[Illustration: PORTRAITS PAINTED IN WAX, FROM ROMAN MUMMIES, HAWARA.
_See page 97._]
TEN YEARS’ DIGGING
IN EGYPT
1881-1891
BY
W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE
AUTHOR OF ‘PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH,’ ‘HAWARA,’ ‘MEDUM,’ ETC.
WITH A MAP
AND ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS
_SECOND EDITION, REVISED_
THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY
56 PATERNOSTER ROW, 65 ST. PAUL’S CHURCHYARD
AND 164 PICCADILLY
1893
‘IN STUDYING HISTORY, IT MUST BE BORNE IN MIND THAT A KNOWLEDGE IS
NECESSARY OF THE STATE OF MANNERS, CUSTOMS, WEALTH, ARTS, AND SCIENCE AT
THE DIFFERENT PERIODS TREATED OF. THE TEXT OF CIVIL HISTORY REQUIRES A
CONTEXT OF THIS KNOWLEDGE IN THE MIND OF THE READER.’
_Sir Arthur Helps on History._
PREFACE
Although the discoveries which are related in this volume have been
already published, yet there is to be considered the large number of
readers who feed in the intermediate regions between the arid highlands
and mountain ascents of scientific memoirs, and the lush--not to say
rank--marsh-meadows of the novel and literature of amusement.
Those, then, who wish to grasp the substance of the results, without the
precision of the details, are the public for whom this is written; and I
trust that, out of consideration for their feelings, hardly a single
measurement or rigid statement can be found here from cover to cover.
Any one who wants detail can find it in the various annual volumes which
have already appeared. Several of the finest objects found appear here,
however, for the first time in illustration; for having been kept in
Egypt I only had photographs to work from, which were, as yet, unused.
The work described here is not by any means all that has occupied my
time in these years; much exploring has also been done, and dozens of
ancient towns have been visited, and their remains examined; but such
work is rather a basis for further results than a source of interest in
itself to the public. Besides this I have been occupied in Palestine.
I may as well remark that the first two years’ work were done entirely
as a private matter; though the Royal Society afterwards made a grant to
cover the greater part of the cost of its publication. The three
following years’ work was carried on for the Egypt Exploration Fund; but
as the management of that society was not what I had expected, I
preferred to withdraw, without personal unpleasantness; in fact, some
promoters of it have been more my friends since then than they were
before. For a year I rather explored than excavated, having indeed no
prospect of funds at my disposal for the purpose. But to my surprise,
two supporters of the subject appeared independently, Mr. Jesse Haworth,
and then Mr. Martyn Kennard; all expenses of excavation and transport in
the last four years’ work, have been at their charge; and the objects
found, and not kept for the Egyptian Museum, or retained for private
friends, have been presented by them to various public collections. Thus
three years have been private work, three years with the Fund, and four
years with other friends.
One of the pleasantest results of my work has been the number of
co-operators who have appeared, and the friendships that have resulted.
In fact an informal body of workers have come together, all attracted
by a real love of work, and not by publicity or the buttering and
log-rolling of societies. Without any parade of empty names, or
speechifying, we each know where to turn for co-operation, and how to
join hands to help in the work.
To many the interest of these researches will be the solidity and
reality which they give to what we only knew as yet on paper. When we
read of ‘Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes,’ and then see Defenneh explaining
the narrative,--when Ezekiel wrote of Javan being ‘merchants,’ and
‘going to and fro, occupied in the fairs’ of Tyre, and we see the
widespread trade of the Ionians as early as Gurob,--when we read in
Homer of the prehistoric civilization, and see the actual products of
those races brought to light,--we feel how real was the life of which
the outlines have come down to us across the ages.
I hope that among my readers there may be some who are not of the
superficial class, for whom the tender-foot directions of guide-books
are written, and the luxuries of hotels are provided as attractions; so
I have given some hints as to how a traveller may go about in Egypt
without the usual routine of coddling, and being led by the nose by a
dragoman. If the active tripper is thereby induced to take an active
trip in Egypt, and--contrary to the custom of most tourists--subordinate
the stomach to the intellect, I shall be very glad to make his
acquaintance there.
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I. THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH 11
II. TANIS 29
III. NAUKRATIS 36
IV. DAPHNAE--TAHPANHES 50
V. NEBESHEH 64
VI. UP THE NILE 71
VII. HAWARA 81
VIII. ILLAHUN AND KAHUN 107
IX. GUROB 128
X. MEDUM 138
XI. FRESH LIGHT ON THE PAST 148
XII. THE ART OF EXCAVATING 156
XIII. THE FELLAH 167
XIV. THE ACTIVE TRIPPER IN EGYPT 187
ADDENDA TO BAEDECKER’S VOCABULARY 196
INDEX 197
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
_Frontispiece._--Portraits painted in wax, from Roman Mummies, Hawara.
_Map._--Position of Places in Egypt named in this Volume 10
1. The Pyramids of Gizeh 11
2. My Tomb at Gizeh 12
3. Triangulation of Pyramids, Gizeh 15
4. Granite Casing Third Pyramid 17
5. Temple of Third Pyramid 18
6. Casing beneath Rubbish North of Pyramid. Arab Hole above it 20
7. Mace-head of Khafra 23
8. Pyramid Doors 24
9. Pivot Hole of Door and Cutting of Roof; South Pyramid Dahshur 24
10. Sawn Basalt 26
11. Tubular Drill Hole 26
12. Granite Drill Core 26
13. Graving in Diorite 27
14. Section of Bowl turned with Radius Tool 27
15. Plummet of Khufu 28
16. Gizeh Pyramids from the Desert 28
17. Temple of Tanis from East End; Pylon in distance 29
18. Stele of Ptolemy II 31
19. Gold Ring 33
20. Bakakhuiu 34
21. Hieroglyphics, with Hieratic Form and Explanation 35
22. Ruins of Fort, with Arab Cemetery 36
23. Cypriote Soldier 37
24. Dedication of Statue to Heliodoros, by the Naukratites 38
25. Necking of Column, Apollo Temple 40
26. Oldest Ionic Dedication, 660? B.C 41
27. Naukratite Cup 41
28. Examples of Dedications (transliterated) to Apollo, Aphrodite, Hera,
and the Dioskouroi 42
29. Foundation Deposit Models 43
30. Dedication of Palaistra 44
31. Scarab Mould and Scarab 45
32. Coin of Naukratis 45
33. Iron Tools 46
34. Negro on Naukratite Vase 48
35. Naukratite Design 48
36. Part of Embossed Gold Band. About 70 A.D 49
37. Ruins of Daphnae, in the Desert 50
38. Restoration of the Fort, showing the Large Platform before the
Entry 52
39. Foundation Deposit 53
40. Greek Vase, imitated from form of Egyptian Metal Vase 55
41. Vase with different Patterns 56
42. Great Vase; Subjects, Boreas and Typhon 57
43. Iron Tools 58
44. Gold Handle 59
45. Sealed Jar Neck, with name of Amasis 60
46. Daphniote Gold Work 62
47. Silver Shrine, and Gold Figure of Ra 63
48. Granite Shrine of Temple 64
49. Foundation Deposit 66
50. Sanctuary and Temples 67
51. Lykaonian Spearheads and Vases 68
52. Ushabti Figures, Twentieth Dynasty 70
53. A Nile Morning 71
54. Tablets of Kings, Fifth to Twelfth Dynasties 73
55. An Inscribed Rock at Silsileh 74
56. Tablet of Antef and Mentuhotep III 74
57. Animal Figures at Silsileh 75
58. Oldest Tool in Egypt 76
59. People of Pun, S. Arabia 76
60. Hanebu, Early Greek 77
61. Entrance of South Pyramid. Casing destroyed below it 78
62. North Pyramid, and Southern in Distance 79
63. Way-marks on Fayum Road 80
64. Pyramid of Hawara 81
65. Flint Knife 82
66. Pedestals of Biahmu 83
67. Wall of Court 83
68. Section of Court, with Statue 84
69. Plan of Pyramid 87
70. Inscription of Amenemhat III 89
71. Altar of Neferu-ptah 89
72. Vulture and Cow, from Coffin Lid 95
73. Four Stages of Mummy Decoration 98
74. Cut-glass Vase 101
75. Side of Ivory Casket 102
76. Sedan Chair, Terra Cotta 102
77. Roman Rag Dolls 103
78. Building North of Birket Kerun 105
79. Interior of Building 105
80. Toy Bird on Wheels, Hawara 106
81. Pyramid of Illahun 107
82. Foundation Deposit 112
83. North side of Kahun, showing Line of Town Wall 113
84. Steps to Upper Buildings on Hill 114
85. Basket with Tools 115
86. Castanets and Figure of Dancer 116
87. Ivory Baboon 117
88. Flint Tools 118
89. Plasterers’ Floats, and Brick-mould 118
90. Agricultural Tools of Wood 119
91. Fire Apparatus 119
92. Set of Tools, Vases, and Mirror 120
93. Clay Toys, Twelfth Dynasty 121
94. Objects from Maket Tomb 123
95. Flint Hippopotamus, Twelfth Dynasty 127
96. Bronze Pans, Nineteenth Dynasty 128
97. Bronze Interlocking Hinges 129
98. Bronze Tools 129
99. Coffin Head of Anen the Tursha Official 130
100. Wooden Statuettes of a Priestess, and the Lady Res 131
101. Hittite Harper 132
102. Phoenician Venus Mirror 132
103. Aegean Vases 133
104. Blue and Yellow Glass Bottle 133
105. Blue-glazed Vases 134
106. Blue-glazed Bowls 135
107. Ivory Duck Box 137
108. Pyramid of Medum 138
109. Court of Temple 141
110. Section of Pyramid 142
111. Columns of Third Dynasty 143
112. Forms of Rubbish-heap, and of Ruins of Building 157
113. Houses in the Delta, with Rain-proof Domes 168
114. Houses in Middle Egypt 170
115. Houses in Upper Egypt 172
KINGS AND DYNASTIES NAMED IN THIS VOLUME
APPROXIMATE
DYNASTY. DATE B.C.
IV. Seneferu, Khufu, Khafra, Menkaura 4000-3800
V. Ra-kha-nefer, Unas 3700-3500
VI. Rameri-Pepi 3400
XI. Antef-aa II, Mentuhotep IV, Antef V, Sankhkara 2800
XII. Amenemhat I, II, Usertesen II, III, Amenemhat III 2700-2500
XIV. Nehesi-Ra 2300
XVI. Apepi 1900
XVIII. Tahutmes III, Amenhotep III, IV, Khuenaten 1450-1350
XIX. Ramessu II, Merenptah I 1250-1150
XX. Ramessu III 1100
XXII. Usarkon I 950
XXV. Tirhaka, Amenardus 700
XXVI. Psamtik (Psammetikhos) I, II; Uahabra (Apries);
Aahmes II (Amasis) 666-526
Ptolemaic. Ptolemy II (Philadelphos) 286-247
Roman period 30 B.C.-400 A.D.
Coptic period about 400-700 A.D.
Cufic period about 700-1000 A.D.
Arabic period 1000 A.D. to present
(The last terms are used vaguely for general indications.)
[Illustration: POSITION OF PLACES IN EGYPT NAMED IN THIS VOLUME.]
[Illustration: I. THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH.]
CHAPTER I.
THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH.
1881-2.
When, in the end of 1880, I first started for Egypt, I had long been
preparing for the expedition; during a couple of years before that
measuring instruments, theodolites, rope-ladders, and all the
_impedimenta_ for scientific work, had been prepared and tested. To
start work under circumstances so different from those of any European
country, and where many customary appliances were not to be obtained,
required necessarily much prearrangement and consideration; though on
the whole my subsequent experience has been that of decreasing the
baggage, and simplifying one’s requirements.
The first consideration on reaching Egypt was where to be housed. In
those days there was no luxurious hotel close to the pyramids; if any
one needed to live there, they must either live in a tomb or in the
Arab village. As an English engineer had left a tomb fitted with door
and shutters I was glad to get such accommodation. When I say a tomb, it
must be understood to be the upper chamber where the Egyptian fed his
ancestors with offerings, not the actual sepulchre. And I had three
rooms, which had belonged to separate tombs originally; the thin walls
of rock which the economical Egyptian left between his cuttings, had
been broken away, and so I had a doorway in the middle into my
living-room, a window on one side for my bedroom, and another window
opposite for a store-room. I resided here for a great part of two years;
and often when in draughty houses, or chilly tents, I have wished myself
back in my tomb. No place is so equable in heat and cold, as a room cut
out in solid rock; it seems as good as a fire in cold weather, and
deliciously cool in the heat.
[Illustration: 2. MY TOMB AT GIZEH.]
I lived then, as I have since in Egypt, independent of servants. The
facilities of preserved provisions, and the convenience of petroleum
stoves, enable one to do without the annoyance of having some one about
meddling with everything. I had one of the most intelligent men of the
place, Ali Gabri, to help me with the work, and his nephew and slave
used to sleep in the next tomb (on the right of the sketch) as my guards
at night. Such was my first taste of sweet independence from
civilization.
The object in view for which the work was undertaken was to decisively
test the various theories concerning the pyramids, which were then being
widely discussed on very insufficient knowledge. If all, or any, of
these theories were correct, there were some very tough questions to be
picked over between different parties; but the first question to be
settled was whether the theories agreed with the actual facts of the
case, as if they did not there was no need of further discussion. They
must pass the test of fact before they could be further considered on
the grounds of their abstract probability or metaphysical coherence. One
of the most obvious of all the facts, and most deeply concerned in the
various theories, was the actual size of the great pyramid; yet this was
not known with any accuracy, the best measurements varying by several
feet. Most of the theories involved the notion of extreme accuracy of
workmanship, yet we were entirely ignorant of the amount of accuracy in
the form of the pyramid, and in most of its internal construction.
It may not be amiss here to point out what is the meaning of accuracy.
One often hears that something is ‘quite accurate.’ If I ask a workman
if his work is accurate, he will indignantly refer to his foot-rule to
prove it; but if you were to ask if his foot-rule is accurate he would
doubt your sanity. What is accuracy for one purpose is inaccuracy for
another. Children build castles on the sand, and make them perhaps tidy
enough; but their accuracy would not do for laying out a garden; nor
would the garden bed quite do to regulate the straightness of a tennis
court. When a house is planned, still further particularity is needed
for the accuracy of its squareness and straightness; and yet the joiner
needs a better straight edge than the bricklayer. In turn the joiner’s
ideas would never suffice for the accuracy of putting together a Forth
bridge, with its lengths of furlongs of steel, needed to exactly fit
into place. And even beyond that, the telescope maker, dividing his
circles, or polishing his object glasses, must attend to quantities
which are quite beyond the accuracies of the engineer. There are as many
kinds of accuracy as there are of cleanliness, from the cleanness of a
clean-swept path, up to the absolute lifelessness and chemical purity of
some tedious preparation in the laboratory.
There is, therefore, no such thing as absolute accuracy; what is called
accuracy in each business is that amount of inaccuracy which is
insignificant. If we want to understand what kind of precision the
ancients aimed at, our errors in examining their work must be so small
as to be insignificant by the side of their errors. If they went to the
nearest hundredth of an inch, we must go to the nearest thousandth, in
order to know what their ideas of accuracy were.
The main work of the first season, therefore,
[Illustration: TRIANGULATION OF PYRAMIDS, GIZEH 1: 1500]
consisted in making a very precise triangulation all over the hill of
Gizeh; including points around all the three pyramids, and on the
temples and walls belonging to them. A fine theodolite was used, by
which single seconds of angle could be read; and the observations were
repeated so many times, that if I finished the work at a single station
in one day I was well satisfied. The result of all this mass of checked
observations, after duly reducing and computing, was that there was
scarcely a point about which one quarter inch of uncertainty remained,
and most of the points were fixed to within one-tenth of an inch. These
points were, however, only arbitrary marks put on suitable spots of the
rock; and it needed a good deal of less elaborate work to connect these
with the traces of the ancient constructions near them. The second
season I obtained permission from Prof. Maspero to search for the
ancient casing and points of construction of the pyramids. Many points
were found easily enough; but some required long and dangerous work. To
reach the casing, which still remains at the middle of each side of the
great pyramid, was a hard matter; it was heaped over with broken chips a
dozen to twenty feet deep, and they lay so loosely that they soon fell
into any hole that we dug. It was needful therefore to begin with a very
wide space, and gradually taper the hole, walling the sides roughly with
loose blocks. Thus we succeeded in finding the casing on each of the
three sides, where it was as yet unknown; the north casing having been
cleared by a huge excavation of Col. Vyse over forty years before. These
holes were very ticklish places, make them as we would; the Arabs dared
not work them, and I had to get negroes to face the business. As it was,
we could not venture to knock a bit of the stone, for fear of the
vibration loosening the sides; and I was all but buried once, when--just
as I had come out of the bottom of the hole--many tons of stones went
pouring down the pit from the loose stuff above.
At the third pyramid the difficulty was varied; there the pyramid was
encumbered with loose blocks lying on a bed of sand. So soon then as we
dug into the sand, the blocks came sliding down into our hole. But here
the matter was settled by adding more stones, and so wedging all the
blocks around into a ring; thus they balanced around the hole, and kept
each other out.
The casing of the third pyramid has never been finished.
[Illustration: 4. GRANITE CASING THIRD PYRAMID.]
The outer sides of the granite blocks were left with an excess of stone,
in order to protect them in transport from Assuan, and this was never
removed by dressing down, as had been intended. Thus in some
examples--as above--the stone sticks out far beyond where the face was
to be. In the granite temple the same method was followed, but there the
wall was dressed, and hence each stone at the corners of the chambers
turns a little way round the adjacent walls, so that the corner is cut
out of solid stone all the way up.
The temple of the third pyramid is the most complete, and gives the best
notion of the enclosures around the cell or chamber, in which the
offerings to the deceased king were presented. This view is from the
top of the pyramid, looking down into it. At the end of its causeway are
a few trees, and a hill on the right, with remains of another causeway
leading from it to the plain.
[Illustration: 5. TEMPLE OF THIRD PYRAMID.]
Of the inside of the pyramids there were already numerous measurements
recorded, which showed that small differences and errors existed in the
work; but some fresh and more accurate methods of examination were
needed. Instead then of simply measuring from wall to wall, and
remaining in ignorance of where the discrepancies lay, I always used
plumb-lines for measuring all upright faces, and a levelling instrument
for all horizontal surfaces. By hanging a plumb-line in each corner of a
room, and measuring from it to the walls at many parts of the height,
and then observing the distances of the plumb-lines on the floor, it is
easy to find the dimensions of the room at any level, and to know
exactly where the faults of construction lie. The same principle gives
us the readiest way of examining a solid, such as a sarcophagus; and we
can thus, in a few hours, do more than in as many days’ work with
elaborate apparatus. Some thread, and a piece of wax to stick it on
with, are all that is needed beside the plain measuring rods.
The results of thus attacking the subject were, that on the one hand
most brilliant workmanship was disclosed, while on the other hand it was
intermingled with some astonishing carelessness and clumsiness. The
laying out of the base of the great pyramid of Khufu is a triumph of
skill; its errors, both in length and in angles, could be covered by
placing one’s thumb on them; and to lay out a square of more than a
furlong in the side (and with rock in the midst of it, which prevented
any diagonal checks being measured) with such accuracy shows surprising
care. The work of the casing stones which remain is of the same class;
the faces are so straight and so truly square, that when the stones were
built together the film of mortar left between them is on an average not
thicker than one’s thumb nail, though the joint is a couple of yards
long; and the levelling of them over long distances has not any larger
errors. In the inside of the pyramid the same fine work is seen: the
entrance passage joints are in many cases barely visible when searched
for; in the Queen’s chamber, when the encrusting salt is scraped away,
the joints are found with cement not thicker than a sheet of paper;
while in the King’s chamber the granite courses have been dressed to a
fine equality, not varying more than a straw’s breadth in a furlong
length of blocks.
[Illustration: 6. CASING BENEATH RUBBISH NORTH OF PYRAMID. ARAB HOLE
ABOVE IT.]
Side by side with this splendid work are the strangest mistakes. After
having levelled the casing so finely, the builders made a hundred times
the error in levelling the shorter length of the King’s chamber, so that
they might have done it far better by just looking at the horizon. After
having dressed the casing joints so beautifully, they left the face of
the wall in the grand gallery rough chiselled. The design was changed,
and a rough shaft was cut from the side of the gallery, down through the
building and the rock, to the lower end of the entrance passage. The
granite in the ante-chamber is left without its final dressing. And the
kernel of the whole, the sarcophagus, has much worse work in it than in
the building, or than in other sarcophagi of the same period. The
meaning of this curious discrepancy seems to be that the original
architect, a true master of accuracy and fine methods, must have ceased
to superintend the work when it was but half done. His personal
influence gone, the training of his school was not sufficient to carry
out the remainder of the building in the first style. Thus the base and
the casing around it, the building of the Queen’s chamber, and the
preparation of the granite for the King’s chamber, must all have had the
master’s eye; but the carelessness of the pupils appears so soon as the
control was removed. Mere haste will not account for egregious mistakes,
such as that of the King’s chamber level, which the skilful architect
would have remedied by five minutes’ observation. This suggests that the
exquisite workmanship often found in the early periods, did not so much
depend on a large school or widespread ability, as on a few men far
above their fellows, whose every touch was a triumph. In this way we can
reconcile it with the crude, and often clumsy, work in building and
sculpture found in the same ages. There were no trades union rules
against ‘besting one’s mates’ in those days, any more than in any
business at present where real excellence is wanted.
The results were decidedly destructive for the theories. The fundamental
length of the base of the pyramid does not agree to any of the
theoretical needs: and though no doubt some comfort has been extracted
from hypothetical lengths of what the pyramid base would be if continued
down to levels below the pavement (such as the different sockets), yet
no such bases ever existed, nor could even be guessed at or theorised
on, so long as the pyramid base was intact, as the sockets were entirely
covered by casing and pavement. Various other theories fare as badly;
and the only important one which is well established is that the angle
of the outside was such as to make the base circuit equal to a circle
struck by the height as a radius. See also the account of Medum.
The second pyramid was built by Khafra. His name was first found with it
on the piece of a mace-head of white stone, which I found in the temple.
The form is here completed from another head of the twelfth dynasty; and
drawings of maces from Medum show the head and stick entire. In accuracy
Khafra’s work is inferior to that of Khufu. The errors of the pyramid
length are double, and of angle quadruple that found in the earlier
work, and the bulk of its masonry is far rougher. But the sarcophagus in
it is of much better work, without any mistakes, and generally showing
more experience and ability. The third pyramid, of Menkaura, is again
inferior to the second, in both its outer form and internal work. It has
moreover been most curiously altered; originally intended to be of small
size, it has been greatly enlarged, not by repeated coatings, but at
one operation. The original entrance passage was abandoned, and the
chamber was deepened, another passage cut from the inside outwards so as
to emerge lower down, and another chamber excavated below the level of
the first, and lined with granite.
[Illustration: 7. MACE-HEAD OF KHAFRA.]
Some very usual fallacies with regard to the
[Illustration: 8. PYRAMID DOORS.]
[Illustration: 9. PIVOT HOLE OF DOOR AND CUTTING OF ROOF; SOUTH PYRMAID,
DAHSHUR.]
pyramids were also disposed of. The passages are commonly supposed to
have been blocked up by plugs of stone; whereas in both the great and
second pyramids there is proof in the passages that no such blocks ever
existed. The entrances are supposed to have been concealed by the solid
masonry; whereas at Dahshur, and in Strabo’s account of the great
pyramid, it is evident that a flap-door of stone filled the passage
mouth, and allowed of its being passed. The pyramids are supposed to
have been built by continuous additions during a king’s life, and ended
only by his death; whereas there is no evidence of this in any of them,
and it is clearly disproved by the construction and arrangement of the
interiors; the plan was entire originally, and the whole structure begun
at once. The sarcophagi are often supposed to have been put in to the
pyramids at the king’s burial, with his body inside; whereas in the
great and second pyramids they will not pass through the passages, and
must have been built in. The casing is supposed to have been all built
in the rough, and cut to its slope afterwards; whereas the remaining
blocks at the base slightly differ in angle side by side, proving that
they were dressed before building in.
Besides examining the pyramids, the remains of the temple of the great
pyramid were cleared, and the granite temple of Khafra was thoroughly
measured and planned. But perhaps the most interesting part of the
subject was tracing how the work was done. The great barracks of the
workmen were found, behind the second pyramid, capable of housing four
thousand men; and such was probably the size of the trained staff of
skilled masons employed on the pyramid building. Besides these a large
body of mere labourers were needed to move the stones; and this was
probably done during the inundation, when water carriage is easier, and
the people have no work. Herodotos gives the echo of this, when he says
that the relays of labourers only worked for three months at a time. It
would be quite practicable to build the great pyramid in the time, and
with the staff of labourers assigned by Herodotos.
[Illustration: 10. SAWN BASALT.]
[Illustration: 11. TUBULAR DRILL HOLE.]
[Illustration: 12. GRANITE DRILL CORE.]
Tools are needed as well as labour; and the question of what tools were
used is now settled by evidence, to which modern engineers cordially
agree. I found repeatedly that the hard stones, basalt, granite, and
diorite, were sawn; and that the saw was not a blade, or wire, used with
a hard powder, but was set with fixed cutting points, in fact, a
jewelled saw. These saws must have been as much as nine feet in length,
as the cuts run lengthwise on the sarcophagi. One of
[Illustration: 13. GRAVING IN DIORITE.]
[Illustration: 14. SECTION OF BOWL TURNED WITH RADIUS TOOL.]
the most usual tools was the tubular drill, and this was also set with
fixed cutting points; I have a core from inside a drill hole, broken
away in the working, which shows the spiral grooves produced by the
cutting points as they sunk down into the material; this is of red
granite, and there has been no flinching or jumping of the tool; every
crystal, quartz, or felspar, has been cut through in the most equable
way, with a clean irresistible cut. An engineer, who knows such work
with diamond drills as well as any one, said to me, ‘I should be proud
to turn out such a finely cut core now;’ and truth to tell, modern drill
cores cannot hold a candle to the Egyptians; by the side of the ancient
work they look wretchedly scraped out and irregular. That such hard
cutting points were known and used is proved by clean cut fine
hieroglyphs on diorite, engraved without a trace of scraping; and by the
lathe work, of which I found pieces of turned bowls with the tool lines
on them, and positive proof that the surface had not been ground out.
The lathe tools were fixed as in modern times, to sweep regular arcs
from a centre; and the work is fearless and powerful, as in a flat
diorite table with foot, turned in one piece; and also surpassingly
delicate, as in a bowl of diorite, which around the body is only as
thick as stout card. The great granite sarcophagi were sawn outside, and
hollowed by cutting rows of tube drill holes, as may be seen in the
great pyramid. No doubt much hammer-dressing was also used, as in all
periods; but the fine work shows the marks of just such tools as we have
only now re-invented. We can thus understand, far more than before, how
the marvellous works of the Egyptians were executed; and further insight
only shows plainer the true skill and ability of which they were masters
in the earliest times that we can trace.
[Illustration: 15. PLUMMET OF KHUFU. 1: 2.]
[Illustration: 16. GIZEH PYRAMIDS FROM THE DESERT.]
[Illustration: 17. TEMPLE OF TANIS FROM EAST END; PYLON IN DISTANCE.]