Egyptian tomb

“ The pyramid was never a family monument, but belonged—like all other Egyptian tombs—to one person, members of the royal family having sometimes lesser pyramids adjoining the king's (as at Khufu's) ; the essential idea of the sole use of a tomb was so strong that the hill of Gizeh is riddled with deep tomb-shafts for separate burials, often running side by side 60 or 80 ft. deep, with only a thin wall of rock between; and in one place a previous shaft has been partially blocked with masonry, so that a later shaft could be cut partly into it, macled with it like a twin-crystal. ”

“ In fact, the whole development of the form of the Egyptian tomb depended on the development of technical skill. The same funerary functions are served throughout. As all the great artisans were at the command of the king, all the great technical discoveries and inventions were first made in his service. But every permanent gain in knowledge was a benefit to the race and utilized by the common people. So, for example, the skill acquired in stone-cutting, during the construction of the great pyramids, was utilized a little later in producing rock-cut tombs from one end of Egypt to the other. ”

“ There is a tomb we might have definitely in mind, an Egyptian burying-place where with a torch we might enter, read the inscriptions, and see the illustrations from the Book of the Dead on the wall, or finding that ancient papyrus in the mummy-case, unroll it and show it to the eager assembly, and have the feeling of return. Man is an Egyptian first, before he is any other type of civilized being. The Nile flows through his heart. So let this cave be Egypt, let us incline ourselves to revere the unconscious memories that echo within us when we see the hieroglyphics of Osiris, and Isis. ”

“ The most interesting class were those of Lykaonian mercenaries; most likely from an outpost of the Daphnae camp, stationed here. In those tombs there were no ushabtis; the bodies lay north and south, instead of east and west, as in the Egyptian tombs; there were bronze and sometimes iron spear-heads, and curious forked spear-heads, like that on a funeral stele at Iconium; and moreover, Cypriote pottery, generally pilgrim bottles.
While working in the cemetery we found one unrifled tomb, containing four mummies, with their sets of amulets intact. ”

“ From earliest times the Egyptian kings were builders, particularly of tombs, which during the Old Empire took the form of pyramids. Of far greater importance than the earthly abode was thought to be the tomb—the dwelling place for eternal years, consequently tombs and temples received the attention of Egypt's kings in early as well as later times.
In 1897 the tomb of Menes was discovered. It was a brick-lined pit containing an inner chamber of wood. Around the mummy of the pharaoh had been placed the bodies of different members of his household. ”

“ Afterwards we saw the Tombs of the Pashas and their wives, all in one great building. Each has a gorgeous tomb painted in vivid colours, covered by one great slab, from the head of which rise long round stones, like the stalks of mushrooms, and of divers lengths, to indicate the number and age of the children, each bearing an inscription. That erected to the head of the house is marked by a carved turban or fez surmounting the stone. This family grouping may be ohserved on most of the Mahommedan tombs in Cairo. ”

“ Now every Egyptian tomb of importance has its outer chamber or votive oratory, the walls of which are covered with paintings descriptive, in some instances, of the occupations of the deceased upon earth, and in others of{394} the adventures of his soul after death. Here at stated seasons the survivors repaired with offerings. No priest, it would seem, of necessity officiated at these little services. A whole family would come, bringing the first fruits of their garden, the best of their poultry, cakes of home-made bread, bouquets of lotus blossoms. ”

“ Like the other tombs in its neighbourhood, the cave of Machpelah has doubtless been opened and despoiled at an early epoch. We know that tombs were violated in Egypt long before the days of Abraham, in spite of the penalties with which such {188} acts of sacrilege were visited, and the cupidity of the Canaanite was no less great than that of the Egyptian. The treasures buried with the dead were too potent an attraction, and the robber of the tomb braved for their sake the terrors of both this world and the next. ”

“ As remarked by a great Egyptologist, the whole life of the Egyptian was spent in the contemplation of death; thus the tomb became the concrete thought. The belief of the ancient Egyptian was that so long as his body remained intact so was his immortality; whence arose the embalming of the great, and hence the immense structures of stone to secure the inviolability of the entombed monarch.
The monuments have as yet yielded no account of the events which tended to unite Egypt under the rule of one man ”

“ In this primitive conception we ought to find the determining cause of the Egyptian form of tomb. Its constitution was already settled in the time of the ancient Empire, and, from the Memphite dynasties until the end, it remained unchanged in principle. In this constitution we shall find embodied the essential idea adopted by the Egyptians when they first attempted to find some eternal element in man, or, at least, some element which should resist the annihilation of death for a period much longer than the few days which make up our mortal life. ”

“ Hence, in recovering the history of Egyptian cultural development, we are really probing into the sources of the customs and beliefs of53 our own everyday life and experience. Thus we must regard mummification as something more than an eccentric practice that excites our curiosity. For it played a fundamental part in shaping the development of civilization, both its arts and crafts, as well as its most vital customs and beliefs. ”

“ Another method of sepulture was made use of in the Ancient Empire, a method which afterwards came into general use in Egypt, we mean the hypogeum, or subterranean tomb. The Egyptian Commission has described several rock-cut tombs in the neighbourhood of the Pyramids, especially some which face the western slope of the Second Pyramid. Similar tombs are to be found near the pyramid of Mycerinus. Some of these sepulchral grottos declare their extreme antiquity by their imitations of wooden architecture; [174] others by their inscriptions dating from 189the fourth and fifth dynasties. ”

“ The general scheme of Egyptian tombs remained the same throughout the whole of the dynastic period, though there were many variations of detail. By preference they were built in the Western desert, the Amente, near the place where the sun was seen to go to rest, and which seemed Tombs. the natural entrance to the nether world. A deep pit led down to the sepulchral chamber where the dead man was deposited amid the funereal furniture destined for his use ”

“ Inasmuch as, if the career of an Egyptian king proved irreligious or oppressive, the priests and people could deny him sepulture in his own tomb, it is not unlikely that many Egyptian kings lavished large sums upon temples, in order to conciliate the priestly favour, and to secure for their embalmed bodies the much-prized sanctuary. It is to be observed, however, with respect to the names and inscriptions found on Egyptian monuments, that they are by no means always to be taken as an authentic account of the remains within. ”

“ The whole of the wall-space gained by these excavations, which are actually more than one-third of a mile in length, is covered throughout with most carefully-executed sculptures, in the most elaborate style of Egyptian art. It is worth noticing that this [142] tomb of a private individual exceeds in dimensions, costliness, and magnificence all the royal tombs—of course, excepting the Great Pyramids—with which we are acquainted. ”

“ The ancient dynasties did not use them for ornament's sake, as the tomb would hardly be a suitable place for works of art that were to be admired. They originally served as memorial tablets and tomb-stones. Afterwards their surpassing beauty as monuments of art was perceived, and they were placed in pairs in front of the gates and pylons of the temples for ornament. They broke the monotony of the straight and peculiar Egyptian style of building, and by their apparently thin and column-like appearance set off to {25}advantage the massive and ponderous structures round about. ”

“ Some time later I saw him on the street in close consultation with Tezra and Nepahak, who have an evil reputation in this city.”
“What was on the missing sheet?” asked the captain.
“Just enough to tell that the inscription bore on the tombs of Ras-Ameses,” replied Phalos. “Everybody in Egypt knows that his tomb has never been discovered and that it is supposed to contain fabulous riches. Luckily there was nothing on the stolen paper giving the slightest clue as to where the tomb was to be found.”
“That was a bit of luck, but a precious one,” observed Professor Bruce. ”

“ The texts are partly descriptions of funeral ceremonies and of various localities in the Lower Heaven, partly hymns and magical formulæ for exorcising demons, and partly long speeches the dead man must pronounce, with directions for making and inscribing amulets. Of these texts, some were written on papyrus and placed in the tomb with the mummy, others were inscribed on amulets and sarcophagi. In no one tomb have all been found.
[18] Nothing is known of ancient Egyptian metres: but it is evident that the poetry was characterized by parallelism analogous to that of Hebrew verse. ”

“ As every part of the tomb had its special decoration, so also it had its special furniture. Of the chapel {166} furniture few traces have been preserved. The table of offerings, which was of stone, is generally all that remains. The objects placed in the serdab, in the passages, and in the sepulchral chamber, have suffered less from the ravages of time and the hand of man. During the Ancient Empire, the funerary portrait statues were always immured in the serdab. The sepulchral vault contained, besides the sarcophagus, head-rests of limestone or alabaster; geese carved in stone ”

“ Having sufficiently examined these massive coffins, upon which the proudest undertaker of modern times must look humbly, and deplore the decline of his business as an art, the visitor should at once turn to other specimens of the sepulchral art of the ancient Egyptians. Of these, the most interesting are the sepulchral tablets, which are literally
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN TOMBSTONES. Our modern tombstones record only the virtues of the dead. ”

“ In order that all the expense of embalming should not be thrown away, the mummy had to be so placed that it could not be reached by the highest inundations of the river. The cemeteries were therefore established either upon a plateau surrounded by the desert, as in the case of Memphis and Abydos, or in the sides of the mountain ranges and in the ravines by which they were pierced, as at Thebes and Beni-Hassan. In the whole valley of the Nile, no ancient tomb has been discovered which was within reach of the inundation at its highest. ”

“ Just as the layers of Nile mud have overlaid one another since the birth of time, the generations of Egypt are ranged in order at the bottom of the mummy pits of the hypogea and the pyramids of the necropolis, their bodies intact—for the worm of the tomb dare not attack them, repelled as it is by the bitter bituminous odours. But for the sacrilegious devastations of man, that dead people would be found complete, and its numberless multitudes might cover the earth. Imagination is staggered when it attempts to calculate the probable numbers ”

“ The Egyptians always located their cemeteries toward the west. Into the west the sun sank at night, and by the same way the soul started upon its long journey to the realm of Osiris, god of the future world. The irregularity of the Nile usually made it possible for the city of the living to grow up on its eastern bank, while across the stream, on the west shore, lay the City of the Dead. To the west of Memphis lay its cemetery or Necropolis, and while this remained the capital of Egypt, the pyramid-shaped tomb remained in favor. ”

“ EMBALMING.—Believing that the soul survives death, the Egyptians linked its weal with the preservation of the body, from which they could not conceive its destiny to be wholly dissevered. Thus arose the universal practice of embalming, and of presenting, at intervals, offerings of food and drink to the departed. The tomb contains a room for sacred services to the dead. The most ancient structures are sepulchers. They were the germ of the pyramid, in which rested the sarcophagus of the king. ”

“ No other race has given birth in its funerary architecture, to a type so pure, a type which may be explained in every detail by a master-idea at once original and well defined. We therefore dwelt upon it at some length and described it with the care which it demanded. We found it again in the pyramids, the royal tombs of the Ancient Empire, which though sensibly modified by the great change in proportion, by the colossal dimensions which the pride of the Pharaohs gave to one part of their tomb, are yet penetrated by the same spirit. ”

“ Here, and for some distance towards the citadel, the tombs are closely crowded together, and the whole cemetery, being intersected by roads, like streets in a town, may justly be called a Necropolis, or City of the Dead. All the tract is desert; and few persons are to be met here, excepting on the Friday morning, when it is the custom of the Muslims to visit the tombs of their relations and friends. Numerous groups of women are then seen repairing to the cemetery; each bearing a palm-branch, to lay upon the tomb she is about to visit. ”