G. Maspero - History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 2 (of 12)

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[Illustration: Spines]

[Illustration: Cover]

HISTORY OF EGYPT CHALDEA, SYRIA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIA

By G. MASPERO, Honorable Doctor of Civil Laws, and Fellow of Queen's
College, Oxford; Member of the Institute and Professor at the College of
France

Edited by A. H. SAYCE, Professor of Assyriology, Oxford

Translated by M. L. McCLURE, Member of the Committee of the Egypt
Exploration Fund

CONTAINING OVER TWELVE HUNDRED COLORED PLATES AND ILLUSTRATIONS

Volume II., Part A.

LONDON

THE GROLIER SOCIETY

PUBLISHERS

[Illustration: Frontispiece]

[Illustration: Titlepage]

_THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT_

_THE KING, QUEEN, AND ROYAL PRINCES--PHARAONIC ADMINISTRATION_

_FEUDALISM AND THE EGYPTIAN PRIESTHOOD, THE MILITARY--THE CITIZENS AND
THE COUNTRY-PEOPLE._

_The cemeteries of Gizeh and Saqqara: the Great Sphinx; the mastabas,
their chapel and its decoration, the statues of the double, the
sepulchral vault--Importance of the wall-paintings and texts of the
mastabas in determining the history of the Memphite dynasties._

_The king and the royal family--Double nature and titles of the
sovereign: his Horus-names, and the progressive formation of the
Pharaonic Protocol--Royal etiquette an actual divine worship; the
insignia and prophetic statues of Pharaoh, Pharaoh the mediator between
the gods and his subjects--Pharaoh in family life; his amusements, his
occupations, his cares--His harem: the women, the queen, her origin, her
duties to the king--His children: their position in the State; rivalry
among them during the old age and at the death of their father;
succession to the throne, consequent revolutions._

_The royal city: the palace and its occupants--The royal household and
its officers: Pharaoh's jesters, dwarfs, and magicians--The royal domain
and the slaves, the treasury and the establishments which provided for
its service: the buildings and places for the receipt of taxes--The
scribe, his education, his chances of promotion: the career of Amten,
his successive offices, the value of his personal property at his
death._

_Egyptian feudalism: the status of the lords, their rights, their
amusements, their obligations to the sovereign--The influence of the
gods: gifts to the temples, and possessions in mortmain; the priesthood,
its hierarchy, and the method of recruiting its ranks--The military:
foreign mercenaries; native militia, their privileges, their training._

_The people of the towns--The slaves, men without a master--Workmen and
artisans; corporations: misery of handicraftsmen--Aspect of the towns:
houses, furniture, women in family life--Festivals; periodic markets,
bazaars: commerce by barter, the weighing of precious metals._

_The country people--The villages; serfs, free peasantry--Rural domains;
the survey, taxes; the bastinado, the corvee--Administration of justice,
the relations between peasants and their lords; misery of the peasantry;
their resignation and natural cheerfulness; their improvidence; their
indifference to political revolutions._

[Illustration: 003.jpg PAGE IMAGE]

CHAPTER I--THE POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF EGYPT

_The king, the queen, and the royal princes--Administration under
the Pharaohs--Feudalism and the Egyptian priesthood, the military--The
citizens and country people._

Between the Fayum and the apex of the Delta, the Lybian range expands
and forms a vast and slightly undulating table-land, which runs parallel
to the Nile for nearly thirty leagues. The Great Sphinx Harmakhis has
mounted guard over its northern extremity ever since the time of the
Followers of Horus.

Illustration: Drawn by Boudier, from _La Description de
l'Egypte,_ A., vol. v. pl. 7. vignette, which is also by
Boudier, represents a man bewailing the dead, in the
attitude adopted at funerals by professional mourners of
both sexes; the right fist resting on the ground, while the
left hand scatters on the hair the dust which he has just
gathered up. The statue is in the Gizeh Museum.

Hewn out of the solid rock at the extreme margin of the
mountain-plateau, he seems to raise his head in order that he may be the
first to behold across the valley the rising of his father the Sun. Only
the general outline of the lion can now be traced in his weather-worn
body. The lower portion of the head-dress has fallen, so that the neck
appears too slender to support the weight of the head. The cannon-shot
of the fanatical Mamelukes has injured both the nose and beard, and
the red colouring which gave animation to his features has now almost
entirely disappeared. But in spite of this, even in its decay, it still
bears a commanding expression of strength and dignity. The eyes look
into the far-off distance with an intensity of deep thought, the lips
still smile, the whole face is pervaded with calmness and power. The
art that could conceive and hew this gigantic statue out of the
mountain-side, was an art in its maturity, master of itself and sure of
its effects. How many centuries were needed to bring it to this degree
of development and perfection!

[Illustration: 004.jpg THE MASTABA OF KHOMTINI IN THE NECROPOLIS OF
GIZEH]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Lepsius. The
cornerstone at the top of the mastaba, at the extreme left
of the hieroglyphic frieze, had been loosened and thrown to
the ground by some explorer; the artist has restored it to
its original position.

In later times, a chapel of alabaster and rose granite was erected
alongside the god; temples were built here and there in the more
accessible places, and round these were grouped the tombs of the whole
country. The bodies of the common people, usually naked and uncoffined,
were thrust under the sand, at a depth of barely three feet from the
surface. Those of a better class rested in mean rectangular chambers,
hastily built of yellow bricks, and roofed with pointed vaulting.
No ornaments or treasures gladdened the deceased in his miserable
resting-place; a few vessels, however, of coarse pottery contained
the provisions left to nourish him during the period of his second
existence.

Some of the wealthy class had their tombs cut out of the mountain-side;
but the majority preferred an isolated tomb, a "mastaba,"* comprising a
chapel above ground, a shaft, and some subterranean vaults.

* "The Arabic word 'mastaba,' plur. 'masatib,' denotes the
stone bench or platform seen in the streets of Egyptian
towns in front of each shop. A carpet is spread on the
'mastaba,' and the customer sits upon it to transact his
business, usually side by side with the seller. In the
necropolis of Saqqara, there is a temple of gigantic
proportions in the shape of a 'mastaba.'The inhabitants of
the neighbourhood call it 'Mastabat-el-Faraoun,' the seat of
Pharaoh, in the belief that anciently one of the Pharaohs
sat there to dispense justice. The Memphite tombs of the
Ancient Empire, which thickly cover the Saqqara plateau, are
more or less miniature copies of the 'Mastabat-el-
Faraoun.'Hence the name of mastabas, which has always been
given to this kind of tomb, in the necropolis of Saqqara."

From a distance these chapels have the appearance of truncated pyramids,
varying in size according to the fortune or taste of the owner; there
are some which measure 30 to 40 ft. in height, with a facade 160 ft.
long, and a depth from back to front of some 80 ft., while others attain
only a height of some 10 ft. upon a base of 16 ft. square.*

* The mastaba of Sabu is 175 ft. 9 in. long, by about 87 ft.
9 in. deep, but two of its sides have lost their facing;
that of Ranimait measures 171 ft. 3 in. by 84 ft. 6 in. on
the south front, and 100 ft. on the north front. On the
other hand, the mastaba of Papu is only 19 ft. 4 in. by 29
ft. long, and that of KMbiuphtah 42 ft. 4 in. by 21 ft. 8
in.

The walls slope uniformly towards one another, and usually have a smooth
surface; sometimes, however, their courses are set back one above the
other almost like steps.

[Illustration: 006.jpg THE GREAT SPHINX OF GIZEH PARTIALLY UNCOVERED,
AND THE PYRAMID OF KHEPHREN]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey,
taken in the course of the excavations begun in 1886, with
the funds furnished by a public subscription opened by the
_Journal des Debats._

The brick mastabas were carefully cemented externally, and the layers
bound together internally by fine sand poured into the interstices.
Stone mastabas, on the contrary, present a regularity in the decoration
of their facings alone; in nine cases out of ten the core is built of
rough stone blocks, rudely cut into squares, cemented with gravel and
dried mud, or thrown together pell-mell without mortar of any kind. The
whole building should have been orientated according to rule, the four
sides to the four cardinal points, the greatest axis directed north and
south; but the masons seldom troubled themselves to find the true north,
and the orientation is usually incorrect.*

* Thus the axis of the tomb of Pirsenu is 17 deg. east of the
magnetic north. In some cases the divergence is only 1 deg. or
2 deg., more often it is 6 deg., 7 deg., 8 deg., or 9 deg., as can be easily
ascertained by consulting the work of Mariette.

The doors face east, sometimes north or south, but never west. One of
these is but the semblance of a door, a high narrow niche, contrived
so as to face east, and decorated with grooves framing a carefully
walled-up entrance; this was for the use of the dead, and it was
believed that the ghost entered or left it at will. The door for the
use of the living, sometimes preceded by a portico, was almost always
characterized by great simplicity. Over it is a cylindrical tympanum,
or a smooth flagstone, bearing sometimes merely the name of the dead
person, sometimes his titles and descent, sometimes a prayer for his
welfare, and an enumeration of the days during which he was entitled to
receive the worship due to ancestors. They invoked on his behalf, and
almost always precisely in the same words, the "Great God," the Osiris
of Mendes, or else Anubis, dwelling in the Divine Palace, that burial
might be granted to him in Amentit, the land of the West, the very great
and very good, to him the vassal of the Great God; that he might walk
in the ways in which it is good to walk, he the vassal of the Great
God; that he might have offerings of bread, cakes, and drink, at the New
Year's Feast, at the feast of Thot, on the first day of the year, on the
feast of Uagait, at the great fire festival, at the procession of the
god Minu, at the feast of offerings, at the monthly and half-monthly
festivals, and every day.

[Illustration: 008.jpg TETINIONKHU, SITTING BEFORE THE FUNERAL REPAST]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph of the original monument
which is preserved in the Liverpool Museum; cf. Gatty,
_Catalogue of the Mayer Collection;_ I. Egyptian
Antiquities, No. 294, p. 45.

The chapel is usually small, and is almost lost in the great extent
of the building.* It generally consists merely of an oblong chamber,
approached by a rather short passage.**

* Thus the chapel of the mastaba of Sabu is only 14 ft. 4
in. long, by about 3 ft. 3 in. deep, and that of the tomb of
Phtahshopsisu, 10 ft. 4 in. by 3 ft. 7 in.

** The mastaba of Tinti has four chambers, as has also that
of Assi-onkhu; but these are exceptions, as may be
ascertained by consulting the work of Mariette. Most of
those which contain several rooms are ancient one-roomed
mastabas, which have been subsequently altered or enlarged;
this is the case with the mastabas of Shopsi and of
Ankhaftuka. A few, however, were constructed from the outset
with all their apartments--that of Raonkhumai, with six
chambers and several niches; that of Khabiuphtah, with three
chambers, niches, and doorway ornamented with two pillars;
that of Ti, with two chambers, a court surrounded with
pillars, a doorway, and long inscribed passages; and that of
Phtahhotpu, with seven chambers, besides niches.

[Illustration: 009.jpg THE FACADE AND THE STELE OF THE TOMB OF
PHTAHSHOPSISU AT SAQQARA]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Duhichen.

At the far end, and set back into the western wall, is a huge
quadrangular stele, at the foot of which is seen the table of offerings,
made of alabaster, granite or limestone placed flat upon the ground,
and sometimes two little obelisks or two altars, hollowed at the top to
receive the gifts mentioned in the inscription on the exterior of the
tomb. The general appearance is that of a rather low, narrow doorway,
too small to be a practicable entrance. The recess thus formed is almost
always left empty; sometimes, however, the piety of relatives placed
within it a statue of the deceased. Standing there, with shoulders
thrown back, head erect, and smiling face, the statue seems to step
forth to lead the double from its dark lodging where it lies embalmed,
to those glowing plains where he dwelt in freedom during his earthly
life: another moment, crossing the threshold, he must descend the few
steps leading into the public hall. On festivals and days of offering,
when the priest and family presented the banquet with the customary
rites, this great painted figure, in the act of advancing, and seen
by the light of flickering torches or smoking lamps, might well appear
endued with life. It was as if the dead ancestor himself stepped out of
the wall and mysteriously stood before his descendants to claim their
homage. The inscription on the lintel repeats once more the name and
rank of the dead. Faithful portraits of him and of other members of his
family figure in the bas-reliefs on the door-posts.

[Illustration: 010.jpg STELE IN THE FORM OF A DOOR]

The little scene at the far end represents him seated tranquilly at
table, with the details of the feast carefully recorded at his side,
from the first moment when water is brought to him for ablution, to that
when, all culinary skill being exhausted, he has but to return to his
dwelling, in a state of beatified satisfaction. The stele represented to
the visitor the door leading to the private apartments of the deceased;
the fact of its being walled up for ever showing that no living mortal
might cross its threshold. The inscription which covered its surface was
not a mere epitaph informing future generations who it was that reposed
beneath. It perpetuated the name and genealogy of the deceased, and
gave him a civil status, without which he could not have preserved his
personality in the world beyond; the nameless dead, like a living man
without a name, was reckoned as non-existing. Nor was this the only use
of the stele; the pictures and prayers inscribed upon it acted as so
many talismans for ensuring the continuous existence of the ancestor,
whose memory they recalled. They compelled the god therein invoked,
whether Osiris or the jackal Anubis, to act as mediator between the
living and the departed; they granted to the god the enjoyment of
sacrifices and those good things abundantly offered to the deities, and
by which they live, on condition that a share of them might first be
set aside for the deceased. By the divine favour, the soul or rather the
doubles of the bread, meat, and beverages passed into the other world,
and there refreshed the human double. It was not, however, necessary
that the offering should have a material existence, in order to be
effective; the first comer who should repeat aloud the name and the
formulas inscribed upon the stone, secured for the unknown occupant, by
this means alone, the immediate possession of all the things which he
enumerated.

The stele constitutes the essential part of the chapel and tomb. In many
cases it was the only inscribed portion, it alone being necessary to
ensure the identity and continuous existence of the dead man; often,
however, the sides of the chamber and passage were not left bare. When
time or the wealth of the owner permitted, they were covered with scenes
and writing, expressing at greater length the ideas summarized by the
figures and inscriptions of the stele.

[Illustration: 014.jpg A REPRESENTATION OF THE DOMAINS OF THE LORD TI,
BRINGING TO HIM OFFERINGS IN PROCESSION]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin taken from a "squeeze" taken from the
tomb of Ti. The domains are represented as women. The name
is written before each figure with the designation of the
landowner.

Neither pictorial effect nor the caprice of the moment was permitted
to guide the artist in the choice of his subjects; all that he drew,
pictures or words, bad a magical purpose. Every individual who built for
himself an "eternal house," either attached to it a staff of priests
of the double, of inspectors, scribes, and slaves, or else made an
agreement with the priests of a neighbouring temple to serve the chapel
in perpetuity. Lands taken from his patrimony, which thus became the
"Domains of the Eternal House," rewarded them for their trouble, and
supplied them with meats, vegetables, fruits, liquors, linen and vessels
for sacrifice.

[Illustration: 015.jpg THE REPRESENTATION OF THE LORD TI ASSISTING AT
THE PRELIMINARIES OF THE SACRIFICE AND OFFERINGS]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Dumichen,
Besultate, vol. i. pl. 13.

In theory, these "liturgies" were perpetuated from year to year, until
the end of time; but in practice, after three or four generations, the
older ancestors were forsaken for those who had died more recently.
Notwithstanding the imprecations and threats of the donor against the
priests who should neglect their duty, or against those who should usurp
the funeral endowments, sooner or later there came a time when, forsaken
by all, the double was in danger of perishing for want of sustenance. In
order to ensure that the promised gifts, offered in substance on the day
of burial, should be maintained throughout the centuries, the relatives
not only depicted them upon the chapel walls, but represented in
addition the lands which produced them, and the labour which contributed
to their production. On one side we see ploughing, sowing, reaping, the
carrying of the corn, the storing of the grain, the fattening of the
poultry, and the driving of the cattle. A little further on, workmen of
all descriptions are engaged in their several trades: shoemakers ply
the awl, glassmakers blow through their tubes, metal founders watch over
their smelting-pots, carpenters hew down trees and build a ship; groups
of women weave or spin under the eye of a frowning taskmaster, who seems
impatient of their chatter. Did the double in his hunger desire meat? He
might choose from the pictures on the wall the animal that pleased him
best, whether kid, ox, or gazelle; he might follow the course of its
life, from its birth in the meadows to the slaughter-house and the
kitchen, and might satisfy his hunger with its flesh. The double saw
himself represented in the paintings as hunting, and to the hunt he
went; he was painted eating and drinking with his wife, and he ate and
drank with her; the pictured ploughing, harvesting, and gathering into
barns, thus became to him actual realities. In fine, this painted world
of men and things represented upon the wall was quickened by the same
life which animated the double, upon whom it all depended: the _picture_
of a meal or of a slave was perhaps that which best suited the _shade_
of guest or of master.

Even to-day, when we enter one of these decorated chapels, the idea of
death scarcely presents itself: we have rather the impression of being
in some old-world house, to which the master may at any moment return.
We see him portrayed everywhere upon the walls, followed by his
servants, and surrounded by everything which made his earthly life
enjoyable. One or two statues of him stand at the end of the room, in
constant readiness to undergo the "Opening of the Mouth" and to receive
offerings. Should these be accidentally removed, others, secreted in
a little chamber hidden in the thickness of the masonry, are there to
replace them. These inner chambers have rarely any external outlet,
though occasionally they are connected with the chapel by a small
opening, so narrow that it will hardly admit of a hand being passed
through it. Those who came to repeat prayers and burn incense at this
aperture were received by the dead in person. The statues were not mere
images, devoid of consciousness. Just as the double of a god could be
linked to an idol in the temple sanctuary in order to transform it into
a prophetic being, capable of speech and movement, so when the double of
a man was attached to the effigy of his earthly body, whether in stone,
metal, or wood, a real living person was created and was introduced into
the tomb. So strong was this conviction that the belief has lived on
through two changes of religion until the present day. The double still
haunts the statues with which he was associated in the past. As in
former times, he yet strikes with madness or death any who dare to
disturb is repose; and one can only be protected from him by breaking,
at the moment of discovery, the perfect statues which the vault
contains. The double is weakened or killed by the mutilation of these
his sustainers.*

* The legends still current about the pyramids of Gizeh
furnish some good examples of this kind of superstition.
"The guardian of the Eastern pyramid was an idol... who had
both eyes open, and was seated on a throne, having a sort of
halberd near it, on which, if any one fixed his eye, he
heard a fearful noise, which struck terror to his heart, and
caused the death of the hearer. There was a spirit appointed
to wait on each guardian, who departed not from before
him." The keeping of the other two pyramids was in like
manner entrusted to a statue, assisted by a spirit. I have
collected a certain number of tales resembling that of
Mourtadi in the _Etudes de Mythologie et Archeologie
Egyptiennes,_ vol. i. p. 77, et seq.

The statues furnish in their modelling a more correct idea of the
deceased than his mummy, disfigured as it was by the work of the
embalmers; they were also less easily destroyed, and any number could
be made at will. Hence arose the really incredible number of statues
sometimes hidden away in the same tomb. These sustainers or imperishable
bodies of the double were multiplied so as to insure for him a practical
immortality; and the care with which they were shut into a secure
hiding-place, increased their chances of preservation. All the same, no
precaution was neglected that could save a mummy from destruction. The
shaft leading to it descended to a mean depth of forty to fifty feet,
but sometimes it reached, and even exceeded, a hundred feet. Running
horizontally from it is a passage so low as to prevent a man standing
upright in it, which leads to the sepulchral chamber properly so called,
hewn out of the solid rock and devoid of all ornament; the sarcophagus,
whether of fine limestone, rose-granite, or black basalt, does not
always bear the name and titles of the deceased. The servants who
deposited the body in it placed beside it on the dusty floor the
quarters of the ox, previously slaughtered in the chapel, as well as
phials of perfume, and large vases of red pottery containing muddy
water; after which they walled up the entrance to the passage and filled
the shaft with chips of stone intermingled with earth and gravel. The
whole, being well watered, soon hardened into a compact mass, which
protected the vault and its master from desecration.

During the course of centuries, the ever-increasing number of tombs at
length formed an almost uninterrupted chain of burying-places on the
table-land. At Gizeh they follow a symmetrical plan, and line the sides
of regular roads; at Saqqara they are scattered about on the surface
of the ground, in some places sparsely, in others huddled confusedly
together. Everywhere the tombs are rich in inscriptions, statues, and
painted or sculptured scenes, each revealing some characteristic custom,
or some detail of contemporary civilization. From the womb, as it were,
of these cemeteries, the Egypt of the Memphite dynasties gradually takes
new life, and reappears in the full daylight of history. Nobles and
fellahs, soldiers and priests, scribes and craftsmen,--the whole nation
lives anew before us; each with his manners, his dress, his daily round
of occupation and pleasures. It is a perfect picture, and although in
places the drawing is defaced and the colour dimmed, yet these may be
restored with no great difficulty, and with almost absolute certainty.
The king stands out boldly in the foreground, and his tall figure towers
over all else. He so completely transcends his surroundings, that at
first sight one may well ask if he does not represent a god rather than
a man; and, as a matter of fact, he is a god to his subjects. They call
him "the good god," "the great god," and connect him with Ra through the
intervening kings, the successors of the gods who ruled the two worlds.
His father before him was "Son of Ra," as was also his grandfather, and
his great-grandfather, and so through all his ancestors, until from
"son of Ra" to "son of Ra" they at last reached Ra himself. Sometimes
an adventurer of unknown antecedents is abruptly inserted in the series,
and we might imagine that he would interrupt the succession of the solar
line; but on closer examination we always find that either the intruder
is connected with the god by a genealogy hitherto unsuspected, or that
he is even more closely related to him than his predecessors, inasmuch
as Ra, having secretly descended upon the earth, had begotten him by a
mortal mother in order to rejuvenate the race.*

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