DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4031#0081
1NTB0DUCTI0N.
any means so fine a surface for delicate
sculpture and painting as the limestone of
the necropolis of Thebes. The largest of the
human figures in the tomb are of about the
natural size. Inside, the figures, the hiero-
glyphs and the details are all sculptured in
low relief, as well as painted, excepting that
the small hieroglyphs attached to the figures
in the scenes, and those on the back wall, are
merely incised and filled with blue paint;1
outside, the work is in cavo relievo, the better
to resist injury.
2. PREVIOUS WORK AT THE TOMB.
This is by no means the first time that the
tomb of Paheri has been copied or described.
Ever since its first discovery on the 20th Sep-
tember, 1799, during Napoleon's expedition,
the necropolis of El Kab, and especially this
tomb, have attracted the curiosity of travellers
and Egyptologists. Cortaz gives a lively de-
scription of the excitement which the discovery
produced amongst the members of the French
Commission, and even recounts with evident
gratification the strategy which the Arabs
employed to obtain inordinate bakshish from
the expectant and delighted savants.2
While his companions made drawings of the
scenes which so clearly depicted the civil life
of Ancient Egypt, Cortaz was occupied in
describing them. In his own words the tomb
was "comme un livre que les anciens Egyptiens
nous ont laisse pour nous instruire d'une grande
partie des habitudes et des travaux qui compo-
1 In the plates the detailed sculpture is drawn in outline,
but the small incised hieroglyphs are represented in solid
black.
2 Grottes d'Methyia, memoire sur plusieurs arts et sur
plusieurs usages civils et religieux des anciens Egyptiens, par
M. Cortaz, Membre de l'lnstitut de l'Egypte (in Description
de l'Egypte, 2me edition, Text, tome vi., pp. 97-156), and cf.
Saint-Genis, I.e. tome i., pp. 341 ff.
saient chez eux l'cconomie de la vie civile."
Here for the first time were displayed the
subjects of the Pharaohs as living persons, in
that light which further discovery has made so
familiar to us.
Cortaz's description is not ill done, though
the decipherment of the inscriptions and the
comparison of similar representations has put
the task, which he undertook for the first
time, on quite a different basis. The drawings
by Lancret, Chabrol, Jollois, Devilliers, and
Jomard might even now be of some service if
other copies were not available, but they are
quite as bad as most of the antiquarian
drawings contained in that great pioneer
work on Egypt,3 and are only better than the
wondrous sketches of monuments which diver-
sify the pages of Norden and other travellers
of the last century. Irby and Mangles, and
Belzoni, who were there on August 15th,
1817, have inscribed their names between the
sculptures, amongst a crowd of barbarous and
ignoble signatures; but James Bubton, in or
about 1825, carefully copied the scenes upon
the two side walls of the main chamber.4
In 1828 Champollion and Rosellini made
a stay at El Kab. The former drew up a
description of the tomb of Paheri,5 and caused
3 " On s'est attache a copier les hieroglyphes avec la plus
parfaite exactitude" ! I.e., tome x., p. 72. The drawings of
Paheri's tomb (" grotte principale ") are published in Anti-
quites, tome i., pi. 67, 2 ; 68 (West wall corresponding to our
PI. iii.-iv.); 69, 1 (a funerary ceremony in our pi. v., arrival
at Kher-neter), 3 (servants, our pi. vi., bottom row on left);
70, 1 (Paheri and wife with monkey, our pi. vi., on left),
2 (musicians, our pi. vii., bottom row), 3 (ship sailing, in
our pi. iii.); &c.
4 British Museum, Additional MS., 25,647. The copy is
excellent, but the scale (}) is too small to show much detail
in a pencil drawing. Po. 6-9, East side ; 10-13, West side ;
14 contains the end (south) of the East wall and the beginning
of the West; 15, many inscriptions from both sides; 16,
musicians in pi. vii. on a larger scale; 17, inscription over
table of offerings on pi. vi., and the long lines of inscription
below the frieze.
5 Tomb 1, Champollion, Notices Descriptifs, i., 266-9 and
650-3.
EB 2
any means so fine a surface for delicate
sculpture and painting as the limestone of
the necropolis of Thebes. The largest of the
human figures in the tomb are of about the
natural size. Inside, the figures, the hiero-
glyphs and the details are all sculptured in
low relief, as well as painted, excepting that
the small hieroglyphs attached to the figures
in the scenes, and those on the back wall, are
merely incised and filled with blue paint;1
outside, the work is in cavo relievo, the better
to resist injury.
2. PREVIOUS WORK AT THE TOMB.
This is by no means the first time that the
tomb of Paheri has been copied or described.
Ever since its first discovery on the 20th Sep-
tember, 1799, during Napoleon's expedition,
the necropolis of El Kab, and especially this
tomb, have attracted the curiosity of travellers
and Egyptologists. Cortaz gives a lively de-
scription of the excitement which the discovery
produced amongst the members of the French
Commission, and even recounts with evident
gratification the strategy which the Arabs
employed to obtain inordinate bakshish from
the expectant and delighted savants.2
While his companions made drawings of the
scenes which so clearly depicted the civil life
of Ancient Egypt, Cortaz was occupied in
describing them. In his own words the tomb
was "comme un livre que les anciens Egyptiens
nous ont laisse pour nous instruire d'une grande
partie des habitudes et des travaux qui compo-
1 In the plates the detailed sculpture is drawn in outline,
but the small incised hieroglyphs are represented in solid
black.
2 Grottes d'Methyia, memoire sur plusieurs arts et sur
plusieurs usages civils et religieux des anciens Egyptiens, par
M. Cortaz, Membre de l'lnstitut de l'Egypte (in Description
de l'Egypte, 2me edition, Text, tome vi., pp. 97-156), and cf.
Saint-Genis, I.e. tome i., pp. 341 ff.
saient chez eux l'cconomie de la vie civile."
Here for the first time were displayed the
subjects of the Pharaohs as living persons, in
that light which further discovery has made so
familiar to us.
Cortaz's description is not ill done, though
the decipherment of the inscriptions and the
comparison of similar representations has put
the task, which he undertook for the first
time, on quite a different basis. The drawings
by Lancret, Chabrol, Jollois, Devilliers, and
Jomard might even now be of some service if
other copies were not available, but they are
quite as bad as most of the antiquarian
drawings contained in that great pioneer
work on Egypt,3 and are only better than the
wondrous sketches of monuments which diver-
sify the pages of Norden and other travellers
of the last century. Irby and Mangles, and
Belzoni, who were there on August 15th,
1817, have inscribed their names between the
sculptures, amongst a crowd of barbarous and
ignoble signatures; but James Bubton, in or
about 1825, carefully copied the scenes upon
the two side walls of the main chamber.4
In 1828 Champollion and Rosellini made
a stay at El Kab. The former drew up a
description of the tomb of Paheri,5 and caused
3 " On s'est attache a copier les hieroglyphes avec la plus
parfaite exactitude" ! I.e., tome x., p. 72. The drawings of
Paheri's tomb (" grotte principale ") are published in Anti-
quites, tome i., pi. 67, 2 ; 68 (West wall corresponding to our
PI. iii.-iv.); 69, 1 (a funerary ceremony in our pi. v., arrival
at Kher-neter), 3 (servants, our pi. vi., bottom row on left);
70, 1 (Paheri and wife with monkey, our pi. vi., on left),
2 (musicians, our pi. vii., bottom row), 3 (ship sailing, in
our pi. iii.); &c.
4 British Museum, Additional MS., 25,647. The copy is
excellent, but the scale (}) is too small to show much detail
in a pencil drawing. Po. 6-9, East side ; 10-13, West side ;
14 contains the end (south) of the East wall and the beginning
of the West; 15, many inscriptions from both sides; 16,
musicians in pi. vii. on a larger scale; 17, inscription over
table of offerings on pi. vi., and the long lines of inscription
below the frieze.
5 Tomb 1, Champollion, Notices Descriptifs, i., 266-9 and
650-3.
EB 2