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301 | ion engraved in large and deeply-cut hieroglyphs. The
wall space thus framed in contained sometimes a single scene and sometimes
two scenes, one above the other. The wall must be very lofty, if this
number is exceeded. Figures and inscriptions were widely spaced, and the
scenes succeeded one another with scarcely a break. The spectator had to
discover for himself where they began or ended. The head of the king was
always studied from the life, and the faces of the gods reproduced the
|
302 | royal portrait as closely as possible. As Pharaoh was the son of the gods,
the surest way to obtain portraits of the gods was to model their faces
after the face of the king. The secondary figures were no less carefully
wrought; but when these were very numerous, they were arranged on two or
three levels, the total height of which never exceeded that of the
principal personages. The offerings, the sceptres, the jewels, the
vestments, the head-dresses, and all the accessories were treat |
303 | ed with a
genuine feeling for elegance and truth. The colours, moreover, were so
combined as to produce in each tableau the effect of one general and
prevailing tone; so that in many temples there were chambers which can be
justly distinguished as the Blue Hall, the Red Hall, or the Golden Hall. So
much for the classical period of decoration.
[Illustration: Fig. 107.--Wall of a chamber at Denderah, to show the
arrangement of the tableaux.]
As we come down to later times, these ta |
304 | bleaux are multiplied, and under
the Greeks and Romans they become so numerous that the smallest wall
contained not less than four (fig. 107), five, six, or even eight
registers. The principal figures are, as it were, compressed, so as to
occupy less room, and all the intermediate space is crowded with thousands
of tiny hieroglyphs. The gods and kings are no longer portraits of the
reigning sovereign, but mere conventional types without vigour or life. As
for the secondary figures and |
305 | accessories, the sculptor's only care is to
crowd in as many as possible. This was not due to a defect of taste, and to
the prevalence of a religious idea which decided but enforced these
changes. The object of decoration was not merely the delight of the eye.
Applied to a piece of furniture, a coffin, a house, a temple, decoration
possessed a certain magic property, of which the power and nature were
determined by each being or action represented, by each word inscribed or
spoken, a |
306 | t the moment of consecration. Every subject was, therefore, an
amulet as well as an ornament. So long as it endured, it ensured to the god
the continuance of homage rendered, or sacrifices offered, by the king. To
the king, whether living or dead, it confirmed the favours granted to him
by the god in recompense for his piety. It also preserved from destruction
the very wall upon which it was depicted. At the time of the Eighteenth
Dynasty, it was thought that two or three such amulets |
307 | sufficed to compass
the desired effect; but at a later period it was believed that their number
could not be too freely multiplied, and the walls were covered with as many
as the surface would contain. An average chamber of Edfû or Denderah yields
more material for study than the hypostyle hall of Karnak; and the chapel
of Antoninus Pius at Philae, had it been finished, would have contained
more scenes than the sanctuary of Luxor and the passages by which it is
surrounded.
Observin |
308 | g the variety of subjects treated on the walls of any one temple,
one might at first be tempted to think that the decoration does not form a
connected whole, and that, although many series of scenes must undoubtedly
contain the development of an historic idea or a religious dogma, yet that
others are merely strung together without any necessary link. At Luxor, and
again at the Ramesseum, each face of the pylon is a battle-field on which
may be studied, almost day for day, the campaign |
309 | of Rameses II. against the
Kheta, which took place in the fifth year of his reign. There we see the
Egyptian camp attacked by night; the king's bodyguard surprised during the
march; the defeat of the enemy; their flight; the garrison of Kadesh
sallying forth to the relief of the vanquished; and the disasters which
befell the prince of the Kheta and his generals. Elsewhere, it is not the
war which is represented, but the human sacrifices which anciently
celebrated the close of each cam |
310 | paign. The king is seen in the act of
seizing his prostrate prisoners by the hair of their heads, and uplifting
his mace as if about to shatter their heads at a single blow. At Karnak,
along the whole length of the outer wall, Seti I. pursues the Bedawîn of
Sinai. At Medinet Habû Rameses III. destroys the fleet of the peoples of
the great sea, or receives the cut-off hands of the Libyans, which his
soldiers bring to him as trophies. In the next scene, all is peace; and we
behold Phara |
311 | oh pouring out a libation of perfumed water to his father Amen.
It would seem as if no link could be established between these subjects,
and yet the one is the necessary consequence of the others. If the god had
not granted victory to the king, the king in his turn would not have
performed these ceremonies in the temple. The sculptor has recorded the
events in their order:--first the victory, then the sacrifice. The favour
of the god precedes the thank-offering of the king. Thus, on cl |
312 | oser
examination, we find this multitude of episodes forming the several links
of one continuous chain, while every scene, including such as seem at first
sight to be wholly unexplained, represents one stage in the development of
a single action which begins at the door, is carried through the various
halls, and penetrates to the farthest recesses of the sanctuary. The king
enters the temple. In the courts, he is everywhere confronted by
reminiscences of his victories; and here the go |
313 | d comes forth to greet him,
hidden in his shrine and surrounded by priests. The rites prescribed for
these occasions are graven on the walls of the hypostyle hall in which they
were performed. These being over, king and god together take their way to
the sanctuary. At the door which leads from the public hall to the
mysterious part of the temple, the escort halts. The king crosses the
threshold alone, and is welcomed by the gods. He then performs in due order
all the sacred ceremonies |
314 | enjoined by usage. His merits increase by virtue
of his prayers; his senses become exalted; he rises to the level of the
divine type. Finally he enters the sanctuary, where the god reveals himself
unwitnessed, and speaks to him face to face. The sculptures faithfully
reproduce the order of this mystic presentation:--the welcoming reception
on the part of the god; the acts and offerings of the king; the vestments
which he puts on and off in succession; the various crowns which he place |
315 | s
on his head. The prayers which he recites and the favours which are
conferred upon him are also recorded upon the walls in order of time and
place. The king, and the few who accompany him, have their backs towards
the entrance and their faces towards the door of the sanctuary. The gods,
on the contrary, or at least such as do not make part of the procession,
face the entrance, and have their backs turned towards the sanctuary. If
during the ceremony the royal memory failed, the king |
316 | needed but to raise
his eyes to the wall, whereon his duties were mapped out for him.
[Illustration: Fig. 108.--Obelisk of Ûsertesen I., of Heliopolis.]
Nor was this all. Each part of the temple had its accessory decoration and
its furniture. The outer faces of the pylons were ornamented, not only with
the masts and streamers before mentioned, but with statues and obelisks.
The statues, four or six in number, were of limestone, granite, or
sandstone. They invariably represented t |
317 | he royal founder, and were
sometimes of prodigious size. The two Memnons seated at the entrance of the
temple of Amenhotep III., at Thebes, measured about fifty feet in height.
The colossal Rameses II. of the Ramesseum measured fifty-seven feet, and
that of Tanis at least seventy feet. The greater number, however, did not
exceed twenty feet. They mounted guard before the temple, facing outwards,
as if confronting an approaching enemy. The obelisks of Karnak are mostly
hidden amid the |
318 | central courts; and those of Queen Hatshepsut were imbedded
for seventeen feet of their height in masses of masonry which concealed
their bases. These are accidental circumstances, and easy of explanation.
Each of the pylons before which they are stationed had in its turn been the
entrance to the temple, and was thrown into the rear by the works of
succeeding Pharaohs. The true place of all obelisks was in front of the
colossi, on each side of the main entrance.[22] They are always in |
319 | pairs,
but often of unequal height. Some have professed to see in them the emblem
of Amen, the Generator; or a finger of the god; or a ray of the sun. In
sober truth, they are a more shapely form of the standing stone, or menhir,
which is raised by semi-civilised peoples in commemoration of their gods or
their dead. Small obelisks, about three feet in height, are found in tombs
as early as the Fourth Dynasty. They are placed to right and left of the
stela; that is to say, on either si |
320 | de of the door which leads to the
dwelling of the dead. Erected before the pylon-gates of temples, they are
made of granite, and their dimensions are considerable. The obelisk of
Heliopolis (fig. 108) measures sixty-eight feet in the shaft, and the
obelisks of Luxor stand seventy-seven and seventy-five and a half feet
high, respectively. The loftiest known is the obelisk of Queen Hatshepsût
at Karnak, which rises to a height of 109 feet. To convey such masses, and
to place them in equ |
321 | ilibrium, was a sufficiently difficult task, and one is
at a loss to understand how the Egyptians succeeded in erecting them with
no other appliances than ropes and sacks of sand. Queen Hatshepsût boasts
that her obelisks were quarried, shaped, transported, and erected in seven
months; and we have no reason to doubt the truth of her statement.[23]
[Illustration: Fig. 109.--Obelisk of Ûsertesen I., Begig, Fayûm.]
Obelisks were almost always square, with the faces slightly convex, an |
322 | d a
slight slope from top to bottom. The pedestal was formed of a single square
block adorned with inscriptions, or with cynocephali in high relief,
adoring the sun. The point was cut as a pyramidion, and sometimes covered
with bronze or gilt copper. Scenes of offerings to Ra Harmakhis, Hor, Tûm,
or Amen are engraved on the sides of the pyramidion and on the upper part
of the prism. The four upright faces are generally decorated with only
vertical lines of inscription in praise of the |
323 | king (Note 11). Such is the
usual type of obelisk; but we here and there meet with exceptions. That of
Begig in the Fayûm (fig. 109) is in shape a rectangular oblong, with a
blunt top. A groove upon it shows that it was surmounted by some emblem in
metal, perhaps a hawk, like the obelisk represented on a funerary stela in
the Gizeh Museum. This form, which like the first is a survival of the
menhir, was in vogue till the last days of Egyptian art. It is even found
at Axûm, in the mid |
324 | dle of Ethiopia, dating from about the fourth century of
our era, at a time when in Egypt the ancient obelisks were being carried
out of the country, and none dreamed of erecting new ones. Such was the
accessory decoration of the pylon. The inner courts and hypostyle halls of
the temple contained more colossi. Some, placed with their backs against
the outer sides of pillars or walls, were half engaged in the masonry, and
built up in courses. At Luxor under the peristyle, and at Karnak |
325 | between
each column of the great nave, were also placed statues of Pharaoh; but
these were statues of Pharaoh the victor, clad in his robe of state. The
right of consecrating a statue in the temple was above all a royal
prerogative; yet the king sometimes permitted private persons to dedicate
their statues by the side of his own. This was, however, a special favour,
and such monuments always bear an inscription stating that it is "by the
king's grace" that they occupy that position. R |
326 | arely as this privilege was
granted, it resulted in a vast accumulation of votive statues, so that in
the course of centuries the courts of some temples became crowded with
them. At Karnak, the sanctuary enclosure was furnished outside with a kind
of broad bench, breast high, like a long base. Upon this the statues were
placed, with their backs to the wall. Attached to each was an oblong block
of stone, with a projecting spout on one side; these are known as "tables
of offerings" (fig |
327 | . 110). The upper face is more or less hollowed, and is
often sculptured with bas-relief representations of loaves, joints of beef,
libation vases, and other objects usually presented to the dead or to the
gods. Those of King Ameni Entef Amenemhat, at Gizeh, are blocks of red
granite more than three feet in length, the top of which is hollowed out in
regular rows of cup-holes, each cup-hole being reserved for one particular
offering. There was, in fact, an established form of worship p |
328 | rovided for
statues, and these tables were really altars upon which were deposited
sacrificial offerings of meat, cakes, fruits, vegetables, and the like.
[Illustration: Fig. 110.--Table of offerings, Karnak.]
[Illustration: Fig. 111.--Limestone altar.]
[Illustration: Fig.112.--Naos of wood in the Museum at Turin.]
The sanctuary and the surrounding chambers contained the objects used in
the ceremonial of worship. The bases of altars varied in shape, some being
square and mass |
329 | ive, others polygonal or cylindrical. Some of these last are
in form not unlike a small cannon, which is the name given to them by the
Arabs. The most ancient are those of the Fifth Dynasty; the most beautiful
is one dedicated by Seti I., now in the Gizeh Museum. The only perfect
specimen of an altar known to me was discovered at Menshîyeh in 1884 (fig.
111). It is of white limestone, hard and polished like marble. It stands
upon a pedestal in the form of a long cone, having no other o |
330 | rnament than a
torus about half an inch below the top. Upon this pedestal, in a hollow
specially prepared for its reception, stands a large hemispherical basin.
The shrines are little chapels of wood or stone (fig. 112), in which the
spirit of the deity was supposed at all times to dwell, and which, on
ceremonial occasions, contained his image. The sacred barks were built
after the model of the Bari, or boat, in which the sun performed his daily
course. The shrine was placed amidship |
331 | of the boat, and covered with a
veil, or curtain, to conceal its contents from all spectators. The crew
were also represented, each god being at his post of duty, the pilot at the
helm, the look-out at the prow, the king upon his knees before the door of
the shrine. We have not as yet discovered any of the statues employed in
the ceremonial, but we know what they were like, what part they played,
and of what materials they were made. They were animated, and in addition
to their bodies |
332 | of stone, metal, or wood, they had each a soul magically
derived from the soul of the divinity which they represented. They spoke,
moved, acted--not metaphorically, but actually. The later Ramessides
ventured upon no enterprises without consulting them. They stated their
difficulties, and the god replied to each question by a movement of the
head. According to the Stela of Bakhtan,[24] a statue of Khonsû places its
hands four times on the nape of the neck of another statue, so transmi |
333 | tting
the power of expelling demons. It was after a conversation with the statue
of Amen in the dusk of the sanctuary, that Queen Hatshepsût despatched her
squadron to the shores of the Land of Incense.[25] Theoretically, the
divine soul of the image was understood to be the only miracle worker;
practically, its speech and motion were the results of a pious fraud.
Interminable avenues of sphinxes, gigantic obelisks, massive pylons, halls
of a hundred columns, mysterious chambers of pe |
334 | rpetual night--in a word,
the whole Egyptian temple and its dependencies--were built by way of a
hiding-place for a performing puppet, of which the wires were worked by a
priest.
[21] That is, the spirits of the North, represented by On (Heliopolis), and
of the South (Khonû).--A.B.E.
[22] At Tanis there seems to have been a close succession of obelisks and
statues along the main avenue leading to the Temple, without the usual
corresponding pylons. These were ranged |
335 | in pairs; _i.e._, a pair
of obelisks, a pair of statues; a pair of obelisks, a pair of shrines;
and then a third pair of obelisks. See _Tanis_, Part I., by
W.M.F. Petrie, published by the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1884.--A.B.E.
[23] This fact is recorded in the hieroglyphic inscription upon the
obelisks.--A.B.E.
[24] This celebrated tablet, preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale,
Paris, has been frequently translated, and is the subject of a
valuable treati |
336 | se by the late Vicomte de Rougé. It was considered
authentic till Dr. Erman, in an admirable paper contributed to the
_Zeitschrift,_ 1883, showed it to have been a forgery concocted
by the priests of Khonsû during the period of the Persian rule in
Egypt, or in early Ptolemaic times. (See Maspero's _Hist. Ancienne
des Peuples de l'Orient_, chap, vi., pp. 287, 288. Fourth
Edition.)--A.B.E.
[25] The Land of Incense, called also in the inscriptions "The Land of
|
337 | Pûnt," was the country from which the Egyptians imported spices,
precious woods, gums, etc. It is supposed to represent the southern
coasts of the Red Sea, on either side the Bab el Mandeb. Queen
Hatshepsût's famous expedition is represented in a series of coloured
bas-relief sculptures on the walls of her great temple at Deir el
Baharî, reproduced in Dr. Dümichen's work, _The Fleet of an Egyptian
Queen_, and in Mariette's _Deîr el Baharî_. For a full accoun |
338 | t
of this temple, its decoration, and the expedition of Hatshepsût, see
the _Deir el Baharî_ publications of the Egypt Exploration Fund.
CHAPTER III.
_TOMBS_.
The Egyptians regarded man as composed of various different entities, each
having its separate life and functions. First, there was the body; then the
_Ka_ or double, which was a less solid duplicate of the corporeal form--a
coloured but ethereal projection of the individual, reproducing him feature
f |
339 | or feature. The double of a child was as a child; the double of a woman
was as a woman; the double of a man was as a man. After the double (_Ka_)
came the Soul (_Bi_ or _Ba_), which was popularly represented as a human-
headed bird; after the Soul came the "_Khû_," or "the Luminous," a spark
from the divine fire. None of these elements were in their own natures
imperishable. Left to themselves, they would hasten to dissolution, and the
man would thus die a second time; that is to say, |
340 | he would be annihilated.
The piety of the survivors found means, however, to avert this catastrophe.
By the process of embalmment, they could for ages suspend the decomposition
of the body; while by means of prayer and offerings, they saved the Double,
the Soul, and the "Luminous" from the second death, and secured to them all
that was necessary for the prolongation of their existence. The Double
never left the place where the mummy reposed: but the Soul and the "_Khû_"
went forth to |
341 | follow the gods. They, however, kept perpetually returning,
like travellers who come home after an absence. The tomb was therefore a
dwelling-house, the "Eternal House" of the dead, compared with which the
houses of the living were but wayside inns; and these Eternal Houses were
built after a plan which exactly corresponded to the Egyptian idea of the
after-life. The Eternal House must always include the private rooms of the
Soul, which were closed on the day of burial, and which no li |
342 | ving being
could enter without being guilty of sacrilege. It must also contain the
reception rooms of the Double, where priests and friends brought their
wishes or their offerings; the two being connected by a passage of more or
less length. The arrangement of these three parts[26] varied according to
the period, the place, the nature of the ground, and the caprice of each
person. The rooms accessible to the living were frequently built above
ground, and formed a separate edifice. Som |
343 | etimes they were excavated in the
mountain side, as well as the tomb itself. Sometimes, again, the vault
where the mummy lay hidden, and the passages leading to that vault, were in
one place, while the place of prayer and offering stood far off in the
plain. But whatever variety there may be found as to detail and
arrangement, the principle is always the same. The tomb is a dwelling, and
it is constructed in such wise as may best promote the well-being, and
ensure the preservation, of |
344 | the dead.
[26] These three parts are (l) the chapel, (2) the passage, or shaft, (3)
the sepulchral vault. If the latter was below the level of the chapel,
as in the time of the Ancient Empire, the communication was by a
sloping or vertical shaft.--A.B.E.
I.--Mastabas.
The most ancient monumental tombs are found in the necropolis of Memphis,
between Abû Roash and Dahshûr, and in that of Medûm;[27] they belong to the
mastaba type (Note 12). The mastaba (fig |
345 | . 113) is a quadrangular building,
which from a distance might be taken for a truncated pyramid. Many mastabas
are from 30 to 40-feet in height, 150 feet in length, and 80 feet in width;
while others do not exceed 10 feet in height or 15 feet in length. The
faces are symmetrically inclined and generally smooth, though sometimes the
courses retreat like steps. The materials employed are stone or brick. The
stone is limestone, cut in blocks about two and a half feet long, two feet
high, |
346 | and twenty inches thick. Three sorts of limestone were employed: for
the best tombs, the fine white limestone of Tûrah, or the compact siliceous
limestone of Sakkarah; for ordinary tombs, the marly limestone of the
Libyan hills. This last, impregnated with salt and veined with crystalline
gypsum, is a friable material, and unsuited for ornamentation. The bricks
are of two kinds, both being merely sun-dried. The most ancient kind, which
ceased to be used about the time of the Sixth Dyn |
347 | asty, is small (8.7 X 4.3
X 5.5 inches), yellowish, and made of nothing but sand, mixed with a little
clay and grit.
[Illustration: Fig. 113.--A Mastaba.]
The later kind is of mud mixed with straw, black, compact, carefully
moulded, and of a fair size (15.0 X 7.1 X 5.5 inches). The style of the
internal construction differs according to the material employed by the
architect. In nine cases out of ten, the stone mastabas are but outwardly
regular in construction. The core is of ro |
348 | ughly quarried rubble, mixed with
rubbish and limestone fragments hastily bedded in layers of mud, or piled
up without any kind of mortar. The brick mastabas are nearly always of
homogeneous construction. The facing bricks are carefully mortared, and the
joints inside are filled up with sand. That the mastaba should be
canonically oriented, the four faces set to the four cardinal points, and
the longer axis laid from north and south, was indispensable; but,
practically, the masons too |
349 | k no special care about finding the true north,
and the orientation of these structures is seldom exact. At Gizeh, the
mastabas are distributed according to a symmetrical plan, and ranged in
regular streets. At Sakkarah, at Abûsîr, and at Dahshûr, they are scattered
irregularly over the surface of the plateau, crowded in some places, and
wide apart in others. The Mussulman cemetery at Siût perpetuates the like
arrangement, and enables us to this day to realise the aspect of the
Memphi |
350 | te necropolis towards the close of the ancient empire.
[Illustration: Fig. 114.--False door in mastaba, from Mariette's _Les
Mastabahs_.]
[Illustration: Fig. 115.--Plan of forecourt of mastaba of Kaâpir.]
A flat, unpaved platform, formed by the top course of the core (Note 13),
covers the top of the mass of the mastaba. This platform is scattered over
with terracotta vases, nearly buried in the loose rubbish. These lie
thickly over the hollow interior, but are more sparsely depo |
351 | sited
elsewhere. The walls are bare. The doors face to the eastward side. They
occasionally face towards the north or south side, but never towards the
west. In theory, there should be two doors, one for the dead, the other for
the living. In practice, the entrance for the dead was a mere niche, high
and narrow, cut in the eastward face, near the north-east corner. At the
back of this niche are marked vertical lines, framing in a closed space.
Even this imitation of a door was sometim |
352 | es omitted, and the soul was left
to manage as best it might. The door of the living was made more or less
important, according to the greater or less development of the chamber to
which it led. The chamber and door are in some cases represented by only a
shallow recess decorated with a stela and a table of offerings (fig. 114).
This is sometimes protected by a wall which projects from the façade, thus
forming a kind of forecourt open to the north. The forecourt is square in
the tomb |
353 | of Kaâpir (fig. 114), and irregular in that of Neferhotep at
Sakkarah (fig. 116). When the plan includes one or more chambers, the door
sometimes opens in the middle of a small architectural façade (fig. 117),
or under a little portico supported by two square pillars without either
base or abacus (fig. 118). The doorway is very simple, the two jambs being
ornamented with bas-reliefs representing the deceased, and surmounted by a
cylindrical drum engraved with his name and titles. In th |
354 | e tomb of Pohûnika
at Sakkarah the jambs are two pilasters, each crowned with two lotus
flowers; but this example is, so far, unique.
[Illustration: Fig. 116.--Plan of forecourt, mastaba of Neferhotep.]
[Illustration: Fig. 117.--Door in façade of mastaba.]
[Illustration: Fig. 118.--Portico and door, from Mariette's _Les
Mastabahs_.]
[Illustration: Fig. 119.--Plan of chapel in mastaba of Khabiûsokari, Fourth
Dynasty.]
[Illustration: Fig. 120.--Plan of chapel in mastaba of T |
355 | i, Fifth Dynasty.]
[Illustration: Fig. 121.--Plan of chapel in mastaba of Shepsesptah, Fourth
Dynasty.]
[Illustration: Fig. 122.--Plan of chapel in mastaba of Affi, Sakkarah,
Fourth Dynasty.]
The chapel was usually small, and lost in the mass of the building (fig.
119), but no precise rule determined its size. In the tomb of Ti there is
first a portico (A), then a square ante-chamber with pillars (B), then a
passage (C) with a small room (D) on the right, leading to the last ch |
356 | amber
(E) (fig. 120). There was room enough in this tomb for many persons, and,
in point of fact, the wife of Ti reposed by the side of her husband. When
the monument belonged to only one person, the structure was less
complicated. A short and narrow passage led to an oblong chamber upon which
it opened at right angles, so that the place is in shape of a T (fig. 121).
The end wall is generally smooth; but sometimes it is recessed just
opposite the entrance passage, and then the plan f |
357 | orms a cross, of which
the head is longer or shorter (fig. 122). This was the ordinary
arrangement, but the architect was free to reject it, if he so pleased.
Here, a chapel consists of two parallel lobbies connected by a cross
passage (fig. 123). Elsewhere, the chamber opens from a corner of the
passage (fig. 124). Again, in the tomb of Ptahhotep, the site was hemmed in
by older buildings, and was not large enough. The builders therefore joined
the new mastaba to the older one in suc |
358 | h wise as to give them one entrance
in common, and thus the chapel of the one is enlarged by absorbing the
whole of the space occupied by the other (fig. 125).
[Illustration: Fig. 123.--Plan of chapel in mastaba of Thenti II., Fourth
Dynasty, Sakkarah.]
[Illustration: Fig. 124.--Plan of chapel in mastaba of the _Red Scribe_,
Fourth Dynasty, Sakkarah.]
The chapel was the reception room of the Double. It was there that the
relations, friends, and priests celebrated the funerary s |
359 | acrifices on the
days prescribed by law; that is to say, "at the feasts of the commencement
of the seasons; at the feast of Thoth on the first day of the year; at the
feast of Ûaga; at the great feast of Sothis; on the day of the procession
of the god Min; at the feast of shew-bread; at the feasts of the months and
the half months, and the days of the week." Offerings were placed in the
principal room, at the foot of the west wall, at the exact spot leading to
the entrance of the "ete |
360 | rnal home" of the dead. Unlike the _Kiblah_ of the
mosques, or Mussulman oratories, this point is not always oriented towards
the same quarter of the compass, though often found to the west. In the
earliest times it was indicated by a real door, low and narrow, framed and
decorated like the door of an ordinary house, but not pierced through. An
inscription graven upon the lintel in large readable characters,
commemorated the name and rank of the owner. His portrait, either sitting
or |
361 | standing, was carved upon the jambs; and a scene, sculptured or painted
on the space above the door, represented him seated before a small round
table, stretching out his hand towards the repast placed upon it. A flat
slab, or offering table, built into the floor between the two uprights of
the doorway, received the votive meats and drinks.
[Illustration: Fig. 125.--Plan of chapel in mastaba of Ptahhotep, Fifth
Dynasty, Sakkarah.]
[Illustration: Fig. 126.--Stela in tomb of Merrûka |
362 | (Fifth Dynasty, Abûsir):
a false doorway containing the statue of the deceased.]
The general appearance of the recess is that of a somewhat narrow doorway.
As a rule it was empty, but occasionally it contained a portrait statue of
the dead standing with one foot forward as though about to cross the gloomy
threshold of his tomb, descend the few steps before him, advance into his
reception room or chapel, and pass out into the sunlight (fig. 126). As a
matter of fact, the stela symbo |
363 | lised the door leading to the private
apartments of the dead, a door closed and sealed to the living. It was
inscribed on door-posts and lintels, and its inscription was no mere
epitaph for the information of future generations; all the details which it
gave as to the name, rank, functions, and family of the deceased were
intended to secure the continuity of his individuality and civil status in
the life beyond death. A further and essential object of its inscriptions
was to provide h |
364 | im with food and drink by means of prayers or magic
formulae constraining one of the gods of the dead--Osiris or Anubis--to act
as intermediary between him and his survivors and to set apart for his use
some portion of the provisions offered for his sake in sacrifice to one or
other of these deities. By this agency the _Kas_ or Doubles of these
provisions were supposed to be sent on into the next world to gladden and
satisfy the human _Ka_ indicated to the divine intermediary. Offering |
365 | s of
real provisions were not indispensable to this end; any chance visitor in
times to come who should simply repeat the formula of the stela aloud would
thereby secure the immediate enjoyment of all the good things enumerated to
the unknown dead whom he evoked.
[Illustration: Fig. 127.--Wall scene of funerary offerings, from mastaba of
Ptahhotep, Fifth Dynasty.]
[Illustration: Fig. 128.--Wall-painting, funeral voyage; mastaba of Urkhuû,
Gizeh, Fourth Dynasty.]
[Illustration: |
366 | Fig. 129.--Wall-scene from mastaba of Ptahhotep, Fifth
Dynasty.]
The living having taken their departure, the Double was supposed to come
out of his house and feed. In principle, this ceremony was bound to be
renewed year by year, till the end of time; but the Egyptians ere long
discovered that this could not be. After two or three generations, the dead
of former days were neglected for the benefit of those more recently
departed. Even when a pious foundation was established, with |
367 | a revenue
payable for the expenses of the funerary repasts and of the priests whose
duty it was to prepare them, the evil hour of oblivion was put off for only
a little longer. Sooner or later, there came a time when the Double was
reduced to seek his food among the town refuse, and amid the ignoble and
corrupt filth which lay rejected on the ground. Then, in order that the
offerings consecrated on the day of burial might for ever preserve their
virtues, the survivors conceived the id |
368 | ea of drawing and describing them on
the walls of the chapel (fig. 127). The painted or sculptured reproduction
of persons and things ensured the reality of those persons and things for
the benefit of the one on whose account they were executed. Thus the Double
saw himself depicted upon the walls in the act of eating and drinking, and
he ate and drank. This notion once accepted, the theologians and artists
carried it out to the fullest extent. Not content with offering mere
pictured p |
369 | rovisions, they added thereto the semblance of the domains which
produced them, together with the counterfeit presentment of the herds,
workmen, and slaves belonging to the same. Was a supply of meat required to
last for eternity? It was enough, no doubt, to represent the several parts
of an ox or a gazelle--the shoulder, the leg, the ribs, the breast, the
heart, the liver, the head, properly prepared for the spit; but it was
equally easy to retrace the whole history of the animal--its |
370 | birth, its
life in the pasture-lands, its slaughter, the cutting up of the carcass,
and the presentation of the joints. So also as regarded the cakes and
bread-offerings, there was no reason why the whole process of tillage,
harvesting, corn-threshing, storage, and dough-kneading should not be
rehearsed. Clothing, ornaments, and furniture served in like manner as a
pretext for the introduction of spinners, weavers, goldsmiths, and cabinet-
makers. The master is of superhuman proporti |
371 | ons, and towers above his
people and his cattle. Some prophetic tableaux show him in his funeral
bark, speeding before the wind with all sail set, having started on his way
to the next world the very day that he takes possession of his new abode
(fig. 128). Elsewhere, we see him as actively superintending his imaginary
vassals as formerly he superintended his vassals of flesh and blood (fig.
129). Varied and irregular as they may appear, these scenes are not placed
at random upon the |
372 | walls. They all converge towards that semblance of a
door which was supposed to communicate with the interior of the tomb. Those
nearest to the door represent the sacrifice and the offering; the earlier
stages of preparation and preliminary work being depicted in retrograde
order as that door is left farther and farther behind. At the door itself,
the figure of the master seems to await his visitors and bid them welcome.
[Illustration: Fig. 130. Plan of serdab in mastaba at Gizeh, Fo |
373 | urth
Dynasty.]
The details are of infinite variety. The inscriptions run to a less or
greater length according to the caprice of the scribe; the false door loses
its architectural character, and is frequently replaced by a mere stela
engraved with the name and rank of the master; yet, whether large or small,
whether richly decorated or not decorated at all, the chapel is always the
dining-room--or, rather, the larder--to which the dead man has access when
he feels hungry.
[Illus |
374 | tration: Fig. 131.--Plan of serdab and chapel in mastaba of Rahotep
at Sakkarah, Fourth Dynasty.]
[Illustration: Fig. 132.--Plan of serdab and chapel in mastaba of Thenti I.
at Sakkarah, Fourth Dynasty.]
On the other side of the wall was constructed a hiding-place in the form of
either a high and narrow cell, or a passage without outlet. To this hiding-
place archaeologists have given the Arab name of "_serdab_." Most mastabas
contain but one; others contain three or four (fig. 13 |
375 | 0). These _serdabs_
communicated neither with each other nor with the chapel; and are, as it
were, buried in the masonry (fig. 131). If connected at all with the outer
world, it is by means of an aperture in the wall about as high up as a
man's head (fig. 132), and so small that the hand can with difficulty pass
through it. To this orifice came the priests, with murmured prayers and
perfumes of incense. Within lurked the Double, ready to profit by these
memorial rites, or to accept th |
376 | em through the medium of his statues. As
when he lived upon earth, the man needed a body in which to exist. His
corpse, disfigured by the process of embalmment, bore but a distant
resemblance to its former self. The mummy, again, was destructible, and
might easily be burned, dismembered, scattered to the winds. Once it had
disappeared, what was to become of the Double? The portrait statues walled
up inside the _serdab_ became, when consecrated, the stone, or wooden,
bodies of the defu |
377 | nct. The pious care of his relatives multiplied these
bodies, and consequently multiplied the supports of the Double. A single
body represented a single chance of existence for the Double; twenty bodies
represented twenty such chances. For the same reason, statues also of his
wife, his children, and his servants were placed with the statues of the
deceased, the servants being modelled in the act of performing their
domestic duties, such as grinding corn, kneading dough, and applying a |
378 | coat
of pitch to the inside surfaces of wine-jars. As for the figures which were
merely painted on the walls of the chapel, they detached themselves, and
assumed material bodies inside the _serdab_. Notwithstanding these
precautions, all possible means were taken to guard the remains of the
fleshly body from natural decay and the depredations of the spoiler. In the
tomb of Ti, an inclined passage, starting from the middle of the first
hall, leads from the upper world to the sepulchral |
379 | vault; but this is
almost a solitary exception. Generally, the vault is reached by way of a
vertical shaft constructed in the centre of the platform (fig. 133), or,
more rarely, in a corner of the chapel. The depth of this shaft varies from
10 to 100 feet. It is carried down through the masonry: it pierces the
rock; and at the bottom, a low passage, in which it is not possible to walk
upright, leads in a southward direction to the vault. There sleeps the
mummy in a massive sarcophagu |
380 | s of limestone, red granite, or basalt.
Sometimes, though rarely, the sarcophagus bears the name and titles of the
deceased. Still more rarely, it is decorated with ornamental sculpture.
Some examples are known which reproduce the architectural decoration of an
Egyptian house, with its doors and windows.[28] The furniture of the vault
is of the simplest character,--some alabaster perfume vases; a few cups
into which the priest had poured drops of the various libation liquids
offered t |
381 | o the dead; some large red pottery jars for water; a head-rest of
wood or alabaster; a scribe's votive palette. Having laid the mummy in the
sarcophagus and cemented the lid, the workmen strewed the floor of the
vault with the quarters of oxen and gazelles which had just been
sacrificed. They next carefully walled up the entrance into the passage,
and filled the shaft to the top with a mixture of sand, earth, and stone
chips. Being profusely watered, this mass solidified, and became an |
382 | almost
impenetrable body of concrete. The corpse, left to itself, received no
visits now, save from the Soul, which from time to time quitted the
celestial regions wherein it voyaged with the gods, and came down to re-
unite itself with the body. The sepulchral vault was the abode of the Soul,
as the funerary chapel was the abode of the Double.
[Illustration: Fig. 133.--Section showing shaft and vault of mastaba at
Gizeh, Fourth Dynasty.]
[Illustration: Fig. 134.--Section of mas |
383 | taba, Sakkarah, Sixth Dynasty.]
[Illustration: Fig. 135.--Wall painting of funerary offerings, from mastaba
of Nenka, Sakkarah, Sixth Dynasty.]
Up to the time of the Sixth Dynasty, the walls of the vault are left bare.
Once only did Mariette find a vault containing half-effaced inscriptions
from _The Book of the Dead_. In 1881, I however discovered some tombs at
Sakkarah, in which the vault is decorated in preference to the chapel.
These tombs are built with large bricks, a niche |
384 | and a stela sufficing for
the reception of sacrificial offerings. In place of the shaft, they contain
a small rectangular court, in the western corner of which was placed the
sarcophagus. Over the sarcophagus was erected a limestone chamber just as
long and as wide as the sarcophagus itself, and about three and a half feet
high. This was roofed in with flat slabs. At the end, or in the wall to the
right, was a niche, which answered the purpose of a _serdab_; and above the
flat roof wa |
385 | s next constructed an arch of about one foot and a half radius,
the space above the arch being filled in with horizontal courses of
brickwork up to the level of the platform. The chamber occupies about two-
thirds of the cavity, and looks like an oven with the mouth open. Sometimes
the stone walls rest on the lid of the sarcophagus, the chamber having
evidently been built after the interment had taken place (fig. 134).
Generally speaking, however, these walls rest on brick supports, so |
386 | that
the sarcophagus may be opened or closed when required. The decoration,
which is sometimes painted, sometimes sculptured, is always the same. Each
wall was a house stocked with the objects depicted or catalogued upon its
surface, and each was, therefore, carefully provided with a fictitious
door, through which the Double had access to his goods. On the left wall he
found a pile of provisions (fig. 135)[29] and a table of offerings; on the
end wall a store of household utensils, a |
387 | s well as a supply of linen and
perfumes, the name and quantity of each being duly registered. These
paintings more briefly sum up the scenes depicted in the chapels of
ordinary mastabas. Transferred from their original position to the walls of
an underground cellar, they were the more surely guaranteed against such
possible destruction as might befall them in chambers open to all comers;
while upon their preservation depended the length of time during which the
dead man would retain |
388 | possession of the property which they represented.
[27] For an account of the necropolis of Medûm, see W.M.F. Petrie's
_Medum_.
[28] The sarcophagus of Menkara, unfortunately lost at sea when on its way
to England, was of this type. See illustration No. 19, Chapter III.,
in Sir E. Wilson's _Egypt of the Past_.--A.B.E.
[29] This wall scene is from the tomb of Nenka, near Sakkarah. For a
coloured facsimile on a large scale, see Professor Maspero's article
en |
389 | titled "Trois Années de Fouilles," in _Mémoires de la Mission
Archéologique Française du Caire_, Pl. 2. 1884.--A.B.E.
2.--THE PYRAMIDS.
[For the following translation of this section of Professor Maspero's book
I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. W.M. Flinders Petrie, whose work on
_The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh_, published with the assistance of a
grant from the Royal Society in 1883, constitutes our standard authority on
the construction of these Pyramids.--A.B.E. |
390 | ]
The royal tombs have the form of pyramids with a square base, and are the
equivalent in stone or brick of the tumulus of heaped earth which was piled
over the body of the warrior chief in prehistoric times (Note 14). The same
ideas prevailed as to the souls of kings as about those of private men; the
plan of the pyramid consists, therefore, of three parts, like the mastaba,
--the chapel, the passage, and the sepulchral vault.
The chapel is always separate. At Sakkarah no trace o |
391 | f it has been found;
it was probably, as later on at Thebes, in a quarter nearer to the town. At
Medûm, Gizeh, Abûsîr, and Dahshûr, these temples stood at the east or north
fronts of the pyramids. They were true temples, with chambers, courts, and
passages. The fragments of bas-reliefs hitherto found show scenes of
sacrifice, and prove that the decoration was the same as in the public
halls of the mastabas. The pyramid, properly speaking, contained only the
passages and sepulchral vau |
392 | lt. The oldest of which the texts show the
existence, north of Abydos, is that of Sneferû; the latest belong to the
princes of the Twelfth Dynasty. The construction of these monuments was,
therefore, a continuous work, lasting for thirteen or fourteen centuries,
under government direction. Granite, alabaster, and basalt for the
sarcophagus and some details were the only materials of which the use and
the quantity was not regulated in advance, and which had to be brought from
a distanc |
393 | e. To obtain them, each king sent one of the great men of his
court on a mission to the quarries of Upper Egypt; and the quickness with
which the blocks were brought back was a strong claim upon the sovereign's
favour. The other material was not so costly. If mainly brick, the bricks
were moulded on the spot with earth taken from the foot of the hill. If of
stone, the nearest parts of the plateau provided the common marly limestone
in abundance (Note 15). The fine limestone of Tûrah wa |
394 | s usually reserved
for the chambers and the casing, and this might be had without even sending
specially for it to the opposite side of the Nile; for at Memphis there
were stores always full, upon which they continually drew for public
buildings, and, therefore, also for the royal tombs. The blocks being taken
from these stores, and borne by boats to close below the hill, were raised
to their required places along gently sloping causeways. The internal
arrangement of the pyramids, the |
395 | lengths of the passages and their heights,
were very variable; the pyramid of Khûfû (Cheops) rose to 475 feet above
the ground, the smallest was not 30 feet high. The difficulty of imagining
now what motives determined the Pharaohs to choose such different
proportions has led some to think that the mass built was in direct
proportion to the time occupied in building; that is to say, to the length
of each reign. Thus it was supposed that the king would begin by hastily
erecting a pyra |
396 | mid large enough to contain the essential parts of a tomb;
and then, year by year, would add fresh layers around the first core, until
the time when his death for ever arrested the growth of the monument. But
the facts do not justify this hypothesis. The smallest of the pyramids of
Sakkarah is that of Ûnas, who reigned thirty years; while the two imposing
pyramids of Gizeh were raised by Khûfû and Khafra (Chephren), who governed
Egypt, the one for twenty-four, and the other for twenty- |
397 | three years.
Merenra, who died very young, had a pyramid as large as that of Pepi II.,
whose reign lasted more than ninety years (Note 16). The plan of each
pyramid was laid down, once for all, by the architect, according to the
instructions which he had received, and the resources placed at his
disposal. He then followed it out to the end of the work, without
increasing or reducing the scale (Note 17).
[Illustration: Fig. 136.--Section of the Great Pyramid.[30]]
The pyramids wer |
398 | e supposed to have their four faces to the four cardinal
points, like the mastabas; but, either from bad management or neglect, the
greater part are not oriented exactly, and many vary distinctly from the
true north (Note 18). Without speaking of the ruins of Abû Roash or Zowyet
el Aryan, which have not been studied closely enough, they naturally form
six groups, distributed from north to south on the border of the Libyan
plateau, from Gizeh to the Fayûm, by Abûsîr, Sakkarah, Dahshûr, |
399 | and Lisht.
The Gizeh group contains nine, including those of Khûfû, Khafra, and
Menkara, which were anciently reckoned among the wonders of the world. The
ground on which the pyramid of Khûfû stands was very irregular at the time
of construction. A small rocky height which rose above the surface was
roughly cut (fig. 136) and enclosed in the masonry, the rest being smoothed
and covered with large slabs, some of which still remain (Note 19). The
pyramid itself was 481 feet high and 755 |
400 | feet wide, dimensions which the
injuries of time have reduced to 454 feet and 750 feet respectively. It
preserved, until the Arab conquest, a casing of stones of different colours
(Note 20), so skilfully joined as to appear like one block from base to
summit. The casing work was begun from the top, and the cap placed on
first, the steps being covered one after the other, until they reached the
bottom (Note 21). In the inside all was arranged so as to hide the exact
place of the sarco |
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