DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1118#0633
VISIBLE SQUARES OF ROCK VAULT PAINTED BLUE 975
ere left visible, these being massively framed by the beams that crossed
d bordered the uppermost section of the chamber.
The evidence of fallen pieces of the 'windows' left in the original
Fig. 935. Sepulchral Chamber with Central Gypsum Pillar and Lining Slab,
as cut down through the Rock : the Floor in course of being cleared.
rock vault brought out an interesting detail regarding its surface. In order,
no doubt, to avoid the risk of detaching pieces of the chalk-like limestone,
the surface had been left by no means smooth, but the square faces visible
had been, none the less, painted an azure tint with the usual kyanos medium.1
Despite the darkness of the vault—without artificial lighting, impenetrable by
mortal eyes—the dead might still be given the illusion of the blue sky above.
It was not, indeed, to be hoped, in view of the many signs of a great
catastrophe within the building, that the original interments within the rock
chamber would have been left undisturbed. That these, together with the
Monument itself, dated from the closing phaseof M. M. Ill b, is attested by
t his decoration of the rock surface rules the Plan) that the spaces between the crossed
out an idea (embodied in an earlier version of main beams had been covered over with joists.
Inter-
spaces of
rock
ceiling
painted
kyanos
blue.
ere left visible, these being massively framed by the beams that crossed
d bordered the uppermost section of the chamber.
The evidence of fallen pieces of the 'windows' left in the original
Fig. 935. Sepulchral Chamber with Central Gypsum Pillar and Lining Slab,
as cut down through the Rock : the Floor in course of being cleared.
rock vault brought out an interesting detail regarding its surface. In order,
no doubt, to avoid the risk of detaching pieces of the chalk-like limestone,
the surface had been left by no means smooth, but the square faces visible
had been, none the less, painted an azure tint with the usual kyanos medium.1
Despite the darkness of the vault—without artificial lighting, impenetrable by
mortal eyes—the dead might still be given the illusion of the blue sky above.
It was not, indeed, to be hoped, in view of the many signs of a great
catastrophe within the building, that the original interments within the rock
chamber would have been left undisturbed. That these, together with the
Monument itself, dated from the closing phaseof M. M. Ill b, is attested by
t his decoration of the rock surface rules the Plan) that the spaces between the crossed
out an idea (embodied in an earlier version of main beams had been covered over with joists.
Inter-
spaces of
rock
ceiling
painted
kyanos
blue.