DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6553#0118
APPENDIX.
73
These tables are not seen upon tombs or stelte coeval with the Pyra-
mids of Gizeh, although the same articles of food are found in inscrip-
tions of a later date.
The inscriptions at Dashoor appear, therefore, to shew that the Pyra-
mid was constructed at a period intermediate between the dynasty,
which built the Gizeh Pyramids, and their successors at Abydos, and at
Thebes.
On a fragment, Fig. 6, chamberlains, and other officers in the service
of the court, perform adoration, consecrate royal offerings, and carry
various provisions; other processions, see Figs. 3, 4, 5, are composed of
members of the family of the deceased, and of persons connected with
his household, who bear articles of furniture and of food.1
Quarry-marks, in linear or hieratic characters, Figs. 1 and 2, have
also been discovered ; but, as they do not contain a royal name, they
cannot establish the date of the building.
From Mr. Perring's account of the stone casing of these Pyramids,
they may be supposed to have been constructed in imitation of the mag-
nificent Tombs at Gizeh, and to have been formed with bricks on account
of their comparative cheapness. This conjecture is more probable, be-
cause great political difficulties are said to have occurred in the time of
Asychis. The manner in which the sculptures are executed, and the
style of the hieroglyphics, although they do not afford a positive proof,
yet seem to indicate that they belonged to a time prior to the sixteenth
dynasty, and consequently, to the invasion of the Shepherd kings.
Indeed, it may be remarked, that, immediately after that event, the
Egyptian monarchs could not have possessed either resources, or leisure
for the erection of such colossal structures ; but that, on the contrary,
affected either by want of power, or by change of taste, or of habit,
instead of engaging in such gigantic undertakings, they were evidently
contented with the elaborate detail, and finished embellishments, which
decorate the interior of the excavated tombs in the Biban el Molook.
Fig. 3. The hieroglyphics, before the figure walking, signify his
titles — n<L<L C.JULOIVX], " the great house, the fabricator." Dur-
ing the reigns of the early dynasties, deceased persons were styled
"functionaries attached to the great house or palace ;" and this title
occurs over a male figure in the Tomb of Trades, and is also seen on
sculptures taken from another tomb at Gizeh, and now in the British
Museum.
Fig. 5. The lines immediately above the figures express the numbers
of the several objects in the baskets. The eatables presented upon the
tables have been already mentioned. Other objects, although not clearly
1 The female relations, including the JULOOItG, or nurse, are also fre-
quently represented in sculptures executed under the sixteenth and seven-
teenth dynasties.
73
These tables are not seen upon tombs or stelte coeval with the Pyra-
mids of Gizeh, although the same articles of food are found in inscrip-
tions of a later date.
The inscriptions at Dashoor appear, therefore, to shew that the Pyra-
mid was constructed at a period intermediate between the dynasty,
which built the Gizeh Pyramids, and their successors at Abydos, and at
Thebes.
On a fragment, Fig. 6, chamberlains, and other officers in the service
of the court, perform adoration, consecrate royal offerings, and carry
various provisions; other processions, see Figs. 3, 4, 5, are composed of
members of the family of the deceased, and of persons connected with
his household, who bear articles of furniture and of food.1
Quarry-marks, in linear or hieratic characters, Figs. 1 and 2, have
also been discovered ; but, as they do not contain a royal name, they
cannot establish the date of the building.
From Mr. Perring's account of the stone casing of these Pyramids,
they may be supposed to have been constructed in imitation of the mag-
nificent Tombs at Gizeh, and to have been formed with bricks on account
of their comparative cheapness. This conjecture is more probable, be-
cause great political difficulties are said to have occurred in the time of
Asychis. The manner in which the sculptures are executed, and the
style of the hieroglyphics, although they do not afford a positive proof,
yet seem to indicate that they belonged to a time prior to the sixteenth
dynasty, and consequently, to the invasion of the Shepherd kings.
Indeed, it may be remarked, that, immediately after that event, the
Egyptian monarchs could not have possessed either resources, or leisure
for the erection of such colossal structures ; but that, on the contrary,
affected either by want of power, or by change of taste, or of habit,
instead of engaging in such gigantic undertakings, they were evidently
contented with the elaborate detail, and finished embellishments, which
decorate the interior of the excavated tombs in the Biban el Molook.
Fig. 3. The hieroglyphics, before the figure walking, signify his
titles — n<L<L C.JULOIVX], " the great house, the fabricator." Dur-
ing the reigns of the early dynasties, deceased persons were styled
"functionaries attached to the great house or palace ;" and this title
occurs over a male figure in the Tomb of Trades, and is also seen on
sculptures taken from another tomb at Gizeh, and now in the British
Museum.
Fig. 5. The lines immediately above the figures express the numbers
of the several objects in the baskets. The eatables presented upon the
tables have been already mentioned. Other objects, although not clearly
1 The female relations, including the JULOOItG, or nurse, are also fre-
quently represented in sculptures executed under the sixteenth and seven-
teenth dynasties.