Volume II Part 4 (2/2)
He published a drawing in justification of his hypothesis There are, however, eneral use of the reed as the s
Branches which were ever so little rigid and firm could not have been so bent, and yet they are often found in the huts to which we refer It may even be doubted whether the reeds eyptian cornice without breaking
The first idea suggested by the design of this sarcophagus is that of a large wooden coffer When we come to look at it a little more closely, however, the imitations of doors and s and other details incline us to believe that itsthe accustomed aspect of a wooden house In that case we should have in it a reduction of a building belonging to the closed category of _assembled_ constructions It is by the study of i with one another the forinally conceived by carpenters and joiners, and afterwards eeneral principles of Egyptian construction, ere enabled to attempt a restoration which83, vol i)
[Illustration: FIG 34--The Sarcophagus of Mycerinus Drawn in perspective fro observations us of Khoo-foo-Ankh figured on pp 183, 184, vol i It is of the saement of panels and fillets, the same lotus-leaf ornament, and the sae at the top, but the upper part of the flat sides is decorated with the perpendicular grooves which are found in the hollow of the cornice elsewhere In wood this ornament, which ell adapted to add richness to the cornice by the shadohich it cast, could easily be e itself was not borrowed froinated in that way
If still further proofs be required of the imitative character of this early stone architecture, we shall find the can be clearer than the way in which the lintel obtained its peculiar character It is forht beams of stone which form the jaroove, which divides them from the walls Underneath the lintel, and ithin the shadohich it casts, there is another and more curious slab; it is, in shape, a thick cylinder, corresponding in length to the width of the door In the deep groove already mentioned the ends of the spindles or trunnions upon which it is supported are suggested They are not, indeed, in their right places: they are too near the face of the building The workroove very deep in order to show them in their proper places, and he was therefore content to hint at them with sufficient clearness to enable those who saw them to understand what they meant
We have none of the wooden models under our eyes which were familiar to the stonemason who carved these doors, but yet we can easily see the origin of the forms we have just described The cylinder was a circular beam of acacia or palm, upon which a mat or strip of cloth of soroove at the side the cylinder could be made to revolve, and the curtain would thus be easily drawn up and down These curious forms are thus at once accounted for if we refer them to the wooden structures which were once plentiful but have now disappeared Nothing could be more difficult than to find an explanation of theranite Of what use could such a cylinder be if carried out in either of those rooves, which have such an obvious use in a wooden building, would be purposeless
[Illustration: FIG 35--Door of a tooin]
We find these features repeated in a rectangular stele fro 37 we give soer scale The upper part of this stele displays two lance as borrowed froonal studs, which forinal they must have been foronal centre Oriental cabinets and wainscots in the sa like them is certain to have existed in that _okel_, whose delicately ornareatly admired by the visitors to the Exhibition of 1867 The same may be said of the row of billets which for of an ovoid for their upper extremities The same source of inspiration is betrayed by other details of this monument, which has been treated by time with extraordinary tenderness
[Illustration: FIG 36--Stele frooin]
Tombs have been found at Gizeh and Sakkarah, which are referred to the second and third dynasties The king Persen, whose nas to that re is carved to represent trunks of pal reproduced Most of the sepulchres in which these details have been noticed are subterranean, but they are also to be discovered in a chamber in the tomb of Ti It is probable that if more mastabas had come down to us with their roofs intact we should find many instances of this kind of decoration[55]
[55] This imitation of wooden roofs was noticed by the _savants_ of the _Institut d'egypte_ They drew a rock-cut to is carved to look like the trunks of pals 3, 4, and 5)
See also BAEDEKER, part i p 360
[Illustration: FIG 37 DETAILS OF THE UPPER PART OF THE STELE FIGURED ON THE PRECEDING PAGE --Stele froures 38 and 39 are taken from another tomb, and show varieties of that ornament which is universally employed as a finial to the panels we have mentioned In its most careful form it consists of two petals united by a band, which allows the deep slit characteristic of the leaves of all aquatic plants to be clearly visible
This yptians It is also found in the tombs at Thebes, and its persistence may, perhaps, be accounted for by the association of the lotus with ideas of a new birth and resurrection[56] Under the Rameses and their successors it ith the exception of the vertical and horizontal grooves (Fig 201, vol i), the only reminiscence of wooden construction preserved by stone architecture
In the doors of the rock-cut tombs at Thebes no trace of the circular beam, nor of any other characteristic of the joiner-inspired stone-carving of early tiyptian architects had by that tiested by their own capabilities We see, however, by the representations preserved for us by the bas-reliefs, that wooden constructionthe first days of the Ancient Eie egyptienne_
[Illustration: FIG 38--Flattened form of lotus-leaf ornaoin]
[Illustration: FIG 39--Lotus-leaf ornaoin]
We know from the pyramids, from the teyptian work of stone, even in the tio back in the history of Egypt we find no trace of anyto that which is called Cyclopean in the case of the Greeks We find no walls built like those of Tiryns, with huge and shapelessfilled in with sonal masonry--by which we mean walls forular joints, and with stones of very different size and shape placed in juxtaposition with one another In the ancient citadels of Greece and Italy this kind of construction is to be found in every variety, but in Egypt the stones are always arranged into horizontal courses Here and there the vertical joints are not quite vertical, and soher, or sink lower, than the course to which they belong, tying it to the one above it or below it Such accidents as these do not, however, affect the general rule, which was to keep each course self-contained and parallel with the soil All these varieties in Egyptian masonry may be seen in a horizontal section of the first pylon at Karnak (Fig 41) This pylon is in such a ruined state that by raphs taken from different sides we can form a very exact idea of its internal composition[57]
[57] This pylon dates froe in Egypt, it was their processes of construction
[Illustration: FIG 40--Wooden pavilion, from a bas-relief at Luxor (Chareat size in the units of construction, are only to be found in coyptianskill hich the granite or lies in the Gizeh pyras of the Theban period, such as the vaulted chapels in the Great Temple at Abydos, and the courts of Medinet-Abou, are notable for excellence of a siive way to the Grand Gallery in the pyraypt of the early Pharaohs set enerations failed to follow The extraordinary nureat Theban princes carried on at one and the same time, from the depths of Nubia to the shores of the Mediterranean, made their subjects hness The habit of covering every plain surface with a brilliant polychromatic decoration contributed to the same result The workh for all the undertakings on foot at once How, then, could they be expected to lavish minute care upon joints which were destined to be hidden behind a coat of stucco? We never encounter in Egyptian buildings any of those graceful varieties of masonry which have been adopted from time to time by all those artistic nations that have left their stonework bare None of the various kinds of rustication, none of the alternation of square with oblong blocks, none of that undeviating regularity in the height of the courses and in the direction of the joints which by itself is enough to give beauty to a building, is to be found in the work of Egyptian masons[58]
[58] This has been well shown by Chas constructed by the Theban kings He speaks thus of the _hemispeos_ of Wadi-Esseboua: ”This is the worst piece of work extant fron of Rameses the Great
The stones are ill-cut; their intervals are masked by a layer of cement over which the sculptured decoration, which is poorly executed, is continued Most of this decoration is now incoreat part of it was carried out, has fallen down and left aps in the scenes and inscriptions”--_Lettres d'egypte et de Nubie_, 121