Manual of Egyptian Archaeology and Guide to the Study of Antiquities in Egypt Part 14

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 288.--Crater of precious metal, borne by slaves. Wall- painting, Eighteenth Dynasty.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 289.--Hydria of precious metal. Wall-painting, Eighteenth Dynasty.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 290.--Enamelled cruet. Wall-painting, Eighteenth Dynasty.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 291.--Enamelled cruet. Wall-painting, Eighteenth Dynasty.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 G.o.ds had received their share of the booty, there was no alternative but to melt the rest down into ingots, fas.h.i.+on 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 s.p.a.ce 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 fas.h.i.+oned as the head of a plumed eagle, and the other as the head of the G.o.d 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 dom 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 quant.i.ty 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 Ab 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 acc.u.mulated 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 enc.u.mbered 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 _repousse_ 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 pa.s.sion 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 293.--Crater of precious metal. Wall-painting, Eighteenth Dynasty.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 294.--Cup of precious metal. Wall-painting, Eighteenth Dynasty.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 296.--Bezel signet-ring.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 297.--Gold _cloisonne_ pectoral bearing cartouche of sertesen III. From Dahshr, 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 quant.i.ty 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, cuira.s.sed 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 workmans.h.i.+p. 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 doc.u.ments 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 ma.s.sive 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 n.o.bility could give an idea of the number and variety of jewels known to us by pictured representations or existing specimens. Pectorals of gold _cloisonne_ work inlaid with vitreous paste or precious stones, and which bear the cartouches of Amenemhat II., sertesen II., and sertesen III. (fig. 297), exhibit a marvellous precision of taste, lightness of touch, and dexterity of fine workmans.h.i.+p. 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 _cloisonne_ enamels. Ahmes kneels in the presence of the G.o.d Seb and his acolytes, the genii of Sop and Khon.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 298.--Mirror of Queen Aahhotep.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 299.--Bracelet of Queen Aahhotep, bearing cartouche of King Ahmes I.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 300.--Bracelet of Queen Aahhotep.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 301.--Diadem of Queen Aahhotep.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 302.--Gold "sekh" of Queen Aahhotep.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 303.--Pectoral of Queen Aahhotep, bearing cartouche of King Ahmes I.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 304.--Poignard of Queen Aahhotep, bearing cartouche of King Ahmes.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 305.--Poignard of Queen Aahhotep, bearing cartouche of King Ahmes.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 306.--Funerary battle-axe of Queen Aahhotep, bearing cartouche of King Ahmes I.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 307.--Funerary bark of Queen Aahhotep.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 308.--Ring of Rameses II.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 workmans.h.i.+p, though of inferior execution, was found on the wrist of the queen (fig. 300). It is of ma.s.sive 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 ma.s.sive 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 gla.s.s paste rayed with gold, the legs and body being in ma.s.sive gold. The royal _parure_ was completed by a large collar of the kind known as the _sekh_ (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 _repousse_ 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 G.o.ds. 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 fas.h.i.+on 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 sekh collar half hid the shoulders and chest. The pectoral masked the hollow between the b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Sometimes even the b.r.e.a.s.t.s 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 ma.s.sive 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 workmans.h.i.+p; 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 _repousse_ form the pommel; and a bull's head reversed covers the junction of blade and hilt. The edges of the blade are of ma.s.sive 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 s.p.a.ce being filled in with four gra.s.shoppers 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 diminis.h.i.+ng 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 fas.h.i.+oned 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, Ment, the Egyptian war-G.o.d, 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 G.o.ds. 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 bal.u.s.trades on a panelled ground are at the prow and on the p.o.o.p, 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 fas.h.i.+ons 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 _cloisonne_ 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 a.s.semblage 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 gla.s.s 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 subst.i.tuting 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 h.e.l.lenic influences are distinctly traceable. The treasure discovered at Zagazig in 1878, at Keneh in 1881, and at Damanhr 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 Hatshepst 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 Ab Bill, 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.

(5) This system was sometimes used to raise a fort above the plain, as at Defenneh; or the chambers formed store-rooms, as at the fort at Naukratis.

(6) In the fine early work at Gizeh they sawed the paving blocks of basalt, and then ground only just the edges flat, while all the inside of the joint was picked rough to hold the mortar.

(7) A usual plan in early times was to dress the joint faces of the block in the quarry, leaving its outer face with a rough excess of a few inches; the excess still remains on the granite casing of the pyramid of Menkara, and the result of dressing it away may be seen in the corners of the granite temple at Gizeh.

(8) Otherwise called the Granite Temple of Gizeh, or Temple of Khafra, as its connection with the Sphinx is much disputed, while it is in direct communication with the temple of the pyramid of Khafra, by a causeway in line with the entrance pa.s.sage.

(9) The casing of the open air court on the top of it was of fine limestone; only a few blocks of this remain. For full plan and measurements see _Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh_.