, Eighteenth Dynasty.
Other vases of the same type, pictured in a scene of presentations to
Rameses II. in the great temple of Abû Simbel, vary the subject by showing
buffaloes running in and out among the trees, in place of led giraffes.
These were costly playthings wrought in gold, such as the Byzantine
emperors of the ninth century accumulated in their {320} palace of Magnaura, and which
they exhibited on state occasions in order to impress foreigners with a
profound sense of their riches and power.
Fig 293.--Crater of precious metal. Wall-painting,
Eighteenth Dynasty.
When a victorious Pharaoh returned from a distant campaign, the vessels of
gold and silver which formed part of his booty figured in the triumphal
procession, together with his train of foreign captives. Vases in daily use
were of slighter make and less encumbered with inconvenient ornaments. The
two leopards which serve as handles to a crater of the time of Thothmes
III. (fig. 293) are not well proportioned, neither do they combine
agreeably with the curves of the vase;
Fig 294.--Cup of precious metal. Wall-painting, Eighteenth Dynasty.
but the accompanying cup (fig. 294), and a cruet belonging to the same
service (fig. 295), are very happily conceived, and have much purity of
form.
Fig 295.--Cruet of precious metal. Wall-painting, Eighteenth Dynasty.
These vessels of engraved and repoussé gold and silver, some
representing hunting scenes and incidents of battle, were imitated by
Phoenician craftsmen, and, being exported to Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy,
carried Egyptian patterns and subjects into distant lands. The passion for
precious metals was pushed to such extremes under the reigns of the
Ramessides that it was no longer enough to use them only at table. {321} Rameses II. and
Rameses III. had thrones of gold--not merely of wood plated with gold, but
made of the solid metal and set with precious stones. These things were too
valuable to escape destruction, and were the first to disappear. Their
artistic value, however, by no means equalled their intrinsic value, and
the loss is not one for which we need be inconsolable.
Orientals, men and women alike, are great lovers of jewellery. The
Egyptians were no exception to this rule. Not satisfied to adorn themselves
when living with a profusion of trinkets, they loaded the arms, the
fingers, the neck, the ears, the brow, and the ankles of their dead with
more or less costly ornaments.
Fig 296.--Bezel signet-ring.
The quantity thus buried in tombs was so considerable that even now, after
thirty centuries of active search, we find from time to time mummies which
are, so to say, cuirassed in gold. Much of this funerary jewellery was made
merely for show on the day of the funeral, and betrays its purpose by the
slightness of the workmanship. The favourite jewels of the deceased person
were, nevertheless, frequently buried with him, and the style and finish of
these leave nothing to be desired. Chains and rings have come down to us in
large numbers, as indeed might be expected. The ring, in fact, was not a
simple ornament, but an actual necessary. Official documents were not
signed, but sealed; and the seal was good in law. Every Egyptian,
therefore, had his seal, which he kept about his person, ready for use if
required. The poor man's seal was a simple copper or silver ring; the ring
of the rich {322} man was a more or less elaborate jewel covered with
chasing and relief work. The bezel was movable, and turned upon a pivot. It
was frequently set with some kind of stone engraved with the owner's emblem
or device; as, for example, a scorpion (fig. 296), a lion, a hawk, or a
cynocephalous ape. As in the eyes of her husband his ring was the one
essential ornament, so was her necklace in the estimation of the Egyptian
lady. I have seen a chain in silver which measured sixty-three inches in
length. Others, on the contrary, do not exceed two, or two and a half
inches. They are of all sizes and patterns, some consisting of two or three
twists, some of large links, some of small links, some massive and heavy,
others as light and flexible as the finest Venetian filigree. The humblest
peasant girl, as well as the lady of highest rank, might have her necklet;
and the woman must be poor indeed whose little store comprised no other
ornament. No mere catalogue of bracelets, diadems, collarettes, or insignia
of nobility could give an idea of the number and variety of jewels known to
us by pictured representations or existing specimens. Pectorals of gold
cloisonné work inlaid with vitreous paste or precious stones, and
which bear the cartouches of Amenemhat II., Ûsertesen II., and Ûsertesen
III. (fig. 297), exhibit a marvellous precision of taste, lightness of
touch, and dexterity of fine workmanship. So fresh and delicate are they we
forget that the royal ladies to whom they belonged have been dead, and
their bodies stiffened and disfigured into mummies, for nearly five
thousand years. At Berlin may be seen the parure of an Ethiopian
Candace; at the Louvre we have the jewels of Prince Psar; at {323} Gizeh are preserved
the ornaments of Queen Aahhotep. Aahhotep was the wife of Kames, a king of
the Seventeenth Dynasty, and she was probably the mother of Ahmes I., first
king of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Her mummy had been stolen by one of the
robber bands which infested the Theban necropolis towards the close of the
Twentieth Dynasty.
Fig 297.--Gold cloisonné pectoral bearing cartouche
of Ûsertesen III. From Dahshûr, found 1894, and now
in the Gizeh Museum.
They buried the royal corpse till such time as they might have leisure to
despoil it in safety; and they were most likely seized and executed before
they could carry that pretty little project into effect. The secret of
their hiding-place perished with them, till discovered in 1860 by some Arab
diggers.
Fig 298.--Mirror of Queen Aahhotep.
Most of the objects which this queen took with her into the next world were
exclusively women's gear; as a fan-handle plated with gold, a bronze-gilt
mirror mounted upon an ebony handle {324} enriched with a lotus in chased gold (fig. 298).
Her bracelets are of various types. Some are anklets and armlets, and
consist merely of plain gold rings, both solid and hollow, bordered with
plaited chainwork in imitation of filigree. Others are for wearing on the
wrist, like the bracelets of modern ladies, and are made of small beads in
gold, lapis lazuli, carnelian, and green felspar. These are strung on gold
wire in a chequer pattern, each square divided diagonally in halves of
different colours. Two gold plates, very lightly engraved with the
cartouches of Ahmes I., are connected by means of a gold pin, and form the
fastening. A fine bracelet in the form of two semicircles joined by a hinge
(fig. 299), also bears the name of Ahmes I.
Fig 299.--Bracelet of Queen Aahhotep, bearing
cartouche of King Ahmes I.
The make of this jewel reminds us of cloisonné enamels. Ahmes kneels
in the presence of the god Seb and his acolytes, the genii of Sop and
Khonû.{325}
The figures and hieroglyphs are cut out in solid gold, delicately
engraved with the burin, and stand in relief upon a ground-surface filled
in with pieces of blue paste and lapis lazuli artistically cut.
Fig 300.--Bracelet of Queen Aahhotep.
A bracelet of more complicated workmanship, though of inferior execution,
was found on the wrist of the queen (fig. 300). It is of massive gold, and
consists of three parallel bands set with turquoises. On the front a
vulture is represented with outspread wings, the feathers composed of green
enamel, lapis lazuli, and carnelian, set in "cloisons" of gold. The hair of
the mummy was drawn through a massive gold diadem, scarcely as large as a
bracelet.
Fig 301.--Diadem of Queen Aahhotep.
The name of Ahmes is incrusted in blue paste upon an oblong plaque in the
centre, flanked at each side by two little sphinxes which seem as if in the
act of keeping watch over the inscription (fig. 301). Round her neck was a
large flexible gold chain, finished at each end by a goose's head reversed.
These heads could be linked one in the other, when the chain needed to be
fastened. The scarabaeus pendant to this chain is incrusted upon the
shoulder and wing-sheaths with blue glass paste rayed {326} with gold, the legs and body
being in massive gold. The royal parure was completed by a large
collar of the kind known as the Ûsekh (fig. 302).
Fig 302.--Gold "Ûsekh" of Queen Aahhotep.
It is finished at each end with a golden hawk's head inlaid with blue
enamel, and consists of rows of scrolls, four-petalled fleurettes, hawks,
vultures, winged uraei, crouching jackals, and figures of antelopes pursued
by tigers.
Fig 303.--Pectoral of Queen Aahhotep, bearing
cartouche of King Ahmes I.
The whole of these ornaments are of gold repoussé work, and they
were sewn upon the royal winding sheet by means of a small ring soldered to
the back of each. Upon the breast, below this collar, hung a square jewel
of the kind known as "pectoral ornaments" (fig. 303). The general form is
that of a naos, or {327} shrine. Ahmes stands upright in a papyrus-bark,
between Amen and Ra, who pour the water of purification upon his head and
body.
Fig 304.--Poignard of Queen Aahhotep, bearing
cartouche of King Ahmes.
Two hawks hover to right and left of the king, above the heads of the gods.
The figures are outlined in cloisons of gold, and these were filled
in with little plaques of precious stones and enamel, many of which have
fallen out. The effect of this piece is somewhat heavy, and if considered
apart from the rest of the parure, its purpose might seem somewhat
obscure. In order to form a correct judgment, we have, however, to remember
in what fashion the women of ancient Egypt were clad. They wore a kind of
smock of semi-transparent material, which came very little higher than the
waist. The chest and bosom, neck and shoulders, were bare; and the one
garment was kept in place by only a slender pair of braces. The rich
clothed these uncovered parts with jewellery. The Ûsekh collar half hid the
shoulders and chest. The pectoral masked the hollow between the breasts.
Sometimes even the breasts were covered with two golden cups, either
painted or enamelled. Besides the jewels found upon the mummy of Queen
Aahhotep, a number of arms and amulets were heaped inside her coffin;
namely, three massive gold flies hanging from a slender chain; nine small
hatchets, three of gold and six of silver; a golden lion's head of very
minute {328}
workmanship; a wooden sceptre set in gold spirals; two anklets; and two
poignards. One of these poignards (fig. 304) has a golden sheath and a
wooden hilt inlaid with triangular mosaics of carnelian, lapis lazuli,
felspar, and gold.
Fig 305.--Poignard of Queen Aahhotep, bearing
cartouche of King Ahmes.
Four female heads in gold repoussé form the pommel; and a bull's
head reversed covers the junction of blade and hilt. The edges of the blade
are of massive gold; the centre of black bronze damascened with gold. On
one side is the solar cartouche of Ahmes, below which a lion pursues a
bull, the remaining space being filled in with four grasshoppers in a row.
On the other side we have the family name of Ahmes and a series of full-
blown flowers issuing one from another and diminishing towards the point. A
poignard found at Mycenae by Dr. Schliemann is similarly decorated; the
Phoenicians, who were industrious copyists of Egyptian models, probably
introduced this pattern into Greece. The second poignard is of a make not
uncommon to this day in Persia and India (fig. 305). The blade is of
yellowish bronze fixed into a disk-shaped hilt of silver. When wielded,
this lenticular[79] disk fits to the hollow of the hand, the blade coming
between the first and second fingers. Of what use, it may be asked, were
all these weapons to a woman--and a dead woman? To this we may reply that
the {329} other
world was peopled with foes--Typhonian genii, serpents, gigantic scorpions,
tortoises, monsters of every description--against which it was incessantly
needful to do battle.
Fig 306.--Funerary battle-axe of Queen Aahhotep, bearing
cartouche of King Ahmes I.
The poignards placed inside the coffin for the self-defence of the soul
were useful only for fighting at close quarters; certain weapons of a
projectile kind were therefore added, such as bows and arrows, boomerangs
made in hard wood, and a battle-axe. The handle of this axe is fashioned of
cedar-wood covered with sheet gold (fig. 306). The legend of Ahmes is
inlaid thereon in characters of lapis lazuli, carnelian, turquoise, and
green felspar. The blade is fixed in a cleft of the wood, and held in place
by a plait-work of gold wire. It is of black bronze, formerly gilt. On one
side, it is ornamented with lotus flowers upon a gold ground; on the other,
Ahmes is represented in the act of slaying a barbarian, whom he grasps by
the hair of the head. Beneath this group, Mentû, the Egyptian war-god, is
symbolised by a griffin with the head of an eagle. In addition to all these
objects, there were two small boats, one in gold and one in silver,
emblematic of the bark in which the mummy must cross the river to her last
home, and of that other {330} bark in which she would ultimately navigate the waters
of the West, in company with the immortal gods. When found, the silver boat
rested upon a wooden truck with four bronze wheels; but as it was in a very
dilapidated state, it has been dismounted and replaced by the golden boat
(fig. 307). The hull is long and slight, the prow and stem are elevated,
and terminate in gracefully-curved papyrus blossoms. Two little platforms
surrounded by balustrades on a panelled ground are at the prow and on the
poop, like quarter-decks. The pilot stands upon the one, and the steersman
before the other, with a large oar in his hand.
Fig 307.--Funerary bark of Queen Aahhotep.
This oar takes the place of the modern helm. Twelve boatmen in solid silver
are rowing under the orders of these two officers; Kames himself being
seated in the centre, hatchet and sceptre in hand. Such were some of the
objects buried with one single mummy; and I have even now enumerated only
the most remarkable among them. The technical processes throughout are
irreproachable, and the correct taste of the craftsman is in no wise
inferior to his dexterity of hand. Having arrived at the perfection
displayed in the parure of Aahhotep, the goldsmith's art did not
long maintain {331} so high a level. The fashions changed, and jewellery
became heavier in design. The ring of Rameses II., with his horses standing
upon the bezel (fig. 308), and the bracelet of Prince Psar, with his
griffins and lotus flowers in cloisonné enamel (fig. 309), both in
the Louvre, are less happily conceived than the bracelets of Ahmes.
Fig 308.--Ring of Rameses II.
The craftsmen who made these ornaments were doubtless as skilful as the
craftsmen of the time of Queen Aahhotep, but they had less taste and less
invention. Rameses II. was condemned either to forego the pleasure of
wearing his ring, or to see his little horses damaged and broken off by the
least accident. Already noticeable in the time of the Nineteenth Dynasty,
this decadence becomes more marked as we approach the Christian era.
Fig 309.--Bracelet of Prince Psar.
The earrings of Rameses IX. in the Gizeh Museum are an ungraceful
assemblage of filigree disks, short chains, and pendent uraei, such as no
human ear could have carried without being torn, or pulled out of shape.
They were attached {332} to each side of the wig upon the head of the mummy.
The bracelets of the High Priest Pinotem III., found upon his mummy, are
mere round rings of gold incrusted with pieces of coloured glass and
carnelian, like those still made by the Soudanese blacks. The Greek
invasion began by modifying the style of Egyptian gold-work, and ended by
gradually substituting Greek types for native types. The jewels of an
Ethiopian queen, purchased from Ferlini by the Berlin Museum, contained not
only some ornaments which might readily have been attributed to Pharaonic
times, but others of a mixed style in which Hellenic influences are
distinctly traceable. The treasure discovered at Zagazig in 1878, at Keneh
in 1881, and at Damanhûr in 1882, consisted of objects having nothing
whatever in common with Egyptian traditions. They comprise hairpins
supporting statuettes of Venus, zone-buckles, agraffes for fastening the
peplum, rings and bracelets set with cameos, and caskets ornamented at the
four corners with little Ionic columns. The old patterns, however, were
still in request in remote provincial places, and village goldsmiths
adhered "indifferent well" to the antique traditions of their craft. Their
city brethren had meanwhile no skill to do aught but make clumsy copies of
Greek and Roman originals.
In this rapid sketch of the industrial arts there are many lacunae. When referring to examples, I have perforce limited myself to such as are contained in the best-known collections. How many more might not be discovered if one had leisure to visit provincial museums, and trace what the hazard of sales may have {333} dispersed through private collections! The variety of small monuments due to the industry of ancient Egypt is infinite, and a methodical study of those monuments has yet to be made. It is a task which promises many surprises to whomsoever shall undertake it. {334}
For the following notes, to which reference numbers will be found in the text, I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. W.M. Flinders Petrie, author of "The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh" (Field & Tuer), "Tanis" (Egypt Exploration Fund), "Naukratis" (Egypt Exploration Fund), etc., etc.
A.B.E.
(1) More striking than these are the towns of Tell Atrib, Kom Baglieh, Kom Abû Billû, and Tell Nebesheh, the houses of which may be traced without any special excavations.
(2) There is much skill needed in mixing the mud and sand in such proportions as to dry properly; when rightly adjusted there is no cracking in drying, and the grains of sand prevent the mud from being washed away in the rains.
(3) In the Delta, at least, the sizes of bricks from the Twenty-first Dynasty down to Arab times decrease very regularly; under the Twenty-first Dynasty they are about 18 x 9 x 5 inches; early in the Twenty-sixth, 16-1/2 x 8-1/4 x 5; later 15 x 7- 1/2; in early Ptolemaic times, 14 x 7; in Roman times, 12 x 6, in Byzantine times, 10 x 5; and Arab bricks are 8 x 4, and continue so very generally to our times. The thickness is always least certain, as it depends on the amount placed in the mould, but the length and breadth may in most cases be accepted as a very useful chronological scale.
(4) They are found of Ramesside age at Nebesheh and Defenneh; even there they are rare, and these are the only cases I have yet seen in Egypt earlier than about the third century A.D.
(5) This system was sometimes used to raise a fort above the plain, as at Defenneh; or the chambers formed store-rooms, as at the fort at Naukratis. {335}
(6) In the fine early work at Gizeh they sawed the paving blocks of basalt, and then ground only just the edges flat, while all the inside of the joint was picked rough to hold the mortar.
(7) A usual plan in early times was to dress the joint faces of the block in the quarry, leaving its outer face with a rough excess of a few inches; the excess still remains on the granite casing of the pyramid of Menkara, and the result of dressing it away may be seen in the corners of the granite temple at Gizeh.
(8) Otherwise called the Granite Temple of Gizeh, or Temple of Khafra, as its connection with the Sphinx is much disputed, while it is in direct communication with the temple of the pyramid of Khafra, by a causeway in line with the entrance passage.
(9) The casing of the open air court on the top of it was of fine limestone; only a few blocks of this remain. For full plan and measurements see Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh.
(10) One of the air slits, or ventilators, remains complete, opening to the upper court, from the top of the niche chamber.
(11) Below these lines, there is often a scene of offering at the bottom of the Obelisk.
(12) Mastaba is the Arabic name for a bench or platform, and was applied by the natives to such tombs on account of the resemblance in shape.
(13) In the few cases where the top remains perfect at Gizeh, the side ends in a parabolic curve which turns over into the top surface without any cornice or moulding; the tops of walls in the courts of mastabas are similar.
(14) Another view is that they are derived from the cumulative mastabas, such as the so-called step pyramid of Sakkarah.
(15) In the later pyramids; but the Gizeh pyramids are entirely built of Tûrah limestone.
(16) Still more conclusive is the fact that in the greatest of the pyramids the passages are such that it would have been impossible to build it by successive coats of enlargement.
(17) In only one case (that of Menkara) has a pyramid been clearly enlarged, and that was done at one step and not by many stages.
(18) The earliest-- at Gizeh--are very accurate.
(19) These slabs of pavement do not extend beneath the pyramid, but only around it.{336}
(20) Only fragments of the finest limestone casing have been found; the variety of colour was probably due to weathering.
(21) This would be impossible with the exquisitely fine joints of the masonry; a temporary staging of stone built up over part of the finished face would easily allow of raising the stones.
(22) There is no evidence that the facing block which covered the granite plugs was of granite; it was more probably of limestone.
(23) The entrance to the upper passages was never forced from the entrance passage, but was accidentally found by the Arabs, after they had forced a long tunnel in the masonry, being in ignorance of the real entrance, which was probably concealed by a hinging block of stone.
(24) Or rather it rose at an angle of 23-1/2°, like the descent of the entrance passage, thus making angles of 47° and 133° with it.
(25) This gallery has obtained a great reputation for the fineness of its joints, perhaps because they are coarse enough to be easily seen; but some joints of the entrance passage, and the joints in the queen's chamber, are hardly visible with the closest inspection.
(26) The only signs of portcullises are those in the vestibule or antechamber.
(27) No traces of three of the portcullises remain, if they ever existed, and the other never could reach the floor or interrupt the passage, so its use is enigmatical.
(28) There is some evidence that the pyramid was opened in the early days, perhaps before the middle kingdom.
(29) Two rows of beams which rest on the side wall as corbels or cantilevers, only touching at the top, without necessarily any thrust. Such at least is the case in the queen's chamber, and in the pyramid of Pepi, where such a roof is used.
(30) The end walls have sunk throughout a considerable amount, and the side walls have separated; thus all the beams of the upper chambers have been dragged, and every beam of the roof of the chamber is broken through. This is probably the result of earthquakes.
(31) This only covered the lower sixteen courses; the larger part above it was of limestone.{337}
(32) Similar finished faces may be seen as far in as near the middle of the mass. This is not a true pyramid in form, but a cumulative mastaba, the faces of which are at the mastaba angle (75°), and the successive enlargements of which are shown by numerous finished facings now within the masonry. The step form is the result of carrying upwards the mastaba form, at the same time that it was enlarged outwards.
(33) Not in all cases apparently, for the hieroglyphs on the passage of Pepi's pyramid are not injured, as they would be if plugs had been withdrawn.
(34) Pepi's roof is formed by a row of large beams which rested independently on the side walls as corbels or cantilevers (see Note 29).
(35) The mastaba angle is 75°, and the pyramid angle 50° to 55°.
(36) Its present appearance is an accident of its demolition; it was originally, like the "step-pyramid" of Sakkarah, a cumulative mastaba, as is shown by the remains of the lower steps still in the mounds at its base, and by the mediaeval description of it.{338}
FOOTNOTES
[1] Many of the rooms at Kahun had vaulted ceilings.
[2] Seventeenth to Twentieth Dynasties.
[4] The bas-relief sculpture from which the illustration, fig. 42, is taken (outer wall of Hypostyle Hall, Karnak, north end) represents Seti I. returning in triumph from one of his Syrian campaigns. He is met at Zarû by the great officers of his court, who bring bouquets of lotus-blossoms in their hands. Pithom and other frontier forts are depicted in this tableau, and Pithom is apparently not very far from Zarû. Zarû, Zalu, is the Selle of the Roman Itineraries.--A.B.E.
[5] See The Store City of Pithom and the Route of the Exodus, by Ed. Naville, with 13 Plates and 2 Maps; published by the Egypt Exploration Fund. First edition 1885, second edition 1885. Trübner & Co., London. --A.B.E.
[6] For an account of the explorations at Daphnae (the "Tahpanhes" of the Bible, the Tell Defenneh of the present day) see Mr. Petrie's memoir, entitled Tanis, Part II, (including Nebesheh, Gemayemi, Defenneh, etc.), published by the Egypt Exploration Fund.--A.B.E.
[7] The remains of this gigantic work may yet be seen about two hours' distance to the southward of Medûm. See Herodotus, book II.; chap. 99.--A.B.E.
[8] See The Fayûm and Lake Moeris. Major R.H. Brown, R.E.
[9] Officially, this temple is attributed to Thothmes III., and the dedicatory inscription dates from the first year of his reign; but the work was really that of his aunt and predecessor, Queen Hatshepsût.
[10] See also an exact reduction of this design, to scale, in Mr. Petrie's work A Season in Egypt, 1887, Plate XXV.
[12] For an account of the excavations at Bubastis, see Eighth and Tenth Memoirs of the Egypt Exploration Fund, by M.E. Naville.
[13] French "Promenoir"; this is perhaps best expressed by "Processional Hall," in accordance with the description of its purpose on p. 67. --A.B.E.
[14] Hor- shesû, "followers," or "servants of Horus," are mentioned in the Turin papyrus as the predecessors of Mena, and are referred to in monumental inscriptions as representing the pre-historic people of Egypt. It is to the Hor-shesû that Professors Maspero and Mariette attribute the making of the Great Sphinx.--A.B.E.
[15] For a full description of the oldest funerary chapel known, that of King Sneferû, see W.M.F. Petrie's Medum.
[16] Conf. Mr. Petrie's plan of this temple in Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh, Plate VI.--A.B.E.
[17] That is to say, the wall is vertical on the inside; but is built much thicker at the bottom than at the top, so that on the outside it presents a sloping surface, retiring with the height of the wall.--A.B.E.
[18] "Hatshepsût," more commonly known as "Hatasû;" the new reading is, however, more correct. Professor Maspero thinks that it was pronounced "Hatshopsitû."--A.B.E.
[19] For full illustrated account of the complete excavation of this temple, see the Deir el Baharî publications of the Egypt Exploration Fund.
[20] Temenos, i.e., the enclosure wall of the Temple, within which all was holy ground.--A.B.E.
[21] That is, the spirits of the North, represented by On (Heliopolis), and of the South (Khonû).--A.B.E.
[22] At Tanis there seems to have been a close succession of obelisks and statues along the main avenue leading to the Temple, without the usual corresponding pylons. These were ranged in pairs; i.e., a pair of obelisks, a pair of statues; a pair of obelisks, a pair of shrines; and then a third pair of obelisks. See Tanis, Part I., by W.M.F. Petrie, published by the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1884.--A.B.E.
[23] This fact is recorded in the hieroglyphic inscription upon the obelisks.--A.B.E.
[24] This celebrated tablet, preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, has been frequently translated, and is the subject of a valuable treatise by the late Vicomte de Rougé. It was considered authentic till Dr. Erman, in an admirable paper contributed to the Zeitschrift, 1883, showed it to have been a forgery concocted by the priests of Khonsû during the period of the Persian rule in Egypt, or in early Ptolemaic times. (See Maspero's Hist. Ancienne des Peuples de l'Orient, chap, vi., pp. 287, 288. Fourth Edition.)--A.B.E.
[25] The Land of Incense, called also in the inscriptions "The Land of Punt," was the country from which the Egyptians imported spices, precious woods, gums, etc. It is supposed to represent the southern coasts of the Red Sea, on either side the Bab el Mandeb. Queen Hatshepsût's famous expedition is represented in a series of coloured bas-relief sculptures on the walls of her great temple at Deir el Baharî, reproduced in Dr. Dümichen's work, The Fleet of an Egyptian Queen, and in Mariette's Deîr el Baharî. For a full account of this temple, its decoration, and the expedition of Hatshepsût, see the Deir el Baharî publications of the Egypt Exploration Fund.
[26] These three parts are (l) the chapel, (2) the passage, or shaft, (3) the sepulchral vault. If the latter was below the level of the chapel, as in the time of the Ancient Empire, the communication was by a sloping or vertical shaft.-- A.B.E.
[27] For an account of the necropolis of Medûm, see W.M.F. Petrie's Medum.
[28] The sarcophagus of Menkara, unfortunately lost at sea when on its way to England, was of this type. See illustration No. 19, Chapter III., in Sir E. Wilson's Egypt of the Past.--A.B.E.
[29] This wall scene is from the tomb of Nenka, near Sakkarah. For a coloured facsimile on a large scale, see Professor Maspero's article entitled "Trois Années de Fouilles," in Mémoires de la Mission Archéologique Française du Caire, Pl. 2. 1884.--A.B.E.
[30] This section is reproduced, by permission of Mr. W.M.F. Petrie, from Plate VII. of his "Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh." The vertical shaft sunk by Perring is shown going down from the floor of the subterranean unfinished chamber. The lettering along the base of the pyramid, though not bearing upon the work of Professor Maspero, has been preserved for the convenience of readers who may wish to consult Mr. Petrie's work for more minute details and measurements. This lettering refers to that part of Mr. Petrie's argument which disproves the "accretion theory" of previous writers (see "Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh" chap, xviii., p. 165).--A.B.E.
[31] For a full account of the Twelfth Dynasty tombs at Beni Hasan and El Bersheh see the first memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of the Egypt Exploration Fund.
[32] The steps are shown in fig. 150. They were discovered by General Sir F. Grenfell in 1885. Noting the remains of two parallel walls running up from the water's edge to a part of the cliff which had evidently been escarped and presented a vertical face, General Grenfell caused the sand to be cleared, thus disclosing the entrances to several rock-cut tombs dating from the Sixth and Twelfth Dynasties, as well as two flights of steps on either side of an inclined plane leading from the Nile bank to the door of one of the tombs. The distance between the two walls is ten feet. The steps are eighteen inches deep, and 250 in number. The steps were for the haulers, the mummies and sarcophagi being dragged up the inclined plane. (See p. 209.)-- A.B.E.
[33] M. Léfébure has lately produced a superb and elaborate volume on this tomb, with the whole of the texts and the wall decorations faithfully reproduced: Mémoires publiés par les Membres de la Mission du Caire, Vol. II., fasc. I.-- A.B.E.
[34] We have in this country two very fine specimens of inscribed sarcophagi; namely, that of Seti I., of beautiful alabaster, in the Soane collection (xixth Dyn.), and that of Queen Ankhnesraneferab (xxvith Dyn.) in the British Museum.-- A.B.E.
[35] The late T. Deveria ingeniously conjectured that "Ba-en-pet" (iron of heaven) might mean the ferruginous substance of meteoric stones. See Mélanges d'Archéologie Egyptienne et Assyrienne, vol. i.--A.B.E.
[36] The traces of tools upon the masonry show the use of bronze and jewel-points.--A.B.E.
[37] Many such trial- pieces were found by Petrie in the ruins of a sculptor's house at Tell el Amarna.
[38] A similar collection was found by Mr. F. Ll. Griffith at Tell Gemayemi, in 1886, during his excavations for the Egypt Exploration Fund. See Mr. Petrie's Tanis. Part II., Egypt Exploration Fund.--A.B.E.
[39] Mr. Loftie's collection contains, however, an interesting piece of trial-work consisting of the head of a Ptolemaic queen in red granite.--A.B.E.
[40] For pigments used at the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty, see Petrie's Medum.
[41] The rose- coloured, or rather crimson, flesh-tints are also to be seen at El Kab, and in the famous speos at Beit el Wally, both tempo Nineteenth Dynasty.--A.B.E.
[42] The classic Syene, from all time the southernmost portion of Egypt proper. The Sixth Dynasty is called the Elephantine, from the island immediately facing Syene which was the traditional seat of the Dynasty, and on which the temples stood. The tombs of Elephantine were discovered by General Sir F. Grenfell, K.C.B., in 1885, in the neighbouring cliffs of the Libyan Desert: see foot- note p. 149.--A.B.E.
[43] For an explanation of the nature of the Double, see Chapter III., pp. 111-112, 121 et seq.
[44] Known as the "Scribe accroupi," literally the "Squatting Scribe"; but in English, squatting, as applied to Egyptian art, is taken to mean the attitude of sitting with the knees nearly touching the chin. --A.B.E.
[45] "The Sheikh of the Village." This statue was best known in England as the "Wooden Man of Bûlak."--A.B.E.
[47] I venture to think that the heads of Rahotep and Nefert, engraved from a brilliant photograph in A Thousand Miles up the Nile, give a truer and more spirited idea of the originals than the present illustrations,--A.B.E.
[48] That is, the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties. --A.B.E.
[49] According to the measurements given by Mr. Petrie, who discovered the remains of the Tanite colossus, it must have stood ninety feet high without, and one hundred and twenty feet high with, its pedestal. See Tanis, Part I., by W.M.F. Petrie, published by the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1885.--A.B.E.
[50] Ameniritis, daughter of an Ethiopian king named Kashta, was the sister and successor of her brother Shabaka, and wife of Piankhi II., Twenty-fifth Dynasty. The statue is in alabaster.--A.B.E.
[51] A Memphite scribe of the Thirtieth Dynasty.--A.B.E.
[52] In Egyptian Ta-ûrt, or "the Great;" also called Apet. This goddess is always represented as a hippopotamus walking. She carries in each hand the emblem of protection, called "Sa." The statuette of the illustration is in green serpentine.--A.B.E.
[53] Sebakh, signifying "salt," or "saltpetre," is the general term for that saline dust which accumulates wherever there are mounds of brick or limestone ruins. This dust is much valued as a manure, or "top-dressing," and is so constantly dug out and carried away by the natives, that the mounds of ancient towns and villages are rapidly undergoing destruction in all parts of Egypt.--A.B.E.
[54] For an example of Graeco-Egyptian portrait painting, tempo Hadrian, see p. 291.
[55] Works on scarabaei are the Palin collection, published in 1828; Mr. Loftie's charming Essay of Scarabs, which is in fact a catalogue of his own specimens, admirably illustrated from drawings by Mr. W.M.F. Petrie; and Mr. Petrie's Historical Scarabs, published 1889.--A.B.E.
[56] These twin vases are still made at Asûan. I bought a small specimen there in 1874.-- A.B.E.
[57] The sepulchral vases commonly called "canopic" were four in number, and contained the embalmed viscera of the mummy. The lids of these vases were fashioned to represent the heads of the four genii of Amenti, Hapi, Tûatmûtf, Kebhsennef, and Amset; i.e, the Ape-head, the Jackal-head, the Hawk- head, and the human head.--A.B.E.
[58] The remains of this shrine, together with many hundreds of beautiful glass hieroglyphs, figures, emblems, etc., for inlaying, besides moulds and other items of the glassworker's stock, were discovered by Mr. F. Ll. Griffith at Tell Gemayemi, about equidistant from the mounds of Tanis and Daphnae (Sân and Defenneh) in March 1886. For a fuller account see Mr. Griffith's report, "The Antiquities of Tell el Yahudîyeh," in Seventh Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund. --A.B.E.
[59] Some of these beautiful rods were also found at Tell Gemayemi by Mr. F. Ll. Griffith, and in such sound condition that it was possible to cut them in thin slices, for distribution among various museums.--A.B.E.
[60] That is, of the kind known as the "false murrhine."--A.B.E.
[61] The yellows and browns are frequently altered greens.--A.B.E.
[62] One of the Eleventh Dynasty kings.
[63] There is a fine specimen at the Louvre, and another in the museum at Leydeu.--A.B.E.
[64] For an account of every stage and detail in the glass and glaze manufactures of Tell el Amarna, see W.M.F. Petrie's Tell el Amarna.
[65] Klaft, i.e., a headdress of folded linen. The beautiful little head here referred to is in the Gizeh Museum, and is a portrait of the Pharaoh Necho.--A.B.E.
[66] Apries, in Egyptian "Uahabra," the biblical "Hophra;" Amasis, Ahmes II.; both of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty.--A.B.E.
[67] Some specimens of these tiles may be seen in the Egyptian department at the British Museum.--A.B.E.
[68] We have a considerable number of specimens of these borderings, cartouches, and painted tiles representing foreign prisoners, in the British Museum; but the finest examples of the latter are in the Ambras Collection, Vienna. For a highly interesting and scholarly description of the remains found at Tell el Yahûdeh in 1870, see Professor Hayter Lewis's paper in vol. iii. of the Transactions of the Biblical Archaeological Society.--A.B.E.
[69] The Tat amulet was the emblem of stability.--A.B.E.
[70] That is, the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties.
[71] There is a fine specimen of one of these sledges in the Leyden Museum, and the Florentine Museum contains a celebrated Egyptian war-chariot in fine preservation.-- A.B.E.
[72] See the coloured frontispiece to Thebes; its Tombs and their Tenants, by A.H. Rhind. 1862.--A.B.E.
[73] Since the publication of this work in the original French, a very splendid specimen of a royal Egyptian chair of state, the property of Jesse Haworth, Esq., was placed on view at the Manchester Jubilee Exhibition. It is made of dark wood, apparently rosewood; the legs being shaped like bull's legs, having silver hoofs, and a solid gold cobra snake twining round each leg. The arm- pieces are of lightwood with cobra snakes carved upon the flat in low relief, each snake covered with hundreds of small silver annulets, to represent the markings of the reptile. This chair, dated by a fragment of a royal cartouche, belonged to Queen Hatshepsût, of the Eighteenth Dynasty. It is now in the British Museum.--A.B.E.
[74] In this cut, as well as in the next, the loom is represented as if upright; but it is supposed to be extended on the ground.--A.B.E.
[75] For a chromolithographic reproduction of this work as a whole, with drawings of the separate parts, facsimiles of the inscriptions, etc., see The Funeral Tent of an Egyptian Queen, by H. Villiers Stuart.--A.B.E.
[76] An unusually fine specimen of carpet, or tapestry work from Ekhmîm, representing Cupids rowing in papyrus skiffs, landscapes, etc., has recently been presented to the British Museum by the Rev. G.J. Chester. The tapestry found at Ekhmîm is, however, mostly of the Christian period, and this specimen probably dates from about A.D. 700 or A.D. 600.--A.B.E.
[77] From the inscription upon the obelisk of Hatshepsût which is still erect at Karnak. For a translation in full see Records of the Past, vol. xii., p. 131, et seqq.--A.B.E.
[78] Mr. Petrie suggests that this curious central object may be a royal umbrella with flaps of ox-hide and tiger-skin.--A.B.E.