DOI Artikel:
Naville, Edouard: Egypt Exploration Fund, [7]: Transport of Obelisks, as illustrated by a Bas-Relief in the temple of Deir el Bahari
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10056#0023
Transport of Obelisks.
11
taken as the example to show how each group was composed. Next to
the barge there is a ship of a more luxurious style. It has a cabiu with
an upper deck ; the doors of the cabin being seen in full front, though
they were really in the axis of the boat. Fore and aft are two pavilions
for officers of high rank; these pavilions are adorned with royal emblems :
a lion, a sphinx, or a bull trampling upon the enemies of the king. I
should think that these emblems were paintings on the panels of the
pavilions, outside or perhaps inside. This would be in harmony with
the manner of representing the paintings inside vases.1 The boat has
two rudders ; so also has the next, which has a small pavilion and a cabin.
As these two boats were the last in a line of ten, and as they were close
to the barge, the strain on the steering gear must have beeu particularly
heavy, and that is why they had two rudders while all the other boats
had only one. At the other end of the line the first boat is longer, it
has a very heavy rudder, and has soldiers on board. It is the leading
boat and carries what would now be called a "reis" or pilot, who
sounds the water with a pole. His commands are probably repeated by
the other reises along the line. Each of the boats has a mast from which
start two ropes ; one going towards the stern is tied to the rudder, the
other one is tied not to the bows of its own boat, but to those of the next,
which is represented as slightly in advance. The first boat alone, the
leader, is perfectly free ; all the others are joined together by a rope
going from the top of the mast to the bows of the next boat; so that
if we figure them on a horizontal plane as they are on the water, they
are arranged as may be seen on vignette No. 1.
This extraordinary formation is due to the desire of the sculptor for
accuracy in spite of the necessities of space and perspective. The
sculptor did not like to omit a single boat; he wanted to represent the
exact number and to show that there were ten in each group. But if he
had put them in a straight line as they were on the river, it would have
made a very long scene, and would have covered a much larger space
than he had at his disposal. Therefore, instead of making a straight
line, he made a broken one ; he folded it as we should fold a jointed foot-
rule. He drew all the boats together, allowing only the bows to project
beyond each other, so that the boats might be counted. At the same
time he was very careful not to alter anything in the rigging or in the
way in which the boats were tied to each other. But let us now suppose
that the boats are moving, let them go forward; first the leading boat
1 See the remarkable paper on this subject by Dr. Borchardt, Zeitschr, 1893,
p. 1.
c 2
11
taken as the example to show how each group was composed. Next to
the barge there is a ship of a more luxurious style. It has a cabiu with
an upper deck ; the doors of the cabin being seen in full front, though
they were really in the axis of the boat. Fore and aft are two pavilions
for officers of high rank; these pavilions are adorned with royal emblems :
a lion, a sphinx, or a bull trampling upon the enemies of the king. I
should think that these emblems were paintings on the panels of the
pavilions, outside or perhaps inside. This would be in harmony with
the manner of representing the paintings inside vases.1 The boat has
two rudders ; so also has the next, which has a small pavilion and a cabin.
As these two boats were the last in a line of ten, and as they were close
to the barge, the strain on the steering gear must have beeu particularly
heavy, and that is why they had two rudders while all the other boats
had only one. At the other end of the line the first boat is longer, it
has a very heavy rudder, and has soldiers on board. It is the leading
boat and carries what would now be called a "reis" or pilot, who
sounds the water with a pole. His commands are probably repeated by
the other reises along the line. Each of the boats has a mast from which
start two ropes ; one going towards the stern is tied to the rudder, the
other one is tied not to the bows of its own boat, but to those of the next,
which is represented as slightly in advance. The first boat alone, the
leader, is perfectly free ; all the others are joined together by a rope
going from the top of the mast to the bows of the next boat; so that
if we figure them on a horizontal plane as they are on the water, they
are arranged as may be seen on vignette No. 1.
This extraordinary formation is due to the desire of the sculptor for
accuracy in spite of the necessities of space and perspective. The
sculptor did not like to omit a single boat; he wanted to represent the
exact number and to show that there were ten in each group. But if he
had put them in a straight line as they were on the river, it would have
made a very long scene, and would have covered a much larger space
than he had at his disposal. Therefore, instead of making a straight
line, he made a broken one ; he folded it as we should fold a jointed foot-
rule. He drew all the boats together, allowing only the bows to project
beyond each other, so that the boats might be counted. At the same
time he was very careful not to alter anything in the rigging or in the
way in which the boats were tied to each other. But let us now suppose
that the boats are moving, let them go forward; first the leading boat
1 See the remarkable paper on this subject by Dr. Borchardt, Zeitschr, 1893,
p. 1.
c 2