A History of Art in Ancient Egypt, Vol. 1 (of 2)Perrot, Georges
History
A History of Art in Ancient Egypt, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Perrot, Georges
Art -- Egypt -- History; Egypt -- Antiquities
These beef bones must be the remains of the quarters of meat which
were placed in the tomb for the nourishment of the dead. No scene is
more frequently represented upon the walls of the public chamber of
the mastaba than the killing and flaying of victims for the funeral
ceremonies (Fig. 125). Like those which are found upon the roof, the
vases must have held water for the double. The pillow was placed under
the head of the mummy, it was the one he had used during his life. As
for the drinking cups, their use has not yet been determined, so far
as we know.
"As soon as the mummy was in the sarcophagus, the sarcophagus sealed,
and the various objects which we have described in place, the opening
at the bottom of the well was walled up; the well itself was filled
with stones, earth, and sand, and the dead was left to his eternal
sleep."[173] These precautions make it no easy thing to reach the
mummy chamber. To find the entrance to the well is the first
difficulty, and when it is found, many hands and no little time are
required to remove the rubbish with which it is filled. The only
mechanical helps which the Egyptians have ever used in such work are
those which we ourselves have seen in the hands of Mariette's
labourers, namely, the wooden shovel and the little rush basket which
is filled with a few handfuls of sand and pebbles, and then carried on
the head to be emptied at a convenient distance. It may be guessed how
many journeys to and fro have to be made before a few cubic yards of
_débris_ are cleared by such means as this!
[173] The broken up and decayed remains of wooden boats have
been found in two or three mummy pits (MARIETTE, _Les Tombes de
l'Ancien Empire_, p. 17). They originally formed part, perhaps,
of the boats upon which the corpse was transported across the
Nile to the nearest point of the western bank to the tomb. There
can be no doubt that, in placing them in the well, the survivors
believed that they were serving the deceased. Both the
bas-reliefs in the tomb and the _Ritual_ contain many
representations of the soul navigating the regions of Ament (see
the upper section of Fig. 98). In certain Theban tombs, models
of fully rigged boats have been found; there are some of them in
the Louvre (_Salle Civile_, case K). [There are two in the
British Museum, and one, a very fine one, in the museum at
Liverpool.--ED.]
[Illustration: FIG. 124.--Details of the Sarcophagus of
Khoo-foo-Ankh.]
[Illustration: FIG. 125.--Bas-relief from Sakkarah. Boulak.]
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