Part 28

_Hunting Weapons._--The forked lance of flint was at first wide with slight hollow (73) from S.D. 32-43; then the hollow became a V notch (74) in 38 S.D. and onward. The lance was fixed in a wooden shaft for throwing, and held in by a check-cord from flying too far if it missed the animal (P.N. LXXIII.). The harpoon for fishing was at first of bone (75), and was imitated in copper (76, 77) from S.D. 36 onwards. The boomerang or throw-stick (78) was used from the Ist to the XXIInd Dynasty, and probably later. Fish-hooks of copper (79-82) are found from the Ist Dynasty to Roman times. A trap for animals' legs, formed by splints of palm stick radiating round a central hole, is figured in S.D. 60, and one was found of probably the XXth Dynasty. Fishing nets were common in all historic times, and the lead sinkers (83) and stone sinkers (84) are often found under the XVIIIth-XXth Dynasties.

_Agricultural Tools._--The hoe of wood (85) is the main tool from the late prehistoric time, and many have been found of the XVIIIth Dynasty. With the handle lengthened (86) and turned forward, this became the plough (87 is the hieroglyph, 88 the drawing, of a plough); this was always sloping, and never the upright post of the Italic type. The rake of wood (89) is usual in the XIIth and XVIIIth Dynasties. The fork (90), used for tossing straw, was common in the Old Kingdom, but none has been found. The sickle was of wood (92), with flints (91) inserted, apparently a copy of the ox-jaw and teeth. The notched flints for it are common from the Ist to the XVIIIth Dynasty. In Roman times the same principle was followed, by making an iron sickle with a deep groove, in which was inserted the cutting blade of steel (P.E. XXIX.). Shovel-boards, to hold in right (93) or left hand for scraping up the grain in winnowing, are usual in the XVIIIth Dynasty, and are figured in use in the Old Kingdom Pruning knives with curved blades (94) are Italic, and were made of iron by the Romans. Corn grinders were flat oval stones, with a smaller one lying cross-ways (95), and slid from end to end. Such were used from the Old Kingdom down to late times. In the Roman period a larger stone was used, with a rectangular slab (96) sliding on it, in which a long trough held the grain and let it slip out below for grinding. The quern with rotary motion is late Roman, and still used by Arabs. The large circular millstones of Roman age worked by horse-power are usually made from slices of granite columns.

_Building Tools._--The adze described above was used for dressing blocks of limestone. The brick-mould was an open frame, with one side prolonged into a handle (97), exactly as the modern mould. The plasterers' floats (98) were entirely cut out of wood. The mud rake for mixing mortar is rather narrower than the modern form. The square (99) and plummet (100, 101) have remained unchanged since the XIXth Dynasty. For dressing flat surfaces three wooden pegs (102) of equal length were used; a string was stretched between the tops of two, and the third peg was set on the point to be tested and tried against the string.

_Thread-Work._--Stone spindle whorls (103) are common in the prehistoric age; wooden ones were usual, of a cylindrical form (104) in the XIIth, and conical (105) in the XVIIIth Dynasty. The thread was secured by a spiral notch in the stick. In Roman times an iron hook on the top held the thread (106) as in modern spindles. Needles of copper were made in the prehistoric, as early as S.D. 48, and very delicate ones by S.D. 71. Gold needles are found of the Ist Dynasty. Fine ones of bronze are common in the XVIIIth Dynasty, and some with two eyes at right angles, one above the other, to carry two different threads. The copper bodkin is found in S.D. 70. Netters are common, of rib bones, pointed (107); the thread was wound round them. Long netting needles were probably brought in by the dynastic people as they figure in the hieroglyphs. Finely-made ones are found in the XVIIIth Dynasty and later. Reels were also commonly used for net making, of pottery (108) or even pebbles (109) with a groove chipped around. The flint vase-grinders were used in the early dynasties (110), and also sandstone grinders for hollowing larger vases (111).

_Stone-Work._--In the prehistoric ages stone building was unknown, but many varieties of stones were used for carving into vases, amulets and ornaments. The stone vases were at first of cylindrical forms, with a foot, and ears for hanging. These are worked in brown basalt, syenite, porphyry, alabaster and limestone. In the second prehistoric civilization barrel-shaped vases became usual; and to the former materials were added slate, grey limestone and breccia. Serpentine appears later, and diorite towards the close of the prehistoric ages. Flat dishes were used in earlier times; gradually deeper forms appear, and lastly the deep bowl with turned-in edge belongs to the close of the prehistoric time and continued common in the earlier dynasties (P.D.P. 19). This stone-work was usually formed on the outside with rotary motion, but sometimes the vase was rotated upon the grinder (Q. H. 17). The interior was ground out by cutters (figs. 110, 111) fixed in the end of a stick and revolved with a weight on the top, as shown in scenes on the tombs of the Vth Dynasty. The cutters were sometimes flints of a crescent shape (P. Ab. ii. liii. 24), but more usually grinders blocks of quartzite sandstone (26-34), and occasionally of diorite (Q. H. xxxii. lxii.). These blocks were fed with sand and water to give the bite on the stone (P. Ab. i. 26). The outsides of the vases were entirely wrought by handwork, with the polishing lines crossing diagonally. Probably the first forming was done by chipping and hammer-dressing, as in later times; the final facing of the hard stones was doubtless by means of emery in block or powder, as emery grinding blocks are found.

In the early dynasties the hard stones were still worked, and the Ist dynasty was the most splendid age for vases, bowls, and dishes of the finest stones. The royal tombs have preserved an enormous quantity of fragments, from which five hundred varied forms have been drawn (P.R.T. ii. xlvi.-liii. 6). The materials are quartz crystal, basalt, porphyry, syenite, granite, volcanic ash, various metamorphics, serpentine, slate, dolomite marble, alabaster, many coloured marbles, saccharine marble, grey and white limestones. The most splendid vase is one from Nekhen (Hieraconpolis), of syenite, 2 ft. across and 16 in. high, hollowed so as to be marvellously light and highly polished (Q.H. xxxvii). Another branch of stone-work, surface carving, was early developed by the artistic dynastic race. The great palettes of slate covered with elaborate reliefs are probably all of the pre-Menite kings; the most advanced of them having the figure of Narmer, who preceded Menes. Other carving full of detail is on the great mace-heads of Narmer and the Scorpion king, where scenes of ceremonials are minutely engraved in relief. In the Ist Dynasty the large tombstones of the kings are of bold work, but the smaller stones of private graves vary much in the style, many being very coarse. All of this work was by hammer-dressing and scraping. The scrapers seem to have always been of copper.

The earliest use of stone in buildings is in the tomb of King Den (Ist Dynasty), where some large flat blocks of red granite seem to have been part of the construction. The oldest stone chamber known is that of Khasekhemui (end of the IInd Dynasty). This is of blocks of limestone whose faces follow the natural cleavages, and only dressed where needful; part is hammer-dressed, but most of the surfaces are adze-dressed. The adze was of stone, probably flint, and had a short handle (P.R.T. ii. 13). The same king also wrought granite with inscriptions in relief. In the close of the IIIrd Dynasty a great impetus was given to stone-work, and the grandest period of refined masonry is at the beginning of the IVth Dynasty under Cheops. The tombs of Medum under Snefru are built with immense blocks of limestone of 20 and 33 tons weight. The dressing of the face between the hieroglyphs was done partly with copper and partly with flint scrapers (P.M. 27). The most splendid masonry is that of the Great Pyramid of Cheops. The blocks of granite for the roofing are 56 in number, of an average weight of 54 tons each. These were cut from the water-worn rocks at the Cataract--the soundest source for large masses, as any incipient flaws are well exposed by wear. The blocks were quarried by cleavage; a groove was run along the line intended, and about 2 ft. apart holes about 4 in. wide were jumped downward from it in the intended plane; this prevented a skew fracture (P.T. 93). In shallower masses a groove was run, and then holes, apparently for wedges, were sunk deeper in the course of it; whether wetted wood was used for the expansive force is not known, but it is probable, as no signs are visible of crushing the granite by hard wedges. The facing of the cloven surfaces was done by hammer-dressing, using rounded masses of quartzose hornstone, held in the hand without any handle. In order to get a hold for moving the blocks without bruising the edges, projecting lumps or bosses were left on the faces, about 6 or 8 in. across and 1 or 2 in. thick. After the block was in place the boss was struck off and the surface dressed and polished (P.T. 78, 82). In the pyramid of Cheops the blocks were all faced before building; but the later granite temple of Chephren and the pyramid of Mycerinus (Menkaura, Menkeure) show a system of building with an excess of a few inches left rough on the outer surface, which was dressed away when in position (P.T. 110, 132).

The flatness of faces of stone or rock (both granite and limestone) was tested by placing a true-plane trial plate, smeared with red ochre, against the dressed surface, as in modern engineering. The contact being thus reddened showed where the face had to be further dressed away; and this process was continued until the ochre touched points not more than an inch apart all over the joint faces, many square feet in area. On stones too large for facing-plates a diagonal draft was run, so as to avoid any wind in the plane (P.T. 83).

The cutting of granite was not only by cleavage and hammer dressing, but also by cutting with harder materials than quartz such as emery. Long saws of copper were fed with emery powder, and used to saw out blocks as much as 7½ ft. long (P.T. Plate XIV.). In other cases the very deep scores in the sides of the saw-cut suggest that fixed cutting points were inserted in the copper saws; and this would be parallel to the saw-cuts in the very hard limestone of the Palace of Tiryns, in which a piece of a copper saw has been broken, and where may be yet found large chips of emery, too long and coarse to serve as a powder, but suited for fixed teeth. A similar method was common for circular holes, which were cut by a tube, either with powder or fixed teeth. These tubular drills were used from the IVth Dynasty down to late times, in all materials from alabaster up to carnelian. The resulting cores are more regular than those of modern rock-drilling.

Limestone in the Great Pyramid, as elsewhere, was dressed by chopping it with an adze, a tool used from prehistoric to Roman times for all soft stones and wood. This method was carried on up to the point of getting contact with the facing-plate at every inch of the surface; the cuts cross in various directions. For removing rock in reducing a surface to a level, or in quarrying, cuts were made with a pick, forming straight trenches, and the blocks were then broken out between these. In quarrying the cuts are generally 4 or 5 in. wide, just enough for the workman's arm to reach in; for cutting away rock the grooves are 20 in. wide, enough to stand in, and the squares of rock about 9 ft. wide between the grooves (P.T. 100). The accuracy of the workmanship in the IVth Dynasty is astonishing. The base of the pyramid of Snefru had an average variation of 6 in. on 5765 and 10' of squareness. But, immediately after, Cheops improved on this with a variation of less than 6 in. on 9069 in. and 12" of direction. Chephren fell off, having 1.5 error on 8475, and 33" of variation; and Mycerinus (Menkeure) had 3 in. error on 4154 and 1' 50" variation of direction (P.M. 6; P.T. 39, 97, 111). Of perhaps later date the two south pyramids of Dahshur show errors of 3.7 on 7459 and 1.1 on 2065 in., and variation of direction of 4' and 10' (P.S. 28, 30). The above smallest error of only 1 in 16,000 in lineal measure, and 1 in 17,000 of angular measure, is that of the rock-cutting for the foundation of Khufu, and the masonry itself (now destroyed) was doubtless more accurate. The error of flatness of the joints from a straight line and a true square is but 1/100th in. on 75 in. length; and the error of level is only 1/50th in. along a course, or about 10" on a long length (P.T. 44). We have entered thus fully on the details of this period, as it is the finest age for workmanship in every respect. But in the XIIth Dynasty the granite sarcophagus of Senwosri II. is perhaps the finest single piece of cutting yet known; the surfaces of the granite are all dull-ground, the errors from straight lines and parallelism are only about 1/200th inch (P. 1, 3).

In later work we may note that copper scrapers were used for facing the limestone work in the VIth, the XIIth and the XVIIIth Dynasties. In the latter age granite surfaces were ground, hieroglyphs were chipped out and polished by copper tools fed with emery; outlines were graved by a thick sheet of copper held in the hand, and sawed to and fro with emery. Corners of signs and intersections of lines were first fixed by minute tube-drill holes, into which the hand tool butted, so that it should not slip over the outer surface.

The marking out of work was done by fine black lines; and supplemental lines at a fixed distance from the true one were put in to guard against obliteration in course of working (P.T. 92); similarly in building a brick pyramid the axis was marked, and there were supplemental marks two cubits to one side (P.K. 14). When cutting a passage in the rock a rough drift-way was first made, the roof was smoothed, a red axis line was drawn along it, and then the sides were cut parallel to the axis. For setting out a mastaba with sloping sides, on an irregular foundation at different levels, hollow corner walls were built outside the place of each corner; the distances of the faces at the above-ground level were marked on the inner faces of the walls; the above-ground level was also marked; then sloping lines at the intended angle of the face were drawn downward from the ground-level measures, and each face was set out so as to lie in the plane thus defined by two traces at the ends (P.M. VIII.).

[Illustration: Ancient Egyptian Tools.

_Note._ _The objects are drawn to a scale of 1/6 unless otherwise described._

MALLETS 1 2 MACES 3 4 HAMMERS 5 6 AXES 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 HOES 14 15 PICK 16 FLINT KNIVES 17 18 19 20 21 METAL KNIVES 22 23 24 25 CUTTING-OUT KNIVES 26 27 28 29 RAZORS 30 31 32 CHISELS 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 ADZES 40 41 SCRAPERS 42 44 45 46 SAWS 47 (1/30) 48 BORERS 49 50 51 52 53 (1/10) 54 55 (1/10) 56 57 58]

[Illustration: Ancient Egyptian Tools.

_Note._ _The objects are drawn to a scale of 1/6 unless otherwise described._

FIGHTING 59 60 61 62 (1/12) 63 (1/12) 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 HUNTING 73 74 75 76 77 78 (1/10) 79 80 81 82 83 84 AGRICULTURE all 1/20 85 86 87 88 89 90 (1/20) 91 92 (1/10) 93 94 95 (1/12) 96 (1/12) BUILDING 97 98 99 100 101 THREAD WORK 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 VASE GRINDING 110 111]

_Metal-Work._--Copper was wrought into pins, a couple of inches long, with loop heads, as early as the oldest prehistoric graves, before the use of weaving, and while pottery was scarcely developed. The use of harpoons and small chisels of copper next arose, then broad flaying knives, needles and adzes, lastly the axe when the metal was commoner. On these prehistoric tools, when in fine condition, the original highly-polished surface remains. It shows no trace of grinding lines or attrition, nor yet of the blows of a hammer. Probably it was thus highly finished by beating between polished stone hammers which were almost flat on the face. Most likely the forms of the tools were cast to begin with, and then finished and polished by fine hammering. A series of moulds for casting in the XIIth Dynasty show that the forms were carved out in thick pieces of pottery, and then lined with fine ashy clay. The mould was single, so that one side of the tool was the open face of metal. As early as the pyramid times solid casting by _cire perdue_ was already used for figures: but the copper statues of Pepi and his son seem, by their thinness and the piecing together of the parts, to have been entirely hammered out. The portraiture in such hammer work is amazingly life-like. By the time of the XIIth Dynasty, and perhaps earlier, _cire perdue_ casting over an ash core became usual. This was carried out most skilfully, the metal being often not 1/50th in. thick, and the core truly centred in the mould. Casting bronze over iron rods was also done, to gain more stiffness for thin parts.

In gold work the earliest jewelry, that of King Zer of the Ist Dynasty, shows a perfect mastery of working hollow balls with minute threading holes, and of soldering with no trace of excess nor difference of colour. Thin wire was hammered out, but there is no ancient instance of drawn wire. Castings were not trimmed by filing or grinding, but by small chisels and hammering (P.R.T. ii. 17). In the XIIth Dynasty the soldering of the thin cells for the _cloisonnée_ inlaid pectorals, on to the base plate, is a marvellous piece of delicacy; every cell has to be perfectly true in form, and yet all soldered, apparently simultaneously, as the heat could not be applied to successive portions (M.D. i.). Such work was kept up in the XVIIIth and XXVIth Dynasties. There is nothing distinctive in later jewelry different from Greek and Roman work elsewhere.

_Glaze and Glass._--From almost the beginning of the prehistoric age there are glazed pottery beads found in the graves: and glazing on amulets of quartz or other stones begins in the middle of the prehistoric. Apparently then glazing went together with the working of the copper ores, and probably accidental slags in the smelting gave the first idea of using glaze intentionally. The development of glazing at the beginning of the dynasties was sudden and effective. Large tiles, a foot in length, were glazed completely all over, and used to line the walls of rooms; they were retained in place by deep dovetails and ties of copper wire. Figures of glazed ware became abundant; a kind of visiting card was made with the figure of a man and his titles to present in temples which he visited; and glazed ornaments and toggles for fastening dresses were common (P. Ab. ii.). Further, besides thus using glaze on a large scale, differently coloured glazes were used, and even fused together. A piece of a large tile, and part of a glazed vase, have the royal titles and name of Menes, originally in violet inlay in green glaze. There was no further advance in the art until the great variety of colours came into use about 4000 years later. In the XIIth Dynasty a very thin smooth glaze was used, which became rather thicker in the XVIIIth. The most brilliant age of glazes was under Amenophis III. and his son Akhenaton. Various colours were used; beside the old green and blue, there were purple, violet, red, yellow and white. And a profusion of forms is shown by the moulds and actual examples, for necklaces, decorations, inlay in stone and applied reliefs on vases. Under Seti II. cartouches of the king in violet and white glaze are common; and under Rameses III. there were vases with relief figures, with painted figures, and tiles with coloured reliefs of captives of many races. The latter development of glazing was in thin delicate apple-green ware with low relief designs, which seem to have originated under Greek influence at Naucratis. The Roman glaze is thick and coarse, but usually of a brilliant Prussian blue, with dark purple and apple-green; and high reliefs of wreaths, and sometimes figures, are common.