DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27180#0111
KING ZOSER’S EAR
remains of the temple of Zoser. Zoser was the first king of
the third dynasty and at the beginning of the third millen-
nium he caused the erection of the first great stone building
in the history of the world. The wise Imhotep was the
architect: so runs the tradition. An inscription has now been
found which confirms it. This Imhotep was Zoser’s physi-
cian, minister, and architect — a significant combination in
this civilization — and is perhaps the first artist with personal
responsibilities. Only fragments of this temple have come
to light, but they are exceedingly notable. Here too we find
pieces of reed-columns which are still nearer the original
type and, what is more, completely remote from naturalism.
Actually a greater number of stalks are here gathered into
the bundle. The most striking fact, and the one which we
were least prepared to find here, was the fluted column
anticipating the Greek. The fluting is executed with the
utmost neatness and is already endowed with the special
charm which we were inclined to associate only with Greek
temples. How curious: five minutes ago we were discussing
the possibility of an Egyptian origin for Greek architecture
and recognizing the reed-column as an insoluble obstacle;
and here was the answer. Borchardt would like to find a
botanic origin for the fluted column too, and is in favour of
parsley. He will have nothing to do with Greece; but
appearances are against him. Parsley can stay in the garden;
it is of no consequence, for once your mind is set on natural
prototypes it is a short step to the cellular structure of the
fluting. From these beginnings to Doric is no long course
of development; and one cannot dispense with such processes,
for any association that helps us to pick our way through the
chaos of humanity is too dear to us. Fluted columns existed,
then, two thousand five hundred years before Olympia and
the Parthenon; and later, in the New Kingdom, plenty of
Greeks came to the delta, so that no further connexion is
required. It is noteworthy that in the temple of Zoser the
95
remains of the temple of Zoser. Zoser was the first king of
the third dynasty and at the beginning of the third millen-
nium he caused the erection of the first great stone building
in the history of the world. The wise Imhotep was the
architect: so runs the tradition. An inscription has now been
found which confirms it. This Imhotep was Zoser’s physi-
cian, minister, and architect — a significant combination in
this civilization — and is perhaps the first artist with personal
responsibilities. Only fragments of this temple have come
to light, but they are exceedingly notable. Here too we find
pieces of reed-columns which are still nearer the original
type and, what is more, completely remote from naturalism.
Actually a greater number of stalks are here gathered into
the bundle. The most striking fact, and the one which we
were least prepared to find here, was the fluted column
anticipating the Greek. The fluting is executed with the
utmost neatness and is already endowed with the special
charm which we were inclined to associate only with Greek
temples. How curious: five minutes ago we were discussing
the possibility of an Egyptian origin for Greek architecture
and recognizing the reed-column as an insoluble obstacle;
and here was the answer. Borchardt would like to find a
botanic origin for the fluted column too, and is in favour of
parsley. He will have nothing to do with Greece; but
appearances are against him. Parsley can stay in the garden;
it is of no consequence, for once your mind is set on natural
prototypes it is a short step to the cellular structure of the
fluting. From these beginnings to Doric is no long course
of development; and one cannot dispense with such processes,
for any association that helps us to pick our way through the
chaos of humanity is too dear to us. Fluted columns existed,
then, two thousand five hundred years before Olympia and
the Parthenon; and later, in the New Kingdom, plenty of
Greeks came to the delta, so that no further connexion is
required. It is noteworthy that in the temple of Zoser the
95