Manual of Egyptian Archaeology and Guide to the Study of Antiquities in Egypt, Gaston Maspero [best classic literature TXT] 📗
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(25) This gallery has obtained a great reputation for the fineness of its joints, perhaps because they are coarse enough to be easily seen; but some joints of the entrance passage, and the joints in the queen's chamber, are hardly visible with the closest inspection.
(26) The only signs of portcullises are those in the vestibule or antechamber.
(27) No traces of three of the portcullises remain, if they ever existed, and the other never could reach the floor or interrupt the passage, so its use is enigmatical.
(28) There is some evidence that the pyramid was opened in the early days, perhaps before the middle kingdom.
(29) Two rows of beams which rest on the side wall as corbels or cantilevers, only touching at the top, without necessarily any thrust. Such at least is the case in the queen's chamber, and in the pyramid of Pepi, where such a roof is used.
(30) The end walls have sunk throughout a considerable amount, and the side walls have separated; thus all the beams of the upper chambers have been dragged, and every beam of the roof of the chamber is broken through. This is probably the result of earthquakes.
(31) This only covered the lower sixteen courses; the larger part above it was of limestone.
(32) Similar finished faces may be seen as far in as near the middle of the mass. This is not a true pyramid in form, but a cumulative mastaba, the faces of which are at the mastaba angle (75°), and the successive enlargements of which are shown by numerous finished facings now within the masonry. The step form is the result of carrying upwards the mastaba form, at the same time that it was enlarged outwards.
(33) Not in all cases apparently, for the hieroglyphs on the passage of Pepi's pyramid are not injured, as they would be if plugs had been withdrawn.
(34) Pepi's roof is formed by a row of large beams which rested independently on the side walls as corbels or cantilevers (see Note 29).
(35) The mastaba angle is 75°, and the pyramid angle 50° to 55°.
(36) Its present appearance is an accident of its demolition; it was originally, like the "step-pyramid" of Sakkarah, a cumulative mastaba, as is shown by the remains of the lower steps still in the mounds at its base, and by the mediaeval description of it.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Many of the rooms at Kahun had vaulted ceilings.
[2] Seventeenth to Twentieth Dynasties.
[3] At Medinet Habû.
[4] The bas-relief sculpture from which the illustration, fig. 42, is taken (outer wall of Hypostyle Hall, Karnak, north end) represents Seti I. returning in triumph from one of his Syrian campaigns. He is met at Zarû by the great officers of his court, who bring bouquets of lotus-blossoms in their hands. Pithom and other frontier forts are depicted in this tableau, and Pithom is apparently not very far from Zarû. Zarû, Zalu, is the Selle of the Roman Itineraries.--A.B.E.
[5] See The Store City of Pithom and the Route of the Exodus, by Ed. Naville, with 13 Plates and 2 Maps; published by the Egypt Exploration Fund. First edition 1885, second edition 1885. Trübner & Co., London. --A.B.E.
[6] For an account of the explorations at Daphnae (the "Tahpanhes" of the Bible, the Tell Defenneh of the present day) see Mr. Petrie's memoir, entitled Tanis, Part II, (including Nebesheh, Gemayemi, Defenneh, etc.), published by the Egypt Exploration Fund.--A.B.E.
[7] The remains of this gigantic work may yet be seen about two hours' distance to the southward of Medûm. See Herodotus, book II.; chap. 99.--A.B.E.
[8] See The Fayûm and Lake Moeris. Major R.H. Brown, R.E.
[9] Officially, this temple is attributed to Thothmes III., and the dedicatory inscription dates from the first year of his reign; but the work was really that of his aunt and predecessor, Queen Hatshepsût.
[10] See also an exact reduction of this design, to scale, in Mr. Petrie's work A Season in Egypt, 1887, Plate XXV.
[11] Chenoboscion.-- A.B.E.
[12] For an account of the excavations at Bubastis, see Eighth and Tenth Memoirs of the Egypt Exploration Fund, by M.E. Naville.
[13] French "Promenoir"; this is perhaps best expressed by "Processional Hall," in accordance with the description of its purpose on p. 67. --A.B.E.
[14] Hor- shesû, "followers," or "servants of Horus," are mentioned in the Turin papyrus as the predecessors of Mena, and are referred to in monumental inscriptions as representing the pre-historic people of Egypt. It is to the Hor-shesû that Professors Maspero and Mariette attribute the making of the Great Sphinx.--A.B.E.
[15] For a full description of the oldest funerary chapel known, that of King Sneferû, see W.M.F. Petrie's Medum.
[16] Conf. Mr. Petrie's plan of this temple in Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh, Plate VI.--A.B.E.
[17] That is to say, the wall is vertical on the inside; but is built much thicker at the bottom than at the top, so that on the outside it presents a sloping surface, retiring with the height of the wall.--A.B.E.
[18] "Hatshepsût," more commonly known as "Hatasû;" the new reading is, however, more correct. Professor Maspero thinks that it was pronounced "Hatshopsitû."--A.B.E.
[19] For full illustrated account of the complete excavation of this temple, see the Deir el Baharî publications of the Egypt Exploration Fund.
[20] Temenos, i.e., the enclosure wall of the Temple, within which all was holy ground.--A.B.E.
[21] That is, the spirits of the North, represented by On (Heliopolis), and of the South (Khonû).--A.B.E.
[22] At Tanis there seems to have been a close succession of obelisks and statues along the main avenue leading to the Temple, without the usual corresponding pylons. These were ranged in pairs; i.e., a pair of obelisks, a pair of statues; a pair of obelisks, a pair of shrines; and then a third pair of obelisks. See Tanis, Part I., by W.M.F. Petrie, published by the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1884.--A.B.E.
[23] This fact is recorded in the hieroglyphic inscription upon the obelisks.--A.B.E.
[24] This celebrated tablet, preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, has been frequently translated, and is the subject of a valuable treatise by the late Vicomte de Rougé. It was considered authentic till Dr. Erman, in an admirable paper contributed to the Zeitschrift, 1883, showed it to have been a forgery concocted by the priests of Khonsû during the period of the Persian rule in Egypt, or in early Ptolemaic times. (See Maspero's Hist. Ancienne des Peuples de l'Orient, chap, vi., pp. 287, 288. Fourth Edition.)--A.B.E.
[25] The Land of Incense, called also in the inscriptions "The Land of Punt," was the country from which the Egyptians imported spices, precious woods, gums, etc. It is supposed to represent the southern coasts of the Red Sea, on either side the Bab el Mandeb. Queen Hatshepsût's famous expedition is represented in a series of coloured bas-relief sculptures on the walls of her great temple at Deir el Baharî, reproduced in Dr. Dümichen's work, The Fleet of an Egyptian Queen, and in Mariette's Deîr el Baharî. For a full account of this temple, its decoration, and the expedition of Hatshepsût, see the Deir el Baharî publications of the Egypt Exploration Fund.
[26] These three parts are (l) the chapel, (2) the passage, or shaft, (3) the sepulchral vault. If the latter was below the level of the chapel, as in the time of the Ancient Empire, the communication was by a sloping or vertical shaft.-- A.B.E.
[27] For an account of the necropolis of Medûm, see W.M.F. Petrie's Medum.
[28] The sarcophagus of Menkara, unfortunately lost at sea when on its way to England, was of this type. See illustration No. 19, Chapter III., in Sir E. Wilson's Egypt of the Past.--A.B.E.
[29] This wall scene is from the tomb of Nenka, near Sakkarah. For a coloured facsimile on a large scale, see Professor Maspero's article entitled "Trois Années de Fouilles," in Mémoires de la Mission Archéologique Française du Caire, Pl. 2. 1884.--A.B.E.
[30] This section is reproduced, by permission of Mr. W.M.F. Petrie, from Plate VII. of his "Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh." The vertical shaft sunk by Perring is shown going down from the floor of the subterranean unfinished chamber. The lettering along the base of the pyramid, though not bearing upon the work of Professor Maspero, has been preserved for the convenience of readers who may wish to consult Mr. Petrie's work for more minute details and measurements. This lettering refers to that part of Mr. Petrie's argument which disproves the "accretion theory" of previous writers (see "Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh" chap, xviii., p. 165).--A.B.E.
[31] For a full account of the Twelfth Dynasty tombs at Beni Hasan and El Bersheh see the first memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of the Egypt Exploration Fund.
[32] The steps are shown in fig. 150. They were discovered by General Sir F. Grenfell in 1885. Noting the remains of two parallel walls running up from the water's edge to a part of the cliff which had evidently been escarped and presented a vertical face, General Grenfell caused the sand to be cleared, thus disclosing the entrances to several rock-cut tombs dating from the Sixth and Twelfth Dynasties, as well as two flights of steps on either side of an inclined plane leading from the Nile bank to the door of one of the tombs. The distance between the two walls is ten feet. The steps are eighteen inches deep, and 250 in number. The steps were for the haulers, the mummies and sarcophagi being dragged up the inclined plane. (See p. 209.)-- A.B.E.
[33] M. Léfébure has lately produced a superb and elaborate volume on this tomb, with the whole of the texts and the wall decorations faithfully reproduced: Mémoires publiés par les Membres de la Mission du Caire, Vol. II., fasc. I.-- A.B.E.
[34] We have in this country two very fine specimens of inscribed sarcophagi; namely, that of Seti I., of beautiful alabaster, in the Soane collection (xixth Dyn.), and that of Queen Ankhnesraneferab (xxvith Dyn.) in the British Museum.-- A.B.E.
[35] The late T. Deveria ingeniously conjectured that "Ba-en-pet" (iron of heaven) might mean the ferruginous substance of meteoric stones. See Mélanges d'Archéologie Egyptienne et Assyrienne, vol. i.--A.B.E.
[36] The traces of tools upon the masonry show the use of bronze and jewel-points.--A.B.E.
[37] Many such trial- pieces were found by Petrie in the ruins of a sculptor's house at Tell el Amarna.
[38] A similar collection was found by Mr. F. Ll. Griffith at Tell Gemayemi, in 1886, during his excavations for the Egypt Exploration Fund. See Mr. Petrie's Tanis. Part II., Egypt Exploration Fund.--A.B.E.
[39] Mr. Loftie's collection contains, however, an interesting piece of trial-work consisting of the head of a Ptolemaic queen in red granite.--A.B.E.
[40] For pigments used at the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty, see Petrie's Medum.
[41] The rose- coloured,
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