:iiii 111 :;)r:."h:i < I ■> II 1.1 4i) EGYPTIAN ART THE GOD AMEN GKANITIUIEAD OF THK XVI lltb m NAST\ MUSItES ROVAfX DU CINQUANTEN AIRK, IJRUSSJil.S EGYPTIAN ART INTRODUCTORY STUDIES BY JEAN CAPART Corresponding Member of the Royal Academy of Belgium ; Charge de Cours d'Egyptologie a VUni'versite de Liige Professor a I 'Institute Supfrieur d 'Art et d ' Archaologie de I ' Uni'uersiti de Liige ; Conser'vateur et Secretaire des Musees Royaux de Cinquantenaire, BruxeUes TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH WARREN R. DAWSON NEW YORK FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY PUBLISHERS {All rights reset ved) Prtnted in Great Britain by UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, LONDON A.ND WOKING TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE THE following pages contain a translation of the in- troductory chapters of Monsieur Capart's Lepns sur VArt egyptien.^ Some few remarks are necessary to explain the origin of the work, and also of this partial translation. In 1903 the University of Liege introduced a course of ancient art and archaeology, and a similar course of study was at the same time instituted in Brussels, Monsieur Capart being appointed professor at both places. For the purpose of his lectures he drew up a series of studies embracing the entire range of Oriental art in which the predominating influence was naturally Egyptian. The practical experience gained over a number of years resulted in considerable additions and modifications to the original scheme, which benefited by each successive improvement. Monsieur Capart's wide knowledge and experience, coupled with the unrivalled series of documents which he has amassed, should form a basis for a more comprehensive study of ancient Oriental art than has ever been attempted hitherto. In 1 9 14 the war brought these academic courses to a standstill, but fortunately it was found possible to resume them in 1916, but in a more condensed form. These we now have in the Legons, The post-war difficulties of publi- cation made it impossible for the author to produce a fully illustrated and annotated volume, but he was fortunately prevailed upon to issue the text as a provisional edition ^ Li^ge: Imprimerle H. Vaillant- Carmine. 1920. 5 6 EGYPTIAN ART without illustrations or notes, until such time as it should become possible to fulfil his original intentions. On studying the Legons I was immediately struck by a conspicuous difference in plan between them and the existing works on Egyptian art. The latter, many of them excellent books, are really little more than catalogues of known works of art arranged in chronological order, or disconnected studies of special points. No other work known to me has ever probed so deeply Into the question of origins and of motives^ or has been based upon such thoroughly evolutional lines as Monsieur Capart's book. I realised what a boon could be conferred upon English- speaking readers if it could be made accessible to them. Unfortunately the scanty leisure hours which an active business life leaves at my disposal made a translation of the whole book out of the question, but I suggested to Monsieur Capart that an illustrated English edition of the introductory chapters alone would be generally welcomed. He kindly assented to the proposal, and has revised the text chapter by chapter and added the bibliographical notes. These latter, which are for the benefit of students, have been collected at the end of each chapter, so as not to encumber the text with footnotes. In selecting the illustrations for this work It has been our aim as far as possible to avoid the unnecessary duplica- tion of Including pictures of subjects already well known and reproduced In Monsieur Capart's previous books or in the works of others, except in cases where their presence is absolutely necessary to the correct understanding of the text. A wealth of illustrations will be found particularly in the author's Primitive Art in Egypt and In UArt Egyptien, a new edition of which has recently appeared. I have only to add that I have made a perfectly literal translation of the French text, and have subordinated all literary considerations to absolute clearness. In the tran- PREFACE 7 scription of proper names I must accept full responsibility for many inconsistencies, for instead of adhering to any one system, I have used those names which are best known to general readers or those which were used by the original discoverers or editors of the monuments. Finally, I must express my thanks to the author for his ever-ready assistance, and to him as well as to the publishers for their patient toleration of delays which were, however, beyond my control. WARREN R. DAWSON. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE THE COUNTRY : ITS CHARACTERISTIC ASPECTS . 17 CHAPTER II THE FRAMEWORK OF HISTORY . . . .27 CHAPTER III PRIMITIVE UPPER EGYPT 45 CHAPTER IV THE FIRST PHARAONIC MONUMENTS . . .56 CHAPTER V ARCHITECTURAL HIEROGLYPHS AND KINDRED SUB- JECTS ......•• 74 CHAPTER VI MATERIALS AND ELEMENTS OF BUILDING . . 89 CHAPTER VII FUNDAMENTAL FORMS IN ARCHITECTURE . . 104 CHAPTER VIII FUNDAMENTAL FORMS IN ARCHITECTURE {continued) . 117 CHAPTER IX CONCERNING COLUMNS AND THE TRANSPOSITION OF THE FORMS PROPER TO ONE MATERIAL INTO ANOTHER . . . . . .131 9 lo EGYPTIAN ART CHAPTER X THE CONVENTIONS OF EGYPTIAN DRAWING . . 14.5 PAGX CHAPTER XI THE ARTISTIC IDEAS OF THE EGYPTIANS . . 160 INDEX . . . . . . . .177 ILLUSTRATIONS with references to the pages in text wherein they are described or referred to. PLATE PACK 1. Stele of the Serpent King 34 {After B£n]^dite : Monuments Piot.) 2. Panels of Hesi 34 {After Mariette : Album du Musee du Boulaq) 3. Reconstruction of the Pyramids of Kheops and Khephren 34 {After HoLSCHER : Das Grabdenkmai des Konigs Chephren.) 4. Pectoral of Sesostris III from Dashur . . 36 {After photographs by Brugsch-Pacha.) 5. Fajade of the Tomb of Chnumhotep II at Beni Hasan 36 {After Mariette : Voyage dans la Haute Egypte.) 6. Portico of Anubis in the Temple of Deir-el- Bahari 37 {After a photograph by Dr. C. Mathieu.) 7. Columns in the Tomb of Ay at Tell-el-Amarna 37 {After Les Monuments du Culte d'Atonou.) 8. Arm-chair of the XVIIIth Dynasty • • • 39 {After Borchardt : Kunstv^erke .... Museum zu Kairo.) 9. Passage in the Temple of Horus at Edfu, showing the Gargoyles ....... 40 {After a photograph by H. B£CHARD.) 10. The Royal Tomb of Naqada as restored by De Morgan ........ 56 {Drawn by J. S^DILLOT after DE Morgan : Recherches sur les Origines de I'Egypte.) II 12 EGYPTIAN ART PLATK PAGX 11. Central Court of the Pyramid-Temple of Sahure AS RESTORED BY BoRCHARDT .... 67 {After BoRCHARDT : Das Grabdenhmal des K5nigs Sahure.) 12. Pronaos of the Temple of Horus at Edfu . 67 {After a photograph by H. B^chard.) 13. Architectural Hieroglyphs ..... 74 {Draivn by J. S^DILLOT after Davies : The Mastaba of Ptah- hetep.) 14. Light Canopy in the Royal Tomb at Tell-el- Amarna 77 {Drawn by J. S^DILLOT after Les Monuments du Cube d'Atonou.) 15. Storehouses of the Temple at Tell-el-Amarna . 77 {Drawn by J. S^dillot after Davies: The Rock Tombs of El- Amarna.) 16. Door-frame in the Hathor Sanctuary at Deir- el-Bahari .... ... 77 {Drawn by J. Si^DiLLOT after Naville : The Temple of Deir-el- Bahari.) 17. The Ornamented Stele of Ptah-hetep . . 78 {After Davies : The Mustaba of Ptah-hetep.) 18. The Simple Stele of Ptah-hetep ... 78 {After Davies : op. cit.) 19. The Sarcophagus of King Mycerinus ... 79 {After Prisse d'Avennes : Historie de I' Art Egyptien.) 20. Imitation of Mat-work and Woven Fabrics on THE Stele of Hesi ...... 82 {After QuiBELL : The Tomb of Hesy.) 21. Funerary Shrine of Princess Sadhe at Deir-el- Bahari ........ 85 {Drawn by J. S^DILLOT after Naville : The Xlth Dynasty Temple of Deir-el-Bahari.) 22. Funerary Shrine of Princess Aashait at Deir-el- Bahari ........ 85 {Drawn by J. S£dillot after NAVILLE: op. cit.) 23. Brick Vaulting of IIIrd Dynasty . . . • 9^ {After Garstang : The Tombs of the IIIrd Egyptian Dynasty.) 24. Chapel of Anubis at Deir-el-Bahari ... 92 {After J£quier : Les Temples memphites et th/bains.) ILLUSTRATIONS \ 13 PLATE PAGK 25. Windows in the Hypostyle Hall at Karnak . 98 {Photograph by J. Capart.) 26. The Great Temple of Horus at Edfu . .105 {Photograph by H. Bi^chard.) 27. Propylon of the Temple of Khonsu at Karnak . 106 {After Mariette : Voyage dans la Haute Egypte.) 28. Second Hypostyle Hall of the Temple of Seti I AT Abydos ....... 107 {Photograph by J. Capart.) 29. Section of the Temple of Hathor at Dendera , 107 {After Mariette : Dend^rah.) 30. Vestibule of the Temple of Khephren — Upper Part . . . . . . . . .108 {After J^QUIER : Les Temples memphites et thebains.) 31. Granite Pillars in the Temple of Khephren at Gizeh . . . . . . . . .109 {Photograph by J. Capart.) 32. Granite Pillars at Karnak, ornamented by floral devices . . . . . . .110 {Photograph by Dr. C. Mathieu.) 33. Pillars in the Second Hypostyle Hall of Seti I at Abydos . . . . . . . .112 {After Caulfield : The Temple of the Kings.) 34. Tomb of Ameni-Amenemhat at Beni- Hasan . '113 {Photograph by J. Garstang.) 35. Hathor Pillars in the Temple of Amenophis III AT El Kab 113 {After Tylor : Wall Draivings and Monuments of El-Kab.) 36. OsiRiAN Pillars from the Temple of Sesostris I AT Lisht . ,114 {After J£quier : Les Temples memphites et thebains.) 37. LoTiFORM Columns represented by Paintings . 118 {Draivn by J. S^DILLOT after Prisse d'Avennes : Histoire de I'Art Egyptien.) 38. LoTiFORM Columns in an Ancient Empire relief in the Tomb of Ti -. 118 {After Mariette : Voyage dans la Haute Egypte.) 14 EGYPTIAN ART PLATE PAGE 39. LoTiFORM Column from the Mastaba of Ptah- Shepshes . . . . . . . -119 {After a photograph by Brugsch-Pacha.) 40. Fasciculated Papyriform Columns in the Temple OF Ne-user-re . . . . . . .121 {After BoRCHARDT : Ausgrabungen bet Abusir.) 41. Typical Fasciculated Papyriform Columns of the XVIIIth Dynasty I2i {After Prisse d'Avennes : Histoire de VArt Egyptien.) 42. Papyriform Columns of the Hypostyle Hall at Karnak . . . . . . . .123 {After a photograph by B£ato.) 43. Open-capitaled Papyriform Column from the Palace of Amenophis IV . . . . .123 {Dranjon by J. S^DiLLOT after Petrie : Tell-el-Amarna) 44. Capital of Column in the Hypostyle Hall at Karnak . . . . . . . .123 {After Lepsius : Denkmdler.) 45. Capitals of Cyperus Papyrus in the Hypostyle Hall AT Esneh ........ 124 {After a photograph by B£ato.} 46. Composite Floral Columns represented by Paint- ings .........1 25 {Drait:n by J. S^DILLOT after Prisse d'Avennes : Hisioire de I Art Egyptien.) 47. Portico of the Temple of Isis at Phil-^ . .125 {After a photograph by B^chard.) 48. Hypostyle Hall of the Dendera Temple . .127 {After a photograph by B^atc.) 49. Theban Temple of Ptah at Karnak . . .135 [Photograph by J. C apart.) 50. Small Funerary Tents represented on a Bas-relief IN the Berlin Museum 135 {Photograph by the Graphische Gesellschaft of Berlin.) 51 Erection of a Funerary Tent represented by a Bas- relief IN THE Berlin Museum . . . .135 {Photograph by the Berlin Graphische Gesellschaft.) ILLUSTRATIONS 15 PLATE PACK 52, Pillars at Zawiet-el-Maietin . . . .136 {After Prisse d'Avennes : Histoire de VArt Egyptien ) ' 53. Granite Naos of Euergetes II and Cleopatra at Debod ......... 137 {After RoDER : Debod bis Bab Kalabsche.) 54, Theban House represented in the Tomb of Nefer- HOTEP . . . . . . . . '137 {After RoSELLlNl : Monumenti ci'vili.) 55, Hathor Cow of the Saite Period . . . 141 {After Bissing-Bruckmann : Denkmdler dgyptische Skulptur.) 56. Ramesses VI immolating a Vanquished Foe . 141 {After a photograph by BrugsCH-Pacha.) 57. The Palace of Amenophis IV represented full- face . . . . . . . . .146 {DraiMti by ]. Sl^DiLLOT after Davies : The Rod Tombs of El Amama.) 58. The Palace of Amenophis IV represented from A side view {Draijcn by J. SioiLLOT after Davies : op. at.) 61. Ethiopians bringing Tribute : from The tomb of HuY AT Thebes {After Lepsius : Denkmdler.) HI 59. Painted Reliefs in the Tomb of Mer-ab . , 149 {After Lepsius : Denkmdler.) 60. Banqueting Scene from a Tomb-fresco in the British Museum 151 {After a photograph by Mansell.) 154 62. Serdab containing Funereal Statues . . .167 {After a photograph by Junker.) 63. Unguent-holders of the New Kingdom in the Louvre ........ 168 {After Rayet : Monuments et VArt antique) 64. Unguent-holder in the Liverpool Museum . , 168 {Photograph by ]. Capart.) EGYPTIAN ART CHAPTER I THE COUNTRY: ITS CHARACTERISTIC ASPECTS THE natural introduction to lessons on Egyptian Art is a study, however summary, of the physical conditions of the country. Without exaggerating the influence of this medium upon artistic productions, it is nevertheless necessary to take into account the chief peculiarities of the Nile Valley, and to show in what respects this region essentially differs from almost every other land, (i) It is not intended to repeat here the pages of a handbook of physical geography, (2) still less to transcribe the intro- ductory paragraphs of a traveller's guide to Egypt, but rather to attempt to convey as succinct an impression as possible of the divers aspects of the Nile Valley, which, on the whole, has altered very little since ancient times. Let us glance at a map of Egypt. Across the great desert regions of North-Eastern Africa the Nile forms a giant oasis, exceedingly elongated, which can be divided into two principal parts : the triangular estuary, called the Delta, and the course of the stream, which stretches far away towards the interior of Africa. The Delta is known as Lower Egypt, and the river proper, as far as the First Cataract, Upper Egypt. Egypt is situated at the point of contact of three worlds : on its northern frontier it adjoins the eastern basin of the Mediterranean ; on the eastern frontier of the Delta it 2 i8 EGYPTIAN ART touches Asia ; and, by the course of the river, it effects a penetration into African regions. The natural frontiers of the north, the east and the west (Libyan or Sahara desert) have never changed, but that of the south, on the contrary, has reached farther and farther up the course of the Nile just as the power of the kings of Egypt has extended to remoter regions. The First Cataract, in the Assuan district, constitutes, however, in a general way the southern frontier of Egypt proper towards the south. The Pharaohs of the Ancient Empire rarely went beyond it : those of the Middle Empire con- quered Lower Nubia ; and later, Egyptian domination extended to Upper Nubia and even to the Sudan. Descriptions of Egypt have often been written, by ancient travellers, Greek and Roman, by the Arabs of the Middle Ages, (3) and by countless writers in modern times. (4) Let us first recall the brief and striking phrase by which Herodotus described Egypt as ** a gift of the Nile." One might suppose that the Arab general, Amru, who conquered Egypt in a.d. 640 knew Herodotus' definition, and that he made a commentary upon it in his letter to the Kalif Omar : *' O Prince of the Faithful, picture to yourself an arid desert and a magnificent country between two mountain-ranges : such is Egypt. All her products and all her riches from Assuan to Mencha come from the kindly stream which flows majestically amid the country. The time of the rise and of the ebb of its waters is so governed by the courses of the sun and the moon that there is one season of the year when all the elements of the universe come to pay to this King of Rivers the tribute with which Providence has endowed them for his benefit. Then the waters increase, leave their bed and cover the whole face of Egypt in order to deposit there the fertile mud. There is no communication between village and village save by means of boats, which are as numerous as palm-leaves. When at last the time comes when the waters cease to be necessary to the fertility of the soil, the docile river retreats within the banks which destiny has marked out for it, leaving the treasures which are hidden in the bosom of the THE COUNTRY: CHARACTERISTICS 19 earth to be gathered in. A people protected by Heaven, and who, like the bee, seem destined to work only for the benefit of others without profit to themselves of the fruit of the sweat of their brows, busily open up the earth's surface to sow there the seeds which will be fertilised by Him who makes the harvests grow and ripen. The germ develops, the shoot appears, the ear forms by the aid of the dew which takes the place of rain and which maintains the fruitful moisture with which the soil is charged : then sterility once more succeeds the most abundant of harvests. It is thus, O Prince of the Faithful, that Egypt displays the picture, each in turn, of a dusty desert, a watery plain, a black and slimy bog, a verdant meadow, a garden decked with flowers, and a landscape covered with golden har- vest." (5) A modern scholar, Gaston Maspero, has given in his great work. The Dawn of Civilisation : Egypt and Chaldtea^ a precise description of the different aspects of the Nile. Few travellers have had occasion to traverse Egypt in all its nooks and corners in so thorough a fashion as Maspero, As Director-General of the Service of Antiquities it was his duty to examine personally the ruins and excavations. Each year he delighted to make a tour of inspection, which gave him the opportunity ever and again of seeing afresh these riverside scenes, thereby adding to and seasoning the impressions which he felt. This is why his testimony, particularly important as it is, enables us to lay aside the mass of other descriptions and to concentrate upon the principal features of his. First, then, let us see how he characterises the two principal parts of Egypt. After having noted the three chief mouths of the Nile, which empty themselves into the sea and thus divide the Delta into two nearly equal sectors, Maspero expresses himself as follows : " These three great waterways are united by a tracery of artificial rivers and canals and by ditches, some natural, others dug by the hand of man, which silt up, close, open again and shift ceaselessly, ramifying into innumerable branches over the surface of the soil, spreading life and fertility broadcast. This network 20 EGYPTIAN ART shrinks and becomes simpler as one proceeds southwards, the black earth and cultivation grow less, the tawny outline of the desert appears, the Libyan and Arabian hills rear themselves and come nearer together and restrict the horizon more and more, and, at the point where they may be said to unite, the Delta ends and Egypt proper begins. It is only a band of vegetable mould stretching from north to south between two regions of drought and desolation, an elongated oasis along the borders of the Nile, made and sustained by the Nile. Two ranges of hills, nearly parallel, hem it in and throughout its length, at an average distance of twelve miles apart." (6) And now let us see his description of the stream itself and its banks : " It flows with a strong and even current under the black banks cut straight through the alluvial earth. There are little copses of date-palms, groups of acacias and sycomores, plots of barley or wheat, fields of beans or bersim^ here and there banks of sand which the slightest wind stirs up into clouds, and above all deep silence, scarcely broken by the cries of the birds or by the song of the oarsmen of a passing boat. . . . The same landscape repeats itself again and again every day. Everywhere the same tree-clumps alternate with the same fields, growing green or parching in the sun, according to the season. The Nile unfolds its wandering course with the same motion amid the islets and its steep banks : village follows village at once smiling and dull beneath its canopy of leaves." (7) This general view becomes more detailed as we examine different sites which show us successively the most charac- teristic aspects of the Egyptian landscape. Let us first look at the course of the river itself, taking it from the point where it enters Egypt in the Assuan district near the famous Island of Philae. The placid and still waters formerly made, before the construction of the Assuan barrage, a wonderful border around this little islet which is decked with the temples of the goddess Isis like a sacred barque floating in the midst of the stream. But now this beautiful site is bereft of the greater part of its charm. Soon, as it proceeds downstream from Philae, the THE COUNTRY: CHARACTERISTICS 21 gathering momentum of the water hurls it headlong in a more and more rapid fall, and the stream makes its leap over several successive ledges ; this is what we call the cataract. Were one to clamber up to the top of one of the rocky islets with which the river-bed is strewn, the horizon would be descried stretching away — vast and lowering. On all sides the eye surveys nothing but islands and granite boulders, amongst which the waters thread their way, and only the scanty palm-trees impart life here and there to a scene which would otherwise be as barren as the desert. Soon again, however, the river calms down, until, in the region of Elephantine, it has almost entirely regained its placidity. From here right down to the sea its current ebbs peacefully on, spreading out or contracting as it follows the profile of the valley. If in some places its breadth gives it the aspect of an arm of the sea, in others it quickly pulls itself in to the narrowness of a canal. Wherever the Nile is shallow it is parted ever and again by sand-banks which hinder shipping ; and they must be rounded by means of the deep channel which flows immediately under one or other of the banks. If, again, in several places, the river abuts directly on to the mountains, which may in places even assume the form of cliffs, the shores are more often flat and desolate, but dotted here and there by palm-groves. Every year, from June to October, the inundation drives the river from its bed : that part of the valley which is under water and on which the mud is deposited — the mud with which the water is charged — constitutes what might be called the real Egypt in opposition to the desert. We will now consider, at different points in the valley, the effect of this distinctive phenomenon. If in the region of Assuan one moves some little distance from the river to the ruins of St. Simeon's Convent in the desert gorge, and from thence surveys the landscape, one would at once get there an aspect very typical of Egypt. In the dried-up valley a bed of sand spreads down to the river : on the left bank of the Nile the desert reigns supreme. 22 EGYPTIAN ART On the right bank of the stream a narrow strip of ground is for the most part covered by the little town of Assuan. Immediately beyond, the Arabian desert reappears and stretches as far as the eye can reach. Here the valley is reduced to very small limits. At Thebes, on the contrary, the plain opens out widely. The traveller stationed at Luxor on the right bank would see before him the river broad and calm, whilst on the left bank the foreshore, sloping up gently, is uncovered day by day as the inundation abates. A little beyond this sandy stretch, ill-fitted for cultivation, he would espy a black strip of muddy land, dotted with groups of trees, and beyond that again the desert range rears its mountain head. If the traveller now stations himself on the lower slopes of these very mountains and at the extreme west of the valley, he will see the great Theban plain unfold before him in all its fullness. At his feet are the first slopes of the hills, riddled with excavations which are ancient tombs, with Arab dwellings dotted about here and there. Bordering on the desert the majestic ruins of the great temple of Ramesses II (known as the Ramesseum) rear themselves, while a little towards the right the two colossal statues of the so-called Memnon appear in sight, the two statues which stood before the funerary temple of Amenophis III. An irrigation canal, as a narrow glittering band, forms the background of the picture as it crosses the plain diagonally on its way to the Nile. Beyond the river a straight black strip marks out the cultivated area on the right bank, and finally the mountains of the Arabian desert rise up to the very horizon, where they are partly lost to view. Nor is the view very different if one moves one's posi- tion to the apex of the Delta, from such a point as the heights of the great necropolis of Saqqara and Abusir. The problem before the population of Egypt from the earliest times has ever been to extend to the fullest possible limits the benefits of the inundation, to subdue the desert territory, ever too vast, by preventing the sand from ravaging what the farmers have won and which they owe to their THE COUNTRY: CHARACTERISTICS 23 labours in irrigation : and the modern engineer merely continues, in a sense, the traditions of the most ancient inhabitants of the land. One result deserves special men- tion, and that is that the Egyptians, begrudging the loss of the smallest part of this precious land, have relegated to the desert the buildings consecrated to the cult of the dead. Having thus considered the river and its valley, we must take a rapid glance at the cultivation and the handiwork of the inhabitants. In Lower Egypt the plain stretches away to infinity. Rich in harvests most abundant, but wearying to the eye, fields follow on fields, enlivened by groups of palm-trees and now and then by a wood. From tract to tract, village follows on village, consisting usually of a handful of dwellings, linked up by roadways overshadowed by trees, and at a level scarcely higher than that of the neighbouring culti- vation. Canals, branching ever more and more, wind throughout, some, fairly broad, lapping lazily amongst the groves of palm-trees, whilst others, narrower, glide like little brooks across the villages. Various hydraulic devices, besides, make it possible to raise the water from the canals and to spread it over the land. The simplest of these is called the shadou}^ and is a kind of balance, with a counterweight which lifts a recep- tacle full of water to a raised trench into which the labourer who works the machine deftly turns it. The shadouf is an extremely ancient invention, for it figures on the monuments of Pharaonic times. (8) Let us now consider some typical landscapes in the cultivated districts of Upper Egypt. The picturesque village of Kafr el Haram groups its houses at the foot of the plateau of Gizeh, upon which the great pyramids rear themselves : beyond, as far as the eye can reach, extends the plain, dappled with great pools of water left behind by the retreating inundation. In the distance another village hides itself beneath a group of palms. When one goes from the station at Bedrechein to the Saqqara necropolis, the region of Mit-Rahine is first 24 EGYPTIAN ART crossed, whose rich crops spread away as far as the eye can reach. At the very foot of the mountain the village of Saqqara, which has given its name to the whole district, abuts on a great marsh where geese and ducks sport. The outlook changes but little in the different tracts of Middle Egypt. In the Abydos district, for instance, from the Nile right up to the mountains one crosses wonderfully fertile lands, which show as the inundation retreats a heavy mould which dries up and cracks in all directions under the rays of the sun. This dark-coloured soil contrasts sharply with the light tones of the desert sand, and when the ancient Egyptians called their country " the Black Land " they certainly hit upon its most noticeable characteristic. The cultivated land passes into desert very suddenly, almost without any intermediate change. One cannot, however, help noticing the great trees which thrive vigorously on bare sand, as though they stood as a protest against sterility, although their deep-set roots burrow down to levels reached by infiltrated water. The desert merges really into the mountain, or rather into the two chains of mountains which divide off" the course of the river. The Libyan range follows the left bank, just as the Arabian follows the right. Towards Lower Egypt the desert is flat and monotonous, rolling away in sand- dunes for mile after mile. At the rainy season a sparse vegetation marks out the routes on which the caravans depend for feeding their beasts of burden. Towards Upper Egypt the desert rises often into gentle slopes up to the point where it reaches the mountains, and then it rises quite steeply, often in terraces. The necropolis of Abydos offers a very good instance of this. On all sides, at the lowest level, the soil is ploughed up and tossed about, laying bare beneath this mantle of sand the mouths of the shafts which give access to the funereal chambers below. The horizon is shut out by the mountain, which rears itself several hundred feet above the plain, a great solid mass with little variation in its outline. At Thebes, on the other hand, the contours are more varied, the successive slopes THE COUNTRY: CHARACTERISTICS 25 of the hills are more sharply cut ; above them a peak towers up, reminding one of a natural pyramid, the " Peak of the West " as the ancients called it. (9) The action of the sand, blown about by the wind, has cut capriciously into the limestone, as for instance above the famous temple of Deir-el-Bahari. The mountain-chain breaks up at times suddenly, giving access to a desolate valley : the best-known if not the most typical case of this is the Valley of the Kings at Thebes. Its long and winding course gives some extremely pictur- esque glimpses, recalling at times the primeval chaos of the valley. i\.t one point the ancient Egyptians have cut through the foundations of a natural amphitheatre in the mountains, where they excavated the last resting-places of the great monarchs of the New Em.pire. Here, at the foot of a sheer cliff, at the end of a spur of gigantic rocks in steep defiles, the sovereigns who had brought under their sway the whole of the world known in their days slept their last sleep. In another valley, not so wild in its aspect, are hewn the tombs of their queens and their princes. As far as the neighbourhood of Gebel-Silsileh the mountains are of limestone. Here a bank of compact sand- stone is encountered, and the Nile has cut for itself a pathway through the stone, reducing the size of the valley to that of its own breadth. The banks are cut up by great excava- tions which mark the site of ancient quarries. In the Assuan region we have seen how the river has forced a road amid the granite boulders : at times the blocks have been rolled along and lean one on another as if Titans had piled up there an armoury of stones of different sizes from which were to be selected the materials for the building of the royal monuments. Thus we have come across the principal materials used in the great building operations of antiquity : limestone, sandstone and granite, which the architects made use of in the manner we shall presently see. Finally we must draw attention to the element which has played the fundamental role in the architecture of Ancient Egypt — the Nile mud. The inhabitants find it 26 EGYPTIAN ART everywhere ready to hand. Still moist from the inundation they dug it, sometimes mixing it with chopped straw to give it greater consistency, they moulded it into blocks of even size, arranged in rows on the ground, where the rays of the sun quickly imparted sufficient firmness to make it usable at once for building. And to this day one sometimes comes across a native brickworks near the borders of the desert where the blocks of mud are laid out in straight lines on the ground to be dried by the sun : or again, on the very banks of the river, one may see at once the bank from which the material has been taken, the bricks drying, the dried bricks piled in stacks, and finally the native houses which have retained under the mason's hand the same form which has come down from long-past ages. BIBLIOGRAPHY. 1 . Schrader, F., Les Origlnes planitaires de I'Egypte, in the Revue de VEcoIe d'anthropologie de Paris, January 1909, pp. 15-27. 2. Reclus, E., Nouvelle Giographie Universe lie, t. x. V Afrique Sepieft' trionale, ist Part, Bassin de Nil. Paris, Hachette, 1885. 3. Reitemeyer, Else, Beschribung Agyptens im Miitelalter aus den geo- graphischen Werken der Araber. Leipzig, 1903. 4. An idea will be gained by consulting, for instance, Lumbroso, G., Des- crittori italiant dell' Egitto e di Alessandria in the Memcrie della reale Accademia dei Lincei, Rome, 1879, a work completed in 1892 under the title Ritocchi e aggiunte ai descrittori italiant dell' Egitto e di Alessandria. 5. Translation from that given in the introduction to Palmieri and B^chard's Album L'Egypte et la Nubie. Paris, 1887. 6. Maspero, G., The Dawn of Civilisation, 5th edition, London, 1910, p. 6. 7. Ibid., pp. 7-9. 8. Scheil, V., Le Tom beau d'Apoui, in the Mimoires de la Mission arckiolo- gique frangaise du Caire, t, v., 1894, pp. 607-8 and pi. II. Wilkinson-Birch, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, London, 1878, t. iii., p. 281. 9. Maspero, G., La Ddesse Miritskro et ses guMsons miraculeuses, in the itudes de Mythologie et d'Archhlogie ^gyptiennes, t. ii., pp. 402-10. Erman, A., La Religion /gyptienne. Paris, 1907, pp. 112-13. Capart, J., Une Diesse th^haine-Miritskro, Bruxelles, 1901. Extract from the Revue de l' University de Bruxelles, t. vi., 1 900-1, April. CHAPTER II THE FRAMEWORK OF HISTORY THE Egyptians have bequeathed to us but scanty traces of their historical records. We know, however, that from the earliest times they were wont to record Important events in their history : indeed, there was even a special goddess relegated to preside over the annals of the Empire, (i) but only a few fragments have come down to us. The document known as the '* Palermo Stone " and some kindred fragments preserved at Cairo were drawn up under the Ancient Empire, and give us a table of the regnal years of certain kings and an indication of the most important events of those reigns. (2) Unfortunately, the fragments which have survived make up but a small part of the original text. Next must be mentioned a list of kings drawn up under the New Empire and known as the Turin Papyrus, but which Is hopelessly mutilated. (3) Some monumental lists have also been recovered : two at Abydos, one at Saqqara, and one at Karnak. Several series of royal names are Inscribed upon them, but they were drawn up In connection with certain phases of religious worship ; whole periods are passed over without being represented by a single king. (4) Manetho of Sebennytos, an Egyptian priest who was contemporary with the first two Ptolemies, wrote a history of Egypt, In compiling which he drew upon Egyptian sources of Information. His work is unhappily lost, and nothing now remains but some fragmentary lists of sover- eigns. The most Important fragments have come down to us In Josephus' Contra Apionem. The table of dynasties, 27 28 EGYPTIAN ART in three books, is preserved in the works of the Christian historians (Julianus Afrlcanus, Eusebius, and Georojius of Syncella), but unfortunately with serious alterations in the names and dates. (5) Manetho had classified all the kings of Egypt into a number of dynasties, but the conception of the dynasties lacks precision. One might suppose, however, that the dynasties took their names from those of the towns which served as capitals, or from which the reigning families traced their origin. The list of towns is as follows : Thinis, Memphis, Elephantine, Heracleopolis, Thebes, XoTs, Tanis, Bubastis, Sa'is, Mendes, and Sebennytos. The dynastiee thus received the following nomenclature : — II \Th inite. jy' > Memphite. v". VI. 1 Elephantinite. VII. VIII. - Memphite. IX. 1 X. - Heracleopolitan. XI. ^ XII. ► Theban. XIII. XIV. Xoi'te. XV. Hyksos and Theban. XVI. Hyksos. XVII. Hyksos and Theban XVIII.^ XIX. - Theban. XX. XXL' Tanite and Theban. XXII. Bubastite. XXIII. Tanite. XXIV. Saifte. XXV. Ethiopian and Saite. XXVI. Saite. XXVII. Persian. XXVIII. Saite. XXIX. Mendesian. XXX. Sebynnite. XXXI. Persian. In the framev/ork thus built up, it next remains to classify the kings whose names have been found upon the monuments. One is helped in this endeavour in several ways : first by direct identification of the Egyptian names and those mentioned by Manetho ; thus Khufu was Kheops, Khafra was Khephren, Ramessu was Ramesses. The Egyp- tian documents furnish us with the names of successive kings, sometimes in genealogies, for instance. At some periods, too, the reigning king was wont to associate his successors with him upon the throne, and the monuments which bear the double names establish the order of succes- sion. In several tombs of the Ancient Empire, names of THE FRAMEWORK OF HISTORY 29 funerary domains are often given in connection with the kings who founded them, which makes it possible for us to make deductions as to the grouping and often as to the succession of the kings. (6) In this connection also men- tion may be made of the biographical inscriptions which relate, for instance, how an officer enlisted under one king, obtained promotion under another, gained distinction under a third, etc. These researches into the classification of the kings mainly occupied the generation of historians which preceded us. Their labours have enabled us to readjust a great number of royal names in Manetho's table of dynasties. Can one compile, at the present day, a true history of Egypt, especially of the most ancient times ? Information derived from the monuments, despite the great abundance of the latter, is, after all, of a very fortuitous nature. *' For one ancient papyrus which has been rescued, countless millions must have perished. ... It would seem that there still exists a great abundance of Egyptian documents, but they have to cover an enormous space of time." (7) We can generally say that such and such a king carried out building operations upon such and such a temple ; that he undertook a military expedition against such and such a neighbouring country ; that he returned with the spoils which he proudly enumerates ; to which we may add a more or less lengthy catalogue of the monuments which his contemporaries have left behind them. One may see in the histories of Wiedemann and of Petrie (8) very full lists which will give some idea of the data which have accumulated, little by little, around the names of each of the kings, but most often without affording us the slightest clue to a due conception of the main lines of contemporary history. Our knowledge of the civilisation of Egypt is much fuller, thanks to the biographical inscrip- tions and to the countless scenes depicted upon the temples and the tombs. One can see the use which historians have made of this material in glancing through the great works of Maspero, Edward Meyer and Breasted. (9) We must also allude to another important source of 30 EGYPTIAN ART information, although the most difficult to use — the religious texts. These appear to us, from the times of the Ancient Empire, as the written version of a long and almost invari- able oral tradition. They indicate to us a state of civilisation which Egypt had long since left behind, when these religious texts were used. The general impression which emerges from a scrutiny of these materials is that even the Egypt of the earliest dynasties had already a long past behind it. Without summarising here the main lines of Egyptian history, which will be found fully worked out in the books just mentioned, we must, however, define the meaning of a certain number of general terms which will recur again and again in the course of these studies. Various scholars have grouped the dynasties into several sections under denominations which, however, vary in their details. Maspero, in his great History, expresses the arrangement thus (tome i., p. 229) : — ** Ancient history is divided into three periods, each of which corresponds to the suzerainty of a city or of a principality. I. Memphite Period, usually called the Ancient Empire, from the 1st to the Xth dynasty : kings of Mem- phite origin ruled over the whole of Egypt during the major part of this epoch. II. Theban Period, from the Xlth to the XXth dynasty. It is subdivided into two parts by the invasion of the Shepherds (XVIth dynasty). (a) The First Theban Empire (Middle Empire), from the Xlth to the XlVth dynasty. {b) The New Theban Empire, from the XVI Ith to the XXth dynasty. III. Saite Period : from the XXIst to the XXXth dynasty, subdivided into two unequal parts by the Persian Conquest. (a) First Saite Period, from the XXIst to the XXVIth dynasty : (J?) Second Saite Period, from the XXVI Ith to the XXXth dynasty." THE FRAMEWORK OF HISTORY 31 Griffith, in the eleventh edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica (191 1), uses the following division : — Ancient Empire .... Middle Empire .... New Empire .... Delta Dynasties : Libyan Period Ethiopian Dynasty . The XXVIth Dynasty. Persian Period The XXVIIIth-XXXth Dynasties. Dynasties I-VIII „ IX-XVII „ XVIII-XX „ XXI-XXIV Dynasty XXV „ XXVII Finally, Steindorff, in the edition of Baedeker of 19 14, divides the dynasties as follows : — The Earliest Dynasties Ancient Empire . Middle Empire . New Empire Period of Foreign Kings Late Period I and II III to XI XII to XVI XVII to XX XXI to XXV XXVI to XXX In point of fact these different classifications agree on the principal periods : Ancient, Middle and New Empire, and Saite Period ; for the differences merely affect the inter- mediate periods. This is exactly what results from the uncertainty of our information as to these marginal epochs. From all this we perceive that there are two obscure epochs, one between the Ancient and Middle Empires, the other between the Middle and the New, and a confused period between the close of the New Empire and the XXVIth dynasty. We find that the first two of these obscure periods have been times of artistic decadence in Upper Egypt. With the inauguration of the Middle Empire (Xllth dynasty), of the New Empire (XVIIIth dynasty), and again under the Saite Empire XXVIth dynasty), the artistic traditions of the great epochs were successively revived. On each occasion, in fact, the models which served in the most brilliant periods of the Ancient Empire were reverted to, so that Egyptian art may thus be described not as a gradual artistic evolution which perfected itself as the ages rolled 32 EGYPTIAN ART on, finally to deteriorate and die out, but rather as a series of deviations, or of decadence followed by renaissance. It is thus that we can explain the fundamental uniformity of Egyptian art, in a number of its manifestations, in spite of the great diversity which we notice. Let us try to form a general idea of the mopuments which have come down to us, and which are to serve as the basis of our studies. What has been said above on the subject of history in general cannot but be repeated in the case of the history of art. All our knowledge is above all things fortuitous ; for certain periods materials abound, whilst for others, on the contrary, there are none at all, although one cannot legitimately infer from this lack of evidence that the Egyp- tians had completely ceased, for long ages, to produce works of art. Certain classes of objects have entirely vanished. It is sufficient to cite but one example : the decorative goldsmith's work which is known to us through the representations of it on bas-reliefs and on paintings in the tombs and temples of the New Empire, where we see the kings presenting it as an offering to the gods, or the envoys of tributary states coming forward to lay it before the throne of the Pharaoh. Of another kind of monument, which is mentioned at times in the texts, it chances that a single specimen has survived. This is the great statue in metal of King Pepi I of the Vlth dynasty. The division of the country into Upper and Lower Egypt is an important one from the point of view of the preservation of works of art. One might say, almost without exaggeration, that in the Delta everything has disappeared, whilst in Upper Egypt, on the contrary, a great number of antiquities is preserved. This difference can be accounted for in various ways, of which we may cite a few instances. In the Delta, on account of the great distance of the quarries, most of the buildings were necessarily constructed of wood or brick, stone being but sparingly used only in the principal parts, such as in facades or in doorways. The PLATE I STELE OF THE SERPENT-KING FROM MONUMENTS PIOT PLATE n r - 'I r: ^\ /• >si JJJJiJJ] PANELS OF HESl PLATE III THE PYRAMIDS OF KHEOPS AND KHEPHREN AS RESTORED BY HOELSCHER PLATE IV m:rrmi PECTORAL OF SESOSTRIS III OBVERSE AND REVERSE THE FRAMEWORK OF HISTORY 33 great growth of settlements and townships in Lower Egypt has led to a more and more systematic pillage of the ruins in order to carry off all the stones which can be re-used for building. The damp soil of the Delta has destroyed most of the objects confided to its care, whilst the desert of Upper Egypt has preserved them almost intact. But alike in Upper and Lower Egypt, other causes of destruction and disappearance are not lacking. Even in quite recent times antique sites have been exploited as quarries : the temple of Amenophis III at Elephantine, for instance, which was an object of great admiration to the savants of Napoleon's expedition, was completely demolished a few years later. Travellers in the first half of the nineteenth century have described (10) and published in their narratives of travel many once important ruins which have vanished completely to-day. When one considers the countless wars and revolutions which have devastated the country (to say nothing of the fact that under the last dynasties Egypt submitted to at least two Ethiopian invasions, two Assyrian, and two Persian), and when one recalls the systematic destruction by the Christians who smashed the idols and the temples of false gods, and by the Arabs who mutilated all human figures, to say nothing of the ravages caused by excavators of long ago, one is astounded to find that so many Egyptian monu- ments still remain. And as though destruction by man were not sufficient, animals have done their share ; one may instance the veritable invasions of white ants which have ravaged the ancient cemeteries. It will now perhaps be convenient to draw up a kind of synopsis of typical groups of monuments which must occupy our attention, picking out characteristic examples from each kind and for different periods. A monument of the 1st dynasty in the name of King Narmer (which some would identify with Menes, the first king to unite the two Egypts under one sceptre) is known as the Palette of Narmer. (i i) It displays, amongst other things, a figure of the king clubbing a vanquished foe with his mace. From this monument onwards the general 3 34 EGYPTIAN ART association of ideas is fixed, and the same theme reappears again and again across the whole page of Egyptian history. The same palette, by its portrayal of a ritual festival, makes it possible for us to trace, from the very beginning, the complex of motives which originate in the art of this remote epoch. The stele of the Serpent King, (12) now in the Louvre, is a masterpiece of execution. The falcon which surmounts the royal name is rendered with incomparable precision. One wonders for how long and with what thoroughness it must have been studied from nature before it became possible to seize with such perfection the charac- teristic form of the bird and to render the lines so simply and with so sure a hand that all the succeeding ages should find no need to alter in the smallest degree the outlines which thus became fixed and unchanging. If we now glance at the reliefs on the wooden panels of Hesi, in the Cairo Museum, (13) which date from the first part of the Ilird dynasty, we shall find there, perfectly employed, the fundamental conventions in Egyptian drawing of the human figure. Thus we see that the monuments of the first dynasties, rare as they are, display a fully developed art the execution of which is striking in its perfection. The great necropolis areas, which extend all over the plateau of the Libyan desert from Gizeh to Meidum (near the entrance to the Fay(im oasis), have preserved an important series of architectural monuments ; royal tombs, generally in the form of pyramids ; funerary temples of the kings, adjoining the pyramids themselves ; and the tombs of high officials of the type called by archaeologists " mastabas." To cite some instances : the reconstruction of the temple and pyramid of Khephren, in a work by Holscher, (14) gives us a general view of the necropolis of Kheops and of Khephren. In the background the great masses of the pyramids tower above the burial chambers of the kings ; on their eastern faces the funerary temples stand, connected by a long passage to a kind of vestibule in the valley, at the foot of the plateau. Numerous mastabas are grouped around the pyramids, or in the neighbourhood of the vestibules in the valley below. The same general arrangement is met with around the THE FRAMEWORK OF HISTORY 35 pyramid-temples of Abusir, where we shall find all the fundamental principles of Egyptian architecture in all ages employed by the architects of the Vth dynasty, especially the floral columns which are the most typical elements of this architecture. The mastabas, which are massive rectangular piles, appear too as architectural complexes containing in embryo all the fundamental parts of the sacred edifice of Egypt. The walls of the chambers within are covered with bas-reliefs and paintings ; in niches or in recesses hidden in the masonry are found numerous statues which furnish material for the study of sculpture in the round. To name three examples : The first is a diorite mask in the Leipzig Museum, repro- ducing the features of Khephren. (15) Detached from the statue, this fragment perhaps gains somewhat in beauty and lifelike intensity, separated as it is from the purely Egyptian peculiarities of form which sometimes offend our eye. Next comes the striking copper statue of Pepi I, mentioned before ; (16) it bears witness to a very advanced knowledge in the rendering of anatomical details. It is, in fact, a real masterpiece in metal work. The material of which it is made has permitted the sculptor to separate the arms and legs entirely from the trunk without having to make use of slots for fitting which we find in stone statues. The two statues of Rahotep and Nofrit, found at Meidum, complete our examples of the perfection of Egyptian art under the Ancient Empire. (17) Later ages may perhaps have produced more elegant works, but they have never succeeded in surpassing the Ancient Empire in truth and in fidelity to nature. We have thus attaching to this epoch a sufficiently numerous and varied group of monuments to help us to form an idea of the growth of art. All of a sudden everything seems to dwindle and dis- appear, and the few monuments of the intervening period between the Ancient and the New Empires are of such a kind as to provoke the belief that some irremediable catastrophe has occurred. The most casual glance at the Dendereh stele of the end of the Ancient Empire shows to 36 EGYPTIAN ART what depths of ugliness and coarseness Egyptian art must have lapsed, at least in Upper Egypt, (i 8) Had we not precise information as to date, one might easily imagine that the Dendereh reliefs are centuries older than the admirable statues of the Ancient Empire. One can scarcely attribute this to the clumsiness of some inexperienced crafts- man, of whom a poor man had requisitioned a funerary stele in some provincial town. The royal monuments of the Xlth dynasty give a scarcely better impression, for we find the fragments of a certain King Mentuhotep at Gebelein, reproducing the theme of the Narmer palette, which is treated in a stiff and angular fashion without any life. (19) But a very short time had to pass before the kings of the Xllth dynasty had completely revived the traditions of the Ancient Empire. The bas-reliefs of Sesostris I at Koptos, as well as at Karnak, show us once more in their conception and execution the perfection of the work of the Ancient Empire. We know of few great architectural monuments of the Middle Empire. Plenty of temples had fallen into ruin in the course of ages, had been restored (which generally means rebuilt) or enlarged by the sovereigns of the New Empire. A study, however, of the great funerary temple of the Xlth dynasty at Deir-el-Bahari, whose ruins give us the data necessary for such a reconstruction, will serve to give a good idea of the abilities of their architects. A careful study should be made of a number of inter- esting documents of the Middle Empire : the tombs of the nomarchs or provincial governors in Upper Egypt, the most remarkable of which are at Beni Hasan. The fa9ade of the tomb of Chnumhotep II is justly celebrated for its so-called proto-Doric columns, and displays a standard of beauty and simplicity which only the architects of Greece, who came centuries later, were able to surpass. The walls of these same tombs present a most interesting series of reliefs and paintings. Two lucky " finds " of caskets containing royal jewellery at Dahshur and at Illahun make a welcome contribution to the study of the industrial arts. THE FRAMEWORK OF HISTORY 37 The New Empire will testify to a fresh revival of all the ancient traditions, when architecture will flourish on a majestic scale in the temples of the gods and of the funerary cult Thebes and Abydos, to name but the two most important sites, will furnish us with ample material for study. It will suffice here to cite one or two instances : the colonnade, in classic style, of the great temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir-el-Bahari is certainly one of the most amazing works which Egyptian architecture has bequeathed to us. Only the Cavetto cornice which surmounts the entablature informs us that we are not in the presence of a creation of the classic architects ; but the bas-reliefs and the inscriptions stand there as an irrefutable proof against any classic influence, and show that the builders of Deir-el-Bahari lived a thousand years before the childhood of Greek architecture. Luxor is a well-known name in the history of art : it is there that stand the gigantic piles to which the greatest kings of the XVIIIth and XlXth dynasties devoted their building activities. But it is at Karnak that the taste for the colossal manifests itself in all its fullness. The hypostyle hall, so vast that it could contain the whole of the structure of the cathedral of Notre Dame at Paris, has its roof upheld by 134 columns, of which the highest are as massive as the Vendome Column. The famous temple at Abu-Simbel, which is entirely excavated out of the living rock, with its colossal statues fifty feet high, is a worthy architectural fellow to the temple of Karnak. In the XXth dynasty the imposing mass of Medinet Habu, raised to the glory of Ramesses III, bears eloquent testimony that the greatest traditions were still flourishing at that time. The hosts of New Empire tombs at Thebes and Tell-el- Amarna furnish us with types of quite a long series of architectural styles. In some cases the sand has so acted as a preservative that we can find the structures almost in the state in which the Egyptians left them : such, for example, is the case of the central bay of the tomb of Ay at Tell-el- Amarna. (20) 38 EGYPTIAN ART The temples, as well as the tombs, have handed down to us countless statues, both of royal and of private persons, of all sizes, from huge colossi down to delicate little statuettes, and in every kind of material, displaying a surprising variety of different attitudes and forms. It will suffice for the moment to Instance one of the masterpieces of sculpture of the XVIIIth dynasty : the Karnak statue of Tuthmosis III, (21) or the statue of Ramesses II, presenting a table of offerings, (22) which is at once one of the most lifelike and free productions of Egyptian art. The court of Ramesses II at Luxor, with its great statues set up under the porticoes, proves that in spite of technical difficulties the kings did not shrink from the employment of colossi on a large scale. As a specimen of a private statue, I will mention a handsome group in the Cairo Museum, portraying two persons a man and a women : Zai and Nal of the XlXth dynasty. (23) It is a graceful and fine piece of work, and is the type specimen of a whole class of sculptures. In the midst of the New Empire, at the end of the XVIIIth dynasty, we must assign a special place to the monuments which are associated with the name of Amen- ophis IV. This strange Pharaoh, the religious and political reformer, has set his mark upon all the artistic productions of his time. The merest glance at the most exquisite piece of the series, the head of the queen in Berlin Museum, (24) reveals to the beholder an aspect of Egyptian art widely different from all else connected with the ordinary acceptance of the term. As may well be imagined, the walls of the temples and tombs of the New Empire have provided an incredible number of bas-reliefs, paintings and drawings. We may cite a single sketch in the tomb of Ramose at Thebes, where the artist has depicted In a group the characteristic features of the races bordering upon Egypt with a precision which the most critical eye would find it difficult to find fault with. (25) The wealth of Egypt at this time did not fail to give THE FRAMEWORK OF HISTORY 39 a great stimulus to the Industrial arts : thus the tombs have preserved for us a number of pieces of the highest order, especially furniture. Fancy articles are known, as regards the New Empire, In richer abundance than at any other period. Can one imagine any object more truly artistic in its composition than the unguent-holder In the Liverpool Museum, which Is made In the form of a statuette of a slave, bearing upon his shoulder a large vase ? (26) The same monf is used, with suitable modifications. In one of the most beautiful wooden unguent-spoons in the Louvre. (27) After this spell of great abundance In the New Empire, we find ourselves almost entirely unprovided with docu- ments for the next few centuries. The XXIst to the XXIVth dynasties have left little by way of archi- tecture ; but as to sculpture the discovery of a hoard at Karnak has supplied us with an extensive series of statues of the chief members of the priestly families. These works are Interesting certainly, but they display no particular characteristics. We may mention several statues of the Ethiopian XXVth dynasty, as, for Instance, those of Mentuemhat, who was governor of Thebes at the time of the Assyrian invasion. (28) Of the Saite Empire (XXVIth and following dynasties) scarcely anything has survived. Certain statues and reliefs, however, are sufficient to testify to a renaissance, and that once more the Egyptians are drawing their inspiration from the most ancient models. In architecture, one building, the Kiosk of Nectanebo In the island of Philae, Is the intro- duction to the long series of Grasco-Roman monuments. The Ptolemies, and then the Emperors, did. In fact, raise important buildings In different parts of Egypt, which are quite enough to show how much vitality the ancient art of the Pharaohs still possessed In their day, and In this con- nection it is sufficient to cite the well-known names of Philae, Edfu and Dendereh. There we shall find buildings almost intact In some parts, and the study of these makes it possible for us to restore, at least In spirit, the great ruins of the preceding ages. When one paces the pathway around the 40 EGYPTIAN ART temple of Edfu, or wanders among the columns of the hypostyle hall at Dendereh, one might easily be tempted to imagine that time had stopped for hundreds of years, and that one would see, without much surprise, the Egyptian priests, with their white robes and close-shaven heads, sally forth from one or other of the chambers. The bas-reliefs, of almost infinite extent, show us the Greek dynasts or the Roman Emperors doing their best to look like the native Pharaohs, their far-off predecessors. The execution has unfortunately fallen short of its intentions, and sculpture in relief, as opposed to architecture, betrays the imminent decline into which Egyptian art was soon to lapse. Such is the general outline of the groups of Egyptian documents which must serve as the basis of art-study ; but up to the present we have as yet not spoken of dates, and it is now time that we should devote a few words to the complex question of Egyptian chronology. Years were reckoned according to the reigns of the kings, and to restore actual dates we should have, theoreti- cally, a complete catalogue of sovereigns and the highest years of each of their reigns. Such, however, is far from being the case. One resource at our disposal is to consult the synchron- isms of Egyptian history with those of neighbouring peoples : Greeks, Persians, Babylonians and Assyrians ; another resource is furnished by the Bible. It is thus that we can affirm that Psammetik I, of the XXVIth dynasty, ascended the throne towards 662 ; that Seshork I (Sishak), of the XXIInd dynasty, pillaged the temple of Jerusalem in the reign of Rehoboam in 928 ; that Amenophis IV, of the XVIIIth dynasty, was a contemporary of King Burna- buriash II of Babylon, who reigned about 1400. Sometimes the Egyptian texts furnish astronomical dates calculated by the rising of Sirius (Sothis). These astro- nomical dates are founded on the following facts : In theory the first day of the first month of the Inundation — that is to say, the beginning of the inundation, which at Memphis took place on July 19th — coincided with the rising of Sirius. PLATE V PORTICO OF THE TOMB OF CHNUMHOTEP II AT BENI-HASAN PLATE VIII ARM CHAIR OF THE XVIIIth DYNASTY THE FRAMEWORK OF HISTORY 41 But the ordinary Egyptian year, which consisted of twelve months of thirty days each, plus five supplementary days (called the Epagomcnal Days), proved to be shorter, by a quarter of a day, than the astronomical year. There was thus a difference of one day in every four years, and the rising of Sirius fell one day earlier than the four years before. There was therefore a wait of 1,460 years before the coinci- dence recurred. In other words, 1,460 astronomical years were equal to 1,461 civil years. Ptolemy II Euergetes, by the Decree of Canopus, ordered the introduction of a supplementary day every four years ; but this reform was not followed till the time of Augustus, who introduced the Julian year. When a king of Egypt said, in an inscription, that on such a day of such a month the rising of Sirius was celebrated, it is possible to calculate by the difference between this date and the beginning of the year the exact point in the astronomical cycle at which the inscription was drawn up. By such means a deduction has been made, from a date in the Ebers papyrus, as to the ninth year of the XVIIIth dynasty King Amenophis I, which would have fallen between 1550 and 1546 B.C. An inscription from Elephantine proves that a year, not determined, of Tuthmosis III of the XVIIIth dynasty, fell between 1474 and 1470. In the same way it seems to follow from an indication in a papyrus from Kahun that the seventh year of Sesostris III of the Xllth dynasty must have fallen between 1882 and 1878 B.C. But here we stumble upon a difficulty which would seem insurmountable in the present state of our knowledge : there is an irreconcilable lack of harmony between the astronomical dates of the XVIIIth and Xllth dynasties, on the one hand, and the royal monuments which should be placed between these two dates on the other hand. Thus, if the Xllth dynasty ended towards 1790 and the XVIIIth began about 1570 B.C., the space between the two would be only 220 years. Now we already know of more than a hundred kings, mentioned on the monuments or papyri, while new names have again recently emerged, and, according 42 EGYPTIAN ART to the fragments of the Turin papyrus, one is forced to conclude that there reigned, within this space of time, from 1 60 to 200 kings. (29) It has been proposed, in order to solve this difficulty, to add another Sothic period, and to add, accordingly, 1,460 years to the date 1790, which would place the end of the Xllth dynasty at 3,250 b.c. This system moves the Midde Empire back to the region of the date which was generally accepted, until, in consequence of the discovery of the Kahun papyri, some scholars contrived to shorten Ancient Egyptian chronology excessively. The following short table gives the dates proposed for various dynasties by Meyer in 1904-8 ; Sethe in 1905 ; Breasted in 1906 ; Petrie in 1906 ; and Borchardt in 1917.(30) In the last column are placed the approximate dates which will serve for all practical purposes in these studies. Dynasty. Meyer. Sethe Breasted. Petrie. 1 Borchardt. I IV 3315 2840 3360 2720 3400 2900 5510 4731 4186 3430 About 5000 About 4000 Ancient Em- XII 2000 2000 2000 3459 1996/5 pire About 3000 Middle Em- XVIII 1580 1580 1580 -1993/2 pire About 1500 New Empire XIX XXII I32I 1350 1322 About 1000 XXVI Conquest of Ales ander Vllth century 332 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 1. Sethe, K., in Borchardt, L., Das Grabdetikmal des Konigs Sa'hure\ t. ii., die Wandbilder {Wissenschaftliche Veroffentlic hung der deutsc hen Orient- Geselhchaft 26), Text, p. 14. Leipzig, 191 3. 2. Schafer, H., Ein Bruchstuck altdgyptischer Annalen, in the Abhand- lungen der preussiche Akademie der Wissenchaften, 1902, Anhang. Berlin,i902, Gauthier, H., Quatre nouveaux fragments de la Pierre de Palerme, in Le Musie igyptien, t. iii., 2, Le Caire, 191 5, pp. 29-53, pi. 24-31. ' Petrie in 191 1 fixed the reign of Menes, the first king of the 1st dynasty, at 5546. THE FRAMEWORK OF HISTORY 43 3. Meyer, E., Chronologie ^gyptientte, traduit par A. Moret, in the AnnaUi Ju Musie Guimet, Bibliotheque d'£tudes, t. iiiv., 2, pp. 147 fF. 4. Ibid., pp. 143 fF. 5. Ibid., pp. looff. 6. See for example E. de Roug^, Recherches sur les monuments qu^on pent atiribuer aux six premieres dynasties de Manithon, in the M^moires de I'Jcad^mie des Incriptions et Belles-Lettres, t. ixv., 2, 1866; reprinted in E. de Roug^, CEuvres diverses, t. vi. (^Bibliotheque ^gyptologique, t. ixvi.), pp. 5-157 with 8 plates. 7. Griffith, Encyclopaedia Britannica, nth edition, s.v, Egypt, p. 41 b. 8. Wiedemann, A., Aegyptische Geschichte. Gotha, 1884; Supplement. 1888. Petrie, W. M. F., A History of Egypt. London, Methuen, various editions. 9. Maspero, G., T/ie Dawn of Civilisation, The Struggle of the Nations, The Passing of the Empires, various editions. Meyer, E., Geschichte des Altertums, 3rd edition, 191 3. Breasted, J. H., A History of Egypt from the Earliest Times to the Persian Conquest. London and New York, 1905 ; 2nd edition, 1919. A History of the Ancient Egyptians. London, 191 8. 10. Newberry, P. E., The Temple of Erment as it was in 1850, in the Pro- ceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, t. 27, 1905, p. 100 and plate, 11. Capart, J., Primitive Art in Egypt, figs. 183 and 184. 12. Ben^dite, G., La Stele dite du roi Serpent, in the Monuments Piot, t. lii., 1905, pi. L 13. Quibell, J. E., The Tomb of Hesy (^Excavations at Saqqara, 1911-12). Cairo, 191 3. 14. Holscher, U., Das Grabdenkmal des KSnigs Chephren. Leipzig, 191 2, pi. L 1 5. Bor chard t, L., in Holscher, U., Das Grabdenkmal des Konigs Chephren, Leipzig, 191 2, pi. XVL 16. Quibell, J. E., and Green, F. W., Hierakonpolis II. London, 1902, pis, L-LIL 17. Mariette, A., Voyage dans la Haute Egypte, Cairo, 1878, t. i., pi. XVL 18. Petrie, W. M. F., Dendereh, London, 1900, pi. XI, the stelae of Nekhtu and of Hennu, now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. 19. Bissing, Fr. W., Denkmdler dgyptischer Sculptur. Munich, 1906, pi. 3 3 J. 20. Davies, N. de G., The Rock Tombs of El Amarna, Part VL London, 1908, pi. XXXVIL 21. Legrain, G., Statues et statuettes de rois et de particuliers, t. i., Cairo, 1906, pi. XXIX-XXX. 22. Legrain, G., ibid., t. ii., Cairo, 1909, pi, IV. 23. Maspero, G., Le Mus/e ^gyptien, t. ii., i. Le Caire, 1904, pi. VL 24. Fechheimer, H., Die Plastik der Aegypter. Berlin, 1920, pi. 79-80. 25. Prisse d'Avennes, Histoire de fArt Egyptien. Paris, 1878, t. ii., pi. IV. 26. Capart, J., Figurine ^gyptienne en bois au Musie de Liverpool, in the Revue archiologique, 1907, t. ii., pi, 371. 27.__Maspero, G., Essais sur I' Art Egyptien, Paris, 1912, fig. 82, p, 245. 44 EGYPTIAN ART 28. Legrain, G., Statues et statuettes de rots et de particuiiers, t. iii. Cairo^ 1914, Nos. 42236 to 42241 and pi. XLIV-XLVIII ; Wreszinski, W., Eine Statue des Monthemhet, in the Orientalistische Literaturzeiiung, t. 19, 19 16, col. ro-i8, with 3 plates. 29. Griffith, F. LI., Encyclopedia Britann'ica, s, v. Egypt, p. 79. 30. Borchardt, L., Die Annalen und die zeitliche Festlegung des alten Reic/ies der dgyptischen Geschichte. Berlin, 1917. CHAPTER III PRIMITIVE UPPER EGYPT THE previous chapter has given us a glimpse of some of the highest points reached by Egyptian art in the course of its history, and we must now survey the most humble and most rudimentary efforts handed down to us through the burials of archaic times, (i) About twenty-five years ago Petrie found the first tombs of a special type which was a puzzle to archaeologists. These tombs took the form of a more or less regular trench dug in the desert in which the body was laid in a position different from anything previously known to Egyptian funereal archaeology. Beside the corpse were arrayed an abundance of objects which conformed to no known type. There was some hesitation in assigning these burials to any definite period of Egyptian history until it was recognised, when further documents came to light, that they could be designated as the very earliest tombs of the inhabitants of the Nile Valley. Let us now examine a few types. In one, the body, in a contracted attitude, with the knees drawn up to the chest and the hands bent over the face, was wrapped in matting and laid in a cavity more or less oval in shape. (2) In another, the trench is rectangular, the body is lying in the usual manner on its left side in the attitude just described, and all around it are vases of various types intended to contain funereal food. (3) Sometimes the body, the flesh having previously been removed, is placed in a coffin of burnt clay, in which likewise are found the various objects which made up the funerary gear. (4) The pottery coffin, or chest, sometimes fills only a part of the trench ; in such cases 45 46 EGYPTIAN ART the gear is arranged partly within the chest and partly outside it. (5) The trench, which in other cases reaches considerable size, is divided into a number of compartments, the greatest being the funereal chamber proper, the others forming a kind of repository for the burial objects and for offerings. (6) The determination of the epoch to which these tombs are assignable being generally admitted, it remained to attempt a classification of them in chronological succession. Professor Petrie, in his memoir on Diospolis, was able, thanks to the abundance of the material he found and to the minute care with which excavation was conducted, to draw up a chronological basis for these primitive tombs. He distinguished a certain number of trenches, marked by the numbers 30 to 80, which he called *' Sequence Dates." (The numbers below 30 were reserved for the discovery of burials still more ancient.) The general development of the civilisation revealed by this study showed that two periods could be distinguished. This resulted mainly from the analysis of the pottery, which was, as we have seen, particularly abundant, and provided a whole series of distinct varieties. The first period is characterised by pottery with a red ground, whilst the second is chiefly marked by pottery with a light ground. Red Ground. — The colouring is obtained by a coating of haematite, which gives in the baking a fairly vivid red. A distinction must be made between the vases called " black- topped " (that is to say, those whose upper parts are black) and " red-polished " (vases with a polished red surface). The black colouring of the edges is produced by the reduction of hasmatite under the influence of oxide of carbon, released by the partial combustion of wood In the course of the baking. Petrie has named the red vases decorated with markings of white ** cross-lined," and these are characterised mainly by designs In intersecting white lines. Light Ground, — In this second category are included the vases called " wavy-handled," *' decorated," ** late " and " rough-faced." The first mentioned derive their name from the attachment fixed by the potter to the body of the vase about its widest part in the form of a wavy strip of PRIMITIVE UPPER EGYPT 47 clay, with the object of holding the cordwork from which the vessel was suspended. The vases of this order have different shapes, passing from a globular type with a wide body to a perfectly cylindrical type. The more the vase approximates the cylinder, the more the wavy handle tends to encircle the body completely, until in the totally cylindrical type the zigzag line completely encircles it. The "decorated " pots bear on their surfaces paintings in red or brown colours, of which some imitate basket-work, whilst others represent different subjects to which we shall come later on. The " late " vases show an even surface, whilst the ** rough-faced " have, as the name implies, a rugged ground and are made of coarser material. Petrie drew up a fundamental series of vases of the most frequent types at different periods of the primitive epoch. This classification is based upon the appearance, develop- ment, and disappearance of various types, as well as upon the relative number of different types in one and the same tomb. If one reduces a characteristic plate in Petrie's Diospolis (Plate II) to the form of a chart, the following result is obtained : — Type. 3°. 31-4. 35-42. 43-50- 51-62. 63-71- 72-80. First Group Red — Black-topped Red Cross-lined . Second Group Light — Wavy Decorated . ^^ Late . ^ . Rough . ^ . 5 I 3 3 2 3 4 I 2 I 4 I 3 3 2 I 6 2 4 I At sequence date 30 the table shows five black-edged vases to one red-polished. At sequence date 31—4, for three black-edged vases there are three red-polished and two cross-lined. The black-topped are still represented 48 EGYPTIAN ART by three specimens at sequence date 35-42, by two at sequence date 43-50, after which they disappear. The wavy-handled series is arranged beginning with globular and ending with cylindrical vases. It will be observed that the wavy-handled vases are rather rarer with the black- topped group, while they are more frequent with all the other categories of the second group, and furnish thus a dividing line between the two. Discoveries on sites of the earliest dynasties conform to this arrangement, showing as they do that the cylindrical vases (which are derived from the wavy-handled) persist into the historic period, whilst the black-bordered red pottery completely die out (subject to a reservation to which we shall refer later on). It can be shown that the point of contact of the 1st dynasty with the system of sequence dates falls somewhere in the neigh- bourhood of sequence date 75. (7) The results thus arrived at by Petrie have been confirmed by the various excavations carried out in recent years by different explorers. Never — when sufficient attention has been paid to minute details — has the general framework established by the English excavator been broken down by the excavations of the American Reisner at Naga-ed- Derr, or the Austrian Junker at Tourah, or the German Moller at Abusir-el-Meleq. Never has a tomb yielding an assortment of pottery controverted the table set out above. It thus becomes certain that the tombs discovered in Upper Egypt belonging to the primitive period fall into two groups, distinguished principally by their pottery. In recent years, consequent upon the operations of raising the Assuan barrage, the Egyptian Government decided to have explorations made over all the Nubian burial-grounds before they had to be submerged. The discoveries which resulted from these excavations have been most important from the point of view of augmenting our knowledge of the primitive period. (8) In Nubia also two periods are recognisable, the first offering complete identity with the first period of Upper Egypt. On both sides the same civilisation is manifested by the objects from the tombs, nor is there evidence of any PLATE IX GARGOYLES IN THE WALL OF THE TEMPLE OF HORUS AT EDFU PLATE X :==5*4» ■" ~N^^&.SJ^^V THE ROYAL TOMB OF NAQADA AS RP:STOKED BY DE MORGAN PRIMITIVE UPPER EGYPT 49 type which might be called distinctively Nubian. As regards the second period, it is noticeable that there is a persistence of primitive types which had disappeared in Egypt : the forms change, but the genres survive. The vases of the second Egyptian period, particularly the wavy- handled, as well as the decorated, appear but in small quan- tities in the Nubian tombs, as if the centre from which these varieties of pottery radiate were more remote in Nubia than in Upper Egypt. Under the Ancient Empire the Pharaonic civilisation of Egypt does not make itself apparent in any marked degree beyond the First Cataract ; and naturally the burials continue to yield objects of a type quite of their own and derived from primitive models. If, then, there is disappearance in Upper Egypt, there is also survival in Nubia, and this survival accounts for sporadic reappearance of vases of Nubian type in Egypt which recall the produc- tions of the primitive period. This explains how it is that Maspero found, at El-Khizam, black-topped red vases under a Vlth dynasty stele : and it explains also the find- ing of Nubian pottery in the tombs called pan graves at Diospolis, etc. Reisner's recent excavations at Kerma in the Sudan have likewise shown the existence of red pottery with black tops of wonderful perfection. Several specimens have been previously found in Egypt, at Abydos, Kurna, etc., but it has not been known to what centre of manufacture to rele- gate them. The Meroitic pottery of Ethiopian times shows the late survival of the pottery of the most ancient period of Upper Egypt. Primitive civilisation ebbed from north to south, following the course of the Nile. The information gained from these remarks enables us to say that the second period in Upper Egypt shows the influence of contact with a neighbouring civilisation which we naturally look for in Lower Egypt. But there is not only the pottery of the tombs to con- sider ; other objects must claim attention. We will mention first of all the hard stone vases which constitute one of the most surprising industries of the inhabitants of Upper Egypt. The material was everywhere ready to hand, but it 4 50 EGYPTIAN ART would seem that, attracted by the difficulty of the task, they set themselves generally to carve the very rocks which offered the greatest resistance with an accuracy which is simply astounding. Without entering into a special study of this category of objects, two observations must, however, be made. Several of the most frequent types are copies of the pottery vases of the second period, globular pots with cylindrical handles, a form only really necessary in the case of mud-made vessels, for a cylindrical handle of stone is very difficult to work, and is, moreover, useless, for there is no fear that the suspending cord would cut through the granite by rubbing ; in the earthenware, on the contrary, a wide cylindrical handle is the guarantee of long use of a vessel. The second observation to be made is that, from the time of the first dynasties, if stone vases continued to be made, the hardest rocks would be abandoned little by little in favour of softer materials, particularly alabaster. The Egyptians of the earliest dynasties possessed beautiful vases made of metal, the use of which supplanted that of stoneware, which was finally abandoned. Much the same happened in the case of working in flint. The tombs of primitive times furnish admirable flint knives, worked with really astounding dexterity. Towards the close of the second period these beautiful flakes suddenly give place to much coarser productions, (9) some of which are palpable imitations of metal implements, as for instance knives with handles. (10) The explanation is not far to seek : a new industry, coming from without, had lowered the value of the masterpieces made of a material which would henceforth serve only the needs, of the lower orders of the population. So far we have confined our attention to the products of the industrial arts, but the burials have also yielded objects which enable us to form an idea of the capacity of the primi- tive races in sculpture and draughtsmanship. In several tombs the presence of modelled figures has been made known : these are rude attempts to render, in clay or bone, the human form, and may be compared, for instance, with two female figurines in the collections of the PRIMITIVE UPPER EGYPT 51 Brussels Museum. One is armless, the arms being reduced to mere stumps ; the other has both arms, which end in bird's claws and are raised above the head in an attitude of dancing or of lamentation. The shape of the body is clumsily rendered : the feet are lacking and the head resembles that of a bird, perhaps in the attempt to portray a woman carrying her head high in the air with the chin thrust for- ward. We may mention too, from the same museum, two hippopotamus teeth : the upper part is carved to represent a bearded head. The work here is rather better, and one might even allow for it a certain dexterity in rendering the charac- teristics of the race. Sometimes animal figures are found — oxen, cows, sheep or hippopotami, wrought in different materials. Finally, boats fitted up with their equipment have been discovered, and even, in one case, a model of a house with clay walls. (11) All this is very rudimentary, but nevertheless extremely interesting in showing that the primitive inhabitants of Upper Egypt had funerary rites bearing great analogy with those of the Pharaonic Egyptians. The dead man desired to have in his tomb, ready at hand, not only funerary offerings, but model dwellings, boats, little models of cattle, and even of slaves, both male and female. It would be difficult to affirm summarily that there was simply an analogy derived from similar animistic conceptions. Would it not be better to consider the hypothesis of one civilisation borrowing from another ? We may also note, in passing, various objects of clothing or attire : these are the combs decorated on the upper border with figures of antelopes or birds, spoons with handles made up of little carved animals, such as a lion chasing a dog. Drawing and painting are known to us chiefly from the decorated pottery mentioned above. The mosL frequent design is a fairly complex contrivance formed by a double line curved in the shape of a bowl, with numerous strokes on the lower part, two little constructions above and towards the middle, and two kinds of banners. Some would see in these designs representations of villages, but the majority of archaeologists consider them to be boats. (12) The two 52 EGYPTIAN ART incurved lines constitute the hull, the little strokes below are the oars, and the constructions within are the cabins. One plate published by Petrie(i3) collects together the greater number of fundamental types. On the first line two rows of birds, flamingos or ostriches, alternate with two boats. Above the second are two antelopes. On the second line we find the birds and boats and a crocodile. The third line shows, both above and below the boats, a series of triangles, in which we recognise mountains. Further on we have a series of mountains, two large boats separated by a plant on each side of which are stationed two female figures whose attitude recalls the pottery figures we have just described. Looking a little more closely at the boats on his specimen, we notice in the fore part a rope and a mooring post. At the prow is a sort of palm-leaf, which serves as a shelter for the pilot ; at the stern three great oars ending in paddles, recalling exactly the great steering- oars which are usual on the Egyptian boats in historic times. Behind one of the cabins, a standard surmounted by the figure of an elephant indicates, we must suppose, the locality from which the boat has come. The careful study of the different standards depicted on the pottery shows that it is possible to group them in a series in which are found several signs which were used in later times in the hieroglyphs to denote the provinces of Lower Egypt. (14) The object of these paintings must be sought for in connection with their presence in the tombs, and it would seem that the scenes painted or drawn are used to replace models and figures. By this means are placed at the dead man's disposal his boats and his slaves ; he is provided with cattle and game-birds in the same way as was effected in later times by the use of sepulchral figures and funerary paintings and bas-reliefs. The most likely confirmation of this interpretation is the existence of one tomb, unique up to the present and discovered at Hierakonpolis in Upper Egypt, where we find developed and amplified as mural pamtings the usual themes of pottery decoration. (15) Here again the big boats occupy the greater part of the wall (on one of them a man works the rudder) ; in the free space are PRIMITIVE UPPER EGYPT 53 depicted scenes of hunting and battle. By means of the pottery found in the tomb the sequence date 67 can be approximately established. We are thus somewhere near the date at which the primitive series and the 1st dynasty converge. One might almost ask oneself whether the paintings in this unique tomb of Hierakonpolis have not the right to be considered as a debased imitation of the fine tombs of the Pharaonic age which we shall meet with under the Ancient Empire. One detail perhaps gives, in this connection, a very precise indication. In the lower angle is a man, upright, who lifts his arm and brandishes a club above three tiny squatting figures who appear to be bound. This is the " caricature " of the scene we have already met with in the first Egyptian monument we studied, namely, the palette of Narmer. The Hierakonpolis tomb thus gives a crude rendering of one of the most persistent and immutable themes of Pharaonic art. One is tempted to sec likewise in the paintings of boats on the pottery a naive representation of the great Egyptian vessels which the inhabitants of Upper Egypt were wont to see navigating the stream during the period of conquest in their country. There are still some objects bearing engraved pictures which must be noticed. The most typical examples, perhaps, are great flint knives with decorated handles of ivory or gold. One of them, in the Cairo Museum, with its handle made of a sheet of gold-leaf, is decorated with engravings. (16) On one of the faces two serpents are intertwined, and in the free space between the coils of their bodies the designer has inserted floral devices, evidently with the dislike of empty spaces which is so well known amongst all primitive peoples. On the reverse side is a procession of real and fantastic animals which proceed from the bottom to the top. We shall presently come across similar representations on ivory handles. It now remains to examine a final class o'" objects — the slate palettes. These palettes, of which the object or use is not quite certain and which may perhaps most fittingly be called magical instruments, (17) present either geometrical \ 54 EGYPTIAN ART or animal forms. Amongst the animals the most frequent are the antelope, fishes, tortoises and birds. If, in most cases, the animal is identifiable at first sight, in others we find derivations more and more remote from the primitive type. These palettes had entirely disappeared from Egypt in historic times. They survive in Nubia up to the first dynastic age, but in a completely atrophied form. It would therefore appear that these objects owe their origin to beliefs and customs peculiar to the inhabitants of Upper Egypt. However, the excavations at Hierakonpolis yielded, in the most ancient deposits, decorated slate palettes, one of which is no other than the great palette of King Narmer. It bears the king's name at the top of both faces, written in hiero- glyphs. This discovery enables us to assign to a definite epoch several fragments scattered in different museums, the dating of which had been the object of much discussion. We will refer to them again in the next chapter when studying the problem of the origin of Egyptian Pharaonic art. BIBLIOGRAPHY. 1. Capart, J., Primitive Art in Egypt. London, 1905. 2. Pctrie, W. M. F., Diospolis Parva, London, 1901, pi. V. 3. Ibid. 4. Reisner, G. A., Work of the University of California at El-Ahaiwah and Naga-ed-Der, in the Archaeological Report of the Egypt. Exploration Fund, 1900-1901, p. 23, fig. 3. 5. Reisner, G. A., The Early Dynastic Cemeteries of Naga-ed-Dir, Part I., Leipzig, 1908, pi. 16. 6. Ibid., pi. 4. 7. Petrie, W. M. F., Abydos, Part II, London, 1903, pi. LXIV. 8. Reisner, G. A., Archaeological Survey of Nubia, Report for 1907-8 ; Archaeological Report, Cairo, 191 o. Firth, C. M., Report for 1908-9, Archaeological Report, Cairo, 191 2. 9. Petrie, W. M. F., Diospolis Parva, London, 1901, p. 23 and pi. IV. 10. Petrie, W. M. Y., Abydos, Part I, London, 1902, pis. XVIII-XIX. 11. Capart, J., Primitive Art in Egypt, London, 1905, chap. iv. 12. Morgan, J. de. La Barque des Morts chez les Egyptiens pridynastiques, in the Revue anthropolgique, t. ixx., 1920, pp. 272-82 and fig. 22. 13. In Naqada and Ballas, London, 1896, pi. LXVII. 14. Newberry, P. E., List of Vases with Cult-Signs in the Annals of Archa- ology and Anthropology, Liverpool, t. v., pp. 137-42 ; Notes on Some Egyptian PRIMITIVE UPPER EGYPT S5 Nome Ensigns and their Historical Significance, in Ancient Egypt, t. i., 19 14, pp. 5-8, where the quotation to the Annals must be corrected, vol. v., p. 132. 15. Quibell, J. E., and Green, F. W., Hierakonpolis, London, 1902, t. ii., pis. LXXV-LXXVIII. 16. Quibell, J. E., Archaic objects {Catalogue giniral au Miisie du Caire), Cairo, 1905, t. i., p. 237; Currelly, Ch. T., Stone Implements, Cairo, 1913* pi. XL VII. 17. Capart, J., Les Palettes en schiste de PEgypte primitive. Brussels, 1908. CHAPTER IV THE FIRST PHARAONIC MONUMENTS A SERIES of successful excavations has led to the discovery of monuments belonging to the earliest dynasties : Hierakonpolis in Upper Egypt, Naqada several miles north of Thebes, Abydos with its ancient temple and necropolis — all these sites have proved themselves to be of the utmost importance for the study of the first stages of civilisation of Pharaonic Egypt. To these we might add Toura on the right bank of the Nile, and Tarkan on the left, both in the region of Memphis. On looking through the memoirs in which scholars have published the results of their researches in these localities, one is at once struck by the perfect concordance of the objects brought to light. On the lines of the study which we made in the preceding chapter, we shall begin by establishing the identity of types, a particularly striking feature in the case of pottery. For there is, in fact, no one ware characteristic of Hierakonpolis, another of Abydos, a third of Memphis ; on the contrary, in the whole Nile Valley one and the same " fashion " is followed by the potters. It probably came into existence at a central spot whose influence was sufficiently strong to carry it in all directions. The same general identity is likewise perceived in the forms of the architectural monuments, a point which is very apparent in the tombs of the Ancient Empire. We may notice, however, for the moment the great tomb of Naqada, which the inscriptions enable us to place at the beginnmg of the 1st dynasty, (i) The upper part of the walls is lost, but enough remains to prove that the 56 THE FIRST PHARAONIC MONUMENTS si exterior sides of the tomb presented a curious arrangement of pilasters forming projections with niches let in, a feature which occurs again and again in the course of the study of Egyptian architecture. Among the most important objects preserved in these archaic deposits are fragments bearing royal names. The first, already known to us, is the palette of King Narmer (Menes ?), which we must now examine more closely. (2) On the principal face (that upon which the figures are largest) the central part is occupied by a group to which attention has already been directed ; the king wears the crown of Upper Egypt ; he raises a club with which he is about to strike a conquered foe kneeling on the ground. Behind the king is a serving-man bearing his sandals. Above the head of the victim a symbolic group signifies that the falcon- god Horus has granted the king victory over six thousand enemies. On the other face, the field of the palette is divided into several registers. In the first we witness a ceremony : the king, decked this time with the crown of Lower Egypt, advances accompanied by a sandal-bearer and preceded by a high functionary. The procession, which moves towards a group of decapitated bodies, is headed by four bearers carrying ensigns. Below, two feline animals stretch and intertwine their necks in such a way as to enclose a circular space. The two fantastic animals are held in leash by two men who occupy the free space above the beasts. At the bottom a bull treads a vanquished enemy underfoot and destroys with its horns the walls of a fortified town. The two fugitives at the foot of the principal face would appear to belong to this scene. Here, indeed, we have before our eyes a representation which is purely Egyptian, showing that the costumes, attributes and attitudes of later periods were already quite in use. Several hieroglyphs, amongst others the king's name thrice repeated, demonstrate the employment in such remote times of this peculiar system of writing. The style of the palette has not yet reached the standard of other monuments of the sarhe age which we shall presently deal with ; we can easily perceive the awkwardness and 58 EGYPTIAN ART the stiffness of some of the figures ; but an explanation of this will be given later on. The same defects in style can be seen elsewhere in the bas-relief of King Mersekha or Semerkha, carved at a great height on the rocks at Wady- Magara in Sinai. (3) Here three large royal figures are set out side by side : on the left, a repetition of the principal group of the palette, the king is preparing to immolate his vanquished enemy ; before this group the figure of the king, twice repeated and differing only in the crown (in one case that of Upper Egypt, in the other of Lower Egypt). It is well to note that in this group the triumphant king is also wearing the crown of Upper Egypt, which implies the supremacy of this part of the country over the other. The stele of the Serpent King (4) affords us an instance of the highest perfection coupled with extreme simplicity. A light frame follows the outline of the stone and shows up the royal name there engraved : in fact, the entire decora- tion of the stone set up in the king's tomb confines itself to giving us his principal name. The Egyptian kings of classic times had five names corresponding to different titularies ; the most important, that which we have here, is called the Horus name. A falcon, the bird sacred to Horus, perches upon the upper part of a rectangle in which is inscribed the king's name. The lower part of the rect- angle is occupied by a curious complex of horizontal and vertical lines which immediately recalls the arrangement of the walls of the royal tomb of Naqada. But this question will be followed up in detail later on. In the ruins of the temple of Hierakonpolis a granite fragment was found, doubtless a door-jamb, which repeats several times the name of King Khasekhemui, of the Ilnd dynasty. (5) Here again we recognise the general arrange- ment just described, but with this difference : the rectangle is surmounted, not by a falcon only, but by two animals symbolising the two parts of Egypt — the falcon and the still unidentified animal of the god Seth. This is a way of expressing that the king re-united under one sceptre after a period of division " the two parts, of Horus and of Seth," as the texts frequently say. The same King THE FIRST PHARAONIC MONUMENTS 59 Khasekhemui (or one of his predecessors called Khasekhem) is known by two statues found at Hierakonpolis. (6) We may note in passing that, in spite of their mutilations, they present the fundamental characteristics of the royal sculpture of the following dynasties ; were it not for the evidence of the inscriptions it is probable that archaeologists would feel some hesitation in assigning them to so remote an age. At the level dated by these monuments, excavators have discovered at Hierakonpolis and at Abydos great quantities of fragments worked in ivory : the testimony of the inscrip- tions carved upon some of them enables us to affirm that the whole collection certainly belongs to the earliest dynasties. These ivories, unhappily very mutilated, display the existence of figures of men or of animals of very finished workmanship. But few examples need be cited. One fragment in the Oxford Museum is the upper part of the body of a woman, (7) whose shoulders are covered by long wavy locks ; in spite of its mutilations it shows perfect execution. We can see that the sculptor's chisel has carefully studied the shape of the head, and has succeeded in rendering the features in a most expressive manner. The eyes, which were made of some other material, have unfortunately disappeared, leaving two gaping sockets in the midst of the face. We may compare with it a minute figure of only a few centimetres in height preserved in the British Museum : (8) it is a king of Upper Egypt wrapped in a long embroidered cloak. The injuries of time have altered the surface of the ivory, but not too much to prevent us from appreciating the delicacy of the workmanship and the intense realism which characterises it. The part played by these little figures has not been deter- mined with certainty, but they may have been, after all, ex-voto offerings in the temples or funerary figures destined for the tombs. We do know, however, the purpose of the figures of dogs, lions and lionesses which have been found in the tombs of several localities. They are gaming-pieces, and to be convinced of this we have but to compare the lion and the dog from the royal tomb of Naqada (9) with the painting of a box of games in the tomb of Hesi at Saqqara. (beginning of the Ilird dynasty). (10) These little images 6o EGYPTIAN ART all testify to great dexterity in seizing the characteristic forms of the animals. These same tombs contained fragments of furniture. They give us a striking example of the stylisation of an object of daily use which was so successful that the Egyptians adhered to it with scarcely any change until the latest epochs of their history. We will examine two chair-legs found in the tomb of Naqada, which are wrought in the form of the legs of a bull, (i i) One is a fore-leg, the other a hind-leg ; both rendered with the greatest fidelity. The piece of furni- ture was supported by the animal, or indeed represented the animal itself, standing normally upon its four feet, two before, two behind. The necropolis of Abydos has yielded a whole series of identical, or similar, pieces. It will be noticed that in one series of examples the legs of the bull are more bent, as if the animal were weighed down beneath its load. (12) Similar objects have been recovered, entire or fragmen- tary, from all the 1st dynasty sites : they show a well- finished type which was handed down to the Egyptians of posterity in a form wellnigh unchangeable. Objects in faience, enamelled sometimes in a single colour, sometimes in several colours, are everywhere met with ; there are the figurines, vases, glazed tiles for wall decoration, etc., (13) the very abundance of which proves that we are dealing with a craftsmanship which has left its tentative stages far behind and has adapted itself to the requirements of widely different uses. It is at the same time one of the most typical industries of Pharaonic Egypt. In some of the primitive tombs of Upper Egypt collars of enamelled beads have been found, but these same burials contain, more by exception than by rule, an occasional object of copper. Their presence there is to be explained apparently by commercial intercourse, and enamel, like copper, imme- diately indicates one and the same origin. It is to Sinai that the Egyptians of the most ancient periods went to exploit the copper mines, and the Egyptian enamel is, as is well known, derived from copper. Before going farther it is well to inquire what conclusions THE FIRST PHARAONIC MONUMENTS 6i emerge from the mass of dated objects examined up to this point. There is no possibility of confusion between the group of documents found at Hierakonpolis and in the royal tombs of Abydos on the one hand, and the mass of objects from Upper Egypt which are studied in the previous chapter. These are quite another matter, the product of quite another civilisation. One is led from this to the problem already mentioned : whence came the wave of civilisation which altered the aspect of the objects discovered in Upper Egypt since the second period of the primitive epoch ? The complete civilisation which now appears to us as being in possession of very developed art is further charac- terized by a system of writing which is already fully con- stituted. We may quote in this connection the remarks of several scholars. Professor Steindorff says : ** The formation of hieroglyphic writing goes back to prehistoric times ; already on the inscriptions of the royal tombs of Abydos — that is to say, the most ancient historical monu- ments — we come across Egyptian writing as an accomplished fact which, in the course of later ages, will have to undergo but a minimum of modification." (14) Professor Sethe of Gottingen expresses himself as follows : ** Under Menes and his successors, the kings of the first historic dynasty, we find Egyptian civilisation completely evolved, and even, in a sense, having reached its culminating point. In par- ticular, the writing has developed as completely as possible from the pictographic writing from which it originated, towards its transformation into phonetic writing which must certainly have been in use for some centuries." (15). Again, it was in Egypt itself that hieroglyphs came into being. In the opinion of Professor Griffith of Oxford ** the ancient Egyptian system of writing, so far as we know, originated, developed, and finally expired strictly within the limits of the Nile Valley. The germ of its existence may have come from without, but as we know it, it is essen- tially Egyptian and intended for the expression of the Egyptian language." (16) We are bound, then, to admit a historic period before 62 EGYPTIAN ART the 1st dynasty. The Egyptians cherished the memory of it, and for them the 1st dynasty was not the starting- point of their history, but only of the history of a reign which united Upper and Lower Egypt under one sceptre. When they related the beginnings of their existence they described the reign of the gods upon earth. Then, when the gods had ceased to rule, they bequeathed their power to numerous kings before the time of Menes. The historical fragment of Palermo contained lists of these kings of Upper and of Lower Egypt. The Turin papyrus, as well as Manetho, preserve traditions of successive families of kings anterior to the 1st dynasty. Without entering into the details of these questions, I will content myself with quoting the conclusion of the historian Ed. Meyer : (17) " There is no question here of the interpretation of a later age, but of a very ancient tradition. In the royal papyrus of Turin, preserved only in fragments, it seems that the gods were succeeded first of all by a dynasty of more than a thousand years' duration, then by twenty kings with a period of eleven hundred years, then by ten the number of whose years is lost, then by others again of which only the number of years has been preserved, three hundred and thirty ; then ten kings with more than a thousand years, then nineteen sovereigns of Memphis who reigned only eleven years, four months and twenty days ; and nineteen kings of the northern country with more than two thousand one hundred years, and finally the dynasty of ' Worshippers of Horus,* with over thirteen thousand four hundred and twenty years. According to Manetho, after three dynasties of gods or demi-gods, follows first a certain number of kings with one thousand eight hundred and seventeen years, and then thirty Kings of Memphis with one thousand seven hundred and ninety years, ten Kings of Thinis with three hundred and fifty years, and finally the genii who correspond to the * Worshippers of Horus,' with five thousand eight hundred and thirteen years. In spite of differences in detail, it will be observed that the general scheme is the same." For fuller information I must refer the reader to my study, published in 19 14, on The Origins of Egyptian Civilisa- THE FIRST PHARAONIC MONUMENTS 63 tion^ (18) in which I discussed the arguments which seemed to me to show that this history before the 1st dynasty could be placed almost entirely in Lower Egypt. It happens that archasological discoveries in Upper Egypt have been very rich in a number of places, yet, side by side with the civilisa- tion of the indigenous peoples, no traces whatever have been found of a Pharaonic civilisation before the develop- ment of the 1st dynasty. It might be supposed that the documents of the transition period still lie hidden in the burial-grounds which have up to the present escaped the attentions of archaeologists, but the series of pottery has shown in a concordant manner that perfect continuity has been maintained. It will be remembered that in the last chapter it was pointed out that the 1st dynasty attaches about the sequence date 75. If long lines of kings had reigned in Upper Egypt before Menes, it is strange, to say the least of it, that nowhere in the primitive burials have hieroglyphic inscriptions been found, although they abound when the 1st dynasty tombs are opened. There is, however, one historical fact that must certainly be taken into account, and that is the superiority which Upper Egypt exercised over Lower Egypt in historic times. It is likewise quite certain that at the dawn of the dynastic era Upper Egypt had conquered Lower Egypt. It is probable that Egyptian chiefs, firmly established in Upper Egypt, had at some given time conquered the Delta, which was the birthplace of their race. Here we have the first example of an event which repeated itself several times in the course of history. Thus, after the Ancient Empire the Theban princes gained ascendancy over the Herakleopolitan kings, and founded the Middle Empire, whose authority extended all over Egypt. In the same way, in the XVI Ith dynasty, the Theban princes expelled the Hyksos. (19) It is to a period first of struggles for freedom and then of conquest that the slate palettes belong, monuments which seem to be rather what we may perhaps term " imitatives." The Hierakonpolis specimen, in the name of Narmer, fixes with certainty the date of the whole series. 64 EGYPTIAN ART At several periods in the history of Egyptian art we come across groups of rude and clumsy monuments whose " imitative character " is absolutely undeniable. The earliest Theban sovereigns to the Xlth dynasty made lamentable copies of the artistic productions of the Ancient Empire. It was not until the time when their power was firmly estab- lished over the whole of Egypt that they had access to good models and to good workshops, and began their series of masterpieces. (20) We will now examine the most important palettes and fragments of palettes. A complete specimen was found at Hierakonpolis at the same time as that of Narmer. (21) The edge is adorned with figures of animals ; in the field are scattered pele-mele representations of animals, both real and fantastic, pursuing one another. On the obverse, the centre of which is occupied by a cavity, the figures are of the same character : we see again two feline animals with serpentine necks, one on either side of, and detached from, the cavity. If they are deprived of their decorative motive, these necks have no point whatever. One might almost see here a clumsy imitation of one of the motifs of the great palette. The un- fortunate animal reappears on a specimen in the Louvre, (22) but this time it is set far from the cavity and walks on the field of the object. On one of the faces is seen, rudely interpreted, a design figuring a palm-tree flanked by two giraffes. The fine fragment in the British Museum (23) (com- pleted by an Oxford fragment) might pass as having served as the model for the Louvre palette. Here the forms of the giraffes are drawn with the precision and care which characterise the fine animal drawings of the Egyptians of the Ancient Empire. On the reverse of the palm-tree and giraffe scene is depicted a battle episode. Once more we see the slain enemies lying on the ground, whilst a lion and some birds of prey come to tear them. The drawings are of unequal merit : the lion is not of such pure execution as the giraffes, but the corpse which is being devoured by the beast is drawn with real perfection. The Oxford frag- PLATE XI CENTRAL COURT OF THE PYRAMID-TEMPLE OF SAHURE, AS RESTORED BY BORCHARDT PLATE XII PRONAOS OF THE TEMPLE OF HORUS AT EDFU THE FIRST PHARAONIC MONUMENTS 65 ment (24) represents two more enemies led captive and escorted by standards similar to those which we have examined on the palette of Narmer, or on the stern-ends of the barges painted on the primitive pottery. Similar standards are also carried by the hunters depicted on the palette, of which two fragments are in the British Museum and a third in the Louvre. (25) The animals tracked by the two bands of warriors are in all respects similar to those represented on several of the previously mentioned palettes. A fragment in the Louvre (26) is closely allied to the palette of which one part is in the British Museum and the other at Oxford. Here the standards are represented " in action " seizing a rope " in their hands." The upper part of this fragment is occupied by a bull goring an enemy, which recalls one of the episodes in the Narmer palette. It will be observed that the feet of the bull are stylised in the same manner as the feet of the furniture which we dealt with earlier. On one face, crenelated enclosures, in which are hieroglyphic signs, indicate the names of the towns vanquished by the conqueror. Finally a fragment in Cairo (27) details on one face a whole series of names of towns, and on the other are set out spoils brought from Libya. (28) Three successive registers show sheep, asses and bulls. These animal figures are so crude and rough that the whole production looks like a lame copy of a good original. It may be compared with a bas-relief in the temple of Sahure, of the Vth dynasty, at Abusir. (29) Here again is seen set out spoils taken also from the Libyans, and the series of animals arranged in successive registers exactly reproduces sheep, asses and oxen in the same order as the Cairo fragment. Representations which could likewise be called " imita- tive " are found on a certain number of utensils and various other objects : such is the knife in the Cairo Museum, with its handle of engraved gold ; such also is the ivory comb in the Davis collection. (30) We must also note the flint knives with ivory handles, the most important specimen of which is in the Louvre. (31) If these flints are to be ranked with the wonderful neolithic 5 66 EGYPTIAN ART implements of Upper Egypt, dated in Petrie's ** Sequence Dates " about 60, and are consequently to be included amongst indigenous manufactures, the sculptures of the handles — the thematic character of which has been so ably demonstrated by Benedite (32) — find their continuation in the series of ivories from Hierakonpolis belonging to dynastic Egyptian art. The knife of Gebel-el-Arak deviates so much from the manner characteristic of the civilisation of Upper Egypt that some writers would seek for its origin outside the Nile Valley, as far off, indeed, as Elam (33). It presents, however, nothing which would exclude it from the scheme of Pharaonic civilisation. (34) We will now leave these documents, which imitate in a more or less clumsy fashion the productions of a more accomplished art, and revert to the question of Egyptian art as it appears clearly in dated documents of the earliest dynasties. In his book on Egyptian Art in the " Ars Una " series Maspero expresses himself as follows : (25) ** When the Memphite dynasties arose (the Ilird dynasty is the first Memphite) it (art) was already in full possession of its ruling ideas, its conventions, its formulas, its technique, all the features which gave it originality and character." This clear and concise statement we may take as a sure guide, but we will, however, add one remark further, and that from henceforth Egyptian art tends to crystallise into formulae; in reality its period of formation and progress is left behind, it can only remain stationary or deteriorate. If we seek the cause of this fact, we shall most probably find it princi- pally bound up in the influence of religion. Art is inherent in the service of the religious and funerary rites which the Egyptians had inherited from their forefathers and which they had the greatest scruples in modifying. For thousands of years they repeated the same acts, dictated by the ritual which passed almost without alteration from age to age. Without insisting now on these ideas, which would involve us in considerable elaboration, it is needful to illus- trate by a few examples the persistence of forms and motives. The royal tomb of Naqada is adorned, as is well known. THE FIRST PHARAONIC MONUMENTS 67 by projecting pilasters and recessed niches. This archi- tectural arrangement passes on throughout the ages. Pro- fessor Meyer remarks that " were it not certain, from the evidence of the objects found, that this tomb dates from the time of Menes, we should certainly place it at a later date — the commencement of the Ilird dynasty." (36) As a matter of fact, the tombs of this epoch supply us with a whole series of very characteristic examples. Two tombs of the Vth dynasty at Saqqara reproduce in stone, at the end of the chapel, the general arrangement of the exterior walls of the Naqada tomb. In the latter monument the upper part of the walls has disappeared. Here, on the contrary, in the tombs of Sabu (37) and of Niankh-Re, (38) the upper decoration is composed of two flowers or two leaves. This feature, which likewise figures on the archi- tectural portion of the stele of the Serpent King, proves by the evidence that the bottom of the rectangle containing the royal name really has the value of a monumental design. Its forms, the origin of which will occupy us in the next chapter, are preserved throughout the ages, and, by way of a typical example, it is sufficient to observe that the Horus name of King Sesostris I, of the Xllth dynasty, in the pyramid- temple at Lisht, copies them exactly. (39) But it might be objected that we have to do with a stereotyped model which has been repeated indefinitely by pure tradition, as forming an integral part of the royal protocol. We will, then, take another case, which deals with an architectural element which might be called living, in the sense that nothing prevents its being altered. The pyramid-temple of Sahure at Abusir furnishes the oldest example in the nature of a dactyliform capital ; that is to say, decorated with palms. (40) The tomb of Tehuti-hetep at El-Bersheh, of the Xllth dynasty, shows us a column whose capital is identical with that of the Vth dynasty. (41) At Tell-el-Amarna, the ruins of the palace of Amenophis IV, of the XVIIIth dynasty, once more give us an identical capital. (42) If we pass over a long period to the Graeco- Roman age, the pronaos of the temple of Edfu demonstrates that the old model had not ceased to be used, and the archi- 68 EGYPTIAN ART tects contented themselves with copying it as nearly as possible. (43) The same may be said of a pictorial motif. In the temple of Sahure is represented a procession of personages bearing tables of offerings for the deceased king. (44) We see there men and women bringing their tribute to the royal tomb : some of them have above their heads hieroglyphic signs denoting the different regions or provinces from which they have come. The men have a peculiar aspect, recalling the form which the Egyptians gave to the Nile-god, and for this reason these men are often spoken of as " Niles." The fleshy parts of these beings are fat, thereby indicating abundance and riches. The breast is strongly accentuated, the belly protrudes in heavy folds of fatness ; the clothing is reduced to a mere girdle, from the front of which are suspended flaps of cloth forming a kind of fringe. A monument of the Xllth dynasty, the granite table of offerings from the temple of Sesostris I at Lisht, repeats this procession of " Niles " in the same attitude and form. (45) At the beginning of the XVIIIth dynasty, in the temple of Deir-el- Bahari, (46) we come across the series of men and women figured in the same manner, with the geographical standards once more above their heads, and although the sculptor has given these figures neater and more slender contours, at the same time he has not failed to indicate the distended breasts of the Nile figures, nor yet to draw the belly bulging over the girdle, thereby reducing the loin-cloth to a mere hanging fringe. The temple of Seti I at Abydos, of the XlXth dynasty, supplies some fine examples of these pictures of " Niles," this time in a kneeling attitude. (47) One might quote countless other instances, of which none departs from the general rule, although many of these figures, at a later date, show plainly the deplorable decline in the art of drawing in Egypt. Thus it is that the " Niles " in the cella of the temple of Kalabshi, (48) built by the Emperor Augustus, repeat the same idea, but render it clumsily and carelessly. In connection with these processions of offering-bearers it is curious to compare a picture of the Ancient Empire THE FIRST PHARAONIC MONUMENTS 69 with another of the Roman period. In the one we see the staid and severe outlines in the tomb of Ptah-hetep II, (49) of simple and sure draughtsmanship ; in the other, a female offering-bearer at Kom-Ombo, (^c) heavy, gross and so overloaded with detail that it would seem as though the artist were afraid to leave a single inch of the stone unused. The rule is visible equally in the one and in the other, and it would seem that both cases were inspired by a single original model, but the execution differs to such a degree that one would scarcely venture to say, on comparing the two monuments, that Egyptian art had never changed at all in the course of its age-long history. But the most striking example of artistic forms, fixed in early times and persisting, is certainly that furnished by the hieroglyphic system. As is well known, the hiero- glyphs form a script in which all sorts of beings and objects are represented : men, animals, plants, buildings, furniture, divers utensils, etc., etc. If the origin of this writing be considered from the artistic point of view, two hypotheses present themselves. The first, which I hasten to declare absurd, is the following : that writing initiated art ; that is to say, that a people having formed the idea of representing their ideas by pictures would by this means have acquired the material for graphic pictures which would only have to be increased to put their owners in possession of an almost complete art. The other hypothesis, evidently the only acceptable one, is at the same time full of important considerations. The invention of pictographic characters could have been possible only among people whose artistic development was sufficient to give them the conception of fixing their ideas for their con- temporaries as well as for posterity by means of picture writing. In this case the very forms of hieroglyphs them- selves bear valuable witness to the artistic level which the Egyptians had attained at the time when the system was inaugurated. It will be remarked that the hieroglyphs show precisely that use of conventions which the Egyptians employed in historic times : although they generally drew the figures in 70 EGYPTIAN ART profile, they represented as full-face such details as would not be adequately represented by the silhouette : such as the head of the owl, the tails of the birds, the wings of a bird in flight, or the shoulders of a man. They drew the whole picture in plan when dealing, for example, with a lizard, or a scorpion, which are, so to speak, quite flat animals of which a silhouette would not be sufficiently characteristic. We must not forget that the hieroglyphs, when we first meet with them on the 1st dynasty monuments, have no longer the simple pictographic value which they had originally. They have acquired phonetic values which postulates, as Professor Sethe pointed out, a previous usage of several centuries. We can thus see that, by arguing from the hieroglyphs, we can push far back into the past for the origin of artistic forms, which were already com- pletely fixed at the beginning of the 1st dynasty. A number of illustrations of hieroglyphs, taken from different periods, show to what extent the characters of this writing which is above all monumental, have been precisely conserved. The quadrupeds in the tomb of Ptah-hetep I, of the Vth dynasty (51) — antelopes, oxen, asses, sheep — are outlined with remarkable knowledge and precision. One may say the same of the birds — eagles, falcons, owls, etc. (52) For the Middle Empire we may take as examples the birds of Beni Hasan, (53) then the various signs in the tomb of Tehuti-hetep at El-Bersheh. (54) As to the New Empire hieroglyphs, in the temple of Deir-el-Bahari, (55) the forms are still the same throughout, and we may be sure that they were designed from the same patterns, handed down from generation to generation. In the Sa'ite period models of hieroglyphs are often found engraved on soft stone. (^6) A falcon of this period may be profitably compared with the falcon on the stele of the Serpent King. (57) When we come to look at the miserable hieroglyphs of the temple built by the Emperor Augustus at Dendur, in Nubia, (58) we are appalled by the lamentable caricatures produced by the sculptors, who were nevertheless in the service of the great Roman Emperor. If we knew nothing of the chronology of Egyptian monuments, might we not THE FIRST PHARAONIC MONUMENTS 71 be inclined to believe that the Dendur hieroglyphs are rude and clumsy attempts, preceding by several centuries the fine and noble figure of the falcon on the stele of the Serpent King ? This, in short, we may say is the whole history of Egyptian art. We determine, in fact, between the 1st dynasty and the Roman epoch the various periods when after a brilliant display the best traditions undergo a spell of relapse or even eclipse ; then we consider the final and hopeless decadence of the Roman epoch, when everything decisively fades away, and we then have a brief indication of the manner in which are to be solved the broad lines of the historical problem raised by the art of ancient Egypt. It may not be out of place, finally, to cite a very curious example of the persistence of a craft which has remained immovable and has resisted the vicissitudes of the ages. In a tomb of the 1st dynasty at Tarkan, Professor Petrie found a fragment of matwork, which he placed on a modern Egyptian mat. (59) The photograph, which depicts the two specimens side by side, proves the extent to which, when no need for change arises, Egypt is capable of conserving for more than sixty centuries an unchanging tradition. BIBLIOGRAPHY. r. Borchardt, L., Das Grab des Menes, in the Zeitsckrift fiir agyptiscke Spracke, t. 36 (1898), pp. 87-105, with 5 plates. 2. Capart, J., Primitive Art in Egypt, figs. 183-4. 3. Petrie, W. M. F., Researches in Sinai, London, 1906, pi. XLII ; Gardiner, A. H., and Peet, T. E., The Inscriptions of Sinai, Part I, London, 1917, pi. I, la. 4. Benedite, G., La Stele dite du roi Serpent, in the Monuments Piot, t. xii., 1905, pp. 5-18, and pi. I. 5. Quibell, J. E., HierakonpoHs, Part I, London, 1900, pi. 11. 6. \bid., pis. XXXIX-XLI. 7. Capart, J., Primitive Art in Egypt, p. 171, fig. 133, No. 3. 8. Ibid., fig. 122. 9. Morgan, J. de, Recherches sur les Origines de I'Egypte. Ethnographic primitive et tombeau royal de N^gadah, Paris, 1897, figs. 698, 699, p. 192. 10. Qui bell, J. E., The Tomb of Hesy {Excavations at Sajqara, 1911-12), Cairo, 191 3, pi. XL 11. Capart, J., Primitive Art in Egypt, fig. 107. 72 EGYPTIAN ART 12. Amelineau, E., Les Nouvelles Fotiilles d'Aiydos, 1895-6. Compte- rendu in extenso, Paris, 1899, pi. XXXII. 13. Petrie, W. M. F., The Arts and Crafts of Ancient Egypt, London, 1909, pp. 108 seq. 14. Myers-Leiikon, Hieroglyphen, p. 315. 15. Sethe, K., Beitrage zur altesten Geschichte Aegyptens : i. Die " Horus- diener," in the Untersuchungen %ur Geschichte und Altertumskunde Aegyptens ^ t. iii., Leipzig, 1903, p. 11. 16. Encyclopaedia Britannica, nth edition, s.v. Egypt, p. 61. 17. Meyer, E., Geschichte des Altertums, I, 2, 3rd edition, Stuttgart and Berlin, 191 3, p. 102. 18. Capart, J., Les Origines de la Civilisation ^gyptienne, Bruxelles, 1914- Reprinted from the Bulletin de la Sociiti d'Anthropologie de Bruxelles, t. iiiiii. 19. The same process has been revealed in the case of the XXVth Ethiopian dynasty by the recent excavations of Reisner. See Discovery of the Tombs «f the Egyptian XXVth Dynasty at El-Kurru in Dongola Province, in the Sudan Notes and Records, t. ii., 1919, pp. 247 and sqq. 20. Compare the reliefs in Naville, E., and Hall, H. R., The Eleventh Dynasty Temple at Deir-el-Bahari, Part I, London, 1907, and the relief of King Se-ankh-ka-ra in the Abbott Collection ; Williams (Mrs.), Two Reliefs in the Abbott Collection, in the New York Historical Society, Quarterly Bulletin, t. ii., 1918, pp. 14-21, vi^ith 2 figs. 21. Capart, J., Primitive Art in Egypt, figs^ 171, 172. 22. Ibid., figs. 173, 174. 23. Ibid., figs. 179, 180. 24. Ibid., figs. 177, 178. 25. Ibid., fig. 170. 26. Ibid., figs. 181, 182. 27. Ibid., figs. 175, 176. 28. Sethe, K., Zur Erkldrung einiger Den km die r aus der Friihzeit der dgyptischen Kultur, in the Zeitschrift fiir dgypt. Spr., t. Iii., 19 14, pp. 55-60 and 3 figs. 29. Borchardt, L., Das Grabdenkmal des Konigs Sa'hu-re\ t. ii.. Die Wand- bilder, Leipzig, 191 3, pl. I and p. 13. 30. Bcnedite, G., The Carnarvon Ivory, in the Journal of Egyptian Archce- ology, t. v., 191 8, pl. XXXIII. 31. Benedite, G., he Couteau de Gebel el-Arak, in the Monuments Piot, t. xiii., 1916, pp. 1-34, with pl. I. 32. Benddite, G., The Carnarvon Ivory, in the Journal of Egyptian Archcc ology, t. v., 191 8, pp. 1-15, 225-41, with pis. I, XXXII-XXXIV. 33. Petrie, W. M. F., Egypt and Mesopotamia, in Ancient Egypt, 19 17, pp. 26-36, with 12 figs. 34. Capart, J., Le " Pseudo-Gilgamesh " figuri sur le couteau igyptien de Gebel el-'Arak, in the Comptes-rendus des stances de P Acad^mie des Inscriptions et B lles-Lettres, 1919, pp. 404-18, with 7 figs. 35. Maspero, G., Ars Una, Egypt, English Edition, 192 1, p. 23. 36. Meyer, E., Chronologie ^gyptienne, traduit par A. Moret, Paris, 191 2 iSi n. 2. THE FIRST PHARAONIC MONUMENTS 73 37. Mariette, A., Voyage dans le Haute-Egypte, Cairo, 1878, t. i., pi. 5. 38. Ibid., pi. 8. 39. Gautier, J. E., and J^quier, G., Mimoire sur les Fouilles de Licht, in the Mimoires de Plnstitut frangais d'archiologie orientale, Cairo, 1902, fig. 6, p. 12. 40. Borchardt, L., Das Grabdenkmal des Konigs Sa^hu-re\ i., Der Bau, Leipzig, 1910, pi. 6. 41. Newberry, P. E., E/ Bersheh, Part I, London, 1894, pi. IV, 42. Petrie, W. M. F., Tell-el-Amarna, London, 1894, pi. VL 43. Bechard, M., L'Egypte et le Nubie, Paris, 1877, pi. CIX. 44. Borchardt, L., Das Grabdenkmal des Konigs, Sa'/iu-re\ ii., Die Wand- bilder, Leipzig, 191 3, pi. 29-30. 45. Gautier, J. E., and Jequier, G., Mimoire sur les Fouilles de Licht, Cairo, 1902, pi. 8 and pp. 22-6. 46. Naville, E., The Temple of Deir-el-Bakari, Part V, London, 1906, pi. CXXVIIL 47. Capart, J., Le Temple de S/ti I, Brussels, 191 2, pi. XV. 48. Gauthier, H., Le Temple da Kalabc hah, Ca.\ro, 191 1, pi. Ill, and s^q. 49. Mariette, A., Voyage dans la Haute Egypte, Cairo, 1878, t. i, pi. 7. 50. von Biasing, F. W., Einfiihrung in die Geschichte der Aegyptischen Kunst, Berlin, 1908, pi. XXVIII, n. 2. 51. Da vies, N. de G., The Maitaba of Ptahhetep and Akhethetep, Part I, London, 1900, pi. VI 52. Ibid., pis. VII- VIII. 53. Griffith, F. LI., Beni Hasan, Part III, London, 1896, pi. II. 54. Griffith, F. LI., A Collection of Hieroglyphs, London, 1898, pis. VIII, IX. 55. Ibid., pis. I-IV. 56. Edgar, C. C, Sculptors' Studies and Unfinished Works, Cairo, 1906, pi. XXXIV and sqq. 57. von Bissing, F. W., Denkmdler dgyptischer Skulptur, Munich, 1906, pi. 125J. 58. Blackman, A. M., The Temple of Dendur, Cairo, 191 1, pi. CXIII, 59. Petrie, W. M. F., Tarkan I and Memphis V, London, 191 3, pi. X. Nos. 10, II. CHAPTER V ARCHITECTURAL HIEROGLYPHS AND KINDRED SUBJECTS SINCE the signs employed in writing have preserved for us pictures which belong to the farthest reaches of Pharaonic civilisation, it is not without importance now to examine such signs as represent buildings or parts of buildings, for therein lies the opportunity of discovering some of the fundamental elements of Egyptian architecture. Upon a single plate in one of Griffith's works (i) is collected a number of architectural hieroglyphs of the Ancient Empire. The simplest is the plan of a house, traced as a rectangle with an opening in the front part which corresponds to the doorway. In reality it is rather an enclosure than a house. Two variants show on the upper part a series of rearing serpents, which are a frequent border to walls, as we shall see. Two specimens represent a sort of rudimentary laby- rinth, constituting a walled enclosure, with a partition, which, whilst concealing the real entrance, forms a sort of corridor. Another sign, thrice repeated side by side, repre- sents a large rectangular enclosure with a smaller construction in one angle. This denotes, as a hieroglyph, a castle drawn within a precinct. A crenelated enclosure contains in its interior a building which the inscriptions call a palace. We next meet with a more complex construction. It is a sort of pavilion the sides of which are covered with intercrossing lines. On the upper part is a cornice, characteristic of Egyptian architecture, and a door opens below. Another similar erection seems to be sheltered by a roof upheld on two forked stakes. We notice the sign for the granary thrice repeated, in the form of a circular construction ending 74 ARCHITECTURAL HIEROGLYPHS ^^ in a dome, evidently made of kneaded earth or of clay, or perhaps of bricks. The pyramid is easily recognised, and need not detain us. Two signs depict a sort of kiosk, or tent, supported by a column, the sides of which are drawn in imitation of matting. As a separate part, we observe first of all a column, with a tenon for fitting on its upper end, then two pillars of polygonal form also ending in tenons. In one case, as we see from the illustration, the sides are slightly grooved with parallel channellings. The stele of the Serpent King (2) depicts an Important architectural framework. The rectangle, surmounted by the falcon, and ending at the base in an arrangement of vertical and horizontal lines, occurs over and over again in the inscriptions of offerings in the tombs of the 1st dynasty. The scheme of decoration, however, is sometimes reduced to a few strokes, carelessly drawn. In the example of the Serpent King, on the contrary, the indication of the details is very carefully worked, so that we can discern three towering blocks with doorways between them. The explanation of several other hieroglyphic signs which are more complex must be worked out in connection with the study of the architecture of the Ancient Empire. It will be observed from this rapid survey that the buildings represented by the hieroglyphs are, for the most part, simple constructions, implying, above all, the use of soft materials : wood, plaited straw, mud or bricks. The buildings of this kind having disappeared, generally without leaving the slightest traces, we must have recourse to pictured representa- tions of them if we would reconstruct them. Sometimes, however, we have enlarged copies of them made of more durable material. As stone constructions, they have survived to our own days, not easily recognisable at first sight. Several drawn figures, principally of religious edifices — tabernacles or sanctuaries — deserve our attention. One wall, in one of the Osiris chambers, in the temple of Seti I at Abydos, supplies us with two such examples. (3) The statue of the god is enclosed in a kind of chapel, the side partitions of which have been omitted, evidently in order that the observer may see what is happening within. Two 76 EGYPTIAN ART cornices, one above the other, each surmounted by rows of serpents, or ur^ei^ mark he positions of the anterior and posterior partitions, or, to be more exact, the lateral walls, since the chapel is viewed from one side. An incurved line passes above the higher cornice and rests in front upon an upright : this indicates the pole on which the roof is supported. The slightly projecting spur in front gives the profile of the cavetto-cornice which spreads over the door. The latter is represented as open, but it is reduced to the size of a narrow board, just sufficient to mark the leaf of the door, without sacrificing any part of the wall-space to drawing the door in its full extent. In the same series of reliefs, just above the preceding, a sacred emblem is seen set up in a similar chapel. The king, as officiating priest, is in the sanctuary, but he stands outside the chapel holding in his hand a censer the end of which penetrates into the interior. The god Ptah, the chief god of Memphis, is often repre- sented in a lightly constructed shrine, evidently made of wood. In an example, also in the Abydos temple, the details may be plainly seen. (4) This time the door is reduced to a tiny leaf affixed to the upper part of the front roof-support, in such a way as not to hide the figure of the king, whose hands are thrust forward into the interior of the shrine. It will be observed that, by a curious inconsistency, the king's arms are shown in front of the door-post of the chapel instead of behind it. As in the first instance, the side walls are omitted. Elsewhere, as we can see from the treatment of detail, these walls are of woven matting, as in the tomb of Urana II at Sheikh Said (Vth dynasty). (5) Certain funerary bas-reliefs acquaint us with the light kiosks, in which the offerings made to the soul of the dead were deposited. These constructions, made of extremely light and fragile materials, were probably set up along the route of the funeral cortege. A bas-relief at Berlin, (6) for instance, shows constructions of this kind, where vegetable elements play the greatest part. The study of the origin of the column will explain certain details of this represen- tation. PLATE XIII ^ ^m Hfifi " Wf/'MllM'il'', dI ]l Til 3 c 221 ii - ARCHITECTURAL HIEROGLYPHS PLATE XIV LIGHT CANOP\ L\ THE KOVAL TOMB AT TELL-EL-AMARNA PLATE XV STOREHOUSES OF THE TEMPLE AT TELL-EL-AMAR.\A PLATE XVI i_hL-r^\r^\ DOOR-FRAME IN THE HATHOR-SANCTUARV AT DEIR-EL-BAHAKI ARCHITECTURAL HIEROGLYPHS ^j The tomb of Amenophis IV at Tell-el-Amarna presents a series of sculptures devoted to the death and funeral rites of a princess. We witness, amongst other things, a scene of lamentation which is enacted before the statue of the dead girl. (7) This latter is placed under a light canopy, composed of uprights supporting a skin or a mat. This type of construction was not destined only to religious or funerary uses. In reality, in the cult of the gods and of the dead, the Egyptians merely borrowed from the usages of the living. They delighted, as a matter of fact, to erect in their gardens little pavilions, made of light materials, for recreation or rest. A tomb at Tell-el-Amarna (8) shows Amenophis IV attended by the queen and the princesses : the king is sitting under a kind of canopy with a double cornice, surmounted by a row of serpents. The two columns which serve as supports are of a very complicated type. From the lower edge of the cornice hang garlands of flowers. On the walls of the tomb of the high-priest Meryra at Tell-el-Amarna a garden is depicted in the form of a cross, dividing the storehouses of the temple into four groups. (9) In this garden is a pavilion of the same kind, supported this time by four little columns of a floral type, with a cornice surmounted by serpents. Furthermore, the columns are joined by a sort of balustrade or low wall also surmounted by a frieze of urai. It is probable that in the first case the two central columns and the wall between them were omitted in order to show more clearly the persons within. (10) None of these kiosks, I may repeat, as fragile as they are graceful and elegant, have been preserved, but the Egyptians have bequeathed to us more massive copies of them in " everlasting " materials, such as the famous kiosk of the Island of Philae. The desire not to abandon the forms of these light con- structions of joinery, which were in a sense sacred, has given rise to many curious arrangements in buildings erected with heavy materials, of which we may now cite one example. In the Hathor sanctuary at Deir-el-Bahari, built in the early XVIIIth dynasty, a facade, or rather a door-frame, care- fully mimics a wooden construction, (i i) Even a cursory 78 EGYPTIAN ART examination is enough to show that it is not appropriate to the position it occupies, and that its proportions are such as to justify the thought that it is rather the result of a con- ventional idea than a part of a well-thought-out architectural scheme. In the central part the door and its framing are surrounded by a border decoration, while the top is decked with a frieze the origin of which we shall study later on. This first part alone makes up a complete structure, which is placed entire under a roof upheld by columns. The columns, which are of polygonal type, are surmounted by heads of the goddess Hathor, to whom the sanctuary is dedicated. Curiously enough, near the tops of the pillars and on the pillars themselves are designed two bosses which recall breasts, as if the entire column were intended to represent the goddess. It will be observed also that horns are affixed to the pillars, and indeed the goddess Hathor is often depicted in the form of a cow. The drawing of the walls between the columns completes the whole, and shows that we must probably consider the construction as a chapel surrounded by a colonnade on which rests a roof : an arrangement frequently met with in the planning of the XVIIIth dynasty temples. The most important of these architectural designs, rendered in relief upon a wall, is furnished by the stelae of the tombs, especially those of the Ancient Empire, to which the second part of this chapter will be devoted. In the tomb of Ptah-hetep I at Saqqara, one of the walls brings the two most frequent types together side by side. (12) It is only necessary to glance at the photographs to under- stand at once why one should be called an ornamented stele, and the other a simple, or ordinary, stele. The ornamented stele (13) is characterised by a series of projecting pilasters with recessed niches, and by a series of battens and spaces which look like hatchwork. On either side the uprights enclose a central cavity, which we may, at least provisionally, call a door. Above this is a grating corresponding well to a window, doubtless intended to light the interior of the building. One can scarcely fail to notice immediately the analogy ARCHITECTURAL HIEROGLYPHS 79 which this ornamented stele presents with the decoration of the stele of the Serpent King, as well as with the arrange- ment of the outer walls of the royal tomb of Naqada. As a matter of fact the ornamented stele occurs, as we have already said, as a general theme, in a whole series of Egyptian documents. Let us now take up the problem in fuller detail. The sarcophagus discovered in the chamber of the pyramid of King Mycerinus (14) is decorated entirely on its four faces with the motif of the ornamented stele ; this is thrice repeated on each of the long sides and once on each of the short sides. Each face ends in a projecting ridge surmounted by the cornice. We could instance, perhaps, half a dozen sarcophagi of grandees of the Ancient Empire which display similar devices. Thus, on the sarcophagus of Khufu-Ankh in Cairo Museum, (15) whilst the two short sides show almost the same design as the coffin of Mycerinus, each of the long sides gives the motif of the stele once only, but on a broader scale. It must therefore be assumed that on the sarcophagus of Mycerinus we witness the use of architectural elements in a condensed form following the precedent which we saw in the case of the representation of the door in the shrines of the temple of Abydos. The fact that sarcophagi are thus decorated on all four sides proves that we are dealing with a kind of imitation of a self-contained structure, and in fact the large monu- ments of the Ancient Empire display the same type applied on a considerable scale. The Shounet-ez-Zebib at Abydos, which some consider to be a fortress, but which is more probably a funerary monument, is a large enclosure built of bricks whose exterior walls show the arrangement of pilasters and niches. (16) In the interior, the remains of a building have been discovered. The royal tomb of Naqada (17) consists of a central nucleus, made up of a burial-chamber and four chambers which are the store- rooms : once the dead had been laid to rest and the walls bricked up, a great retaining wall was set up, the outer surface of which again conforms to the arrangement we are dealing with. The free space between the central core 8o EGYPTIAN ART and the retaining wall was later divided up by partition walls. As these abut upon the walled-up doorways, it is certain that the tomb, properly so called, was built first, before the walls were begun which enclose the whole. A certain number of Ancient Empire tombs repeat the same series of pilasters and niches on all four faces, whilst in others its use is confined to one facade only, or even to part of a facjade, preferably that into which opens the door leading to the chapel dedicated to the funerary cult. Whether the wall be of brickwork or stone, the arrangement remains the same. Where the walls are of bricks, these are covered over with a coating on which all the details are carefully painted. The same architectural decoration extending over the whole wall-surface is sometimes found inside the monuments, as in the sepulchral chamber of the pyramid of Unas around the sarcophagus :(i8) or again in the basement, as in the sanctuary of one of the Beni-Hasan tombs. (19) But more often only parts of it were represented, usually confined to one or two doorways and their framing. For the two doors it will suffice to go back to the monument which we already know so well — the stele of the Serpent King. We can now have no hesitation in identifying what the lower part of it represents. W^hy did the builders confine themselves to two doors ? or rather why were two made instead of one ? In Egypt we frequently observe the repetition of two similar elements. It is thus that the kings had two tombs, and that it was a frequent practice to place two statues of the deceased in the tomb-chapel. The origin of this reduplication must evi- dently be sought in the customs of Egyptian royalty : there was not simply a kingdom of Egypt, but one kingdom of Upper Egypt and another of Lower Egypt, although both were united under one sceptre and ruled by one and the same person. " Pharaoh " in Egyptian really means " the great double house." Thus the whole administration is divided into two parts : even in the religious cult it was never neglected to represent the share of the two Egypts in offerings to the gods. It is therefore natural to set up PLATE XVII THE ORNAMENTED STELE OF PTAH-HOTEP PLATE XVIII THE SIMPLE STHI.E OF PTAH-HOTEP PLATE XIX THE SARCOPHAGUS OF KING MYCERINUS PLATE XX h 1SS IMITATION OF MAT-WORK AND WOVEN FABRICS ON THE STELE OF IIESI ARCHITECTURAL HIEROGLYPHS 8i two ornamented stelae in the royal monuments. For persons of high rank he same thing was done, in conformity with the rule which dominated all the Egyptian funerary rites. These latter actually began by being exclusively appropriated to the person of the sovereign ; little by little they passed to members of the royal family and to the high dignitaries before they were conceded to those who had deserved favour : finally, little by little they again passed on by ** contagion " to the whole Egyptian nation. It is by virtue of this prin- ciple that in the tombs of Sabu or of Niankh-Re, (20) to mention only these instances, the end wall of the chapel is occupied by a double architectural decoration. It is through this, also, that in the tomb of a person known as Situ the two ornamented stelae, now in Cairo Museum, (21) were found. The presence of a very characteristic motif is there detected, composed of two flowers combined as a sort of heraldic device, and which occurs everywhere on the monuments. It is set off by a framing, which makes an opening in which it stands out in relief. It will be observed also that in this example the central niche is closed by a door of which the upper and lower pivots have been carefully indicated. But often the mche-moiif is represented only once, as we have already seen in the mastaba of Ptah-hetep. The delineation of only one of the elements is equivalent, so it would seem, to the complete architectural representation. There might be, however, another explanation. That would be the belief that there really were constructions of this kind, of very varying dimensions, from a tomb which measures hundreds of yards in length down to chapels only a few feet across, but all nevertheless reproducing the same general forms, and such might well have been in conformity with Egyptian customs. A single motif is sometimes repeated in several examples, one beside the other, which cannot fail to recall the great and complex monuments which we considered first of all, but such repetition need not imply absolute identity. Indeed, it is not so much a case of a continuous motif as of a simple motif multiplied indefinitely without at any time losing its 6 82 EGYPTIAN ART individuality. We might quote as instances the Horus names on the containing wall of the temple of Sesostris I at Lisht, (22) or the decorated stelae on the sides of certain Middle Empire coffins. (23) We must now examine a detail which is characteristic of the whole of this series of representations — the door-posts, or rather such of them as are ornamented with paintings wherein imitation of matwork or of woven fabrics stretched on straps or bands has long been recognised. On the stele of Ptah-hetep, (24) one can clearly see the straps which pass through staples and are bound round a cross-piece to which the matwork or cloth is attached. On a stele from Abusir(2 5) the straps can be seen attached to small wooden cross-bars, which are affixed to the principal posts. These details, indicated by pamting, show us, further, that we are really dealing with wooden erections made up of posts of different sizes, and fitted together in such a way as to make a kind of kiosk or verandah with open-work decoration. Thus, on the main framework were stretched the matting or cloths which have just been alluded to, so as to shelter the inside from the sun or the wind. Wherever the tomb is built of bricks plastered with stucco, the painter has imitated with great care the grain and the knots of a piece of wood on the surface of the principal posts. (26) It is difficult to aver, as several authors would, that this niche-formation was originally derived from the use of brickwork. A wooden coffin from the necropolis of Tarkan, datable to the 1st dynasty, furnishes an example which adds a most valuable detail. (27) The panels in which the doors open are cross-tied with round cross-bars. The interior would thus appear as firmly shut in by a barrier upon which, at heights varying according to need, pieces of matting or cloth could be affixed But if the ornamented stele is without doubt a complete abridged representation of a building, the nature of the latter must be determined. Le Page Renouf (28) demonstrated long ago that the formulas of the texts show a strict relationship between the sereh — which ARCHITECTURAL HIEROGLYPHS 83 is the name of the ornamented stele — and various words signifying " seat " or " throne." Moreover, I think I can recognise in the constructions we are discussing the royal Throne-Room, which may perhaps be compared with the apadana of the Persians. The appearance of this architectural type in the tomb-pictures bears witness to the spread of royal funerary rites to more and more extensive classes of the Egyptian population. We now pass on to examine the simple and ordinary stele, and we will begin by comparing it with the ornamented stele. The wall of the tomb of Ptah-hetep shows them side by side, a clear indication that one must be considered as the variant of the other. In the Ancient Empire tombs two simple stelas are found in place of the two varieties in the tomb of Ptah-hetep. We shall discern the same funda- mental elements in both types : the central door framed by the jambs. Above the door, in the ornamented stele there is a window of straight grooves : in the simple stele there is a central decorated panel, but on either side of it is a groove. There are besides intermediate types, where on a simple stele we find, for example, on the right and left of the door an upright with a floral decoration in open-work, (29) or again, on each side of the upper panel a decorated device. (30) Accordingly we can have no hesitation in saying that the two stelae are but one and the same idea, but with variations in decoration ; both are copies of buildings. The simple stele is probably the shrine which contained the statue. Let us then consult the tomb-reliefs of the Ancient Empire which throw light upon this point. In the mastaba at Leyden we witness the transport of the statue to the tomb. (31) It is placed upright in a sort of large cupboard, the door of which, in two leaves, is wide open. On the upper part is the usual cornice. The shrine is drawn upon a sledge by oxen, and a priest burns incense before the effigy of the dead. To cross the water, the shrine is placed upon a boat, and this time its doors are shut. The shrine in question will immediately be recognised in the tomb of Ay at Tell-el-Amarna, (32) where the 84 EGYPTIAN ART innermost chamber, which contains the statue of the deceased, is preceded by a door the general aspect of which reproduces the form of naos of the Ancient Empire. The tomb of Rames, also at Tell-el-Amarna, (33) gives a variant which is frequent elsewhere, but very instructive. Here the chamber hewn out of the mountain and reserved for the statue has been dispensed with. The group of the deceased and his wife has been sculptured in the rock and framed by a doorway. We can scarcely interpret otherwise the simple steliE of the Ancient Empire, where we see a statue of the dead in relief in the central niche. Thus we may examine, for instance, the stele of Itti-Ankhars in the Cairo Museum. (34) Could one hesitate to designate it as the representation of the shrine containing the deceased's statue, simply because the construction which frames it is rather more complicated .'' In the stele of Ankhars, the door of the shrine is open and the statue visible, whilst in the stele of Nefer-hetep-s, for example, in the tomb of Ti, (2S) the two leaves of the door are shut. In the ornamented stele the same relation is to be found in the structure with closed and with open doors. Most often, as we have seen, the two leaves of the door are shut, and the details of the bolts are represented by painting. In one tomb, that of Hesi at Saqqara, on the back of each of the niches a wooden panel was placed, each of which bore a figure of the deceased. (2^) The Egyptian texts generally designate the stelas by the word '* rut" or '' ruti," generally translated "door" or " double door," and the determinative of the word is some- times a copy of the characteristic form of the ordinary stele. In one case, in the tomb of Ti (Corridor I, east wall) (37), the same design determines the word " ro-per," which properly means " temple." Here we have a confirmation of the view we have just expressed, according to which the stele has not only the value of a facade or a door, as is often held, but a complete building of which only the facade is represented. The simple stele is a naos of religious origin, and the ornamented stele shows the administration to the dead of ARCHITECTURAL HIEROGLYPHS 85 royal rites which bears witness to the identification of the dead with the god. We must now finally examine a third type, which is akin to the two first. This time, a building is still concerned, but one whose open-work sides show a greater complexity in the details of the carved devices. We will begin by considering three representations of funerary constructions which are designed on the sarcophagus of Kauit, which comes from an Xlth dynasty tomb at Deir- el-Bahari. (38) The first is a rectangular construction mani- festly closely allied to the ornamented stelae, and surmounted by a cornice. The second represents on its lower portion two large niches or doors, surmounted by a panel divided into several sections and filled with carvings imitating the forms or hieroglyphs or amulets. The third would seem to be viewed from the side, judging by the curvature of the upper part, and on the whole somewhat resembles the second specimen. Its lower part is divided in the same manner, whilst the open-work decoration, instead of being enclosed in a rectangle, is bounded above by a curved line. It will be further observed that this third construction would seem to be standing upon two feet. It is then a kind of large cupboard or shrine in which the statue of Princess Kauit could be enclosed. It fortunately so happens that in the Xlth dynasty temple at Deir-el-Bahari we have a copy in stone of the funerary shrine of the princesses whose vaults were discovered in the precincts of the temple. The study of the restorations, so carefully made by Madame Naville, is extremely instructive. It would seem that probably the representation of the third shrine, on the sarcophagus of Kauit, gives us a view of the original piece of furniture made of wood, of which the two others are the counterparts wrotight in stone : one picture would render the front view, the other would show the lateral view. Now if we look at the facade of the shrine of Princess Sadhe, (39) we shall clearly identify the general forms of the first shrine. On the lateral face of that of Aashait (40) we shall recognise the outlines of the second shrine, but with the difference that the circular form 86 EGYPTIAN ART on the upper part of the open-work decoration has been kept. The painting of the fragments is again evidence as to the imitation of woodwork. All the texture of wood has been carefully reproduced on the surface of the stone. (41) The same care has been taken to vary the appearance of the open- work decoration, marking the general framework as of one kind of wood, and showing by different tints the use of substances of various colours for the open-work ornamenta- tion. (42) Ivory also enters into the composition of these decorations, where we find as the principal devices falcon heads, " dad "-amulets, little polygonal columns, and finally the floral designs to which we drew attention on the orna- mented stelae. Similar constructions occur from time to time amongst the monuments of later periods : such is the stele which occupies the central position on the end wall of the sanctuary of the temple of Seti I at Abydos. (43) Prisse copied from the monuments of the New Empire constructions, which are analogous in all respects. (44) One tomb at Tell-el- Amarna, that of Tutu, (45) gives one more very instructive example copied in stone. This time it is a case of a niche at the back of which was placed a statue of the deceased, which specifies, if it were still necessary, the purpose of the shrine. In addition, we may in conclusion compare two paintings from the Theban tombs. One shows a wall occupied by a niche, hewn out to contain the statue, and which, upon its upper portion, is painted in imitation of lattice-work. (46) On each side persons advance towards it bearing funerary offerings. We may compare this arrangement with that of one of the walls in the tomb of Nakht : (47) it will be observed that the general manipulation of the design is identical. But here the niche with its upper decoration in open-work is replaced by a simple stele, such as was cus- tomary under the Ancient Empire, and which we have analysed above. This last comparison proves the identity in the function of the three types — decorated stelae, ordinary stelae, and open-work chapels. All three are really funerary shrines in which the cult-statues were placed, and it were better ARCHITECTURAL HIEROGLYPHS 87 not to speak of them any more as stelae in the form of false doors, destined exclusively for the use of the soul. One may search in vain in the texts for any passage which would confirm this interpretation. BIBLIOGR.A.PHY. 1. In Davies, N. de G., The Mastaba of Ptahhetep and Akhethetep, Part I, London, 1900, pi. XII. 2. B&ddite, G., La Stele dite du Rot Serpent, xa. the Monuments Plot, t. xil., 1905, pi. I. 3. Capart, J., Le Temple de S/ti I"', Brussels, 191 2, pi. XX. 4. Ibid., pi. XXV. 5. Davies, N. de G., The Rock Tombs of Sheikh Said, London, 1901, pi. XV. 6. Puchstein, O., Die lonische Sdule, Leipzig, 1907, figs. 22—4. 7. Bouriant, U., G. Legrain and G. Jequier, Monuments pour servir a V Etude du Culte d'Jtonou en Egypte, t. I., Cairo, 1903, pi. X. 8. Davies, N. de G., The Rock Tombs of El Amarna, Part II, London, 1905, pi. XXXII. 9. Ibid., Part I, London, 1903, pi. XXXI. 10. Compare the same pavilion with four or five columns, ibid.. Part III, London, 1905, pi. XIV (empty), and Part 11, pi. XXXVII (occupied by the royal family). 11. Naville, E., The Temple of Deir-el-Bahari, Part IV, London, 1901, pi. cm. 12. Davies, N. de G., The Mastaba of Ptahhetep and Akhethetep, Part I, London, 1900, pi. II, and the photographs of pi. XXIX. 13. Ibid., pi. XIX. 14. Maspero, G., The Dawn of Civilization, London, 1896, p. 377. 15. Grebaut, E., and G. Maspero, Le Musie Egyptien, t. i., Cairo, 1890- 1900, pi. XXI. 16. Ayrton, E. R., C. T. Currelly and A. E. P. Weigall, Abydos, Part III, 1904, London, 1904, pi. VI. 17. Borchardt, L., Das Grab des Menes, in the Zeitschrift fur degyptische Sprache, t. xxvi., 1898, pi. XIV-XV, 18. Maspero, G., The Dawn of Civilization, London, 1910, p. 437. 19. Newberry, P. E., Beni-Hasan, Part I, London, 1893, pi. XXXVI. 20. Marietta, A., Voyage dans la Haute Egypte, Cairo, 1878, t. i., pi. 5 and 8. 21. Maspero, G., Guide du Visiteur au Muse'e du Caire, 191 5, 4th edition, fig. 7, p. 20. 22. Gautier, J. E., and G. Jequier, Mimoire sur les Fouilles de Licht, Cairo, 1902, p. 12. 23. Lacau, P., Sarcophages antirieurs au Nouvel Empire, Cairo, 1905, pi. XIII. 24. Davies, N. de G., The Mastaba of Ptahhetep and Akhethetep, Part I, London, 1900, pi. XX. 88 EGYPTIAN ART 25. Borchardt, L., Das Grabdenkmal des KSnigs Ne-User-Re\ Leipzig, 1907, pi. 24. 26. Quibell, J. E., T/ie Tomb of Hesy, Cairo, 191 3, pi. VIII. 27. Petrie, W. M. F., Tarkan I and Memphis F, London, 191 3, pi. XXVIII. 28. The Horus Standard and the Seat of Horus, in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archceology, t. liv., 1891-92, pp. 17-22. Reprinted in The Life Work of Sir Peter Le Page Renouf t. ii, pp. 435-40, 29. Lepsius, R., Denkmaler, I, pi. 41. Tomb 15. 30. Mastaba of Neferartnef at Brussels. 31. Boeser, P. A. A., Beschryving van de Egyptische Ferzameling, t. i., Leiden, 1905, pi. IX. 32. Davies, N. de G., The Rock Tombs of El Amarna, Part V, London, 1908, pi. XX. 33. Ibid., Part IV., London, 1906, pi. XLV, 34. Murray, M. A., Saqqara Mastabas, I, London, 1905, pis. XIX and XXXV. Maspero, G., Guide du Visiteur au Musie du Caire, 4th edition, 191 5, fig. 5, p. 18. 35. Steindorif, G., Das Grab des Ti, Leipzig, 191 3, pi. 45. 36. Quibell, J. E., The Tomb of Hesy, Cairo, 191 3, pi. V. 37. Steindorff", G., Das Grab des Ti, Leipzig, 191 3, pi. 31. 38. Naville, E., and H. R. Hall, The Xlth Dynasty Temple at Deir-el- Bahari, Part I, London, 1907, pi. XX. 39. Naville, E., The Xlth Dynasty Temple at Deir-el-Bahari, Part II, London, 19 10, pi. XI. 40. Ibid., pi. XIV. 41. Ibid., pi. XIII. 42. Ibid., pis. XV. and XIX. 43. Capart, Jean, Le Temple de Siti P\ Brussels, 19 12, pis. XVI and XVII. 44. Prisse d'Avennes, Histoire de I' Art igyptien, Paris, 1878, t. i., pi. 12. 45. Davies, N. de G., The Rock Tombs of El Amarna, Part VI, London, 1908, pis. XXXVI and XII. 46. Tomb of Menna. Maspero, G., The Struggle of the Nations, 2nd edition, London, 19 10, p. 519. 47. Davies, N. de G., The Tomb of Nakht at Thebes, New York, 1917, pis. VIII and IX. PLATE XXI FUNERARY SHRINE OF PRINCESS SADHE AT DEIR-EL-BAHARI PLATE XXIV CHAPEL OF ANUBIS AT DHIR-EL-HAHARI FROM Jl'iQUIER, LBS TEMPLES MEMPlllTES ET THIiBALNS CHAPTER VI MATERIALS AND ELEMENTS OF BUILDING THE Egyptians used clay extensively not only in the industrial arts, such as pottery, but also for building. It was used principally as daub or as bricks. Mud. — It would seem that mud-building is the most ancient type, for one can trace its technical forms copied in other types : thus, according to most authorities, the Egyptian gorge ' owes its origin to the incurvation produced by the pressure of the roof upon a building made of mud. The mud is applied to a framework of palm-branches, the tops of which, standing out free, are pushed outwards by the beams which form the roof. The torus, in the form of a fillet, was originally a kind of straw padding placed at the angles of the building to strengthen them, (i) Little models of dwellings are often found, especially in the tombs of the Middle Empire, and these reproduce the forms of the mud-built houses such as are made to this day by the natives of Egypt. (2) Granaries, which were cylindrical buildings capped by a little dome, figure among the hieroglyphs. Granaries of this type are shown, for example, in a painted representation of the house of Anena, at Thebes. (3) The enclosing wall is bounded on its upper surface by an undulating line, which certainly indicates mud, for if the wall were of brick, battle- ments would have been traced by an angular line. Beyond, first the rectangular house of worked materials is seen, and ^ I am obliged to retain the word gorge, as we have no English equivalent which expresses the special meaning here implied. The characteristic form of Eg/ptian buildings is produced by sides which slant slightly inwards, and at the narrowest point — the gorge — is a ridge above which the cornice spreads outwards. — Translator. 89 90 EGYPTIAN ART then the two granaries and a large building with a bulging roof, which served perhaps as a storehouse. These three last buildings, as well as the containing wall, seem clearly to be designated as of mudwork. Bricks. — The brick makes an early appearance in the Egyptian tombs. From the time of the 1st dynasty its use becomes quite customary. Egyptian brick is made of mud mixed with sand and straw, then worked into elongated blocks and hardened by the sun. A picture in the tomb of Rekhmara at Thebes shows a brickworks in full activity. (4) Workmen are bringing the mud from a pool or a marsh, turning it out in heaps upon the ground, working it up with a hoe, then moulding the bricks, which are laid out in straight lines. When they are dry, a labourer carries them to the place where building operations are in progress. The dimensions vary according to the period : one might say, as a general rule, that the brick increased in size from the Vth to the XVI Ith dynasties, and decreased perceptibly from the XXIst onwards. (5) The oldest speci- mens of baked bricks go back only to the XXIInd dynasty. Bricks are frequently found bearing a mark or inscription stamped upon them. More rarely bricks contain foundation tablets of stone or enamelled earthenware, upon which are inscribed the name of the king who erected the building, the indication of the edifice in which they were used, or the name of a functionary. (6) Bricks are laid either in horizontal courses or in incurved courses : this curving of the courses has sometimes been accounted for by the slackening of the string which served as a guiding-line for the masons. This explanation, however, is contradicted by the presence of courses in which the curving is inverted. Some great walls actually show bays in which the incurvation is alternately upwards and downwards. Choisy said that " the object of these undulations is to prevent the mass from sliding on the ground and the courses upon one another." (7) Petrie considers that this arrange- ment in curved courses might have given rise to the custom of building certain walls at a slope. Leaving aside the pilastered walls of the ancient tombs, ELEMENTS OF BUILDING 91 which we have already explained, it may be said that walls were generally uniform without any sort of special decoration arising out of the use of the materials. One brick building of late period, however, reproduced by Prisse d'Avennes, (8) has its outer walls ornamented by a system of niches similar to those which we have considered in the ancient monuments. Sometimes between the courses of bricks the presence of layers of palm-leaves or matting is observed, evidently intended to drain the crude brick masonry. (9) From the earliest times the Egyptians knew the use of brick vaulting. The vaulting attaches to two fundamental types : corbelled vaulting and semicircular vaulting. An archaic tomb at Naga-ed-Derr (10) furnishes an excellent example of the first type : the bricks jut slightly one above another to the point at which they meet at the top, the addi- tion of courses of brickwork above this arching imparting a certain solidarity to the whole. It would be difficult to trace how this type passed into the semicircular, which became quite a common custom, certainly from the Ilird dynasty. At Meidum(ii) semicircular work is combined with corbelling : the first layers of the masonry are laid on the corbel principle, and the free space is then filled in with bricks making a series of keystones. In one of the plates in Garstang's book on the Ilird dynasty are collected several very characteristic specimens of brick archings. (12) In one case it can be seen how several large blocks of mud placed in a polygonal position support a range of brickwork which marks out a regular vault. Is this one of the stages leading towards the invention of semi- circular vaulting ? If the vaulting of these tombs strikes us as tentative or clumsy, one can scarcely say the same of the admirable work in the tomb of Adu I at Dendereh, which dates from the Vlth dynasty. (13) An archway composed of three layers of bricks upholds without yielding the weight of a considerable mass of masonry. It would seem that arch-formation was used by the ancients as extensively as it is by Arab builders of modern 92 EGYPTIAN ART Egypt. It is met with under various forms in the store- houses of the Ramesseum at Thebes. (14) "We shall observe later on that the Egyptians often copied this form of vaulting in their stone buildings ; which is not to say — be it noted — that they made stone vaulting. Sometimes the copy displays a perfectly semicircular vault; (15) sometimes, on the contrary, it is akin to the pointed arch, or ogee, as for instance in the chapel of Thutmosis I at Deir-el-Bahari ; in the Anubis chapel of the same temple the copy is of a true ogee. (16) In other cases the ceilings of chambers hewn in the rock copy elliptical vaulting ; for example, in the tomb of Ramesses IV at Thebes, or again in the sanctuary of the temple of Es-Sebua in Nubia of the time of Ramesses II, where the curve of the vault is completely flattened. (17) The oldest vaulting is probably to be found in one of the Ethiopian chapels at Medinet-Habu. (18) In the time of the New Empire, square spaces covered by a brick cupola are found. M. Pieron (19) has described a curious tomb with a cupola upon penditives, at Thebes, which he places between the XVIIth and XXth dynasties ; at Abydos a brick tomb of the XXVIth dynasty is likewise surmounted by a cupola. (20) Bricks were generally covered with coating, or painted plastering. Excavations at the 1st dynasty sites have brought to light quantities of glazed bricks which made the outer covering. (21) On the backs of some are tenons or slots by which they were affixed to the wall or attached to one another, perhaps by means of wires. The visible surface of these bricks is plain, or ornamented in imitation of the pattern of matting. The inner chamber of a pyramid of the beginning of the Ilird dynasty was entirely covered with similar decoration. (22) Wood. — Egypt grows but few kinds of wood which are usable for building. It is therefore not surprising to observe that the Egyptian texts have handed down to us accounts of expeditions sent out, principally to Syria, in order to procure wood for joinery. The papyrus of Unamunu is the most celebrated of the stories of this kind. ELEMENTS OF BUILDING 93 It is, however, more surprising to note that these expeditions were made from the Ancient Empire onwards. Professor Sethe has proved that certain boats of this far-off period owe their specific names to the intercourse which Egypt maintained with the Syrian coast. Wood was used, as we have seen, amongst other things for the construction of light kiosks or more or less com- plicated structures in joinery. It would seem that wood was likewise employed for panelling. A IVth dynasty tomb — that of Prince Merab, (23) a contemporary of Cheops — shows on the top of the dado, above which are arranged representations, a veritable panelling made of boards, the painting of which carefully picks out the grain "ng. One might even ask whether we are not justified in thinking, on the authority of this example, that the yellow band so often painted on the walls of the Ancient Empire tombs might be an imitation of a wooden post let into the brick- work of the walls. Rare woods were employed by the Egyptians in furni- ture, especially in inlay-work. We might here recall the open-work devices in the constructions which we studied in the previous chapter. Finally, wood is often used in sculpture, and the texts mention statues made of different varieties of wood. The pictures which show the Southern races carrying tribute frequently display the bringing of logs of ebony. Stone. — Stone occurs abundantly in Egypt and in the neighbouring desert : the quarries, which were worked from very early times, afford numerous varieties of lime- stone, sandstone, and granite. At Tura and Masara lime- stone was worked : at Hatnub (Tell-el-Amarna) was a rich deposit of alabaster. At Gebel-el-Ahmar is found red sandstone ; at Silsileh, ordinary sandstone ; at Syene or Assuan, several varieties of granite. In the Delta, in the Kankah region, a belt of basalt appears. In the Arabian desert a whole series of hard stones occurs, amongst others diorite and what the Egyptians called " Bekhen stone," which is a black gritty schist. Egyptian sculptors made use of all these materials, and 94 EGYPTIAN ART did not shrink from attacking the very hardest stones, even obsidian, quartz and petrified wood. The inscriptions left by the Egyptians in the quarries furnish valuable data. The minister, Uni, narrates in his tomb inscription a memorable expedition to the Assuan quarries under the Vlth dynasty. M. Montet has re-edited and carefully studied the inscrip- tions of the Hammamat valley, (24) called by the Egyptians Rohanu, and which connects the Nile Valley with the Red Sea, above Koptos and Koseir. The following interesting facts are borrowed from this author : Six expeditions to the valley took place under the reign of Darius from his twenty-sixth to thirtieth years ; three expeditions under Amenemhat III (Xllth dynasty) ; only two under Sesos- tris III ; and two again under Ramesses IV (XXth dynasty). Under Sesostris I eighty blocks were put on the quay at Koptos ; under Sesostris II, two hundred blocks. The mode of working is described as follows : When the com- mander of the expedition had fixed his choice upon a boulder which seemed suitable for the monument he had in con- templation, it was pushed down the mountain-side, thence to be dragged by manual power. But as the success of this operation was often preceded by several failures in conse- quence of the stone breaking in the course of its downward rush, in the year 19 of Amenemhat III, the clerk of the works, Meri, conceived the idea of building up an inclined ramp, which made it possible for him to transport six statues. The commemorative inscriptions give information as to the number of men required for these expeditions. The eighty stones of Sesostris I necessitated three shifts, one of two thousand, another of five hundred, and the third of a thousand men, and the journey, which a single caravan can now accomplish in three days, was completed in fourteen. Under Mentuhotep II (Xlth dynasty) three thousand men took part in an expedition sent out to find suitable stone for the cover of a sarcophagus. On the second day of a certain month the miraculous intervention of a gazelle led to the discovery of the appropriate block ; on the 15th a com- memorative monument was erected ; on the 23rd the stone ELEMENTS OF BUILDING 95 was successfully detached from the mountain-side, and on the 27th was ready to be carried away. Inscriptions of the same kind are written on the granite blocks of the Assuan quarries. When, Instead of using blocks of stone already detached from the matrix, the Egyptians came to work a hard bed of stone, they cut grooves, marking out blocks of regular measurements, which were parted from the matrix by means of wedges saturated with water or by means of fire. On the GIzeh plateau, near the pyramids, the clearest traces of such methods of working have been found. (25) A typical example Is furnished by the remains of the workings of an open quarry near Kertassi in Nubia, (26) whence came the majority of the sandstone blocks used in the building of the temples on the Island of Phllee. In other places the working was accomplished by excavating the interior of the mountain- side, which gave rise to the great chambers supported by a series of pillars which were left standing as part of the rock itself. Metals, — Copper appears rarely in the form of small objects in the primitive tombs of Upper Egypt, but is freely used in the Ancient Empire. Bronze is commonly employed, particularly from the commencement of the Middle Empire. Copper and bronze were worked with the hammer or cast in moulds. The Egyptians made metal vases from the 1st dynasty onwards, and copper statues from the Vlth dynasty. The use of iron is quite exceptional, but gold, electrum and silver were frequently used in jewellery and in inlay- work. Iron was not freely employed until Roman times. Copper came from Sinai, and the precious metals chiefly from the region of the Upper Nile. Various Materials, — Industrial art made use of quite a number of other materials : ivory, leather, wicker-work, and vitreous pastes. It is as well to observe that transparent glass and blown glass did not make their appearance until the Roman Period. Use of Materials in Architecture, — The Egyptians often combined different materials : brick and wood or brick and 96 EGYPTIAN ART stone. The great brick tomb of Naqada was roofed with wooden joists. In many temples the main construction was of brickwork, whilst stone was reserved for door-frames. Sometimes, again, the first part of a building is constructed of bricks, whilst the centre or posterior chambers are of stone. Different kinds of stone may be employed in one and the same building. The core, for example, is of lime- stone and the casing of granite. We may instance the fine granite doorway of the temple of Deir-el-Bahari, made of three huge blocks which are framed by walls of white lime- stone. In the temple of Sahure at Abusir the pavements and lower chambers are of basalt, the walls of limestone, and the columns and door-frames of granite. Sometimes an edifice, built on to the side of a mountain, is continued into the interior of it, one portion of its chambers being then an excavation. The temple of Wady-es-Sebua (27) displays two courts, with their containing walls and pylons of brickwork ; the third court, as well as its pylon of stone, and the hypostyle hall and sanctuary excavated in the mountain. When an edifice is built partly in front of a mountain and partly hewn into it, it constitutes what is known as a hemispeos ; the temple of Wady-es-Sebua is one example, that of Deir-el-Bahari is another. Again, an edifice may be entirely rock-hewn. The largest temple of Ramesses II, that of Abusimbel, is the best-known of the type to which the name speos has been applied. This kind of excavation was used mainly for tombs, which the Egyptians hewed in great numbers in the mountain-sides. Later on we shall meet with examples, of which the tombs of Beni-Hasan are certainly the most celebrated examples. It is quite possible that small buildings of brick were constructed against the mountains, but if so all traces of them have entirely disappeared. In some places rock-cut tombs have been left unfinished, and by their means we can trace the method of working employed by the ancient Egyptians. They began by cutting the upper part, which was completed before deepening the excavation down to floor-level. Thus in certain tombs finished columns may be seen in one half of a chamber, PLATE XXV WINDOWS IN THE HYPOSTYLE HALL AT KARNAK PLATE XXVI .'■^'5*!!^