DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3720#0154
USE AND ORIGIN OF THE ARCH. 137
ancient masonry could surpass. This, too, at least 4250
years ago.
Another feature of their sepulchral monumentswas also absent
from the temples; nor was it ever admitted into them, even in
Boman times, except in some small out-of-the-way buildings in
the desert. This was the arch, which was frequently employed
in the tombs of Thebes, and which appears to have been first
used for roofing the chambers of the crude brick pyramids near
Memphis. It was also adopted in houses and granaries ; and
though chance has not preserved any one with its internal
coating of stucco, bearing a king's name, before the time of
Amunoph I., who reigned about 1500 years before the Christian
era, there is reason to believe that it was common in the twelfth
dynasty, and that its invention dates as early as the sixth, or
about 2100 ls.c. Its existence in the time of Amunoph is
certain ; and other arches have been found at Thebes, with the
names of Thothmes III., and other kings of the same and the
succeeding dynasty, painted on the stucco that lines them.
Those, however, about the so-called Memnoniuin, are of a later,
probably Christian, time.
The origin of the arch may be ascrihed to the scarcity of
wood fit for rafters; and the want of timber-trees in Egypt,
together with the habit of building with crude brick, taxed the
ingenuity of man to devise a method of constructing roofs with
the same material as the walls. Similar instances of the influ-
ence of materials are not uncommon. The peculiar fracture of
certain kinds of stone led to polygonal masonry ; and the
groined arches of Gothic churches, the round towers of brick
or of flint, and other peculiarities of construction, have been
indebted to materials for their principle and their form. Bricks,
therefore, being called upon to complete the whole chamber,
suggested the vaulted roof; and the size of some Egyptian
ancient masonry could surpass. This, too, at least 4250
years ago.
Another feature of their sepulchral monumentswas also absent
from the temples; nor was it ever admitted into them, even in
Boman times, except in some small out-of-the-way buildings in
the desert. This was the arch, which was frequently employed
in the tombs of Thebes, and which appears to have been first
used for roofing the chambers of the crude brick pyramids near
Memphis. It was also adopted in houses and granaries ; and
though chance has not preserved any one with its internal
coating of stucco, bearing a king's name, before the time of
Amunoph I., who reigned about 1500 years before the Christian
era, there is reason to believe that it was common in the twelfth
dynasty, and that its invention dates as early as the sixth, or
about 2100 ls.c. Its existence in the time of Amunoph is
certain ; and other arches have been found at Thebes, with the
names of Thothmes III., and other kings of the same and the
succeeding dynasty, painted on the stucco that lines them.
Those, however, about the so-called Memnoniuin, are of a later,
probably Christian, time.
The origin of the arch may be ascrihed to the scarcity of
wood fit for rafters; and the want of timber-trees in Egypt,
together with the habit of building with crude brick, taxed the
ingenuity of man to devise a method of constructing roofs with
the same material as the walls. Similar instances of the influ-
ence of materials are not uncommon. The peculiar fracture of
certain kinds of stone led to polygonal masonry ; and the
groined arches of Gothic churches, the round towers of brick
or of flint, and other peculiarities of construction, have been
indebted to materials for their principle and their form. Bricks,
therefore, being called upon to complete the whole chamber,
suggested the vaulted roof; and the size of some Egyptian