DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6553#0095
APPENDIX.
59
labour a considerable quantity of the casing was found, which
had been sawn up for removal. Most of the blocks were inscribed
with red ochre, but the characters were generally illegible. In
removing the rubbish, which was chiefly composed of the soil of
the bricks washed down by the rain, and mixed with fragments of
stone and with sand, a small part of a cartouche was discovered
(see Fig. 8); also several pieces of cloth, a skull, an ornament
composed of green earthenware, part of a cross-banded moulding,
and blocks containing hieratic inscriptions, and hieroglyphics
sculptured in relief. Two fragments adorned with stars on a
blue ground, had apparently formed part of a coved ceiling. As
the edges were imperfect, it could not be ascertained whether
these stones had been inserted on the principles of an arch, but,
as the grain was oblique to the curve, it was not probable. Part
of a jar of brown pottery, with a remarkably handsome black
border, was also dug up.
As stone had been used in the casing of the building, it might
have been also employed in the construction of the apartments.
But it was supposed that the interior of this Pyramid might pos-
sibly afford an additional proof of the antiquity of the arch, because
ceilings of any extent could not well have been formed with bricks
in any other manner. Mr. Perring, therefore, proceeded to exa-
mine it in September 1839, and for that purpose he first cut into
the building, which he did with considerable difficulty, because
the bricks continually fell in, as the sand, in which they were
laid, was removed. He then laid open upwards of 90 feet of the
northern front, and likewise the platform before it to the same
extent: but he could not discover any entrance; and he therefore
concluded that the apartments were excavations in the rock, and
that the entrance was by a shaft, or by an inclined passage, at
some distance from the Pyramid, and entirely unconnected with
it. This he endeavoured to intersect, by sinking a trench 30 feet
wide from the centre of the northern front; but, although he
carried it in to the length of 160 feet, his attempts were unsuc-
cessful. By these operations, however, he discovered that the
building had been attempted to the eastward, and, as has been
already mentioned, that there had been a portico, apparently
connected by a stone platform with the casing of the Pyramid,
and covered in by a roof, formed by the successive projections of
the courses of the blocks. These courses had met at the summit
in the centre, and their angles had been cut away, so as to con-
stitute a curved line ; a mode of construction by no means uncom-
mon, and which would seem to imply an ignorance of the arch at
59
labour a considerable quantity of the casing was found, which
had been sawn up for removal. Most of the blocks were inscribed
with red ochre, but the characters were generally illegible. In
removing the rubbish, which was chiefly composed of the soil of
the bricks washed down by the rain, and mixed with fragments of
stone and with sand, a small part of a cartouche was discovered
(see Fig. 8); also several pieces of cloth, a skull, an ornament
composed of green earthenware, part of a cross-banded moulding,
and blocks containing hieratic inscriptions, and hieroglyphics
sculptured in relief. Two fragments adorned with stars on a
blue ground, had apparently formed part of a coved ceiling. As
the edges were imperfect, it could not be ascertained whether
these stones had been inserted on the principles of an arch, but,
as the grain was oblique to the curve, it was not probable. Part
of a jar of brown pottery, with a remarkably handsome black
border, was also dug up.
As stone had been used in the casing of the building, it might
have been also employed in the construction of the apartments.
But it was supposed that the interior of this Pyramid might pos-
sibly afford an additional proof of the antiquity of the arch, because
ceilings of any extent could not well have been formed with bricks
in any other manner. Mr. Perring, therefore, proceeded to exa-
mine it in September 1839, and for that purpose he first cut into
the building, which he did with considerable difficulty, because
the bricks continually fell in, as the sand, in which they were
laid, was removed. He then laid open upwards of 90 feet of the
northern front, and likewise the platform before it to the same
extent: but he could not discover any entrance; and he therefore
concluded that the apartments were excavations in the rock, and
that the entrance was by a shaft, or by an inclined passage, at
some distance from the Pyramid, and entirely unconnected with
it. This he endeavoured to intersect, by sinking a trench 30 feet
wide from the centre of the northern front; but, although he
carried it in to the length of 160 feet, his attempts were unsuc-
cessful. By these operations, however, he discovered that the
building had been attempted to the eastward, and, as has been
already mentioned, that there had been a portico, apparently
connected by a stone platform with the casing of the Pyramid,
and covered in by a roof, formed by the successive projections of
the courses of the blocks. These courses had met at the summit
in the centre, and their angles had been cut away, so as to con-
stitute a curved line ; a mode of construction by no means uncom-
mon, and which would seem to imply an ignorance of the arch at