THE BUILDING INSCRIPTIONS.
Numerous references to the ceremonial of laying the foundation-stones
of temples exist, and we learn from the works of Chabas, Brugsch,
Dümichen,[45] and others, that the foundation of an Egyptian temple was
associated with a series of ceremonies which are repeatedly described
with a minuteness which, as Nissen has pointed out,[46] is painfully
wanting in the case of Greece and Rome. Amongst these ceremonies, one
especially refers to the fixing of the temple-axis; it is called,
technically, "the stretching of the cord," and is not only illustrated
by inscriptions on the walls of the temples of Karnak, Denderah, and
Edfû--to mention the best-known cases--but is referred to elsewhere.
Another part of the ceremony consisted in the king proceeding to the
site where the temple was to be built, accompanied mythically by the
goddess Sesheta, who is styled "the mistress of the laying of the
foundation-stone."
Each was armed with a stake. The two stakes were connected by a cord.
Next the cord was aligned towards the sun or star, as the case might
be; when the alignment was perfect the two stakes were driven into
the ground by means of a wooden mallet; there was no difference of
procedure in the case of temples directed to the sun. One boundary wall
parallel to the main axis of the temple was built along the line marked
out by this stretched cord.
If the moment of sun--or star-rise or--set were chosen, as we have
every reason to believe was the case seeing that all the early
observations were made on the horizon, it is obvious that the light
from the body towards which the temple was aligned would penetrate the
axis of the temple thus built from one end to the other in the original
direction of the cord.
[Illustration: THE LAYING OF THE FOUNDATION-STONE CEREMONIAL.]
We learn from Chabas that the Egyptian word which expresses the idea
of founding or laying the foundation-stone of a temple is _Senti_--a
word which still exists in Coptic. But in the old language another
word, _Put-ser_, which no longer remains in Coptic, has been traced.
It has been established that _put_ means "to stretch," and _ser_
means "cord;" so that that part of the ceremonial which consisted in
stretching a cord in the direction of a star was considered of so great
an importance that it gave its name to the whole ceremonial.
I will next refer to some of the inscriptions; one, dating from the
last half of the third thousand B.C., occurs in the document describing
the building of the temple of Annu (Heliopolis). We read:--"Arose the
king, attired in his necklace and the feather crown; all the world
followed him, and the majesty of Amenemhāt [first king of the Twelfth
dynasty]. The Kher-heb read the sacred text during the stretching
of the measuring-cord and the laying of the foundation-stone on the
piece of ground selected for this temple. Then withdrew His Majesty
Amenemhāt; and King Usertsen [son and co-regent] wrote it down before
the people."
Nissen, from whom (_loc. cit._) I quote the above, adds:--"On account
of the stretching of the measuring-cord, the Egyptian engineers were
called by the Greeks ἁρπεδονάπται whose art Democritus boasts of having
acquired."
We next turn to Abydos, possibly one of the oldest temple-fields in
Egypt. There is an inscription relating to the rebuilding of one of
them in the time of Seti I. (about 1380 B.C.). In this the goddess
Sesheta addresses the king as follows:--"The hammer in my hand was
of gold, as I struck the peg with it, and thou wast with me in thy
capacity of Harpedonapt. Thy hand held the spade during the fixing of
its [the temple's] four corners with accuracy by the four supports
of heaven." On the pictures the king appears with the Osiris crown,
opposite the goddess. Both hold in their right hand a club, and with it
they each hammer a long peg into the ground. Round the two pegs runs a
rope, which is stretched tight, the ends being tied together.
In two cases the star used for the alignment is actually named. Of
these I will take, first, the record of the ceremony used in the
building of the temple of Hathor at Denderah.
THE ALIGNMENT OF THE TEMPLE OF HATHOR AT DENDERAH.
The inscriptions state that the king while stretching the cord had his
glance directed to the _āk_ of the constellation of the _Thigh_--the
old name of the constellation which we now recognise as the Great
Bear--and on this line was built the new temple, "as had been done
there before."
The actual inscription has been translated as follows:--"The living
God, the magnificent son of Asti [a name of Thoth], nourished by the
sublime goddess in the temple, the sovereign of the country, stretches
the rope in joy. With his glance towards the _āk_ [the middle?] of the
Bull's Thigh constellation, he establishes the temple-house of the
mistress of Denderah, as took place there before." At another place the
king says: "Looking to the sky at the course of the rising stars [and]
recognising the _āk_ of the Bull's Thigh constellation, I establish the
corners of the temple of Her Majesty."
Here, then, we have more than evidence of the stretching of a cord
towards a star; an actual constellation is named, and it may be easily
imagined that in connection with this many interesting questions arise
of the utmost importance to the subject we are considering.
Dümichen, in his references to this passage, discusses the meaning
of the word _āk_ in relation to some Theban grave-inscriptions, in
which it is suggested that _āk_ is used to represent the middle course
of a star, or, astronomically speaking, its culminating point as it
passes the meridian. But such a meaning as this will never do in this
connection; for if a cord was stretched towards a star on the meridian
it would lie north and south, and therefore the temple would be
built north and south. But this is by no means the orientation of the
temple--a point to which I shall return presently.
But it may be suggested that the word _āk_, used in relation to the
king's observation, more probably referred to the brightest star,
Dubhe (α Ursæ Majoris) in the asterism, or the "middle point" of the
constellation, which would be about represented by the star δ, which
lies nearly in the centre of the modern constellation of the Great
Bear, supposing, indeed, that the same stars were included in the
old constellation. On this point we unfortunately have no definite
knowledge, as the Thigh is so variously represented; sometimes there is
a hind-quarter, represented evidently by the well-known seven stars; at
others the body of a cow (with horns and disk) is attached.
However this may be, without such a reference to some particular part
of the constellation it is obvious that the stretched cord may have had
a most indeterminate direction.
In order to leave no stone unturned in attempting to explain
this description--supposing it to represent an undoubted fact of
observation--we may consider another possible interpretation of the
word _āk_. The amplitude of the temple being 71½° N. of E., shows
conclusively that we cannot be dealing with the meridian, but may we
be dealing with the most eastern elongation of the star in its journey
round the Pole?
I have inquired into this matter for the time of the last building of
the temple in the time of the Ptolemies, and find that the amplitude
of the temple, instead of being 71½°, would have been about 70°. It
seems probable, then, that this interpretation will not hold, and it
may be further stated that, in the case of a star at a considerable
angle above the horizon, the stretching of a cord in the building
ceremonial--the "Ausspannung der Strickes," as the words _put-ser_ are
translated by Dümichen--would really have been no stretching of the
cord at all; for the star being many degrees above the horizon, another
method must have been employed, and in all probability would have been
distinctly referred to in the careful statements of the ceremonies
which exist, I think, then, that we are perhaps justified in dismissing
this possible explanation, especially as rising stars are referred to.
We now come to considerations of a different order. The inscription
which we have quoted is put into the mouth of the Emperor Augustus,
though he never was at Denderah.
This suggests that the temple built in the time of Augustus carried
forward the account of the old foundation. There is evidence of this.
The constellation of the Thigh neither rose nor set in the time of
Augustus--it was circumpolar. The same statement may be made regarding
the restoration in the time of Thothmes III. So we are driven to the
conclusion that if we regard the inscription as true, it must refer to
a time preceding the reign of Thothmes. I shall return to this subject
in a subsequent chapter.
THE ALIGNMENT OF THE TEMPLE OF EDFÛ.
A reference to the same constellation (the Thigh) is also made in the
account of the ceremonial used at the laying of the foundation-stone of
the temple at Edfû. The king's glance was directed--in the case of the
building of that temple--to the _Thigh_, but no precise reference to
any star or to any point _āk_ is given.
As before, I give the full translation of the inscription,[47]
remarking that the last restoration was made B.C. 237-57. The king is
represented as speaking thus:--"I have grasped the wooden peg and the
handle of the club; I hold the rope with Sesheta; my glance follows
the course of the stars; my eye is on Mesχet [that is, the 'Bull's
Thigh constellation,' or Great Bear]; (mine the part of time of the
number of the hour-clock); I establish the corners of thy house of
God." And in another place:--"I have grasped the wooden peg; I hold
the handle of the club; I grasp the cord with Sesheta; I cast my face
towards the course of the rising constellations; I let my glance enter
the constellation of the Great Bear (the part of my time stands in
the place of his hour-clock); I establish the four corners of thy
temple." The translation is Brugsch's. The phrases in parentheses are
interpreted differently by Dümichen, who translates them:--"Standing
as divider of time by his measuring instrument," or "representing the
divider of time (_i.e._ the god Thoth) at his measuring instrument."
The word _merech_ or _merchet_, in which Brugsch suspects hour-or
water-clock, does not occur elsewhere.
In this case, seeing that the temple lies with its axis very nearly
north and south, as I determined by my own (magnetic) observations,
the stretching of the cord was certainly in or very near the meridian;
and it may be remarked that in the Naos there is an opening in the
roof, over the side of the second or third door from the sanctuary,
and inclined at an angle of 40° (unlike any other opening that I have
seen in the roof of any Egyptian temple), which may have been used to
observe the transit of some particular star. The angle I was not able
to determine with absolute accuracy, as the vertical circle of the
theodolite I had with me was out of adjustment.
Taking the latitude of Edfû as 25°, and assuming the angle of 40° to be
not far from the truth, the North Polar distance of the star observed
would be 15°.
Within a degree or so--and this is as near as we can get till more
accurate observations have been made on the spot--this satisfies
Dubhe, the chief star in the Great Bear in the time of the Ptolemies.
Supposing the temple was originally oriented to Dubhe, its amplitude,
86½° S. of W., gives us the date 3900 B.C. I shall show, however,
that it is more probable that the temple was oriented on some southern
star.
I may here remark that, so far as I know, Edfû is the temple in Egypt
nearest the meridian. If, therefore, it were used as, on my theory, all
other temples were, it could only have picked up the light from each of
the southerly stars, as by the precessional movements they were brought
into visibility very near the southern horizon.
In this respect, then, it is truly a temple of Horns, in relation
to the southern stars--the southern eyes of Horus. But it was not a
sun-temple in the sense that Karnak was one; and if ceremonies were
performed for which light was required, perhaps the apparatus referred
to by the writer Dupuis[48] was utilised. He mentions that in a temple
at Heliopolis--whether a solar temple or not is not stated--the temple
was flooded all day long with sunlight by means of a mirror. I do not
know the authorities on which Dupuis founds his statement, but I have
no doubt that it is amply justified, for the reason that doubtless all
the inscriptions in the deepest tombs were made by means of reflected
sunlight, for in all freshly-opened tombs there are no traces whatever
of any kind of combustion having taken place, even in the inner-most
recesses. So strikingly evident is this that my friend M. Bouriant,
while we were discussing this matter at Thebes, laughingly suggested
the possibility that the electric light was known to the ancient
Egyptians.
With a system of fixed mirrors inside the galleries, whatever their
length, and a movable mirror outside to follow the course of an
Egyptian sun and reflect its beams inside, it would be possible to keep
up a constant illumination in any part of the galleries, however remote.
Dupuis quotes another statement that the greatest precautions were
taken that the first rays of sunlight should enter a temple (of course,
he means a solar temple).
But it is possible that there might have been another temple at right
angles, facing nearly due east. In this case, the larger temple
would have been named after the worship to which the smaller one was
dedicated. If so, unlike the solar temples at Heliopolis, Abydos, and
Thebes, the Edfû temple was sacred to the Equinoctial Sun, or, at all
events, to the Sun very near an equinox.