_THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS._
I have treated briefly of the Noble Arts; it remains to say something of
the Industrial Arts. All classes of society in Egypt were, from an early
period, imbued with the love of luxury, and with a taste for the beautiful.
Living or dead, the Egyptian desired to have jewels and costly amulets upon
his person, and to be surrounded by choice furniture and elegant utensils.
The objects of his daily use must be distinguished, if not by richness of
material, at least by grace of form; and in order to satisfy his
requirements, the clay, the stone, the metals, the woods, and other
products of distant lands were laid under contribution.
I.--STONE, CLAY, AND GLASS.
[Illustration: Fig. 210.--The _Ta_, or girdle-buckle of Isis.]
[Illustration: Fig. 211.--Frog amulet.]
[Illustration: Fig. 212.--The _Ûat_, or lotus-column amulet.]
[Illustration: Fig. 213.--An _Ûta_, or sacred eye.]
[Illustration: Fig. 214.--A scarabaeus.]
It is impossible to pass through a gallery of Egyptian antiquities without
being surprised by the prodigious number of small objects in _pietra dura_
which have survived till the present time. As yet we have found neither the
diamond, the ruby, nor the sapphire; but with these exceptions, the domain
of the lapidary was almost as extensive as at the present day. That domain
included the amethyst, the emerald, the garnet, the aquamarine, the
chrysoprase, the innumerable varieties of agate and jasper, lapis lazuli,
felspar, obsidian; also various rocks, such as granite, serpentine, and
porphyry; certain fossils, as yellow amber and some kinds of turquoise;
organic remains, as coral, mother-of-pearl, and pearls; metallic ores and
carbonates, such as hematite and malachite, and the calaite, or Oriental
turquoise. These substances were for the most part cut in the shape of
round, square, oval, spindle-shaped, pear-shaped, or lozenge-shaped beads.
Strung and arranged row above row, these beads were made into necklaces,
and are picked up by myriads in the sands of the great cemeteries at
Memphis, Erment, Ekhmîm, and Abydos. The perfection with which many are
cut, the deftness with which they are pierced, and the beauty of the
polish, do honour to the craftsmen who made them. But their skill did not
end here. With the point, saw, drill, and grindstone, they fashioned these
materials into an infinity of shapes--hearts, human fingers, serpents,
animals, images of divinities. All these were amulets; and they were
probably less valued for the charm of the workmanship than for the
supernatural virtues which they were supposed to possess. The girdle-buckle
in carnelian (fig. 210) symbolised the blood of Isis, and washed away the
sins of the wearer. The frog (fig. 211) was emblematic of renewed birth.
The little lotus-flower column in green felspar (fig. 212) typified the
divine gift of eternal youth. The "Ûat," or sacred eye (fig. 213), tied to
the wrist or the arm by a slender string, protected against the evil eye,
against words spoken in envy or anger, and against the bites of serpents.
Commerce dispersed these objects throughout all parts of the ancient world,
and many of them, especially those which represented the sacred beetle,
were imitated abroad by the Phoenicians and Syrians, and by the craftsmen
of Greece, Asia Minor, Etruria, and Sardinia. This insect was called
_kheper_ in Egyptian, and its name was supposed to be derived from the root
_khepra_, "to become." By an obvious play upon words, the beetle was made
the emblem of terrestrial life, and of the successive "becomings" or
developments of man in the life to come. The scarabaeus amulet (fig. 214)
is therefore a symbol of duration, present or future; and to wear one was
to provide against annihilation. A thousand mystic meanings were evolved
from this first idea, each in some subtle sense connected with one or other
of the daily acts or usages of life, so that scarabaei were multiplied _ad
infinitum_. They are found in all materials and sizes; some having hawks'
heads, some with rams' heads, some with heads of men or bulls. Some are
wrought or inscribed on the underside; others are left flat and plain
underneath; and others again but vaguely recall the form of the insect, and
are called scarabaeoids. These amulets are pierced longwise, the hole being
large enough to admit the passage of a fine wire of bronze or silver, or of
a thread, for suspension. The larger sort were regarded as images of the
heart. These, having outspread wings attached, were fastened to the breast
of the mummy, and are inscribed on the underside with a prayer adjuring the
heart not to bear witness against the deceased at the day of judgment. In
order to be still more efficacious, some scenes of adoration were
occasionally added to the formula: _e.g._, the disc of the moon adorned by
two apes upon the shoulder; two squatting figures of Amen upon the wing-
sheaths; on the flat reverse, a representation of the boat of the Sun; and
below the boat, Osiris mummified, squatting between Isis and Nephthys, who
overshadow him with their wings. The small scarabs, having begun as
phylacteries, ended by becoming mere ornaments without any kind of
religious meaning, just as crosses are now worn without thought of
significance by the women of our own day. They were set as rings, as
necklace pendants, as earrings, and as bracelets. The underside is often
plain, but is more commonly ornamented with incised designs which involve
no kind of modelling. Relief-cutting, properly so called (as in cameo-
cutting), was unknown to Egyptian lapidaries before the Greek period.
Scarabaei and the subjects engraved on them have not as yet been fully
classified and catalogued.[55] The subjects consist of simple combinations
of lines; of scrolls; of interlacings without any precise signification; of
symbols to which the owner attached a mysterious meaning, unknown to
everyone but himself; of the names and titles of individuals; of royal
ovals, which are historically interesting; of good wishes; of pious
ejaculations; and of magic formulae. The earliest examples known date from
the Fourth Dynasty, and are small and fine. Sometimes Sixth Dynasty scarabs
are of obsidian and crystal, and early Middle Kingdom scarabs of amethyst,
emerald, and even garnet. From the time of the Eighteenth Dynasty scarabs
may be counted by millions, and the execution is more or less fine
according to the hardness of the stone. This holds good for amulets of all
kinds. The hippopotamus-heads, the hearts, the _Ba_ birds (p. 111), which
one picks up at Taûd, to the south of Thebes, are barely roughed out, the
amethyst and green felspar of which they are made having presented an
almost unconquerable resistance to the point, saw, drill, and wheel. The
belt-buckles, angles, and head-rests in red jasper, carnelian, and
hematite, are, on the contrary, finished to the minutest details,
notwithstanding that carnelian and red jasper are even harder than green
felspar. Lapis lazuli is insufficiently homogeneous, almost as hard as
felspar, and seems as if it were incapable of being finely worked. Yet the
Egyptians have used it for images of certain goddesses--Isis, Nephthys,
Neith, Sekhet,--which are marvels of delicate cutting. The modelling of the
forms is carried out as boldly as if the material were more trustworthy,
and the features lose none of their excellence if examined under a
magnifying glass. For the most part, however, a different treatment was
adopted. Instead of lavishing high finish upon the relief, it was obtained
in a more summary way, the details of individual parts being sacrificed to
the general effect. Those features of the face which project, and those
which retire, are strongly accentuated. The thickness of the neck, the
swell of the breast and shoulder, the slenderness of the waist, the fulness
of the hips, are all exaggerated. The feet and hands are also slightly
enlarged. This treatment is based upon a system, the results being boldly
and yet judiciously calculated. When the object has to be sculptured in
miniature, a mathematical reduction of the model is not so happy in its
effect as might be supposed. The head loses character; the neck looks too
weak; the bust is reduced to a cylinder with a slightly uneven surface; the
feet do not look strong enough to support the weight of the body; the
principal lines are not sufficiently distinct from the secondary lines. By
suppressing most of the accessory forms and developing those most essential
to the expression, the Egyptians steered clear of the danger of producing
insignificant statuettes. The eye instinctively tones down whatever is too
forcible, and supplies what is lacking. Thanks to these subtle devices of
the ancient craftsman, a tiny statuette of this or that divinity measuring
scarcely an inch and a quarter in height, has almost the breadth and
dignity of a colossus.
The earthly goods of the gods and of the dead were mostly in solid stone. I
have elsewhere described the little funerary obelisks, the altar bases, the
statues, and the tables of offerings found in tombs of the ancient empire.
These tables were made of alabaster and limestone during the Pyramid
period, of granite or red sandstone under the Theban kings, and of basalt
or serpentine from the time of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. But the fashions
were not canonical, all stones being found at all periods. Some offering-
tables are mere flat discs, or discs very slightly hollowed. Others are
rectangular, and are sculptured in relief with a service of loaves, vases,
fruits, and quarters of beef and gazelle. In one instance--the offering-
table of Sitû--the libations, instead of running off, fell into a square
basin which is marked off in divisions, showing the height of the Nile at
the different seasons of the year in the reservoirs of Memphis; namely,
twenty-five cubits in summer during the inundation, twenty-three in autumn
and early winter, and twenty-two at the close of winter and in spring-time.
In these various patterns there was little beauty; yet one offering-table,
found at Sakkarah, is a real work of art. It is of alabaster. Two lions,
standing side by side, support a sloping, rectangular tablet, whence the
libation ran off by a small channel into a vase placed between the tails of
the lions. The alabaster geese found at Lisht are not without artistic
merit. They are cut length-wise down the middle, and hollowed out, in the
fashion of a box. Those which I have seen elsewhere, and, generally
speaking, all simulacra of offerings, as loaves, cakes, heads of oxen or
gazelles, bunches of black grapes, and the like, in carved and painted
limestone, are of doubtful taste and clumsy execution. They are not very
common, and I have met with them only in tombs of the Fifth and Twelfth
Dynasties. "Canopic" vases, on the contrary, were always carefully wrought.
They were generally made in two kinds of stone, limestone and alabaster;
but the heads which surmounted them were often of painted wood. The canopic
vases of Pepi I. are of alabaster; and those of a king buried in the
southernmost pyramid at Lisht are also of alabaster, as are the human heads
upon the lids. One, indeed, is of such fine execution that I can only
compare it with that of the statue of Khafra. The most ancient funerary
statuettes yet found--those, namely, of the Eleventh Dynasty--are of
alabaster, like the canopic vases; but from the time of the Thirteenth
Dynasty, they were cut in compact limestone. The workmanship is very
unequal in quality. Some are real _chefs-d'oeuvre_, and reproduce the
physiognomy of the deceased as faithfully as a portrait statue. Lastly,
there are the perfume vases, which complete the list of objects found in
temples and tombs. The names of these vases are far from being
satisfactorily established, and most of the special designations furnished
in the texts remain as yet without equivalents in our language. The greater
number were of alabaster, turned and polished. Some are heavy, and ugly
(fig. 215), while others are distinguished by an elegance and diversity of
form which do honour to the inventive talent of the craftsmen. Many are
spindle-shaped and pointed at the end (fig. 216), or round in the body,
narrow in the neck, and flat at the bottom (fig. 217).
[Illustration: Fig. 215.--Perfume vase, alabaster.]
[Illustration: Fig. 216.--Perfume vase, alabaster.]
[Illustration: Fig. 217.--Perfume vase, alabaster.]
They are unornamented, except perhaps by two lotus-bud handles, or two
lions' heads, or perhaps a little female head just at the rise of the neck
(fig. 218). The smallest of these vases were not intended for liquids, but
for pomades, medicinal ointments, and salves made with honey. Some of the
more important series comprise large-bodied flasks, with an upright
cylindrical neck and a flat cover (fig. 219). In these, the Egyptians kept
the antimony powder with which they darkened their eyes and eyebrows. The
Kohl-pot was a universal toilet requisite; perhaps the only one commonly
used by all classes of society. When designing it, the craftsman gave free
play to his fancy, borrowing forms of men, plants, and animals for its
adornment. Now it appears in the guise of a full-blown lotus; now it is a
hedgehog; a hawk; a monkey clasping a column to his breast, or climbing up
the side of a jar; a grotesque figure of the god Bes; a kneeling woman,
whose scooped-out body contained the powder; a young girl carrying a wine-
jar. Once started upon this path, the imagination of the artists knew no
limits. As for materials, everything was made to serve in turn--granite,
diorite, breccia, red jade, alabaster, and soft limestone, which lent
itself more readily to caprices of form; finally, a still more plastic and
facile substance--clay, painted and glazed.
[Ilustration: Fig. 218.--Perfume vase, alabaster.]
[Illustration: Fig. 219.--Vase for antimony powder.]
It was not for want of material that the art of modelling and baking clays
failed to be as fully developed in Egypt as in Greece, The valley of the
Nile is rich in a fine and ductile potter's clay, with which the happiest
results might have been achieved, had the native craftsman taken the
trouble to prepare it with due care. Metals and hard stone were, however,
always preferred for objects of luxury; the potter was fain, therefore, to
be content with supplying only the commonest needs of household and daily
life. He was wont to take whatever clay happened to be nearest to the place
where he was working, and this clay was habitually badly washed, badly
kneaded, and fashioned with the finger upon a primitive wheel worked by the
hand. The firing was equally careless. Some pieces were barely heated at
all, and melted it they came into contact with water, while others were as
hard as tiles. All tombs of the ancient empire contain vases of a red or
yellow ware, often mixed, like the clay of bricks, with finely-chopped
straw or weeds. These are mostly large solid jars with oval bodies, short
necks, and wide mouths, but having neither foot nor handles. With them are
also found pipkins and pots, in which to store the dead man's provisions;
bowls more or less shallow; and flat plates, such as are still used by the
fellahin. The poorer folk sometimes buried miniature table and kitchen
services with their dead, as being less costly than full-sized vessels. The
surface is seldom glazed, seldom smooth and lustrous; but is ordinarily
covered with a coat of whitish, unbaked paint, which scales off at a touch.
Upon this surface there is neither incised design, nor ornament in relief,
nor any kind of inscription, but merely some four or five parallel lines in
red, black, or yellow, round the neck.
[Illustration: Fig. 220.]
[Illustration: Fig. 221.]
[Illustration: Fig. 222.]
[Illustration: Fig. 223.]
The pottery of the earliest Theban dynasties which I have collected at El
Khozam and Gebeleyn is more carefully wrought than the pottery of the
Memphite period. It may be classified under two heads. The first comprises
plain, smooth-bodied vases, black below and dark red above. On examining
this ware where broken, we see that the colour was mixed with the clay
during the kneading, and that the two zones were separately prepared,
roughly joined, and then uniformly glazed. The second class comprises vases
of various and sometimes eccentric forms, moulded of red or tawny clay.
Some are large cylinders closed at one end; others are flat; others oblong
and boat-shaped; others, like cruets, joined together two and two, yet with
no channel of communication[56] (fig. 220). The ornamentation is carried
over the whole surface, and generally consists of straight parallel lines,
cross lines, zigzags, dotted lines, or small crosses and lines in
geometrical combination; all these patterns being in white when the ground
is red, or in reddish brown when the ground is yellow or whitish. Now and
then we find figures of men and animals interspersed among the geometrical
combinations. The drawing is rude, almost childish; and it is difficult to
tell whether the subjects represent herds of antelopes or scenes of
gazelle-hunting. The craftsmen who produced these rude attempts were
nevertheless contemporary with the artists who decorated the rock-cut tombs
at Beni Hasan. As regards the period of Egypt's great military conquests,
the Theban tombs of that age have supplied objects enough to stock a museum
of pottery; but unfortunately the types are very uninteresting. To begin
with, we find hand-made sepulchral statuettes modelled in summary fashion
from an oblong lump of clay. A pinch of the craftsman's fingers brought out
the nose; two tiny knobs and two little stumps, separately modelled and
stuck on, represented the eyes and arms. The better sort of figures were
pressed in moulds of baked clay, of which several specimens have been
found. They were generally moulded in one piece; then lightly touched up;
then baked; and lastly, on coming out of the oven, were painted red,
yellow, or white, and inscribed with the pen. Some are of very good style,
and almost equal those made in limestone. The _ûshabtiû_ of the scribe
Hori, and those of the priest Horûta (Saïte) found at Hawara, show what the
Egyptians could have achieved in this branch of the art if they had cared
to cultivate it. Funerary cones were objects purely devotional, and the
most consummate art could have done nothing to make them elegant. A
funerary cone consists of a long, conical mass of clay, stamped at the
larger end with a few rows of hieroglyphs stating the name, parentage, and
titles of the deceased, the whole surface being coated with a whitish wash.
These are simulacra of votive cakes intended for the eternal nourishment of
the Double. Many of the vases buried in tombs of this period are painted to
imitate alabaster, granite, basalt, bronze, and even gold; and were cheap
substitutes for those vases made in precious materials which wealthy
mourners were wont to lavish on their dead. Among those especially intended
to contain water or flowers, some are covered with designs drawn in red and
black (fig. 221), such as concentric lines and circles (fig. 222),
meanders, religious emblems (fig. 223), cross-lines resembling network,
festoons of flowers and buds, and long leafy stems carried downward from
the neck to the body of the vase, and upward from the body of the vase to
the neck. Those in the tomb of Sennetmû were decorated on one side with a
large necklace, or collar, like the collars found upon mummies, painted in
very bright colours to simulate natural flowers or enamels. Canopic vases
in baked clay, though rarely met with under the Eighteenth Dynasty, became
more and more common as the prosperity of Thebes declined. The heads upon
the lids are for the most part prettily turned, especially the human
heads.[57] Modelled with the hand, scooped out to diminish the weight, and
then slowly baked, each was finally painted with the colours especially
pertaining to the genius whose head was represented. Towards the time of
the Twentieth Dynasty, it became customary to enclose the bodies of sacred
animals in vases of this type. Those found near Ekhmîm contain jackals and
hawks; those of Sakkarah are devoted to serpents, eggs, and mummified rats;
those of Abydos hold the sacred ibis. These last are by far the finest. On
the body of the vase, the protecting goddess Khûit is depicted with
outspread wings, while Horus and Thoth are seen presenting the bandage and
the unguent vase; the whole subject being painted in blue and red upon a
white ground. From the time of the Greek domination, the national poverty
being always on the increase, baked clay was much used for coffins as well
as for canopic vases. In the Isthmus of Suez, at Ahnas el Medineh, in the
Fayûm, at Asûan, and in Nubia, we find whole cemeteries in which the
sarcophagi are made of baked clay. Some are like oblong boxes rounded at
each end, with a saddle-back lid. Some are in human form, but barbarous in
style, the heads being surmounted by a pudding-shaped imitation of the
ancient Egyptian head-dress, and the features indicated by two or three
strokes of the modelling tool or the thumb. Two little lumps of clay stuck
awkwardly upon the breast indicate the coffin of a woman. Even in these
last days of Egyptian civilisation, it was only the coarsest objects which
were left of the natural hue of the baked clay. As of old, the surfaces
were, as a rule, overlaid with a coat of colour, or with a richly gilded
glaze.
[Illustration: Fig. 224.--Glass-blowers from Twelfth
Dynasty tomb.]
[Illustration: Fig. 225.--Parti-coloured glass vase, inscribed Thothmes
III.]
[Illustration: Fig. 226.--Parti-coloured glass vase.]
[Illustration: Fig. 227.--Parti-coloured glass vase.]
[Illustration: Fig. 228.--Parti-coloured glass goblets of Nesikhonsû.]
Glass was known to the Egyptians from the remotest period, and glass-
blowing is represented in tombs which date from some thousands of years
before our era (fig. 224). The craftsman, seated before the furnace, takes
up a small quantity of the fused substance upon the end of his cane and
blows it circumspectly, taking care to keep it in contact with the flame,
so that it may not harden during the operation. Chemical analysis shows the
constituent parts of Egyptian glass to have been nearly identical with our
own; but it contains, besides silex, lime, alumina, and soda, a relatively
large proportion of extraneous substances, as copper, oxide of iron, and
oxide of manganese, which they apparently knew not how to eliminate. Hence
Egyptian glass is scarcely ever colourless, but inclines to an uncertain
shade of yellow or green. Some ill-made pieces are so utterly decomposed
that they flake away, or fall to iridescent dust, at the lightest touch.
Others have suffered little from time or damp, but are streaky and full of
bubbles. A few are, however, perfectly homogenous and limpid. Colourless
glass was not esteemed by the Egyptians as it is by ourselves; whether
opaque or transparent, they preferred it coloured. The dyes were obtained
by mixing metallic oxides with the ordinary ingredients; that is to say,
copper and cobalt for the blues, copperas for the greens, manganese for the
violets and browns, iron for the yellows, and lead or tin for the whites.
One variety of red contains 30 per cent of bronze, and becomes coated with
verdegris if exposed to damp. All this chemistry was empirical, and
acquired by instinct. Finding the necessary elements at hand, or being
supplied with them from a distance, they made use of them at hazard, and
without being too certain of obtaining the effects they sought. Many of
their most harmonious combinations were due to accident, and they could not
reproduce them at will. The masses which they obtained by these
unscientific means were nevertheless of very considerable dimensions. The
classic authors tell of stelae, sarcophagi, and columns made in one piece.
Ordinarily, however, glass was used only for small objects, and, above all,
for counterfeiting precious stones. However cheaply they may have been sold
in the Egyptian market, these small objects were not accessible to all the
world. The glass-workers imitated the emerald, jasper, lapis lazuli, and
carnelian to such perfection that even now we are sometimes embarrassed to
distinguish the real stones from the false. The glass was pressed into
moulds made of stone or limestone cut to the forms required, as beads,
discs, rings, pendants, rods, and plaques covered with figures of men and
animals, gods and goddesses. Eyes and eyebrows for the faces of statues in
stone or bronze were likewise made of glass, as also bracelets. Glass was
inserted into the hollows of incised hieroglyphs, and hieroglyphs were also
cut out in glass. In this manner, whole inscriptions were composed, and let
into wood, stone, or metal. The two mummy-cases which enclosed the body of
Netemt, mother of the Pharaoh Herhor Seamen, are decorated in this style.
Except the headdress of the effigy and some minor details, these cases are
gilded all over; the texts and the principal part of the ornamentation
being formed of glass enamels, which stand out in brilliant contrast with
the dead gold ground. Many Fayûm mummies were coated with plaster or
stucco, the texts and religious designs, which are generally painted, being
formed of glass enamels incrusted upon the surface of the plaster. Some of
the largest subjects are made of pieces of glass joined together and
retouched with the chisel, in imitation of bas-relief. Thus the face,
hands, and feet of the goddess Ma are done in turquoise blue, her headdress
in dark blue, her feather in alternate stripes of blue and yellow, and her
raiment in deep red. Upon a wooden shrine recently discovered in the
neighbourhood of Daphnae,[58] and upon a fragment of mummy-case in the
Museum of Turin, the hieroglyphic forms of many-coloured glass are inlaid
upon the sombre ground of the wood, the general effect being inconceivably
rich and brilliant. Glass filigrees, engraved glass, cut glass, soldered
glass, glass imitations of wood, of straw, and of string, were all known to
the Egyptians of old. I have under my hand at this present moment a square
rod formed of innumerable threads of coloured glass fused into one solid
body, which gives the royal oval of one of the Amenemhats at the part where
it is cut through. The design is carried through the whole length of the
rod, and wherever that rod may be cut, the royal oval reappears.[59] One
glass case in the Gizeh Museum is entirely stocked with small objects in
coloured glass. Here we see an ape on all fours, smelling some large fruit
which lies upon the ground; yonder, a woman's head, front face, upon a
white or green ground surrounded by a red border. Most of the plaques
represent only rosettes, stars, and single flowers or posies. One of the
smallest represents a black-and-white Apis walking, the work being so
delicate that it loses none of its effect under the magnifying glass. The
greater number of these objects date from, and after, the first Saïte
dynasty; but excavations in Thebes and Tell el Amarna have proved that the
manufacture of coloured glass prevailed in Egypt earlier than the tenth
century before our era. At Kûrnet Murraee and Sheikh Abd el Gûrneh, there
have been found, not only amulets for the use of the dead, such as
colonnettes, hearts, mystic eyes, hippopotami walking erect, and ducks in
pairs, done in parti-coloured pastes, blue, red, and yellow, but also vases
of a type which we have been accustomed to regard as of Phoenician and
Cypriote manufacture.[60] Here, for example, is a little aenochoe, of a
light blue semi-opaque glass (fig. 225); the inscription in the name of
Thothmes III., the ovals on the neck, and the palm-fronds on the body of
the vase being in yellow. Here again is a lenticular phial, three and a
quarter inches in height (fig. 226), the ground colour of a deep ocean
blue, admirably pure and intense, upon which a fern-leaf pattern in yellow
stands out both boldly and delicately. A yellow thread runs round the rim,
and two little handles of light green are attached to the neck. A miniature
amphora of the same height (fig. 227) is of a dark, semi-transparent olive
green. A zone of blue and yellow zigzags, bounded above and below by yellow
bands, encircles the body of the vase at the part of its largest
circumference. The handles are pale green, and the thread round the lip is
pale blue. Princess Nesikhonsû had beside her, in the vault at Deir el
Baharî, some glass goblets of similar work. Seven were in whole colours,
light green and blue; four were of black glass spotted with white; one only
was decorated with many-coloured fronds arranged in two rows (fig. 228).
The national glass works were therefore in full operation during the time
of the great Theban dynasties. Huge piles of scoriae mixed with slag yet
mark the spot where their furnaces were stationed at Tell el Amarna, the
Ramesseum, at El Kab, and at the Tell of Eshmûneyn.
[Illustration: Fig. 229.--Hippopotamus in blue glaze.]
[Illustration: Fig. 230.--Glazed ware from Thebes.]
[Illustration: Fig. 231.--Glazed ware from Thebes.]
The Egyptians also enamelled stone. One half at least of the scarabaei,
cylinders, and amulets contained in our museums are of limestone or schist,
covered with a coloured glaze. Doubtless the common clay seemed to them
inappropriate to this kind of decoration, for they substituted in its place
various sorts of earth--some white and sandy; another sort brown and fine,
which they obtained by the pulverisation of a particular kind of limestone
found in the neighbourhood of Keneh, Luxor, and Asûan; and a third sort,
reddish in tone, and mixed with powdered sandstone and brick-dust. These
various substances are known by the equally inexact names of Egyptian
porcelain and Egyptian faïence. The oldest specimens, which are hardly
glazed at all, are coated with an excessively thin slip. This vitreous
matter has, however, generally settled into the hollows of the hieroglyphs
or figures, where its lustre stands out in strong contrast with the dead
surface of the surrounding parts. The colour most frequently in use under
the ancient dynasties was green; but yellow, red, brown, violet, and blue
were not disdained.[61] Blue predominated in the Theban factories from the
earliest beginning of the Middle Empire. This blue was brilliant, yet
tender, in imitation of turquoise or lapis lazuli. The Gizeh Museum
formerly contained three hippopotamuses of this shade, discovered in the
tomb of an Entef[62] at Drah Abû'l Neggeh[63] One was lying down, the two
others were standing in the marshes, their bodies being covered by the
potter with pen-and-ink sketches of reeds and lotus plants, amid which
hover birds and butterflies (fig. 229). This was his naïve way of depicting
the animal amid his natural surroundings. The blue is splendid, and we must
overleap twenty centuries before we again find so pure a colour among the
funerary statuettes of Deir el Baharî. Green reappears under the Saïte
dynasties, but paler than that of more ancient times, and it prevailed in
the north of Egypt, at Memphis, Bubastis, and Sais, without entirely
banishing the blue. The other colours before mentioned were in current use
for not more than four or five centuries; that is to say, from the time of
Ahmes I. to the time of the Ramessides. It was then, and only then, that
_ûshabtiû_ of white or red glaze, rosettes and lotus flowers in yellow,
red, and violet, and parti-coloured kohl-pots abounded. The potters of the
time of Amenhotep III. affected greys and violets. The olive-shaped amulets
which are inscribed with the names of this Pharaoh and the princesses of
his family are decorated with pale blue hieroglyphs upon a delicate mauve
ground. The vase of Queen Tii in the Gizeh collection is of grey and blue,
with ornaments in two colours round the neck. The fabrication of many-
coloured enamels seems to have attained its greatest development under
Khûenaten; at all events, it was at Tell el Amarna that I found the
brightest and most delicately fashioned specimens, such as yellow, green,
and violet rings, blue and white fleurettes, fish, lutes, figs, and bunches
of grapes.[64] One little statuette of Horus has a red face and a blue
body; a ring bezel bears the name of a king in violet upon a ground of
light blue. However restricted the space, the various colours are laid in
with so sure a hand that they never run one into the other, but stand out
separately and vividly. A vase to contain antimony powder, chased and
mounted on a pierced stand, is glazed with reddish brown (fig. 230).
Another, in the shape of a mitred hawk, is blue picked out with black
spots. It belonged of old to Ahmes I. A third, hollowed out of the body of
an energetic little hedgehog, is of a changeable green (fig. 231). A
Pharaoh's head in dead blue wears a _klaft_[65] with dark-blue stripes.
[Illustration: Fig. 232.]
Fine as these pieces are, the _chef-d'oeuvre_ of the series is a statuette
of one Ptahmes, first Prophet of Amen, now in the Gizeh Museum. The
hieroglyphic inscriptions as well as the details of the mummy bandages are
chased in relief upon a white ground of admirable smoothness afterwards
filled in with enamel. The face and hands are of turquoise blue; the head-
dress is yellow, with violet stripes; the hieroglyphic characters of the
inscription, and the vulture with outspread wings upon the breast of the
figure, are also violet. The whole is delicate, brilliant, and harmonious;
not a flaw mars the purity of the contours or the clearness of the lines.
[Illustration: Fig. 233.--Interior decoration of cup, Eighteenth Dynasty.]
[Illustration: Fig. 234.--Lenticular vase, glazed ware, Saïte.]
[Illustration: Fig. 235.--Chamber decorated with tiles in step pyramid of
Sakkarah.]
Glazed pottery was common from the earliest times. Cups with a foot (fig.
232), blue bowls, rounded at the bottom and decorated in black ink with
mystic eyes, lotus flowers, fishes (fig. 233), and palm-leaves, date, as a
rule, from the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, or Twentieth Dynasties. Lenticular
ampullae coated with a greenish glaze, flanked by two crouching monkeys for
handles, decorated along the edge with pearl or egg-shaped ornaments, and
round the body with elaborate collars (fig. 234), belong almost without
exception to the reigns of Apries and Amasis.[66] Sistrum handles, saucers,
drinking-cups in the form of a half-blown lotus, plates, dishes--in short,
all vessels in common use--were required to be not only easy to keep clean,
but pleasant to look upon. Did they carry their taste for enamelled ware so
far as to cover the walls of their houses with glazed tiles? Upon this
point we can pronounce neither affirmatively nor negatively; the few
examples of this kind of decoration which we possess being all from royal
buildings. Upon a yellow brick, we have the family name and _Ka_ name of
Pepi I.; upon a green brick, the name of Rameses III.; upon certain red and
white fragments, the names of Seti I. and Sheshonk.
[Illustration: Fig. 236.--Tile from step pyramid of Sakkarah.]
Up to the beginning of the present century, one of the chambers in the step
pyramid at Sakkarah yet retained its mural decoration of glazed ware (fig.
235). For three-fourths of the wall-surface it was covered with green
tiles, oblong in shape, flat at the back, and slightly convex on the face
(fig. 236). A square tenon, pierced through with a hole large enough to
receive a wooden rod, served to fix them together in horizontal pyramid of
rows.[67] The three rows which frame in the doorway are inscribed with the
titles of an unclassed Pharaoh belonging to one of the first Memphite
dynasties. The hieroglyphs are relieved in blue, red, green, and yellow,
upon a tawny ground. Twenty centuries later, Rameses III. originated a new
style at Tell el Yahûdeh. This time the question of ornamentation
concerned, not a single chamber, but a whole temple. The mass of the
building was of limestone and alabaster; but the pictorial subjects,
instead of being sculptured according to custom, were of a kind of mosaic
made with almost equal parts of stone tesserae and glazed ware.
[Illustration: Fig. 237.--Tile inlay, Tell el Yahûdeh.]
[Illustration: Fig. 238.--Tile inlay, Tell el Yahûdeh.]
[Illustration: Fig. 239.--Inlaid tiles, Tell el Yahûdeh.]
The most frequent item in the scheme of decoration was a roundel moulded of
a sandy frit coated with blue or grey slip, upon which is a cream-coloured
rosette (fig. 237). Some of these rosettes are framed in geometrical
designs (fig. 238) or spider-web patterns; some represent open flowers. The
central boss is in relief; the petals and tracery are encrusted in the
mass. These roundels, which are of various diameters ranging from three-
eighths of an inch to four inches, were fixed to the walls by means of a
very fine cement. They were used to form many different designs, as
scrolls, foliage, and parallel fillets, such as may be seen on the foot of
an altar and the base of a column preserved in the Gizeh Museum. The royal
ovals were mostly in one piece; so also were the figures. The details,
either incised or modelled upon the clay before firing, were afterwards
painted with such colours as might be suitable. The lotus flowers and
leaves which were carried along the bottom of the walls or the length of
the cornices, were, on the contrary, made up of independent pieces; each
colour being a separate morsel cut to fit exactly into the pieces by which
it was surrounded (fig. 239). This temple was rifled at the beginning of
the present century, and some figures of prisoners brought thence have been
in the Louvre collection ever since the time of Champollion. All that
remained of the building and its decoration was demolished a few years ago
by certain dealers in antiquities, and the _débris_ are now dispersed in
all directions. Mariette, though with great difficulty, recovered some of
the more important fragments, such as the name of Rameses III., which dates
the building; some borderings of lotus flowers and birds with human hands
(fig. 240); and some heads of Asiatics and negro prisoners (fig. 241).[68]
The destruction of this monument is the more grievous because the Egyptians
cannot have constructed many after the same type. Glazed bricks, painted
tiles, and enamelled mosaics are readily injured; and in the judgment of a
people enamoured of stability and eternity, that would be the gravest of
radical defects.
[Illustration: Fig. 240.--Relief tile, Tell el Yahûdeh.]
[Illustration: Fig. 241.--Relief tile, Tell el Yahûdeh.]
[55] Works on scarabaei are the Palin collection, published in 1828; Mr.
Loftie's charming _Essay of Scarabs_, which is in fact a
catalogue of his own specimens, admirably illustrated from drawings by
Mr. W.M.F. Petrie; and Mr. Petrie's _Historical Scarabs_,
published 1889.--A.B.E.
[56] These twin vases are still made at Asûan. I bought a small specimen
there in 1874.--A.B.E.
[57] The sepulchral vases commonly called "canopic" were four in number,
and contained the embalmed viscera of the mummy. The lids of these
vases were fashioned to represent the heads of the four genii of
Amenti, Hapi, Tûatmûtf, Kebhsennef, and Amset; i.e. the
Ape-head, the Jackal-head, the Hawk-head, and the human head.--A.B.E.
[58] The remains of this shrine, together with many hundreds of beautiful
glass hieroglyphs, figures, emblems, etc., for inlaying, besides
moulds and other items of the glassworker's stock, were discovered by
Mr. F. Ll. Griffith at Tell Gemayemi, about equidistant from the
mounds of Tanis and Daphnae (Sân and Defenneh) in March 1886. For a
fuller account see Mr. Griffith's report, "_The Antiquities of Tell
el Yahudîyeh," in Seventh Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund_.
--A.B.E.
[59] Some of these beautiful rods were also found at Tell Gemayemi by Mr.
F. Ll. Griffith, and in such sound condition that it was possible to
cut them in thin slices, for distribution among various museums.--
A.B.E.
[60] That is, of the kind known as the "false murrhine."--A.B.E.
[61] The yellows and browns are frequently altered greens.--A.B.E.
[62] One of the Eleventh Dynasty kings.
[63] There is a fine specimen at the Louvre, and another in the museum at
Leydeu.--A.B.E.
[64] For an account of every stage and detail in the glass and glaze
manufactures of Tell el Amarna, see W.M.F. Petrie's _Tell el
Amarna_.
[65] _Klaft, i.e._, a headdress of folded linen. The beautiful
little head here referred to is in the Gizeh Museum, and is a portrait
of the Pharaoh Necho.--A.B.E.
[66] _Apries_, in Egyptian "Uahabra," the biblical "Hophra;"
_Amasis_, Ahmes II.; both of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty.--A.B.E.
[67] Some specimens of these tiles may be seen in the Egyptian department
at the British Museum.--A.B.E.
2.--WOOD, IVORY, LEATHER, AND TEXTILE FABRICS.
[Illustration: Fig. 242.--Spoon.]
Objects in ivory, bone, and horn are among the rarities of our museums; but
we must not for this reason conclude that the Egyptians did not make ample
use of those substances. Horn is perishable, and is eagerly devoured by
certain insects, which rapidly destroy it. Bone and ivory soon deteriorate
and become friable. The elephant was known to the Egyptians from the
remotest period. They may, perhaps, have found it inhabiting the Thebaid
when first they established themselves in that part of the Nile Valley, for
as early as the Fifth Dynasty we find the pictured form of the elephant in
use as the hieroglyphic name of the island of Elephantine. Ivory in tusks
and half tusks was imported into Egypt from the regions of the Upper Nile.
It was sometimes dyed green or red, but was more generally left of its
natural colour. It was largely employed by cabinet makers for inlaying
furniture, as chairs, bedsteads, and coffers. Combs, dice, hair-pins,
toilette ornaments, delicately wrought spoons (fig. 242), Kohl bottles
hollowed out of a miniature column surmounted by a capital, incense-burners
in the shape of a hand supporting a bronze cup in which the perfumes were
burned, and boomerangs engraved with figures of gods and fantastic animals,
were also made of ivory. Some of these objects are works of fine art; as
for instance at Gizeh, a poignard-handle in the form of a lion; the plaques
in bas-relief which adorn the draught-box of one Tûaï, who lived towards
the end of the Seventeenth Dynasty; a Fifth Dynasty figure, unfortunately
mutilated, which yet retains traces of rose colour; and a miniature statue
of Abi, who died at the time of the Thirteenth Dynasty. This little
personage, perched on the top of a lotus-flower column, looks straight
before him with a majestic air which contrasts somewhat comically with the
size and prominence of his ears. The modelling of the figure is broad and
spirited, and will bear comparison with good Italian ivories of the
Renaissance period.
[Illustration: Fig. 243.--Wooden statuette of officer, Eighteenth Dynasty.]
[Illustration: Fig. 244.--Wooden statuette of priest, Eighteenth Dynasty.]
[Illustration: Fig. 245.--Wooden statuette of the Lady Naï.]
Egypt produces few trees, and of these few the greater number are useless
to the sculptor. The two which most abound--namely, the date palm and the
dôm palm--are of too coarse a fibre for carving, and are too unequal in
texture. Some varieties of the sycamore and acacia are the only trees of
which the grain is sufficiently fine and manageable to be wrought with the
chisel. Wood was, nevertheless, a favourite material for cheap and rapid
work. It was even employed at times for subjects of importance, such as Ka
statues; and the Wooden Man of Gizeh shows with what boldness and amplitude
of style it could be treated. But the blocks and beams which the Egyptians
had at command were seldom large enough for a statue. The Wooden Man
himself, though but half life-size, consists of a number of pieces held
together by square pegs. Hence, wood-carvers were wont to treat their
subjects upon such a scale as admitted of their being cut in one block, and
the statues of olden time became statuettes under the Theban dynasties. Art
lost nothing by the reduction, and more than one of these little figures is
comparable to the finest works of the ancient empire. The best, perhaps, is
at the Turin Museum, and dates from the Twentieth Dynasty. It represents a
young girl whose only garment is a slender girdle. She is of that
indefinite age when the undeveloped form is almost as much like that of a
boy as of a girl. The expression of the head is gentle, yet saucy. It is,
in fact, across thirty centuries of time, a portrait of one of those
graceful little maidens of Elephantine, who, without immodesty or
embarrassment, walk unclothed in sight of strangers. Three little wooden
men in the Gizeh Museum are probably contemporaries of the Turin figure.
They wear full dress, as, indeed, they should, for one was a king's
favourite named Hori, and surnamed Ra. They are walking with calm and
measured tread, the bust thrown forward, and the head high. The expression
upon their faces is knowing, and somewhat sly. An officer who has retired
on half-pay at the Louvre (fig. 243) wears an undress uniform of the time
of Amenhotep III.; that is to say, a small wig, a close-fitting vest with
short sleeves, and a kilt drawn tightly over the hips, reaching scarcely
half-way down the thigh, and trimmed in front with a piece of puffing
plaited longwise. His companion is a priest (fig. 244), who wears his hair
in rows of little curls one above the other, and is clad in a long
petticoat falling below the calf of the leg and spreading out in front in a
kind of plaited apron. He holds a sacred standard consisting of a stout
staff surmounted by a ram's head crowned with the solar disc. Both officer
and priest are painted red brown, with the exception of the hair, which is
black; the cornea of the eyes, which is white; and the standard, which is
yellow. Curiously enough, the little lady Naï, who inhabits the same glass
case, is also painted reddish brown, instead of buff, which was the
canonical colour for women (fig. 245). She is taken in a close-fitting
garment trimmed down the front with a band of white embroidery. Round her
neck she wears a necklace consisting of a triple row of gold pendants. Two
golden bracelets adorn her wrists, and on her head she carries a wig with
long curls. The right arm hangs by her side, the hand holding some object
now lost, which was probably a mirror. The left arm is raised, and with the
left hand she presses a lotus lily to her breast. The body is easy and well
formed, the figure indicates youth, the face is open, smiling, pleasant,
and somewhat plebeian. To modify the unwieldy mass of the headdress was
beyond the skill of the artist, but the bust is delicately and elegantly
modelled, the clinging garment gives discreet emphasis to the shape, and
the action of the hand which holds the flower is rendered with grace and
naturalness. All these are portraits, and as the sitters were not persons
of august rank, we may conclude that they did not employ the most
fashionable artists. They, doubtless, had recourse to more unpretending
craftsmen; but that such craftsmen were thus highly trained in knowledge of
form and accuracy of execution, shows how strongly even the artisan was
influenced by the great school of sculpture which then flourished at
Thebes.
This influence becomes even more apparent when we study the knick-knacks of
the toilet table, and such small objects as, properly speaking, come under
the head of furniture. To pass in review the hundred and one little
articles of female ornament or luxury to which the fancy of the designer
gave all kinds of ingenious and novel forms, would be no light task. The
handles of mirrors, for instance, generally represented a stem of lotus or
papyrus surmounted by a full-blown flower, from the midst of which rose a
disk of polished metal. For this design is sometimes substituted the figure
of a young girl, either nude, or clad in a close-fitting garment, who holds
the mirror on her head. The tops of hair-pins were carved in the semblance
of a coiled serpent, or of the head of a jackal, a dog, or a hawk. The pin-
cushion in which they are placed is a hedgehog or a tortoise, with holes
pierced in a formal pattern upon the back. The head-rests, which served for
pillows, were decorated with bas-reliefs of subjects derived from the myths
of Bes and Sekhet, the grimacing features of the former deity being carved
on the ends or on the base. But it is in the carving of perfume-spoons and
kohl-bottles that the inventive skill of the craftsman is most brilliantly
displayed.
[Illustration: Fig. 246.--Spoon.]
[Illustration: Fig. 247.--Spoon.]
[Illustration: Fib. 248.--Spoon.]
[Illustration: Fig. 249.--Spoon.]
[Illustration: Fig. 250.--Spoon.]
[Illustration: Fig. 251.--Spoon.]
[Illustration: Fig. 252.--Spoon.]
[Illustration: Fig. 253.--Spoon.]
Not to soil their fingers the Egyptians made use of spoons for essences,
pomades, and the variously-coloured preparations with which both men and
women stained their cheeks, lips, eyelids, nails, and palms. The designer
generally borrowed his subjects from the fauna or flora of the Nile valley.
A little case at Gizeh is carved in the shape of a couchant calf, the body
being hollowed out, and the head and back forming a removable lid. A spoon
in the same collection represents a dog running away with an enormous fish
in his mouth (fig. 246), the body of the fish forming the bowl of the
spoon. Another shows a cartouche springing from a full-blown lotus;
another, a lotus fruit laid upon a bouquet of flowers (fig. 247); and here
is a simple triangular bowl, the handle decorated with a stem and two buds
(fig. 248). The most elaborate specimens combine these subjects with the
human figure. A young girl, clad in a mere girdle, is represented in the
act of swimming (fig. 249). Her head is well lifted above the water, and
her outstretched arms support a duck, the body of which is hollowed out,
while the wings, being movable, serve as a cover. We have also a young girl
in the Louvre collection, but she stands in a maze of lotus plants (fig.
250), and is in the act of gathering a bud. A bunch of stems, from which
emerge two full-blown blossoms, unites the handle to the bowl of the spoon,
which is in reverse position, the larger end being turned outwards and the
point inwards. Elsewhere, a young girl (fig. 251) playing upon a long-
necked lute as she trips along, is framed in by two flowering stems.
Sometimes the fair musician is standing upright in a tiny skiff (fig. 252);
and sometimes a girl bearing offerings is substituted for the lute player.
Another example represents a slave toiling under the weight of an enormous
sack. The age and physiognomy of each of these personages is clearly
indicated. The lotus gatherer is of good birth, as may be seen by her
carefully plaited hair and tunic. The Theban ladies wore long robes; but
this damsel has gathered up her skirts that she may thread her way among
the reeds without wetting her garments. The two musicians and the swimming
girl belong, on the contrary, to an inferior, or servile, class. Two of
them wear only a girdle, and the third has a short garment negligently
fastened. The bearer of offerings (fig. 253) wears the long pendent tresses
distinctive of childhood, and is one of those slender, growing girls of the
fellahîn class whom one sees in such numbers on the banks of the Nile. Her
lack of clothing is, however, no evidence of want of birth, for not even
the children of nobility were wont to put on the garments of their sex
before the period of adolescence. Lastly, the slave (fig. 254), with his
thick lips, his high shoulders, his flat nose, his heavy, animal jaw, his
low brow, and his bare, conical head, is evidently a caricature of some
foreign prisoner. The dogged sullenness with which he trudges under his
burden is admirably caught, while the angularities of the body, the type of
the head, and the general arrangement of the parts, remind one of the
terra-cotta grotesques of Asia Minor. In these subjects, all the minor
details, the fruits, the flowers, the various kinds of birds, are rendered
with much truth and cleverness. Of the three ducks which are tied by the
feet and slung over the arms of the girl bearing offerings, two are
resigned to their fate, and hang swinging with open eyes and outstretched
necks; but the third flaps her wings and lifts her head protestingly. The
two small water-fowl perched upon the lotus flowers listen placidly to the
lute-player's music, their beaks resting on their crops. They have learned
by experience not to put themselves out of the way for a song, and they
know that there is nothing to fear from a young girl, unless she is armed.
They are put to flight in the bas-reliefs by the mere sight of a bow and
arrows, just as a company of rooks is put to flight nowadays by the sight
of a gun. The Egyptians were especially familiar with the ways of animals
and birds, and reproduced them with marvellous exactness. The habit of
minutely observing minor facts became instinctive, and it informed their
most trifling works with that air of reality which strikes us so forcibly
at the present day.
[Illustration: Fig. 254.--Spoon.]
Household furniture was no more abundant in ancient Egypt than it is in the
Egypt of to-day. In the time of the Twelfth Dynasty an ordinary house
contained no bedsteads, but low frameworks like the Nubian _angareb_; or
mats rolled up by day on which the owners lay down at night in their
clothes, pillowing their heads on earthenware, stone, or wooden head-rests.
There were also two or three simple stone seats, some wooden chairs or
stools with carved legs, chests and boxes of various sizes for clothes and
tools, and a few common vessels of pottery or bronze. For making fire there
were fire-sticks, and the bow-drill for using them (figs. 255 and 181);
children's toys were even then found in great variety though of somewhat
quaint construction. There were dolls with wigs and movable limbs, made in
stone, pottery, and wood (fig. 256); figures of men, and animals, and
terra-cotta boats, balls of wood and stuffed leather, whip-tops, and tip-
cats (fig. 257).
[Illustration: Fig. 255.--Fire-sticks, bow, and unfinished drill-stock,
Twelfth Dynasty; _Illahûn, Kahun, and Gurob,_ W.M.F. Petrie, Plate VII., p.
11.]
[Illustration: Fig. 256.--Remains of two Twelfth Dynasty dolls; _Kahun,
Gurob and Hawara,_ W.M.F. Petrie, Plate VIII. p. 30.]
[Illustration: Fig. 257.--Tops, tip-cat, and a terra-cotta toy boat,
Twelfth Dynasty; _Kahun, Gurob, and Hawara,_ W.M.F. Petrie, Plates VIII.,
IX., p. 30.]
[Illustration: Fig. 258.--Chest]
[Illustration: Fig. 259.--Chest.]
[Illustration: Fig. 260.--Chest.]
The art of the cabinet-maker was nevertheless carried to a high degree of
perfection, from the time of the ancient dynasties. Planks were dressed
down with the adze, mortised, glued, joined together by means of pegs cut
in hard wood, or acacia thorns (never by metal nails), polished, and
finally covered with paintings. Chests generally stand upon four straight
legs, and are occasionally thus raised to some height from the ground. The
lid is flat, or rounded according to a special curvature (fig. 258) much in
favour among the Egyptians of all periods. Sometimes, though rarely, it is
gable-shaped, like our house-roofs (fig. 259). Generally speaking, the lid
lifts off bodily; but it often turns upon a peg inserted in one of the
uprights. Sometimes, also, it turns upon wooden pivots (fig. 260). The
panels, which are large and admirably suited for decorative art, are
enriched with paintings, or inlaid with ivory, silver, precious woods, or
enamelled plaques. It may be that we are scarcely in a position justly to
appraise the skill of Egyptian cabinet-makers, or the variety of designs
produced at various periods. Nearly all the furniture which has come down
to our day has been found in tombs, and, being destined for burial in the
sepulchre, may either be of a character exclusively destined for the use of
the mummy, or possibly a cheap imitation of a more precious class of
goods.
The mummy was, in fact, the cabinet-maker's best customer. In other lands,
man took but a few objects with him into the next world; but the defunct
Egyptian required nothing short of a complete outfit. The mummy-case alone
was an actual monument, in the construction of which a whole squad of
workmen was employed (fig. 261). The styles of mummy-cases varied from
period to period. Under the Memphite and first Theban empires, we find only
rectangular chests in sycamore wood, flat at top and bottom, and made of
many pieces joined together by wooden pins. The pattern is not elegant, but
the decoration is very curious. The lid has no cornice. Outside, it is
inscribed down the middle with a long column of hieroglyphs, sometimes
merely written in ink, sometimes laid on in colour, sometimes carved in
hollowed-out signs filled in with some kind of bluish paste. The
inscription records only the name and titles of the deceased, accompanied
now and then by a short form of prayer in his favour. The inside is covered
with a thick coat of stucco or whitewash.
[Illustration: Fig. 261.--Construction of a mummy-case, wall scene,
Eighteenth Dynasty.]
[Illustration: Fig. 262.--Mask of Twenty-first Dynasty coffin of Rameses
II.]
[Illustration: Fig. 263.--Mummy-case of Queen Ahmesnefertari.]
Upon this surface, the seventeenth chapter of _The Book of the Dead _was
generally written in red and black inks, and in fine cursive hieroglyphs.
The body of the chest is made with three horizontal planks for the bottom,
and eight vertical planks, placed two and two, for the four sides. The
outside is sometimes decorated with long strips of various colours ending
in interlaced lotus-leaves, such as are seen on stone sarcophagi. More
frequently, it is ornamented on the left side with two wide-open eyes and
two monumental doors, and on the right with three doors exactly like those
seen in contemporary catacombs. The sarcophagus is in truth the house of
the deceased; and, being his house, its four walls were bound to contain an
epitome of the prayers and _tableaux_ which covered the walls of his tomb.
The necessary formulae and pictured scenes were, therefore, reproduced
inside, nearly in the same order in which they appear in the mastabas. Each
side is divided in three registers, each register containing a dedication
in the name of the deceased, or representations of objects belonging to
him, or such texts from the Ritual as need to be repeated for his benefit.
Skilfully composed, and painted upon a background made to imitate some
precious wood, the whole forms a boldly-designed and harmoniously-coloured
picture. The cabinet-maker's share of the work was the lightest, and the
long boxes in which the dead of the earliest period were buried made no
great demand upon his skill. This, however, was not the case when in later
times the sarcophagus came to be fashioned in the likeness of the human
body. Of this style we have two leading types. In the most ancient, the
mummy serves as the model for his case. His outstretched feet and legs are
in one. The form of the knee, the swell of the calf, the contours of the
thigh and the trunk, are summarily indicated, and are, as it were, vaguely
modelled under the wood. The head, apparently the only living part of this
inert body, is wrought out in the round. The dead man is in this wise
imprisoned in a kind of statue of himself; and this statue is so well
balanced that it can stand on its feet if required, as upon a pedestal. In
the other type of sarcophagus, the deceased lies at full length upon his
tomb, and his figure, sculptured in the round, serves as the lid of his
mummy-case. On his head is seen the ponderous wig of the period. A white
linen vest and a long petticoat cover his chest and legs. His feet are shod
with elegant sandals. His arms lie straight along his sides, or are folded
upon his breast, the hands grasping various emblems, as the _Ankh_, the
girdle-buckle, the _Tat_;[69] or, as in the case of the wife of Sennetmû at
Gizeh, a garland of ivy. This mummiform type of sarcophagus is rarely met
with under the Memphite dynasties, though that of Menkara, the Mycerinus of
the Greeks, affords a memorable example. Under the Eleventh Dynasty, the
mummy-case is frequently but a hollowed tree-trunk, roughly sculptured
outside, with a head at one end and feet at the other. The face is daubed
with bright colours, yellow, red, and green; the wig and headdress are
striped with black and blue, and an elaborate collar is depicted on the
breast. The rest of the case is either covered with the long, gilded wings
of Isis and Nephthys, or with a uniform tint of white or yellow, and
sparsely decorated with symbolic figures, or columns of hieroglyphs painted
blue and black. Among the sarcophagi belonging to kings of the Seventeenth
Dynasty which I recovered from Deir el Baharî, the most highly finished
belonged to this type, and were only remarkable for the really
extraordinary skill with which the craftsman had reproduced the features of
the deceased sovereigns. The mask of Ahmes I., that of Amenhotep I., and
that of Thothmes II., are masterpieces in their way. The mask of Rameses
II. shows no sign of paint, except a black line which accentuates the form
of the eye. The face is doubtless modelled in the likeness of the Pharaoh
Herhor, who restored the funerary outfit of his puissant ancestor, and it
will almost bear comparison with the best works of contemporary sculpture
(fig. 262). Two mummy-cases found in the same place--namely, those of Queen
Ahmesnefertari and her daughter, Aahhotep II.--are of gigantic size, and
measure more than ten and a half feet in height (fig. 263). Standing
upright, they might almost be taken for two of the caryatid statues from
the first court at Medinet Habû, though on a smaller scale. The bodies are
represented as bandaged, and but vaguely indicate the contours of the human
form. The shoulders and bust of each are covered with a kind of network in
relief, every mesh standing out in blue upon a yellow ground. The hands
emerge from this mantle, are crossed upon the breast, and grasp the _Ankh_,
or Tau-cross, symbolic of eternal life. The heads are portraits. The faces
are round, the eyes large, the expression mild and characterless. Each is
crowned with the flat-topped cap and lofty plumes of Amen or Maut. We
cannot but wonder for what reason these huge receptacles were made. The two
queens were small of stature, and their mummies--which were well-nigh lost
in the cases--had to be packed round with an immense quantity of rags, to
prevent them from shifting, and becoming injured. Apart from their abnormal
size, these cases are characterised by the same simplicity which
distinguishes other mummy-cases of royal or private persons of the same
period. Towards the middle of the Nineteenth Dynasty, the fashion changed.
The single mummy-case, soberly decorated, was superseded by two, three, and
even four cases, fitting the one into the other, and covered with paintings
and inscriptions. Sometimes the outer receptacle is a sarcophagus with
convex lid and square ears, upon which the deceased is pictured over and
over again upon a white ground, in adoration before the gods of the Osirian
cycle. When, however, it is shaped in human form, it retains somewhat of
the old simplicity. The face is painted; a collar is represented on the
chest, a band of hieroglyphs extends down the whole length of the body to
the feet, and the rest is in one uniform tone of black, brown, or dark
yellow. The inner cases were extravagantly rich, the hands and faces being
red, rose-coloured, or gilded; the jewellery painted, or sometimes imitated
by means of small morsels of enamel encrusted in the wood-work; the
surfaces frequently covered with many-coloured scenes and legends, and the
whole heightened by means of the yellow varnish already mentioned. The
lavish ornamentation of this period is in striking contrast with the
sobriety of earlier times; but in order to grasp the reason of this
change, one must go to Thebes, and visit the actual sepulchres of the dead.
The kings and private persons of the great conquering dynasties[70] devoted
their energies, and all the means at their disposal, to the excavation of
catacombs. The walls of those catacombs were covered with sculptures and
paintings. The sarcophagus was cut in one enormous block of granite or
alabaster, and admirably wrought. It was therefore of little moment if the
wooden coffin in which the mummy reposed were very simply decorated. But
the Egyptians of the decadence, and their rulers, had not the wealth of
Egypt and the spoils of neighbouring countries at command. They were poor;
and the slenderness of their resources debarred them from great
undertakings. They for the most part gave up the preparation of magnificent
tombs, and employed such wealth as remained to them in the fabrication of
fine mummy-cases carved in sycamore wood. The beauty of their coffins,
therefore, but affords an additional proof of their weakness and poverty.
When for a few centuries the Saïte princes had succeeded in re-establishing
the prosperity of the country, stone sarcophagi came once more into
requisition, and the wooden coffin reverted to somewhat of the simplicity
of the great period. But this Renaissance was not destined to last. The
Macedonian conquest brought back the same revolution in funerary fashions
which followed the fall of the Ramessides, and double and triple mummy
cases, over-painted and over-gilded, were again in demand. If the
craftsmen of Graeco-Roman time who attired the dead of Ekhmîm for their
last resting places were less skilful than those of earlier date, their bad
taste was, at all events, not surpassed by the Theban coffin-makers who
lived and worked under the latest princes of the royal line of Rameses.
[Illustration: Fig. 264.--Panel portrait from the Graeco-Roman Cemetery at
Hawara, now in the National Gallery, London. (_Hawara, Biahmu, and
Arsinoe_, W.M.F. Petrie, Plate X., page 10.)]
A series of Graeco-Roman examples from the Fayûm exhibit the stages by
which portraiture in the flat there replaced the modelled mask, until
towards the middle of the second century A.D. it became customary to
bandage over the face of the mummy a panel-portrait of the dead, as he was
in life (fig. 264).
The remainder of the funerary outfit supplied the cabinet-maker with as
much work as the coffin-maker. Boxes of various shapes and sizes were
required for the wardrobe of the mummy, for his viscera, and for his
funerary statuettes. He must also have tables for his meals; stools,
chairs, a bed to lie upon, a boat and sledge to convey him to the tomb, and
sometimes even a war-chariot and a carriage in which to take the air.[71]
The boxes for canopic vases, funerary statuettes, and libation-vases, are
divided in several compartments. A couchant jackal is sometimes placed on
the top, and serves for a handle by which to take off the lid. Each box was
provided with its own little sledge, upon which it was drawn in the funeral
procession on the day of burial. Beds are not very uncommon. Many are
identical in structure with the Nubian _angarebs_, and consist merely of
some coarse fabric, or of interlaced strips of leather, stretched on a
plain wooden frame. Few exceed fifty-six inches in length; the sleeper,
therefore, could never lie outstretched, but must perforce assume a
doubled-up position. The frame is generally horizontal, but sometimes it
slopes slightly downwards from the head to the foot. It was often raised to
a considerable height above the level of the floor, and a stool, or a
little portable set of steps, was used in mounting it. These details were
known to us by the wall-paintings only until I myself discovered two
perfect specimens in 1884 and 1885; one at Thebes, in a tomb of the
Thirteenth Dynasty, and the other at Ekhmîm, in the Graeco-Roman
necropolis. In the former, two accommodating lions have elongated their
bodies to form the framework, their heads doing duty for the head of the
bed, and their tails being curled up under the feet of the sleeper.
[Illustration: Fig. 265.--Carved and painted mummy canopy.]
[Illustration: Fig. 266.--Canopied mummy-couch, Graeco-Roman.]
[Illustration: Fig. 267.--Mummy-sledge and canopy.]
[Illustration: Fig. 268.--Inlaid-chair, Eleventh Dynasty.]
The bed is surmounted by a kind of canopy, under which the mummy lay in
state. Rhind had already found a similar canopy, which is now in the Museum
of Edinburgh[72] (fig. 265). In shape it is a temple, the rounded roof
being supported by elegant colonnettes of painted wood. A doorway guarded
by serpents is supposed to give access to the miniature edifice. Three
winged discs, each larger than the one below it, adorn three superimposed
cornices above the door, the whole frontage being surmounted by a row of
erect uraei, crowned with the solar disc. The canopy belonging to the
Thirteenth Dynasty bed is much more simple, being a mere balustrade in cut
and painted wood, in imitation of the water-plant pattern with which temple
walls were decorated; the whole is crowned with an ordinary cornice. In the
bed of Graeco-Roman date (fig. 266), carved and painted figures of the
goddess Ma, sitting with her feather on her knee, are substituted for the
customary balustrades. Isis and Nephthys stand with their winged arms
outstretched at the head and foot. The roof is open, save for a row of
vultures hovering above the mummy, which is wept over by two kneeling
statuettes of Isis and Nephthys, one at each end. The sledges upon which
mummies were dragged to the sepulchre were also furnished with canopies,
but in a totally different style. The sledge canopy is a panelled shrine,
like those which I discovered in 1886, in the tomb of Sennetmû at Kûrnet
Murraee. If light was admitted, it came through a square opening, showing
the head of the mummy within. Wilkinson gives an illustration of a sledge
canopy of this kind, from the wall paintings of a Theban tomb (fig. 267).
The panels were always made to slide. As soon as the mummy was laid upon
his sledge, the panels were closed, the corniced roof placed over all, and
the whole closed in. With regard to chairs, many of those in the Louvre and
the British Museum were made about the time of the Eleventh Dynasty. These
are not the least beautiful specimens which have come down to us, one in
particular (fig. 268) having preserved an extraordinary brilliancy of
colour. The framework, formerly fitted with a seat of strong netting, was
originally supported on four legs with lions' feet. The back is ornamented
with two lotus flowers, and with a row of lozenges inlaid in ivory and
ebony upon a red ground. Stools of similar workmanship (fig. 269), and
folding stools, the feet of which are in the form of a goose's head, may be
seen in all museums. Pharaohs and persons of high rank affected more
elaborate designs. Their seats were sometimes raised very high, the arms
being carved to resemble running lions, and the lower supports being
prisoners of war, bound back to back (fig. 270). A foot-board in front
served as a step to mount by, and as a foot-stool for the sitter. Up to the
present time, we have found no specimens of this kind of seat.[73]
[Illustration: Fig. 269.--Inlaid stool, Eleventh Dynasty.]
[Illustration: Fig. 270.--Royal throne-chair, wall-painting Rameses III.]
[Illustration: Fig. 271.--Women weaving. From wall-scene in tomb of
Khnûmhotep, Beni Hasan, Twelfth Dynasty.]
We learn from the tomb paintings that netted or cane-bottomed chairs were
covered with stuffed seats and richly worked cushions. These cushions and
stuffed seats have perished, but it is to be concluded that they were
covered with tapestry. Tapestry was undoubtedly known to the Egyptians, and
a bas-relief subject at Beni Hasan (fig. 271)[74] shows the process of
weaving. The frame, which is of the simplest structure, resembles that now
in use among the weavers of Ekhmîm. It is horizontal, and is formed of two
slender cylinders, or rather of two rods, about fifty-four inches apart,
each held in place by two large pegs driven into the ground about three
feet distant from each other. The warps of the chain were strongly
fastened, then rolled round the top cylinder till they were stretched
sufficiently tight. Mill sticks placed at certain distances facilitated the
insertion of the needles which carried the thread. As in the Gobelins
factory, the work was begun from the bottom. The texture was regulated and
equalised by means of a coarse comb, and was rolled upon the lower cylinder
as it increased in length. Hangings and carpets were woven in this manner;
some with figures, others with geometrical designs, zigzags, and chequers
(fig. 272). A careful examination of the monuments has, however, convinced
me that most of the subjects hitherto supposed to represent examples of
tapestry represent, in fact, examples of cut and painted leather. The
leather-worker's craft flourished in ancient Egypt. Few museums are without
a pair of leather sandals, or a specimen of mummy braces with ends of
stamped leather bearing the effigy of a god, a Pharaoh, a hieroglyphic
legend, a rosette, or perhaps all combined. These little relics are not
older than the time of the priest-kings, or the earlier Bubastites. It is
to the same period that we must attribute the great cut-leather canopy in
the Gizeh Museum. The catafalque upon which the mummy was laid when
transported from the mortuary establishment to the tomb, was frequently
adorned with a covering made of stuff or soft leather. Sometimes the
sidepieces hung down, and sometimes they were drawn aside with bands, like
curtains, and showed the coffin.
[Illustration: Fig. 272.--Man weaving hangings, or carpet. From Beni Hasan,
Twelfth Dynasty.]
[Illustration: Fig. 273.--Border pattern of cut leather canopy of
Isiemkheb, Twenty-first Dynasty.]
The canopy of Deir el Baharî was made for the Princess Isiemkheb, daughter
of the High Priest Masahirti, wife of the High Priest Menkheperra, and
mother of the High Priest Pinotem III. The centrepiece, in shape an oblong
square, is divided into three bands of sky-blue leather, now faded to
pearl-grey. The two side-pieces are sprinkled with yellow stars. Upon the
middle piece are rows of vultures, whose outspread wings protect the mummy.
Four other pieces covered with red and green chequers are attached to the
ends and sides. The longer pieces which hung over the sides are united to
the centre-piece by an ornamental bordering. On the right, scarabaei with
extended wings alternate with the cartouches of King Pinotem II., and are
surmounted by a lance-head frieze. On the left side, the pattern is more
complicated (fig. 273). In the centre we see a bunch of lotus lilies
flanked by royal cartouches. Next come two antelopes, each kneeling upon a
basket; then two bouquets of papyrus; then two more scarabaei, similar to
those upon the other border. The lance-head frieze finishes it above, as on
the opposite side. The technical process is very curious. The hieroglyphs
and figures were cut out from large pieces of leather; then, under the open
spaces thus left, were sewn thongs of leather of whatever colour was
required for those ornaments or hieroglyphs. Finally, in order to hide the
patchwork effect presented at the back, the whole was lined with long
strips of white, or light yellow, leather. Despite the difficulties of
treatment which this work presented, the result is most remarkable.[75] The
outlines of the gazelles, scarabaei, and flowers are as clean-cut and as
elegant as if drawn with the pen upon a wall-surface or a page of papyrus.
The choice of subjects is happy, and the colours employed are both lively
and harmonious.
[Illustration: Fig. 274.--Bark with cut leather sail; wall-painting tomb of
Rameses III.]
The craftsmen who designed and executed the canopy of Isiemkheb had
profited by a long experience of this system of decoration, and of the kind
of patterns suitable to the material. For my own part, I have not the
slightest doubt that the cushions of chairs and royal couches, and the
sails of funeral and sacred boats used for the transport of mummies and
divine images, were most frequently made in leather-work. The chequer-
patterned sail represented in one of the boat subjects painted on the wall
of a chamber in the tomb of Rameses III. (fig. 274), might be mistaken for
one of the side pieces of the canopy at Gizeh. The vultures and fantastic
birds depicted upon the sails of another boat (fig. 275) are neither more
strange nor more difficult to make in cut leather than the vultures and
gazelles of Isiemkheb.
[Illustration: Fig. 275.--Bark with cut leather sail; wall-painting tomb of
Rameses III.]
We have it upon the authority of ancient writers that the Egyptians of
olden time embroidered as skilfully as those of the Middle Ages. The
surcoats given by Amasis, one to the Lacedaemonians, and the other to the
temple of Athena at Lindos, were of linen embroidered with figures of
animals in gold thread and purple, each thread consisting of three hundred
and sixty-five distinct filaments. To go back to a still earlier period,
the monumental tableaux show portraits of the Pharaohs wearing garments
with borders, either woven or embroidered, or done in _appliqué_ work. The
most simple patterns consist of one or more stripes of brilliant colour
parallel with the edge of the material. Elsewhere we see palm patterns, or
rows of discs and points, leaf-patterns, meanders, and even, here and
there, figures of men, gods, or animals, worked most probably with the
needle. None of the textile materials yet found upon royal mummies are thus
decorated; we are therefore unable to pronounce upon the quality of this
work, or the method employed in its production. Once only, upon the body of
one of the Deir el Baharî princesses, did I find a royal cartouche
embroidered in pale rose-colour. The Egyptians of the best periods seem to
have attached special value to plain stuffs, and especially to white ones.
These they wove with marvellous skill, and upon looms in every respect
identical with those used in tapestry work. Those portions of the winding
sheet of Thothmes III. which enfolded the royal hands and arms, are as fine
as the finest India muslin, and as fairly merit the name of "woven air" as
the gauzes of the island of Cos. This, of course, is a mere question of
manufacture, apart from the domain of art. Embroideries and tapestries
were not commonly used in Egypt till about the end of the Persian period,
or the beginning of the period of Greek rule. Alexandria became partly
peopled by Phoenician, Syrian, and Jewish colonists, who brought with them
the methods of manufacture peculiar to their own countries, and founded
workshops which soon developed into flourishing establishments. It is to
the Alexandrians that Pliny ascribes the invention of weaving with several
warps, thus producing the stuff called brocades (_polymita_); and in the
time of the first Caesars, it was a recognised fact that "the needle of
Babylon was henceforth surpassed by the comb of the Nile." The Alexandrian
tapestries were not made after exclusively geometrical designs, like the
products of the old Egyptian looms; but, according to the testimony of the
ancients, were enriched with figures of animals, and even of men. Of the
masterpieces which adorned the palaces of the Ptolemies no specimens
remain. Many fragments which may be attributed to the later Roman time
have, however, been found in Egypt, such as the piece with the boy and
goose described by Wilkinson, and a piece representing marine divinities
bought by myself at Coptos.[76] The numerous embroidered winding sheets
with woven borders which have recently been discovered near Ekhmîm, and in
the Fayûm, are nearly all from Coptic tombs, and are more nearly akin to
Byzantine art than to the art of Egypt.
[68] We have a considerable number of specimens of these borderings,
cartouches, and painted tiles representing foreign prisoners, in the
British Museum; but the finest examples of the latter are in the
Ambras Collection, Vienna. For a highly interesting and scholarly
description of the remains found at Tell el Yahûdeh in 1870, see
Professor Hayter Lewis's paper in vol. iii. of the _Transactions_
of the Biblical Archaeological Society.--A.B.E.
[69] The _Tat_ amulet was the emblem of stability.--A.B.E.
[70] That is, the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties.
[71] There is a fine specimen of one of these sledges in the Leyden Museum,
and the Florentine Museum contains a celebrated Egyptian war-chariot
in fine preservation.--A.B.E.
[72] See the coloured frontispiece to _Thebes; its Tombs and their
Tenants_, by A.H. Rhind. 1862.--A.B.E.
[73] Since the publication of this work in the original French, a very
splendid specimen of a royal Egyptian chair of state, the property of
Jesse Haworth, Esq., was placed on view at the Manchester Jubilee
Exhibition. It is made of dark wood, apparently rosewood; the legs
being shaped like bull's legs, having silver hoofs, and a solid gold
cobra snake twining round each leg. The arm-pieces are of lightwood
with cobra snakes carved upon the flat in low relief, each snake
covered with hundreds of small silver annulets, to represent the
markings of the reptile. This chair, dated by a fragment of a royal
cartouche, belonged to Queen Hatshepsût, of the Eighteenth Dynasty. It
is now in the British Museum.--A.B.E.
[74] In this cut, as well as in the next, the loom is represented as if
upright; but it is supposed to be extended on the ground.--A.B.E.
[75] For a chromolithographic reproduction of this work as a whole, with
drawings of the separate parts, facsimiles of the inscriptions, etc.,
see _The Funeral Tent of an Egyptian Queen_, by H. Villiers
Stuart.--A.B.E.
[76] An unusually fine specimen of carpet, or tapestry work from Ekhmîm,
representing Cupids rowing in papyrus skiffs, landscapes, etc., has
recently been presented to the British Museum by the Rev. G.J.
Chester. The tapestry found at Ekhmîm is, however, mostly of the
Christian period, and this specimen probably dates from about A.D. 700
or A.D. 600.--A.B.E.
3.--METALS.
The Egyptians classified metals under two heads--namely, the noble metals,
as gold, electrum, and silver; and the base metals, as copper, iron, lead,
and, at a later period, tin. The two lists are divided by the mention of
certain kinds of precious stones, such as lapis lazuli and malachite.
Iron was reserved for weapons of war, and tools, in use for hard
substances, such as sculptors' and masons' chisels, axe and adze heads,
knife-blades, and saws. Lead was comparatively useless, but was sometimes
used for inlaying temple-doors, coffers, and furniture. Also small
statuettes of gods were occasionally made in this metal, especially those
of Osiris and Anubis. Copper was too yielding to be available for objects
in current use; bronze, therefore, was the favourite metal of the
Egyptians. Though often affirmed, it is not true that they succeeded in
tempering bronze so that it became as hard as iron or steel; but by varying
the constituents and their relative proportions, they were able to give it
a variety of very different qualities. Most of the objects hitherto
analysed have yielded precisely the same quantities of copper and tin
commonly used by the bronze founders of the present day. Those analysed by
Vauquelin in 1825 contained 84 per cent. of copper 14 per cent. of tin, and
1 per cent. of iron and other substances. A chisel brought from Egypt by
Sir Gardner Wilkinson contained only from 5 to 9 per cent. of tin, 1 per
cent. of iron, and 94 of copper. Certain fragments of statuettes and
mirrors more recently subjected to analysis have yielded a notable quantity
of gold and silver, thus corresponding with the bronzes of Corinth. Other
specimens resemble brass, both in their colour and substance. Many of the
best Egyptian bronzes offer a surprising resistance to damp, and oxidise
with difficulty. While yet hot from the mould, they were rubbed with some
kind of resinous varnish which filled up the pores and deposited an
unalterable patina upon the surface. Each kind of bronze had its special
use. The ordinary bronze was employed for weapons and common amulets; the
brazen alloys served for household utensils; the bronzes mixed with gold
and silver were destined only for mirrors, costly weapons, and statuettes
of value. In none of the tomb-paintings which I have seen is there any
representation of bronze-founding or bronze-working; but this omission is
easily supplemented by the objects themselves. Tools, arms, rings, and
cheap vases were sometimes forged, and sometimes cast whole in moulds of
hard clay or stone. Works of art were cast in one or several pieces
according to circumstances; the parts were then united, soldered, and
retouched with the burin. The method most frequently employed was to
prepare a core of mixed clay and charcoal, or sand, which roughly
reproduced the modelling of the mould into which it was introduced. The
layer of metal between this core and the mould was often so thin that it
would have yielded to any moderate pressure, had they not taken the
precaution to consolidate it by having the core for a support.
[Illustration: Fig. 276.--Bronze jug.]
[Illustration: Fig. 277.--Same jug seen from above.]
Domestic utensils and small household instruments were mostly made in
bronze. Such objects are exhibited by thousands in our museums, and
frequently figure in bas-reliefs and mural paintings. Art and trade were
not incompatible in Egypt; and even the coppersmith sought to give elegance
of form, and to add ornaments in a good style, to the humblest of his
works. The saucepan in which the cook of Rameses III. concocted his
masterpieces is supported on lions' feet. Here is a hot-water jug which
looks as if it were precisely like its modern successors (fig. 276); but on
a closer examination we shall find that the handle is a full-blown lotus,
the petals, which are bent over at an angle to the stalk, resting against
the edge of the neck (fig. 277). The handles of knives and spoons are
almost always in the form of a duck's or goose's neck, slightly curved. The
bowl is sometimes fashioned like an animal--as, for instance, a gazelle
ready bound for the sacrifice (fig. 278). On the hilt of a sabre we find a
little crouching jackal; and the larger limb of a pair of scissors in the
Gizeh Museum is made in the likeness of an Asiatic captive, his arms tied
behind his back. A lotus leaf forms the disk of a mirror, and its stem is
the handle. One perfume box is a fish, another is a bird, another is a
grotesque deity. The lustration vases, or _situlae_, carried by priests and
priestesses for the purpose of sprinkling either the faithful, or the
ground traversed by religious processions, merit the special consideration
of connoisseurs. They are ovoid or pointed at the bottom, and decorated
with subjects either chased or in relief. These sometimes represent
deities, each in a separate frame, and sometimes scenes of worship. The
work is generally very minute.
[Illustration: Fig. 278.--Spoon (or lamp?).]
[Illustration: Fig. 279.--Bronze statuette of the Lady Takûshet.]
[Illustration: Fig. 280.--Bronze statuette of Horus.]
[Illustration: Fig. 281.--Bronze statuette of one Mosû.]
Bronze came into use for statuary purposes from a very early period; but
time unfortunately has preserved none of those idols which peopled the
temples of the ancient empire. Whatsoever may be said to the contrary, we
possess no bronze statuettes of any period anterior to the expulsion of the
Hyksos. Some Theban figures date quite certainly from the Eighteenth and
Nineteenth Dynasties. The chased lion's head found with the jewels of Queen
Aahhotep, the Harpocrates of Gizeh inscribed with the names of Kames and
Ahmes I., and several statuettes of Amen, said to have been discovered at
Medinet Habû and Sheikh Abd el Gûrneh, are of that period. Our most
important bronzes belong, however, to the Twenty-second Dynasty, or, later
still, to the time of the Saïte Pharaohs. Many are not older than the first
Ptolemies. A fragment found in the ruins of Tanis and now in the
possession of Count Stroganoff, formed part of a votive statue dedicated by
King Pisebkhanû. It was originally two-thirds the size of life, and is the
largest specimen known. A portrait statuette of the Lady Takûshet, given to
the Museum of Athens by M. Demetrio, the four statuettes from the Posno
collection now at the Louvre, and the kneeling genius of Gizeh, are all
from the site of Bubastis, and date probably from the years which
immediately preceded the accession of Psammetichus I. The Lady Takûshet is
standing, the left foot advanced, the right arm hanging down, the left
raised and brought close to the body (fig. 279). She wears a short robe
embroidered with religious subjects, and has bracelets on her arms and
wrists. Upon her head she has a wig with flat curls, row above row. The
details both of her robe and jewels are engraved in incised lines upon the
surface of the bronze, and inlaid with silver threads. The face is
evidently a portrait, and represents a woman of mature age. The form,
according to the traditions of Egyptian art, is that of a younger woman,
slender, firm, and supple. The copper in this bronze is largely intermixed
with gold, thus producing a chastened lustre which is admirably suited to
the richness of the embroidered garment. The kneeling genius of Gizeh is as
rude and repellent as the Lady Takûshet is delicate and harmonious. He has
a hawk's head, and he worships the sun, as is the duty of the Heliopolitan
genii. His right arm is uplifted, his left is pressed to his breast. The
style of the whole is dry, and the granulated surface of the skin adds to
the hard effect of the figure. The action, however, is energetic and
correct, and the bird's head is adjusted with surprising skill to the man's
neck and shoulders. The same qualities and the same faults distinguish the
Horus of the Posno collection (fig. 280). Standing, he uplifted a libation
vase; now lost, and poured the contents upon a king who once stood face to
face with him. This roughness of treatment is less apparent in the other
three Posno figures; above all in that which bears the name of Mosû
engraved over the place of the heart (fig. 281). Like the Horus, this Mosû
stands upright, his left foot advanced, and his left arm pendent. His right
hand is raised, as grasping the wand of office. The trunk is naked, and
round his loins he wears a striped cloth with a squared end falling in
front. His head is clad in a short wig covered with short curls piled one
above the other. The ear is round and large. The eyes are well opened, and
were originally of silver; but have been stolen by some Arab. The features
have a remarkable expression of pride and dignity. After these, what can be
said for the thousands of statuettes of Osiris, of Isis, of Nephthys, of
Horus, of Nefertûm, which have been found in the sands and ruins of
Sakkarah, Bubastis, and other cities of the Delta? Many are, without doubt,
charming objects for glass-cases, and are to be admired for perfection of
casting and delicacy of execution; but the greater number are mere
articles of commerce, made upon the same pattern, and perhaps in the self-
same moulds, century after century, for the delight of devotees and
pilgrims. They are rounded, vulgar, destitute of originality, and have no
more distinction than the thousands of coloured statuettes of saints and
Virgins which stock the shelves of our modern dealers in pious wares. An
exception must, however, be made in favour of the images of animals, such
as rams, sphinxes, and lions, which to the last retained a more pronounced
stamp of individuality. The Egyptians had a special predilection for the
feline race. They have represented the lion in every attitude--giving chase
to the antelope; springing upon the hunter; wounded, and turning to bite
his wound; couchant, and disdainfully calm--and no people have depicted him
with a more thorough knowledge of his habits, or with so intense a
vitality. Several gods and goddesses, as Shû, Anhûr, Bast, Sekhet, Tefnût,
have the form of the lion or of the cat; and inasmuch as the worship of
these deities was more popular in the Delta than elsewhere, so there never
passes a year when from amid the ruins of Bubastis, Tanis, Mendes, or some
less famous city, there is not dug up a store of little figures of lions
and lionesses, or of men and women with lions' heads, or cats' heads. The
cats of Bubastis and the lions of Tell es Seba crowd our museums. The lions
of Horbeit may be reckoned among the _chefs-d'oeuvre_ of Egyptian statuary.
Upon one of the largest among them is inscribed the name of Apries (fig.
282); but if even this evidence were lacking, the style of the piece would
compel us to attribute it to the Saïte period. It formed part of the
ornamentation of a temple or naos door; and the other side was either built
into a wall or imbedded in a piece of wood. The lion is caught in a trap,
or, perhaps, lying down in an oblong cage, with only his head and fore feet
outside. The lines of the body are simple and full of power; the expression
of the face is calm and strong. In breadth and majesty he almost equals the
fine limestone lions of Amenhotep III.
[Illustration: Fig. 282.--Bronze lion from Horbeit, Saïte.]
[Illustration: Fig. 283.--Gold worker.]
The idea of inlaying gold and other precious metals upon the surface of
bronze, stone, or wood was already ancient in Egypt in the time of Khûfû.
The gold is often amalgamated with pure silver. When amalgamated to the
extent of 20 per cent, it changes its name, and is called electrum
(_asimû_). This electrum is of a fine light-yellow colour. It pales as the
proportion of silver becomes larger, and at 60 per cent. it is nearly
white. The silver came chiefly from Asia, in rings, sheets, and bricks of
standard weight. The gold and electrum came partly from Syria in bricks and
rings; and partly from the Soudan in nuggets and gold-dust. The processes
of refining and alloying are figured on certain monuments of the early
dynasties. In a bas-relief at Sakkarah, we see the weighed gold entrusted
to the craftsman for working; in another example (at Beni Hasan) the
washing and melting down of the ore is represented; and again at Thebes,
the goldsmith is depicted seated in front of his crucible, holding the
blow-pipe to his lips with the left hand, and grasping his pincers with the
right, thus fanning the flame and at the same time making ready to seize
the ingot (fig. 283). The Egyptians struck neither coins nor medals. With
these exceptions, they made the same use of the precious metals as we do
ourselves. We gild the crosses and cupolas of our churches; they covered
the doors of their temples, the lower part of their wall-surfaces, certain
bas-reliefs, pyramidions of obelisks, and even whole obelisks, with plates
of gold. The obelisks of Queen Hatshepsût at Karnak were coated with
electrum. "They were visible from both banks of the Nile, and when the sun
rose between them as he came up from the heavenly horizon, they flooded the
two Egypts with their dazzling rays."[77] These plates of metal were forged
with hammer and anvil. For smaller objects, they made use of little pellets
beaten flat between two pieces of parchment. In the Museum of the Louvre we
have a gilder's book, and the gold-leaf which it contains is as thin as
the gold-leaf used by the German goldsmiths of the past century. Gold was
applied to bronze surfaces by means of an ammoniacal solvent. If the object
to be gilt were a wooden statuette, the workman began by sticking a piece
of fine linen all over the surface, or by covering it with a very thin coat
of plaster; upon this he laid his gold or silver leaf. It was thus that
wooden statuettes of Thoth, Horus, and Nefertûm were gilded, from the time
of Khûfû. The temple of Isis, the "Lady of the Pyramid," contained a dozen
such images; and this temple was not one of the largest in the Memphite
necropolis. There would seem to have been hundreds of gilded statues in the
Theban temples, at all events in the time of the victorious dynasties of
the new empire; and as regards wealth, the Ptolemaic sanctuaries were in no
wise inferior to those of the Theban period.
Bronze and gilded wood were not always good enough for the gods of Egypt.
They exacted pure gold, and their worshippers gave them as much of it as
possible. Entire statues of the precious metals were dedicated by the kings
of the ancient and middle empires; and the Pharaohs of the Eighteenth and
Nineteenth Dynasties, who drew at will upon the treasures of Asia,
transcended all that had been done by their predecessors. Even in times of
decadence, the feudal lords kept up the traditions of the past, and, like
Prince Mentûemhat, replaced the images of gold and silver which had been
carried off from Karnak by the generals of Sardanapalus at the time of the
Assyrian invasions. The quantity of metal thus consecrated to the service
of the gods must have been considerable, If many figures were less than an
inch in height, many others measured three cubits, or more. Some were of
gold, some of silver; others were part gold and part silver. There were
even some which combined gold with sculptured ivory, ebony, and precious
stones, thus closely resembling the chryselephantine statues of the Greeks.
Aided by the bas-relief subjects of Karnak, Medinet Habû, and Denderah, as
well as by the statues in wood and limestone which have come down to our
day, we can tell exactly what they were like. However the material might
vary, the style was always the same. Nothing is more perishable than works
of this description. They are foredoomed to destruction by the mere value
of the materials in which they are made. What civil war and foreign
invasion had spared, and what had chanced to escape the rapacity of Roman
princes and governors, fell a prey to Christian iconoclasm. A few tiny
statuettes buried as amulets upon the bodies of mummies, a few domestic
divinities buried in the ruins of private houses, a few ex-votos forgotten,
perchance, in some dark corner of a fallen sanctuary, have escaped till the
present day. The Ptah and Amen of Queen Aahhotep, another golden Amen also
at Gizeh, and the silver vulture found in 1885 at Medinet Habû, are the
only pieces of this kind which can be attributed with certainty to the
great period of Egyptian art. The remainder are of Saïte or Ptolemaic work,
and are remarkable only for the perfection with which they are wrought. The
gold and silver vessels used in the service of the temples, and in the
houses of private persons, shared the fate of the statues. At the beginning
of the present century, the Louvre acquired some flat-bottomed cups which
Thothmes III. presented as the reward of valour to one of his generals
named Tahûti. The silver cup is much mutilated, but the golden cup is
intact and elegantly designed (fig. 284). The upright sides are adorned
with a hieroglyphic legend. A central rosette is engraved at the bottom.
Six fish are represented in the act of swimming round the rosette; and
these again are surrounded by a border of lotus-bells united by a curved
line. The five vases of Thmûis, in the Gizeh Museum, are of silver. They
formed part of the treasure of the temple, and had been buried in a hiding-
place, where they remained till our own day. We have no indication of their
probable age; but whether they belong to the Greek or the Theban period,
the workmanship is purely Egyptian. Of one vessel, only the cover is left,
the handle being formed of two flowers upon one stem. The others are
perfect, and are decorated in _repoussé_ work with lotus-lilies in bud and
blossom (fig. 285).
[Illustration: Fig. 284.--Golden cup of General Tahûti, Eighteenth
Dynasty.]
[Illustration: Fig. 285.--Silver vase of Thmûis.]
The form is simple and elegant, the ornamentation sober and delicate; the
relief low. One is, however, surrounded by a row of ovoid bosses (fig.
286), which project in high relief, and somewhat alter the shape of the
body of the vase. These are interesting specimens; but they are so few in
number that, were it not for the wall-paintings, we should have but a very
imperfect idea of the skill of the Egyptian goldsmiths.
[Illustration: Fig. 286.--Silver vase of Thmûis.]
[Illustration: Fig. 287.--Ornamental basket in precious metal. From wall-
painting, Twentieth Dynasty.]
[Illustration: Fig. 288.--Crater of precious metal, borne by slaves. Wall-
painting, Eighteenth Dynasty.]
[Illustration: Fig. 289.--Hydria of precious metal. Wall-painting,
Eighteenth Dynasty.]
[Illustration: Fig. 290.--Enamelled cruet. Wall-painting, Eighteenth
Dynasty.]
[Illustration: Fig. 291.--Enamelled cruet. Wall-painting, Eighteenth
Dynasty.]
[Illustration: Fig. 292.--Gold centre-piece of Amenhotep III. Wall-
painting, Eighteenth Dynasty.]
The Pharaohs had not our commercial resources, and could not circulate the
gold and silver tribute-offerings of conquered nations in the form of coin.
When the gods had received their share of the booty, there was no
alternative but to melt the rest down into ingots, fashion it into personal
ornaments, or convert it into gold and silver plate. What was true of the
kings held good also for their subjects. For the space of at least six or
eight centuries, dating from the time of Ahmes I., the taste for plate was
carried to excess. Every good house was not only stocked with all that was
needful for the service of the table, such as cups, goblets, plates, ewers,
and ornamental baskets chased with figures of fantastic animals (fig. 287);
but also with large ornamental vases which were dressed with flowers, and
displayed to visitors on gala days. Some of these vases were of
extraordinary richness. Here, for instance, is a crater, the handles
modelled as two papyrus buds, and the foot as a full-blown papyrus. Two
Asiatic slaves in sumptuous garments are represented in the act of
upheaving it with all their strength (fig. 288). Here, again, is a kind of
hydria with a lid in the form of an inverted lotus flanked by the heads of
two gazelles (fig. 289). The heads and necks of two horses, bridled and
fully caparisoned, stand back to back on either side of the foot of the
vase. The body is divided into a series of horizontal zones, the middle
zone being in the likeness of a marshland, with an antelope coursing at
full speed among the reeds. Two enamelled cruets (fig. 290) have
elaborately wrought lids, one fashioned as the head of a plumed eagle, and
the other as the head of the god Bes flanked by two vipers (fig. 291). But
foremost among them all is a golden centrepiece offered by a viceroy of
Ethiopia to Amenhotep III. The design reproduces one of the most popular
subjects connected with the foreign conquests of Egypt (fig. 292). Men and
apes are seen gathering fruits in a forest of dôm palms. Two natives, each
with a single feather on his head and a striped kilt about his loins, lead
tame giraffes with halters. Others, apparently of the same nationality,
kneel with upraised hands, as if begging for quarter. Two negro prisoners
lying face downwards upon the ground, lift their heads with difficulty. A
large vase with a short foot and a lofty cone-shaped cover stands amid the
trees.[78] The craftsmen who made this piece evidently valued elegance and
beauty less than richness. They cared little for the heavy effect and bad
taste of the whole, provided only that they were praised for their skill,
and for the quantity of metal which they had succeeded in using. Other
vases of the same type, pictured in a scene of presentations to Rameses II.
in the great temple of Abû Simbel, vary the subject by showing buffaloes
running in and out among the trees, in place of led giraffes. These were
costly playthings wrought in gold, such as the Byzantine emperors of the
ninth century accumulated in their palace of Magnaura, and which they
exhibited on state occasions in order to impress foreigners with a profound
sense of their riches and power. When a victorious Pharaoh returned from a
distant campaign, the vessels of gold and silver which formed part of his
booty figured in the triumphal procession, together with his train of
foreign captives. Vases in daily use were of slighter make and less
encumbered with inconvenient ornaments. The two leopards which serve as
handles to a crater of the time of Thothmes III. (fig. 293) are not well
proportioned, neither do they combine agreeably with the curves of the
vase; but the accompanying cup (fig. 294), and a cruet belonging to the
same service (fig. 295), are very happily conceived, and have much purity
of form. These vessels of engraved and _repoussé_ gold and silver, some
representing hunting scenes and incidents of battle, were imitated by
Phoenician craftsmen, and, being exported to Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy,
carried Egyptian patterns and subjects into distant lands. The passion for
precious metals was pushed to such extremes under the reigns of the
Ramessides that it was no longer enough to use them only at table.
[Illustration: Fig. 293.--Crater of precious metal. Wall-painting,
Eighteenth Dynasty.]
[Illustration: Fig. 294.--Cup of precious metal. Wall-painting, Eighteenth
Dynasty.]
[Illustration: Fig. 295.--Cruet of precious metal. Wall-painting,
Eighteenth Dynasty.]
Rameses II. and Rameses III. had thrones of gold--not merely of wood
plated with gold, but made of the solid metal and set with precious stones.
These things were too valuable to escape destruction, and were the first to
disappear. Their artistic value, however, by no means equalled their
intrinsic value, and the loss is not one for which we need be inconsolable.
[Illustration: Fig. 296.--Bezel signet-ring.]
[Illustration: Fig. 297.--Gold _cloisonné_ pectoral bearing cartouche of
Ûsertesen III. From Dahshûr, found 1894, and now in the Gizeh Museum.]
Orientals, men and women alike, are great lovers of jewellery. The
Egyptians were no exception to this rule. Not satisfied to adorn themselves
when living with a profusion of trinkets, they loaded the arms, the
fingers, the neck, the ears, the brow, and the ankles of their dead with
more or less costly ornaments. The quantity thus buried in tombs was so
considerable that even now, after thirty centuries of active search, we
find from time to time mummies which are, so to say, cuirassed in gold.
Much of this funerary jewellery was made merely for show on the day of the
funeral, and betrays its purpose by the slightness of the workmanship. The
favourite jewels of the deceased person were, nevertheless, frequently
buried with him, and the style and finish of these leave nothing to be
desired. Chains and rings have come down to us in large numbers, as indeed
might be expected. The ring, in fact, was not a simple ornament, but an
actual necessary. Official documents were not signed, but sealed; and the
seal was good in law. Every Egyptian, therefore, had his seal, which he
kept about his person, ready for use if required. The poor man's seal was a
simple copper or silver ring; the ring of the rich man was a more or less
elaborate jewel covered with chasing and relief work. The bezel was
movable, and turned upon a pivot. It was frequently set with some kind of
stone engraved with the owner's emblem or device; as, for example, a
scorpion (fig. 296), a lion, a hawk, or a cynocephalous ape. As in the eyes
of her husband his ring was the one essential ornament, so was her necklace
in the estimation of the Egyptian lady. I have seen a chain in silver which
measured sixty-three inches in length. Others, on the contrary, do not
exceed two, or two and a half inches. They are of all sizes and patterns,
some consisting of two or three twists, some of large links, some of small
links, some massive and heavy, others as light and flexible as the finest
Venetian filigree. The humblest peasant girl, as well as the lady of
highest rank, might have her necklet; and the woman must be poor indeed
whose little store comprised no other ornament. No mere catalogue of
bracelets, diadems, collarettes, or insignia of nobility could give an idea
of the number and variety of jewels known to us by pictured representations
or existing specimens. Pectorals of gold _cloisonné_ work inlaid with
vitreous paste or precious stones, and which bear the cartouches of
Amenemhat II., Ûsertesen II., and Ûsertesen III. (fig. 297), exhibit a
marvellous precision of taste, lightness of touch, and dexterity of fine
workmanship. So fresh and delicate are they we forget that the royal ladies
to whom they belonged have been dead, and their bodies stiffened and
disfigured into mummies, for nearly five thousand years. At Berlin may be
seen the _parure_ of an Ethiopian Candace; at the Louvre we have the jewels
of Prince Psar; at Gizeh are preserved the ornaments of Queen Aahhotep.
Aahhotep was the wife of Kames, a king of the Seventeenth Dynasty, and she
was probably the mother of Ahmes I., first king of the Eighteenth Dynasty.
Her mummy had been stolen by one of the robber bands which infested the
Theban necropolis towards the close of the Twentieth Dynasty. They buried
the royal corpse till such time as they might have leisure to despoil it in
safety; and they were most likely seized and executed before they could
carry that pretty little project into effect. The secret of their hiding-
place perished with them, till discovered in 1860 by some Arab diggers.
Most of the objects which this queen took with her into the next world were
exclusively women's gear; as a fan-handle plated with gold, a bronze-gilt
mirror mounted upon an ebony handle enriched with a lotus in chased gold
(fig. 298). Her bracelets are of various types. Some are anklets and
armlets, and consist merely of plain gold rings, both solid and hollow,
bordered with plaited chainwork in imitation of filigree. Others are for
wearing on the wrist, like the bracelets of modern ladies, and are made of
small beads in gold, lapis lazuli, carnelian, and green felspar. These are
strung on gold wire in a chequer pattern, each square divided diagonally in
halves of different colours. Two gold plates, very lightly engraved with
the cartouches of Ahmes I., are connected by means of a gold pin, and form
the fastening. A fine bracelet in the form of two semicircles joined by a
hinge (fig. 299), also bears the name of Ahmes I. The make of this jewel
reminds us of _cloisonné_ enamels. Ahmes kneels in the presence of the god
Seb and his acolytes, the genii of Sop and Khonû.
[Illustration: Fig. 298.--Mirror of Queen Aahhotep.]
[Illustration: Fig. 299.--Bracelet of Queen Aahhotep, bearing cartouche of
King Ahmes I.]
[Illustration: Fig. 300.--Bracelet of Queen Aahhotep.]
[Illustration: Fig. 301.--Diadem of Queen Aahhotep.]
[Illustration: Fig. 302.--Gold "Ûsekh" of Queen Aahhotep.]
[Illustration: Fig. 303.--Pectoral of Queen Aahhotep, bearing cartouche of
King Ahmes I.]
[Illustration: Fig. 304.--Poignard of Queen Aahhotep, bearing cartouche of
King Ahmes.]
[Illustration: Fig. 305.--Poignard of Queen Aahhotep, bearing cartouche of
King Ahmes.]
[Illustration: Fig. 306.--Funerary battle-axe of Queen Aahhotep, bearing
cartouche of King Ahmes I.]
[Illustration: Fig. 307.--Funerary bark of Queen Aahhotep.]
[Illustration: Fig. 308.--Ring of Rameses II.]
[Illustration: Fig. 309.--Bracelet of Prince Psar.]
The figures and hieroglyphs are cut out in solid gold, delicately engraved
with the burin, and stand in relief upon a ground-surface filled in with
pieces of blue paste and lapis lazuli artistically cut. A bracelet of more
complicated workmanship, though of inferior execution, was found on the
wrist of the queen (fig. 300). It is of massive gold, and consists of three
parallel bands set with turquoises. On the front a vulture is represented
with outspread wings, the feathers composed of green enamel, lapis lazuli,
and carnelian, set in "cloisons" of gold. The hair of the mummy was drawn
through a massive gold diadem, scarcely as large as a bracelet. The name of
Ahmes is incrusted in blue paste upon an oblong plaque in the centre,
flanked at each side by two little sphinxes which seem as if in the act of
keeping watch over the inscription (fig. 301). Round her neck was a large
flexible gold chain, finished at each end by a goose's head reversed. These
heads could be linked one in the other, when the chain needed to be
fastened. The scarabaeus pendant to this chain is incrusted upon the
shoulder and wing-sheaths with blue glass paste rayed with gold, the legs
and body being in massive gold. The royal _parure_ was completed by a large
collar of the kind known as the _Ûsekh_ (fig. 302). It is finished at each
end with a golden hawk's head inlaid with blue enamel, and consists of rows
of scrolls, four-petalled fleurettes, hawks, vultures, winged uraei,
crouching jackals, and figures of antelopes pursued by tigers. The whole of
these ornaments are of gold _repoussé_ work, and they were sewn upon the
royal winding sheet by means of a small ring soldered to the back of each.
Upon the breast, below this collar, hung a square jewel of the kind known
as "pectoral ornaments" (fig. 303). The general form is that of a naos, or
shrine. Ahmes stands upright in a papyrus-bark, between Amen and Ra, who
pour the water of purification upon his head and body. Two hawks hover to
right and left of the king, above the heads of the gods. The figures are
outlined in _cloisons_ of gold, and these were filled in with little
plaques of precious stones and enamel, many of which have fallen out. The
effect of this piece is somewhat heavy, and if considered apart from the
rest of the _parure_, its purpose might seem somewhat obscure. In order to
form a correct judgment, we have, however, to remember in what fashion the
women of ancient Egypt were clad. They wore a kind of smock of semi-
transparent material, which came very little higher than the waist. The
chest and bosom, neck and shoulders, were bare; and the one garment was
kept in place by only a slender pair of braces. The rich clothed these
uncovered parts with jewellery. The Ûsekh collar half hid the shoulders and
chest. The pectoral masked the hollow between the breasts. Sometimes even
the breasts were covered with two golden cups, either painted or enamelled.
Besides the jewels found upon the mummy of Queen Aahhotep, a number of arms
and amulets were heaped inside her coffin; namely, three massive gold flies
hanging from a slender chain; nine small hatchets, three of gold and six of
silver; a golden lion's head of very minute workmanship; a wooden sceptre
set in gold spirals; two anklets; and two poignards. One of these poignards
(fig. 304) has a golden sheath and a wooden hilt inlaid with triangular
mosaics of carnelian, lapis lazuli, felspar, and gold. Four female heads in
gold _repoussé_ form the pommel; and a bull's head reversed covers the
junction of blade and hilt. The edges of the blade are of massive gold; the
centre of black bronze damascened with gold. On one side is the solar
cartouche of Ahmes, below which a lion pursues a bull, the remaining space
being filled in with four grasshoppers in a row. On the other side we have
the family name of Ahmes and a series of full-blown flowers issuing one
from another and diminishing towards the point. A poignard found at Mycenae
by Dr. Schliemann is similarly decorated; the Phoenicians, who were
industrious copyists of Egyptian models, probably introduced this pattern
into Greece. The second poignard is of a make not uncommon to this day in
Persia and India (fig. 305). The blade is of yellowish bronze fixed into a
disk-shaped hilt of silver. When wielded, this lenticular[79] disk fits to
the hollow of the hand, the blade coming between the first and second
fingers. Of what use, it may be asked, were all these weapons to a woman--
and a dead woman? To this we may reply that the other world was peopled
with foes--Typhonian genii, serpents, gigantic scorpions, tortoises,
monsters of every description--against which it was incessantly needful to
do battle. The poignards placed inside the coffin for the self-defence of
the soul were useful only for fighting at close quarters; certain weapons
of a projectile kind were therefore added, such as bows and arrows,
boomerangs made in hard wood, and a battle-axe. The handle of this axe is
fashioned of cedar-wood covered with sheet gold (fig. 306). The legend of
Ahmes is inlaid thereon in characters of lapis lazuli, carnelian,
turquoise, and green felspar. The blade is fixed in a cleft of the wood,
and held in place by a plait-work of gold wire. It is of black bronze,
formerly gilt. On one side, it is ornamented with lotus flowers upon a gold
ground; on the other, Ahmes is represented in the act of slaying a
barbarian, whom he grasps by the hair of the head. Beneath this group,
Mentû, the Egyptian war-god, is symbolised by a griffin with the head of an
eagle. In addition to all these objects, there were two small boats, one in
gold and one in silver, emblematic of the bark in which the mummy must
cross the river to her last home, and of that other bark in which she
would ultimately navigate the waters of the West, in company with the
immortal gods. When found, the silver boat rested upon a wooden truck with
four bronze wheels; but as it was in a very dilapidated state, it has been
dismounted and replaced by the golden boat (fig. 307). The hull is long and
slight, the prow and stem are elevated, and terminate in gracefully-curved
papyrus blossoms. Two little platforms surrounded by balustrades on a
panelled ground are at the prow and on the poop, like quarter-decks. The
pilot stands upon the one, and the steersman before the other, with a large
oar in his hand. This oar takes the place of the modern helm. Twelve
boatmen in solid silver are rowing under the orders of these two officers;
Kames himself being seated in the centre, hatchet and sceptre in hand. Such
were some of the objects buried with one single mummy; and I have even now
enumerated only the most remarkable among them. The technical processes
throughout are irreproachable, and the correct taste of the craftsman is in
no wise inferior to his dexterity of hand. Having arrived at the perfection
displayed in the _parure_ of Aahhotep, the goldsmith's art did not long
maintain so high a level. The fashions changed, and jewellery became
heavier in design. The ring of Rameses II., with his horses standing upon
the bezel (fig. 308), and the bracelet of Prince Psar, with his griffins
and lotus flowers in _cloisonné_ enamel (fig. 309), both in the Louvre, are
less happily conceived than the bracelets of Ahmes. The craftsmen who made
these ornaments were doubtless as skilful as the craftsmen of the time of
Queen Aahhotep, but they had less taste and less invention. Rameses II. was
condemned either to forego the pleasure of wearing his ring, or to see his
little horses damaged and broken off by the least accident. Already
noticeable in the time of the Nineteenth Dynasty, this decadence becomes
more marked as we approach the Christian era. The earrings of Rameses IX.
in the Gizeh Museum are an ungraceful assemblage of filigree disks, short
chains, and pendent uraei, such as no human ear could have carried without
being torn, or pulled out of shape. They were attached to each side of the
wig upon the head of the mummy. The bracelets of the High Priest Pinotem
III., found upon his mummy, are mere round rings of gold incrusted with
pieces of coloured glass and carnelian, like those still made by the
Soudanese blacks. The Greek invasion began by modifying the style of
Egyptian gold-work, and ended by gradually substituting Greek types for
native types. The jewels of an Ethiopian queen, purchased from Ferlini by
the Berlin Museum, contained not only some ornaments which might readily
have been attributed to Pharaonic times, but others of a mixed style in
which Hellenic influences are distinctly traceable. The treasure discovered
at Zagazig in 1878, at Keneh in 1881, and at Damanhûr in 1882, consisted of
objects having nothing whatever in common with Egyptian traditions. They
comprise hairpins supporting statuettes of Venus, zone-buckles, agraffes
for fastening the peplum, rings and bracelets set with cameos, and caskets
ornamented at the four corners with little Ionic columns. The old patterns,
however, were still in request in remote provincial places, and village
goldsmiths adhered "indifferent well" to the antique traditions of their
craft. Their city brethren had meanwhile no skill to do aught but make
clumsy copies of Greek and Roman originals.
In this rapid sketch of the industrial arts there are many lacunae. When
referring to examples, I have perforce limited myself to such as are
contained in the best-known collections. How many more might not be
discovered if one had leisure to visit provincial museums, and trace what
the hazard of sales may have dispersed through private collections! The
variety of small monuments due to the industry of ancient Egypt is
infinite, and a methodical study of those monuments has yet to be made. It
is a task which promises many surprises to whomsoever shall undertake it.
[77] From the inscription upon the obelisk of Hatshepsût which is still
erect at Karnak. For a translation in full see _Records of the
Past_, vol. xii., p. 131, _et seqq._--A.B.E.
[78] Mr. Petrie suggests that this curious central object may be a royal
umbrella with flaps of ox-hide and tiger-skin.--A.B.E.
[79] That is, lentil-shaped, or a double convex.--A.B.E.
NOTES TO FIRST ENGLISH EDITION.
_For the following notes, to which reference numbers will be found in the
text, I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. W.M. Flinders Petrie, author of_
"The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh" (Field & Tuer), "Tanis" (_Egypt
Exploration Fund_), "Naukratis" (_Egypt Exploration Fund), etc., etc._
A.B.E.
(1) More striking than these are the towns of Tell Atrib, Kom Baglieh, Kom
Abû Billû, and Tell Nebesheh, the houses of which may be traced without any
special excavations.
(2) There is much skill needed in mixing the mud and sand in such
proportions as to dry properly; when rightly adjusted there is no cracking
in drying, and the grains of sand prevent the mud from being washed away in
the rains.
(3) In the Delta, at least, the sizes of bricks from the Twenty-first
Dynasty down to Arab times decrease very regularly; under the Twenty-first
Dynasty they are about 18 x 9 x 5 inches; early in the Twenty-sixth, 16-1/2
x 8-1/4 x 5; later 15 x 7-1/2; in early Ptolemaic times, 14 x 7; in Roman
times, 12 x 6, in Byzantine times, 10 x 5; and Arab bricks are 8 x 4, and
continue so very generally to our times. The thickness is always least
certain, as it depends on the amount placed in the mould, but the length
and breadth may in most cases be accepted as a very useful chronological
scale.
(4) They are found of Ramesside age at Nebesheh and Defenneh; even there
they are rare, and these are the only cases I have yet seen in Egypt
earlier than about the third century A.D.