DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14564#0122
io6
CITIES OF EGYPT.
date is long before the building of Rameses, perhaps a
century and a half. The labourers are captives, not
serfs, yet they are clearly Shemites, kinsfolk of the
Hebrews, and the work they are doing is the same as
that of the Hebrews, and organised in the same manner.
In the painting, we first see the captives drawing
water in jars from a deep tank in which lotus-lilies are
blooming, and around which trees are planted. Others
are engaged in breaking up masses of earth with hoes.
Others carry the moistened clay, which their comrades
place in wooden forms, and arrange the shaped bricks in
rows to dry in the sun. The bricks when dried are
stacked, and carried where needed in slings suspended
from yokes. Another gang bears stone and mortar ; and
at the end of the scene is a carefully-constructed wall
topped and partly faced with stone. One overseer, with
his staff under his arm, sits watching ; another, staff in
hand, follows the labourers. Dr. Brugsch reads the main
inscription, '(Here are seen) the captives who were
carried away as living prisoners in very great numbers :
they work at the building with dexterous fingers ; their
overseers show themselves in sight; these attend with
strictness, obeying the orders of the great skilful lord
CITIES OF EGYPT.
date is long before the building of Rameses, perhaps a
century and a half. The labourers are captives, not
serfs, yet they are clearly Shemites, kinsfolk of the
Hebrews, and the work they are doing is the same as
that of the Hebrews, and organised in the same manner.
In the painting, we first see the captives drawing
water in jars from a deep tank in which lotus-lilies are
blooming, and around which trees are planted. Others
are engaged in breaking up masses of earth with hoes.
Others carry the moistened clay, which their comrades
place in wooden forms, and arrange the shaped bricks in
rows to dry in the sun. The bricks when dried are
stacked, and carried where needed in slings suspended
from yokes. Another gang bears stone and mortar ; and
at the end of the scene is a carefully-constructed wall
topped and partly faced with stone. One overseer, with
his staff under his arm, sits watching ; another, staff in
hand, follows the labourers. Dr. Brugsch reads the main
inscription, '(Here are seen) the captives who were
carried away as living prisoners in very great numbers :
they work at the building with dexterous fingers ; their
overseers show themselves in sight; these attend with
strictness, obeying the orders of the great skilful lord