Primitive art in Egypt
by Jean Capart
1905
PREFACE.
" I "HIS book made its first appearance in the form of a series of articles in the Annales de la
d'Archtologie de Bruxelles* vols. xvii.-xviii., 1903-4. In March 1904 it was published as a separate volume, without any modification of the text.
I have been much gratified by the offer of Messrs. H. Grevel & Co. to issue an English translation of a revised and enlarged edition. In this way my book will naturally be brought before that public which is perhaps most prepared both to receive and to criticise it.
The works of English ethnologists, more especially of Lubbock, Tylor, Lang, Haddon, Frazer, Spencer, and Gillen, were the first to draw attention to a whole series of problems of the greatest importance for a study of the origin of Art.
In submitting my work to the English-speaking public, I am aware that those points which ensured its originality for the French public may perhaps give the book the appearance of a compilation, borrowed from the works of English scholars.
The materials have, to a large extent, been drawn from
viii PREFACE.
the publications of two English societies, the Egypt Exploration Fund and the Egyptian Research Account ; from their pages I have gathered a large number of facts of the greatest importance.
I owe very special gratitude to Professor Petrie, who, with his habitual courtesy, has for more than five years permitted me to study and to photograph the relics of primitive Egypt, gathered together in his collection at University College, London. I cannot express how much I am indebted to him for the lessons in Egyptian archaeology that I have received from him at the yearly exhibition of the Egypt Exploration Fund. If my book is of a nature to render any assistance to students, it is in the first instance to Professor Petrie that thanks are due.
Two visits to Oxford have enabled me to complete my collection of notes and of photographic reproduction. I am happy to have this opportunity of thanking Mr. Evans and Mr. Bell for their generous reception of me at the Ashmolean Museum.
Owing to the kindness of Professors Erman and Shafer, I have been able to utilise much unpublished material from the Berlin Museum. I gladly avail myself of this opportunity of offering them my sincere thanks.
The cordial hospitality received from the Rev. W. Macgregor has enabled me to draw attention to a number of important pieces in his fine collection of Egyptian antiquities at Bolehill Manor House, Tarn worth.
PREFACE. ix
The Egypt Exploration Fund, the editorial staff of the German review Die Umschau* and the Society of Biblical Archaeology, London, have been good enough to place several photographic reproductions at my disposal.
It is also a pleasant duty to express my warm thanks to Miss Griffith for the admirable manner in which she has accomplished the task of translating this book.
AUDERGHEM, December 1904.
ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER I. PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS i
CHAPTER II. PERSONAL ADORNMENT 21
Painting the Body 21
Painting the Eyes 23
Tattooing 30
Mutilations 34
The Hair ... 35
Combs and Pins 40
42
Beards ... . .... 43
Face-veils 45
Ornaments 47
Shells 47
Beads 47
Pendants .48
Bracelets . . 49
Rings 50
Clothing 52
Girdles 52
Tail .... -54
Karnata -54
Animal's Skin .......... 55
Loin-cloth 56
Mantle 56
CHAI-IKR III. ORNAMENTAL AND DECORATIVE ART ... 59
Generalities 59
Transformation of a Natural Design into a Geometrical Design . 60
Designs derived from Technique ... 63
Transformation of a Useful Object into an Ornament . . 64
xii ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS,
CHAPTER III. (continued}.
Plaited Work
PAGE
FJMMi
Object of Decoration 65
Ar t 65
Information . . 65
Luxury and Power 66
Religion and Magic .66
Knives 67
Spoons yj
Combs 72
Pins ,75
Pendants -6
Palettes -77
Incised Palettes .82
Maces and Sceptres 9 .
Stone Vases g r
Skeuomorphic Decorations 9 8
Human Decorations .98
Animal Decorations oo
Stone Vases of Fantastic Forms ... i i
Pottery ! ! ! 103
Basket Work and Matting I04
Pottery copied from Plaited Work ... I0 8
j> Hard Stone T0 8
Gourds I0 g
White Painted Vases ... I0 g
Floral Designs I09
Representations of Human Figures ... IIO
5 , ,, Animals ..... IIO
j> Boats II2
Decorated Pottery
in Imitation of Hard Stones . . .114
"5
Representations of Mountains T1 6
Plants n6
jj Animals IL -
,, Human Beings ^9
Boats J20
,. Various
Vases decorated with Figures in Relief .
with Decoration inside I25
Incised Decoration .... I2 6
of Fantastic Forms .... I2 6
I2I 122
ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. xiii
CHAPTER III. (continued).
PAGE
Vases of Human Forms . . . . . . . .127
,, Animal Forms . . . . . . . .128
Decorated Boxes 131
Furniture and Personal Property 133
The Hearth 133
Ivory Carvings 135
Pottery Marks 139
Primitive Hieroglyphs ........ 142
" Alphabetiform " Characters 145
Cylinders 151
CHAPTER IV. SCULPTURE AND PAINTING 152
Flints of Animal Forms 152
Human Statuettes 154
Men 155
Women 160
Dwarfs 172
Captives 172
Servants 174
Vases in form of Human Figures 175
Figures of Animals ... .... 176
Hippopotami 176
Lions 178
!><>-> 183
Apes 185
Cattle 188
Quadrupeds Various 189
Birds 190
Fish 191
Crocodiles 192
Scorpions 192
Frogs 192
Griffins 192
Bulls' Head Amulets 193
Double Bulls 195
Magical Instruments with Human Figures . . . .196
Boats 199
Houses 200
Fortified Enclosure 201
Sculptures in Relief .... . .201
Drawing and Painting 202
xiv ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV. (continued}.
PAGE
Graffiti ..... 202
Painted Tomb of Hierakonpolis ...... 206
Boats .......... 207
Animals ........ 210
Men . ...... 2II
Object of Paintings and of Graffiti ...... 213
CHAPTER V. THE EARLIEST PHARAONIC MONUMENTS . . .222
Archaic Statues of Koptos .... 222
Statue of Hierakonpolis ...... 226
Votive Palettes ....... 226
First Cairo Fragment ...... 22 g
Fragments at tne British Museum and the Louvre . .229
Small Palette of Hierakonpolis ...... 230
Louvre Palette ....... 2 ^ 4
Small Fragment at the British Museum .... 236
Second Cairo Fragment ..... 2 ^6
Fragments at the British Museum and Ashmolean . . 238
Fragment at the Louvre ....... 242
Great Palette of Hierakonpolis ...... 246
Small Fragment at the Louvre ..... 248
Votive Mace- heads of Hierakonpolis ..... 240
Ivory and Wooden Plaques . .... 251
Plaque of the Chief of the Anou ...... 25 g
Private and Royal Stelae from Abydos . . . . 2 r 7
Statues of Libyans ...... 2 -g
Cairo Statue, No. I. . ..... 2 g t
Archaic Statues ..... 2 ^
Statues of King Khasakhmui .... 2 66
Hierakonpolis Lion ......... 270
Figure of Cheops ....... 2Q
CHAPTER VI. DANCING, Music, AND POETRY . . . .272
Generalities . * ...... 2
Dancing . ......... 2?4
' ..... 2 77
........... 280
CHAPTER VII. CONCLUSIONS ...... 28 2
INDEX ........... 291
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PACE
Fig. i. The Geese of Medum 2
2. The Geese of Medum 3
3. Fragment of one of the Panels of Hosi. From a photograph
by Petrie 6
4. Fragment of one of the Panels of Hosi . . . . . . 7
5. Figure of a Woman with Designs painted over the Whole Body.
Grey clay with black paint 22
,, 6. Figures of Women. University College, London. Grey clay
with greenish paint 24
7. Slate Palettes used for Grinding Paint 25
,, 8. Ivory Box in Form of a Duck 28
,, 9. Tatoo-marks of the Primitive Egyptians compared with those of
the Libyans. From F Anthropologie 30
10. Libyans from the Tomb of Seti 1 31
,, II. Fragment of a Statuette with Tatoo-marks on the Breast and
Right Shoulder. Cabinet des Mcdaillcs, Paris 33 ,, 12. Wooden Statuette in the Bologna Museum, with Ivory Earornaments 35
13. Pottery Vase with Designs in White representing Men fighting . 36
14. Ivory Statuette. A crouching captive 37
15. Figure of a Woman in Glazed Pottery. Discovered at Abydos . 38
16. Ostrich Eggs. From Naqada and Hu 40
,, 17. Combs and a Pin, decorated with Animal and Bird Figures . 41
18. Band of False Hair. From the Tomb of King Zer ... 42 ,, 19. Head of one of the Libyans from the Tomb of Seti I. . . .43
20. Figure from the MacGregor Collection 44
21. Ornaments for the Forehead 46
22. Pendants 48
23. Bone and Ivory Bracelets, and a Spoon with a Handle in Form
of an Arm wearing a Series of Similar Bracelets ... 50
Ivory Rings 51
xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Fig. 25. Huntsman. Wearing a feather on his head, and the tail fixed to
his girdle 54
,, 26. Warriors. Clothed in a panther skin, or holding a shield formed
of a similar skin 56
27. Figures of Women. Wrapped in cloaks, one of which is decorated.
Below are fragments of leather with painted decoration . 57 ,, 28. Evolution of the Representation of the Alligator in Ancient
Columbian Art. From Holmes 61
,, 29. Evolution of the Representation of the Human Figure in Polynesian Art. From Haddon . . . . . . .63
,, 30. Tortoise-shell Ornaments from Torres Straits, in imitation of the
Fish-Hook (A). From Haddon 65
,, 31. Magical Decoration on a Comb of a Malacca Tribe. From
Haddon . . . .66
,, 32. Flint Knife, worked and retouched on both Faces. Brussels
Museum ; length, 25 cm. . 67
33. Gold Leaf with Incised Designs, sewn on to one end of a large
Flint Knife to form the Handle 68
,, 34. Figures of Women and of a Boat on a gold Knife-handle . . 69
,, 35. Ivory Knife-handle in the Pitt-Rivers Collection .... 70
36. Ivory Knife-handle. Petrie Collection 71
37. Small Flint Knife with Ivory Handle. Petrie collection . . 72 ,, 38. Fragment of an Ivory Knife-handle with a Figure of an Antelope.
Berlin Museum 73
39. Ivory Spoon-handles 74
40. Ivory Combs with Human Figures. Petrie Collection . . -75
,, 41. Ivory Combs with Figures of Antelopes and Giraffes ... 75
,, 42. Ivory Combs with Figures of Birds 76
,, 43. Ivory Comb with the Figure of an Antelope and Ornaments
derived from Bird Forms 77
,, 44. Ivory Comb, Recto. Davis Collection 78
45. Ivory Comb, Verso 78
,, 46. Ivory Pins decorated with Figures of Birds and a Bull's Head . 79
47. Slate and Ivory Pendants 80
,, 48. Slate and Ivory Pendants decorated with Derived Designs . . 81
,, 49. Stone and Ivory Pendants with Incised Line Decoration . . 82 50. Plaque in the Berlin Museum (Recto). Shell (?) . . . .83 ,, 51. Plaque in the Berlin Museum (Verso). Shell (?) . . . .83
,, 52. Palette with a Human Figure at the Top 84
,, 53. Palette with the Figure of an Antelope, the Head missing . . 84
,, 54. Palette in Form of Antelopes 85
55. Palettes in Form of Elephants and Hippopotami .... 86
5 5 A. Palette in Form of a Lion. MacGregor Collection ... 87
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xvii
PAGE
. 1 '.ilrttrs in KII rm of Tortoises . 86
57. Palettes in Form of Fish 87
58. Palette in Form of a Bird .... ... 88
59. Palettes of Bird Form 89
60. Bird-shaped Palette. University College, London ... 90
i. Palettes decorated with Incised Figures 91
62. Palettes with Engraved Designs ....... 92
63. Palette. With a sign (hieroglyphic ?) in relief 93
,, <>4. Palette. With two birds carved in relief. MacGregor Collection 93
,, 65. Mace-heads from Hierakonpolis and Naqada .... 94
66. Decorated Mace-heads in Soft Stone . 95
67. Mace-head carved in Form of a Tortoise. Berlin Museum . . 96
68. Sceptre- or Mace-heads from Hierakonpolis 97
69. Stone Vase. Decorated with two human heads . . 99
70. Fragment of Vase Warrior armed with a Hatchet . . 100
71. Fragment of Vase with Boat in Low Relief too
,, 72. Stone Vases with Animal Figures in Relief 101
73. Pictographic (?) Inscription on a Stone Vase . . . .102
,, 74. Stone Vase in Form of a Leather Bottle . ... 103
,, 75. Stone Vase in Form of a Bird 103
,, 76. Stone Vases in Form of Frogs, Hippopotamus, and Birds . . 104
77. Vase in Form of a Dog. Berlin Museum 104
78. Vase, and Fragments of Vases, in Form of Animals . . 105
79. Red Vases with White Paint, in Imitation of Basket Work . . 106
80. Black Incised Pottery, with Decoration in Imitation of Basket
Work 107
81. Vases painted in White with Floral Designs 109
82 Bowl painted in White with Figures of Hippopotami and a
Crocodile no
83. Vases painted in White with Representations of Animals . 1 1 1
S4. Vase painted in Whitr with a Boat and Various Animals . .112
85. Vases painted in White. University College, London . i'3
86. Vases painted in Imitation of Hard Stones . . 114
87. Vases decorated in Imitation ol Basket Work . . > 1 S
88. Vases decorated with a Series of Trian^l i if>
,, S7
90. Decorated Vase with Representations of Animals, and a Tree
with Birds perched on it . Il8
,. 91. Various I >rsigns on Decorated Pottery 118
,, 92. Vase with Representations of Castanette Players (?) before a
Pani-eri?) 119
V.i-- D. -roration r-|ir-s-ntmg Gazelles fighting . . . .120
94. Vase wfth Various Representations. From de Morgan . . 121
b
xviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Fig. 95. Decorated Vase from Abadiyeh 122
,, 96. Vase with Representations of Giraffes, Ostriches, Crocodiles, and
Snakes. Berlin Museum 123
,, 97. Decorated Vases with Designs in Relief and Other Rare
Ornamentations 124
,, 98. Black-topped Pottery with Figures in Relief . . . 125
,, 99. Vase of Black-topped Pottery with an Incised Decoration inside 126 ,, loo. Rough-faced Pottery with Incised Decorations . . . .127
,, 101. Black Polished Vase in Form of a Woman ..... 128
,, 102. Clay Vases in Form of Animals ....... 129
103. Clay Vases in Form of Birds ....... 130
104. Clay Vase in Form of a Vulture . . . . . . .131
,, 105. Pottery Boxes with Various Designs . . . . . .132
,, 106. Clay Fire-places decorated with Designs in Imitation of Plaited
Work 134
107. Ivory Feet for Furniture, in the Shape of Bulls' Legs . . . 135 ,, 108. Fragments of Ivory carved with Various Figures . . . .136 ,, 109. Fragments of Ivory Objects carved with Various Designs . .137
,, 1 10. Carved Ivory Cylinders 138
Pottery Marks 141
Hieroglyphic (?) Signs of the Prehistoric Period . . . . 145
113. Table of " Alphabetiform '' Signs . ...... 147
114. Impressions taken from Cylinders . . . . . .150
115. Worked Flints in Form of Animals . . . . . '53
1 16. Worked Flint in Form of an Antelope (Bubalis). Berlin Museum I 54
117. Worked Flint in Form of a Wild Goat. Berlin Museum . .155
1 18. Worked Flint in Form of a Wild Barbary Sheep. Berlin
Museum. . . . . . . . . . 155
119. Figures of Men of the Primitive Period 156
120. Ivory Figures of Men discovered at Hierakonpolis . . . 157
121. Ivory Heads discovered at Hierakonpolis 158
122. Ivory Statuette from Abydos . . . . . . 159
123. Steatopygous Clay Figures. Ashmolean Museum . . 161
124. Steatopygous Clay Figures. Ashmolean Museum . . . 162
125. Steatopygous Figure in Clay (complete). Berlin Museum . . 163
126. Clay Female Figure. University College, London . . . 164
127. Female Figure in Vegetable Paste. Berlin Museum . . . 165
128. Female Figures in Pottery, Ivory, Lead, and Vegetable Paste . 166
129. Female Figures in Ivory. MacGregor Collection . . .167
130. Figure of a Woman carrying a Child on her Shoulders . . 168
131. Ivory Figure of a Woman carrying a Child. Berlin Museum . 169
132. Ivory Figures discovered at Hierakonpolis . . . . .170
133. Ivory Figures discovered at Hierakonpolis ..... 17.1
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xix
PAGE
I m 134. Small Figure in Lapis-lazuli from Hierakonpolis. . . 172
135. Ivory Figures of Dwarfs 173
,, 136. Figures of a Woman standing in a Large Jar . . . .174
137. Vases in Form of Women -175
,, i ^S. Figures of Hippopotami in Clay, Glazed Pottery, and Stone . 177
,, 139. Hippopotamus in Black and White Granite . . . .178
,, 140. Small Figures of Lions. University College, London . 179
,, 141. Small Figures of Lions . . . . . . . .180
142. Limestone Statue of a Lion from Koptos 181
,, 143. Ivory Carvings of a Dog and of a Lion from Abydos. Brussels
Museum . .182
,, 144. Figures of Dogs . . 183
,, 145. Part oi an Ivory Figure of a Dog 184
,, 146. Natural Flints roughly worked to represent Baboons . . .185
147. Figures of Monkeys 187
,, 148. Figures of Cattle and Pigs. Ashmolean Museum . . 188
,, 149. Camel's Head in Clay, found at Hierakonpolis .... 189
,, 150. Figures of Birds and of Griffins 191
,, 151. Figures of Frogs and of Scorpion* 193
152. Bull's Head Amulet in Ivory. Berlin Museum . . . .194
,, 153. Bull's Head Amulets 195
,, 154. Double Bull's Head Amulets. Hilton Price Collection . . 196
155. Magical Instruments (?) in Ivory 197
156. Magical Instrument made of Horn, from Katanga. University
College, London 198
157. Models of Boats in Clay and Ivory 199
158. Pottery Boat with Figures of Men. Berlin Museum . . . 200
,, 159. Clay Model of a House discovered at El Amrah . . . .201
,, 1 60. Clay Model of a Fortified Enclosure 202
,, 161. Graffiti from the Rocks of Upper Egypt 204
162. Paultings on the Primitive Tomb of Hierakonpolia . . . 208
163. Paintings on the Primitive Tomb o! Hi. r.ikonpolis . 209
,, 1(14. Standards on tin- Primitive Boats 210
,, 165. Gazelles caught in a Trap and Religious (?) Krpir.srntatioiis.
From the painted tomb of Hierakonpolis . . . .211
,, H.M. Statui-s ni the god Min discovered at Koptos . . 223
., 167. I lammered Designs on the Archaic Statues of the God Min 225
,, 108. Archaic Statue discovered at Hierakonpolis. Ashmolran
Museum, Oxford 227
,, I'M;. Fragment of a Slate Palette. Cairo Museum . 229
,, 170. Slate Palette with Hunting Scenes. Louvre and British Museum 231
,, 171. Slate Palette with Representations of Animals (Recto). Oxford 232
,, 172. Slate Palette with Representations of Animals (Verso). Oxford 233
xx LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGK
Kip. 173. Slate Palette (Recto). Louvre Museum 234
,, 174. Slate Palette (Verso). Louvre Museum ..... 235
,, 175. Fragment oi" a Slate Palette (Recto). Cairo Museum . . 236
,, 176. Fragment oi" a Slate Palette (Verso). Cairo Museum . . 237
,, 177. Fragment of Slate Palette (Recto). Oxford .... 238
178. Fragment of Slate Palette (Verso). Oxford .... 239
,, 179. Fragment of Slate Palette (Recto). British Museum . . . 240
1 80. Fragment of Slate Palette (Verso). British Museum . . .241
,, 181. Fragment of Slate Palette (Recto). Louvre Museum . . . 242
,, 182. Fragment of Slate Palette (Verso). Louvre Museum . . . 243
183. Slate Palette of Nar-Mer (Recto). Cairo Museum . . . 244
184. Slate Palette of Nar-Mer (Verso). Cairo Museum . . . 245
,, 185. Fragment of Slate Palette. Louvre Museum .... 246
,, 186. Great Mace-head of King Nar-Mer. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford 247
,, 187. Scenes carved on the Great Mace-head of King Nar-Mer . . 249
,, 188. Great Mace-head of an Unidentified King. Ashmolean Museum,
Oxford . . .251
189. Principal Scene on the Great Mace-head of an Unidentified King 252
,, 190. Specimens of Small Ivory and Wooden Plaques discovered in
the Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty at Abydos . . 253
,, 191. Small Plaque in Glazed Pottery discovered at Abydos . . 255
192. Private Stelae from the Royal Necropolis of the First Dynasty at
Abydos ........... 256
193. Stela of Hekenen. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford . . . 258
194. Limestone Statue of a Libyan. Cairo Museum .... 259
,, 195. Head of a Libyan in Limestone. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford . 260
,, 196. Black Granite Statue. Cairo Museum ..... 261
197. Statue of a Princess in the Turin Museum 262
198. Statue in the Brussels Museum ....... 263
,, 199. Statue of Nesa, in the Louvre ....... 265
Figs. 200, 201. Statue of Khasakhmui. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford . 266
Fig. 202. Head of the Statue of Khasakhmui 267
203. Pottery Figure of a Lion 268
,, 204. Upper Part of the Ivory Figure of Cheops. Cairo Museum . 269
205. Dancers from the Tomb of Anta at Deshasheh .... 275
,, 206. Steatite Figure from Hierakonpoiis. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford 277
207. Musical Instruments, from a painting at Beni Hasan . . . 279
CHAPTER I. PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS.
T\ \ K extreme antiquity of Egyptian civilization lends a very special attraction to the study of its productions. Our minds are so constituted that, reaching back into the past, \ve welcome every fresh clue that will guide us to the startingpoint whence we can trace the first feeble steps taken by man on paths which have led to more or less brilliant civilization.
From this point of view Egypt has proved itself to be a mine of information. Its numerous monuments of antiquity witness to the existence of an advanced art at a period when the rest of the world was still plunged in the deepest barbarism. Until the last few years, however, Egypt has not satisfied our curiosity ; she only rendered it more intense from day to day, setting before us a riddle the solution of which appeared unattainable. At the time of her first appearance in history, at about the commencement of the fourth dynasty, she already possessed a civilization which was practically fixed and complete. Language, writing, administration, cults, ceremonies, etc. all of these we found already established, and it was rarely that we could observe traces here and there of what may be styled " archaism." One might suppose, as did Chabas, that about four thousand years would be necessary to allow for the development of such a civilization. " Four thousand years," he says, " is a period of time sufficient for the development of an intelligent race. If we were watching the progress of transitional races, it would perhaps not be enough. In any case this figure makes no pretensions to exactitude ; its only merit is that it lends itself to the exigencies of all facts which are known up to the present
I
2 PRIMITIVE ART IX EGYPT.
time or which are probable." 1 This impression is accentuated when we arc considering works of art, and one is tempted to endorse without hesitation an opinion which assigns almost as many centuries to the period between the commencement of civilization and the Ancient Empire as to the period between that empire and the first years of the Christian era.
In examining the productions of the earlier dynasties productions that can scarcely be termed primitive we are specially struck with their extreme realism, their mode of seeing nature, and rendering it in such a manner that we can immediately grasp their intention, a mode far more complete than the best that classical Egyptian art can show us. " Beautiful in themselves,"
MED
exclaims Mariette, " they still appear beautiful when compared with the work of dynasties that we believe to represent the flourishing centuries of Egypt." 2
A strange consequence of this opposition between the realism of the earliest dynasties and the hieratism of classical Egypt was, that it led scholars who studied the question to a conclusion which was distinctly disconcerting that Egyptian art, perfect to our taste at the commencement of the Ancient Empire, under the " implacable influence of that slow sacerdotal work which petrified everything around it 3 the formulae of art as well as
1 CHABAS, Etudes sur rant/quite historique d'apres les sources egypliennes et les monuments reputes prehistoriqncs, 2nd eel. Paris, 1873, p. 9.
J MARIETTE, in the Revue archeologique, 1860; quoted by RHONE, IJ Egypt? a petites joHrnccs, Paris, 1877, p. 86.
3 MARIETTE, ib.
PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS. 3
the formulae of belief" immediately began to change and deteriorate more and more. Nestor L'Hotc, one of the scholars best acquainted with ancient Egypt, came to a legitimate conclusion, it appears, when he wrote, " The further one penetrates into antiquity towards the origins of Egyptian art, the more perfect are the products of that art, as though the genius of the people, inversely to that of others, was formed suddenly. 1 Egyptian art," he says, " we only know in its decadence."
I need scarcely refer to the masterpieces of art which have gradually emerged from the tombs of the Ancient Empire The Sheikh el Beled, the seated scribe of the Louvre, the scribe of the Cairo Museum, are known to all the world. The two
FIG. 2. THE GEESE OF MEDUM.
statues of Medum, Nojrit and Rahotep, are living in the memory of all who have seen them at the Cairo Museum, and photography has so far popularized them as to render it unnecessary to reproduce them here. But a fact not sufficiently realized outside the limited circle of Egyptologists is that, in addition to these magnificent works of art which to many must appear to be isolated phenomena, appearing at a period of primitive barbarism there exists a whole series of contemporary works which attest to the high level attained by Egyptian art at the Pyramid age. Another fact not sufficiently realized is the marvellous dexterity of the painters and sculptors who decorated the walls of the tombs with paintings and reliefs of incredible delicacy, inspired
^Journal des savants, 1851, pp. 53, 54. Quoted by PERROT & CHIPIEZ, Histoire dc I' art dans rantii/uitr, vol. i. L,'gypte t p. 677.
4 PRIMITIVE ART IN EGYPT.
by Nature, which they copied with scrupulous fidelity. It will be sufficient to quote a typical example of each.
In a mastaba discovered at Medum, which dates from the end of the third dynasty, the artist represented geese feeding in various attitudes. In reference to this painting Maspero says : " The Egyptians were animal painters of the highest power, and they never gave better proof of it than in this picture. No modern painter could have seized with more spirit and humour the heavy gait of the goose, the curves of its neck, the pretentious carriage of its head, and the markings of its plumage" 1 (Figs. I and 2).
Another instance shows us the same perfection in rendering the human figure. In a tomb of the third dynasty Mariette discovered six wooden panels, now in the Cairo Museum. They represent the deceased, a high official of the name of Host, both seated and standing. There are hieroglyph inscriptions above the figure or before the face. We reproduce here the heads of two of the figures, which show the marvellous manner in which the artist has succeeded in seizing the type and surely and delicately rendering it with the chisel. We must admit that convention is already there. The eye is drawn full face on a head seen in profile ; but, admitting this convention, one cannot fail to be astonished, and at the same time charmed, with this power of execution at a period when we only expect to meet with rude and barbarous work (Figs. 3 and 4).
We have now said enough to enable us to state briefly the problem with which we have to deal. How is the high level of art at the commencement of the history of Egypt to be explained? Was Egyptian art an importation brought to the banks of the Nile by conquering foreigners?
Theories held by many scholars who would bring the Pharaonic Egyptians from Asia, conquering the valley of the Nile as they descended the river, after a sojourn more or less prolonged on the east coast of Africa appear to strengthen this hypothesis, and until the last few years it has been difficult to
1 MASPERO, text by GREBAUT, Le musce egyptien, vol. i. Cairo, 1890-1900, p. 26 and pi. xxix.
PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS. 5
accept any other explanation. So far as it was possible to trace back to the earliest dynasties, their productions rarely presented traces of archaism, and only peculiar circumstances, such as the presence of a king's name, permitted certain bas-reliefs to be attributed to a period anterior to the fourth dynasty. It is true that the museums of Europe and Egypt contained certain rude statues, which might be dated as belonging to the period of the three first dynasties ; but the attention of scholars was never seriously drawn to them, and it is only in quite recent years that their true character has begun to be recognized. 1
Recently, however, a series of important discoveries has changed the current of research. Professor Flinders Petrie discovered first at Koptos, in 1893, some roughly-worked statues of the god Aim, on which were carved, in very low relief, singular figures of animals, of mountains, and an archaic form of hieroglyph employed to write the name of the god Min. At the same time pottery was found of a peculiar type, which had previously been known only in rare specimens, which could not be correctly dated. 2
The following year, Dr. Petrie, aided by Mr. Quibell, found in the neighbourhood of Naqada an enormous necropolis, where similar pottery to that found at Koptos, at the same time as the statues of Min, was extremely abundant. Researches carried out simultaneously by M. de Morgan proved that they were dealing with prehistoric cemeteries. I cannot attempt to enter here into details of these excavations, as I have recently given an account of them in an article in the Revue de rUniversitd de Bruxeltes? I will content myself with mentioning the principal events which followed the publication of that work. During the winter 1898-99, Professor Petrie and his fellow workers explored various prehistoric cemeteries at Abadiyeh and Hu. These discoveries, by supplementing those at Naqada, afforded material for establishing in
1 Berlin, Bologna, Brussels, Cairo, Leyden, London, Naples, Paris, Turin. See C APART, Rccncil de monuments cgypticns, Brussels, 1902. Remarks on plates ii. and iii.
8 PETRIE, A'fptos, London, 1893.
3 CAPART, Aotes sur les origincs de VEgypte d'apres Ics fouillcs rc'centes, in the Revue de rUniversitc dc Bruxellcs, iv. 1898-9, pp. 105-139, fig. and pi.
6 PRIMITIVE ART IN EGYPT.
a preliminary fashion the main outlines of prehistoric Egypt At the same time, Mr. Quibell and Mr.' Green found (1897-8-9) on the site of the ancient temple of Hierakonpolis an important series of objects, dating from the commencement of the historic period, which, in a manner, formed the bridge between Egypt of historic and of prehistoric age.
These results were confirmed in the following year by the excavations of Professor Petrie in the royal tombs of the first dynasties at Abydos, which shortly before had been negligently
FIG. 3. FRAGMENT OF ONE OF THE PANELS OF Hosi. From a photograph by Petrie.
explored by M. Amelineau. Finally, the excavations in the temenos of the temple of Osiris at Abydos (1901-2-3), in addition to, other discoveries, brought to light a small prehistoric town, which provided the necessary materials for a complete and incontestable welding together of prehistoric Egypt and the historical dynasties. Other excavations carried out at El-Ahaiwah and Naga-ed-Der, 1
1 The result of these excavations is not yet published. A short note by Dr. Reisner will be found in the Archaeological Report of the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1900-1901, pp. 23-25 and 2 plates.
PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS. 7
under the direction of Dr. Reisner, for the University of California, and also at El Amrah by Mr. Maclver and Mr. Wilkin, completed the information already acquired relating to the primitive period.
The evidence thus acquired supplied us with much interesting information concerning the primitive inhabitants of Egypt, and it was at once recognized that it was possible, more especially in the rituals, to discover many vestiges of that civilization to which the archaic cemeteries bear witness. The general conclusions to be drawn from these discoveries as a whole are, that
FIG. 4. FRAGMENT OF ONE OF THE PANELS OF Hosi. From a photograph by Petrie.
there was a civili/.ation anterior to the Pharaonic civilization, and that this civilization produced works of art.
We must here mention the principal works in which the results of excavations were published. Most of these are in English, and arc simply reports of excavations of cemeteries. The most important arc : .\'ti<]that can claim the title of artistic! The difficulty in replying to this question is great, because in order to arrive at a solution we must give a definition of what is art. Unhappily this only transfers the problem without rendering it more easy of solution. We know how opinions vary on the true nature of art. Each author has his special point of view, which makes him insist more expressly on one or other aspect of the subject. So much is this the case, that there are fe\v subjects in the world of which one can say with more truth, Quot capita tot census.
I wish it were possible to transcribe the whole of the pages written by Professor E. Grosse on this subject. 1 It was his work, as I specially wish to observe, which first started me on the researches which have resulted in the production of this book but to do this would appear excessive, and I must content myself with giving a summary of them as briefly as possible, dwelling principally on those points which should act as our guide.
"The duty of a science," says Professor Grosse, "is this: to establish and explain a certain group of phenomena. All science is therefore theoretically divided into two parts : the descriptive part, which is the description of facts and their nature ; and the explanatory part, which refers these facts to their general laws." Does the science of art fulfil these conditions? For the first part the reply may be in the affirmative ; but can it be so as regards the second part? It appears that it is open to doubt, ami here Professor Grosse proves himself very severe concerning the productions of art criticism, which, in addition to complete systems " u>ually arrogate to themselves that majestic air of infallibility which is the distinctive sign of systems of the 1 GUOSSE, I^s Debuts dc I' Art, French edition, Paris, Alcan, 1902.
io PRIMITIVE ART IN EGYPT.
philosophy of art, of which, in fact, they constitute mere fragments. Of course," he says, "there are occasions when it may appear both useful and pleasant to be informed of the subjective opinions on art which may be held by a man of genius ; but when they are imposed on us as general knowledge, founded on a scientific basis, from that moment we must refuse to accept them. The essential principle of scientific research is always and everywhere the same ; whether research concerns a plant or a work of art, it should always be objective." It is in consequence of not having obeyed this necessity that the philosophy of art has not yet succeeded in providing us with a satisfactory explanation of artistic phenomena, notwithstanding the mass of material placed at its command by the history of art.
" The task which lies before the science of art is this : to describe and explain the phenomena which are classed under the denomination of " phenomena of an artistic character." This task has two sides an individual and a social one. In the first case, the object must be to understand an isolated work of art, or the entire work of one artist, to discover the relations which exist between an artist and his individual work, and to explain the work of art as the product of an artistic individuality working under certain conditions." This individual side of the problem, if it is possible to study it with precision during the centuries most nearly approaching our own times, becomes more and more complex as we reach further back into the past, and very soon we find ourselves forced to abandon our attempt and to adopt the social side. " If it is impossible to explain the individual character of a work of art by the individual character of the author, nothing remains to us but to trace the collective character of artistic groups having a certain extension within time or space, to the character of a nation or of an entire epoch. The first aspect of our problem is therefore psychological, the second sociological." As Professor Grosse observes, this sociological aspect of the problem has not been overlooked ; as early as 1719 Abbe Dubos, in his Reflexions critiques sur la pofcie et la peinture, opened the way to the sociology of art. Herder, Taine, Hennequin, and Guyau successively attempted
PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS. u
to form general theories, or else combated those of their predt-ci-vsors ; but unfortunately, if the results obtained by these sociological studies in matters of art are reviewed, it must be confessed that they are very poor. This can be accounted for, in the first place, by the small number of students who have realized the sociological value of art, but also and above all by the erroneous method which forms the basis of all these researches.
14 In all other branches of sociology we have learnt to begin at the beginning. We first study the simplest forms of social phenomena, and it is only when we thoroughly understand the nature and conditions of these simple forms that we attempt the explanation of those which are more complicated. . . . All sociological schools have, one after another, attempted to find new roads ; the science of art alone pursues its mistaken methods. All others have eventually recognized the powerful and indispensable aid that ethnology can afford to the science of civilization ; it is only the science of art which still despises the rough productions of primitive nations offered by ethnology. The science of art is not yet capable of resolving the problem under its more difficult aspect. If we would one day arrive at a scientific comprehension of the art of civilized nations, we must, to begin with, investigate the nature and conditions of the art of the non-civilized. We must know the multiplication table before resolving problems of higher mathematics. It is for this reason that the first and most pressing task of the science of art consists in the study of the art of primitive nations."
It verily appears that, in the study of art, misfortune attaches itself to all the expressions employed. We begin with vague terms, which we attempt by degrees to define, only to find on arriving at our first conclusion that there again is a term wanting in precision and requiring definition.
Which, in fact, are the natiorjs who can be called primitive ? Here again the most diverse opinions have been expressed, and when studying the proposed classifications, we meet at every step with errors which lead us to review the results with suspicion. Only to quote one example : " Between an inhabitant of the
12 PRIMITIVE ART IN EGYPT.
Sandwich Islands and a man indigenous to the Australian Continent there is a difference in civilization greater, no doubt, than that which separates an educated Arab and an educated European, and yet Ratzel, who distinguishes the 'semi-civilized' Arabs from the ' civilized ' Europeans, combines the Polynesians and Australians in one group."
Is there any method of determining the relative degrees of any one civilization ? That which is called civilization is so complicated, even in its simplest forms, that it is impossible, at any rate in our day, to determine with any certainty the factors that produce it. If we were to compare the various civilizations in all their manifestations, we should probably not attain our end ; but we should be able to solve our problem fairly easily, if we were to succeed in finding an isolated factor, which would be easy to determine and sufficiently important to pass as characteristic of the whole of a civilization.
Now there is a factor to be found which fulfils the two conditions indicated, and that is production. The form of production adopted exclusively, or almost exclusively, in a social group that is to say, the manner in which the members of that group produce their food is a fact which is easy to observe directly, and to determine with sufficient precision in any form of civilization. Whatever may be our ignorance of the religious or social beliefs of the Australians, we can have no doubt as to their productions the Australian is a hunter and a collector of plants. It is perhaps impossible for us to know the intellectual civilization of the ancient Peruvians, but \ve know that the citizens of the empire of the Incas were agriculturists : that is a fact which admits of no doubt. To have established what is the form of production of a given nation, however, would not be sufficient to attain the end that we have proposed to ourselves, if we could not prove at the same time that the special form of civilization depends upon the special form of production. The idea of classifying nations according to the dominant principle of their production is in no way new. In the most ancient works on the history of civilization one finds already the well-known groups of nations, classed as hunters and fishermen, nomad cattle breeders and agriculturists, established in
PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS. 13
their countries. Few historians, however, seem to have understood the full importance of production. It is easier to underrate than to
Derate it. In every form of civilization, production is in some way the centre of life ; it has a profound and irresistible influence on the other factors of civilization. It is itself determined, not by factors of civilization but by natural factors by the geographical and meteorological character of a country. One would not be altogether wrong in calling production " the primary phenomenon of civilization," a phenomenon by the side of which other factors of civilization are but secondary derivatives, not in the sense that they have sprung from production, but because they have been formed and have remained under its powerful influence, although of independent origin. Religious ideas have certainly not grown out of the necessities of production ; nevertheless, the form of the dominant religious ideas of a tribe can be traced in part to the form of production. The belief in souls which exists among the Kaffirs, has an independent origin ; but its particular form the belief in an hierarchic order of the souls of ancestors is nothing more nor less than a reflection of the hierarchic order among the living ; which in its turn is the consequence of production, of the breeding of cattle, of the warlike and centralizing tendencies which result from it. It is for this reason that among hunting tribes, whose nomad life does not admit of a fixed social organization, one finds indeed the belief in souls but not of the hierarchic order. The importance of production, however, manifests itself nowhere so evidently as in the organization of the family. The strange forms which have been taken by the human family forms which have inspired sociologists with still more strange hypotheses appear to us perfectly comprehensible the moment that we consider them in their relation to the forms of production. The most primitive people depend for their food on the product of the chase the term "chase" being taken in its broadest meaning and the plants which they collect. 1
If we survey the world in search of tribes living in this elementary stu^c, we shall not find them in large numbers. Grosse quickly disposes of them. "The immense continent of Africa contains
1 pp. 26, 27.
i 4 PRIMITIVE ART IN EGYPT.
but one hunting tribe leaving out of account the pygmy tribes of the centre, the civilization of whom is completely unknown to us these are the Bushmen, the vagrants of the Kalahari and surrounding countries. In America we find true huntsman tribes only in the north and the south the Aleutians and the Fuegians. All the others are more or less agricultural, with the exception of some Brazilian tribes, such as the Botocudos, who still live under very primitive conditions. In Asia there are scarcely any but the Mincopies of the Andaman Islands, who still exhibit the primitive state in all its purity ; the Veddahs of Ceylon have been too much influenced by the Cingalese, and the Tchuktchis of the north and their ethnical relations are already breeders of cattle. There is only one continent which is still occupied over its whole extent by a primitive people exception being made of its European colonies this is Australia, a continent that \ve can also consider from an ethnological point of view as the last trace of a vanished world." Here an objection arises. Why not take into account the prehistoric populations, whose artistic productions are both numerous and varied ? The reason, according to M. Grosse, is that in considering the invaluable evidence of these productions, before " being able to say with certainty that we are actually dealing here with the primitive forms we are in search of, it would be necessary for us to know the civilizations which have furnished these records."
Happily this objection does not exist, at least in the same degree, in the case of primitive Egypt, where the abundance of records is already such that we can picture to ourselves the life of the primitive Egyptian with sufficient accuracy to be able, I think, to distinguish those productions which merit the title of "artistic" ; and with this we return to the problem just propounded, with some additional likelihood this time of being able to solve it.
" In collections of Australian objects," says Professor Grosse, 1 "one almost invariably finds wooden sticks covered with combinations of points and lines. It is almost impossible to distinguish these designs at the first glance from those which are 1 GROSSE, loc. cit. p. 17 et seg.
PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS. 15
found on the Australian clubs and shields, and which are ordinarily styled ' ornaments.' There is, notwithstanding, an essential difference between the two classes of patterns. For some time we have been aware that the so-called designs upon these sticks are nothing else than a rude kind of writing marks intended to remind the messenger who carries the stick of the essential points of his message. They have therefore a practical and not an aesthetic signification. In this instance our knowledge prevents our falling into error ; but how numerous must be the instances where it is otherwise? Who could authoritatively assure us that the figures on the Australian shields are actually ornaments ? Is it not possible that they are marks of property or tribal signs? Or possibly these figures are religious symbols? These questions arise almost every time we look at the ornamentation of any primitive race. In very few instances can we give an answer. . . . Notwithstanding the great number of doubtful instances, there are also many in which the purely aesthetic signification can never be called in question. The doubtful cases also are far from being valueless for our science. The birds' heads at the prows of the Papuan canoes are perhaps primarily religious symbols, but they also serve as ornaments. If the choice of an ornamentation is determined by a religious consideration, the execution and the combination with other motifs, whether different or analogous, are always affected by aesthetic needs."
It is easy to see what are the difficulties of the subject, and how impossible it would be to discuss the question if one had resolved from the outset to give only definite and assured data on all subjects. It is therefore necessary to confine oneself to multiplying observations and studying the doubtful instances, in the hope that one day light may spring forth from them, permitting us to trace with a sure hand the laws which govern artistic phenomena. As it is necessary, in order to fix our ideas, to give a definition of Art, we will say with M. Grosse : " Speaking broadly, we mean by ' .esthetic' or ' artistic' activity an activity which is intended by its exercise, or by its final result, to excite a direct sensation, which in most cases is one of
16 PRIMITIVE ART IN EGYPT.
pleasure." But we are careful to add immediately, with our author, that "our definition is merely a scaffolding to be demolished when our edifice is built." 1
This has been a very long parenthesis, and it appears to some extent to be a digression from "Primitive Art in Egypt." Nevertheless, I believe it will be of service in warning us at the outset of the difficulties that we shall encounter ; at the same time it shows us what we may hope for in the future from a study thus directed that it may possibly throw light one day on the extremely interesting question of the origin of Egyptian art. Is classical Egyptian art an importation, as we have just asked ourselves? or is it a continuation of the primitive art? Was there a slow and progressive evolution ; or is it possible to establish at any given moment a hiatus a sudden contrast between the primitive artistic productions and those of dynastic Egypt ? We cannot attempt to reply to these questions until we have arrived at the completion of our study ; and even then, I fear, the result will remain extremely problematic in the present state of our knowledge.
As a precaution against error we will borrow from Professor Grosse the plan of his book, and also the method of dividing our matter shall be as follows: "Art," he says, "is divided into two great groups arts of movement and arts of repose. The difference which separates them has been very clearly indicated by Fechner ( Vorsckule der Aesthetik, ii. 5). The first seek to please by forms in repose, the others by forms either* in movement or following one another in time ; the first transforms or combines masses in repose, and the other produces the movement of the body, or changes in time capable of attaining the result aimed at by art. We will commence with the " arts in repose," commonly called " the plastic arts." Decoration is probably the most primitive of these, and as the object first adorned is the human body, we will begin with the study of personal adornment. But even the most primitive folk are not content to adorn the body
1 J. COLLIER, in his Primer of Art (London, 1882), p. 36, defines art as a "creative operation of the intelligence the making of something either with a view to utility or pleasure."
1'kKLIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS. 17
only ; they must also embellish their weapons and utensils. The ornamentation of these objects will occupy the second place in our study of the subject. We shall then examine the free plastic art (freie Bildnerei), which aims not at decoration but at the creation of works which are in themselves artistic. Dancing forms the transition between the arts of repose and the arts of movement. It may be defined it as "the art which creates movement" (lebende Rildnerei'} animated plastic art. . . . Among primitive people dancing is always united with song ; and thus we have a convenient mode of transition to poetry. . . . Finally we will study primitive music." ! The three last subjects can only be treated in a most summary fashion in their relation to ancient Egypt. Before commencing the last portion of our task we will devote a short chapter to the earliest Pharaonic monuments, the comparison of which with the primitive remains cannot fail to be interesting.
But before entering upon our subject, I think it necessary to give some dates in order to fix our ideas.
Authors differ enormously in their opinions on the subject of the date of the first Egyptian dynasty. Here are some of the dates which have been proposed. Champollion-Figeac gives the year 5869 ; Wilkinson, 2320 ; Bockh, 5702 ; Bunsen, 3623 ; Lepsius, 3892 ; Brugsch, 4455 ; -Unger, 5613 ; Lieblein, 5004 ; Mariette, 5004 ; Lauth, 41 57.2
Dr. Budge, Keeper of the Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities of the British Museum, in his recent History of Egypt? having quoted the dates given by Champollion-Figeac, Bockh, Lepsius, Mariette, Bunst'ii, Wilkinson, and Brugsch, ends thus : " Of these writers, the only ones whose chronological views are to be seriously considered are Lepsius, Mariette, and Brugsch, between whose highest and lowest dates is an interval of over 1 100 years. Viewed in the light of recent investigations, die date of Lepsius seems to be too low, whilst that of Mariette, in the same way, seems to be too high ; we
1 GROSSE, loc. cit. pp. 38, 39.
* According to the chronological table drawn up by WIEDEMAXX in his Ac;ryf>tixr!n' (ieschichtc, pp. 732, 733, which gives with reserve the date 5650.
:t BriMiK, Ilislnry f /-'.^\'/>f, i. f*-^yt't in the \colithic and Archaic Periods, London, !<,<>.:. p. 150,.
2
i8 PRIMITIVE ART IN EGYPT.
have therefore to consider the date for Menes (the first king of the Egyptian lists) arrived at by Brugsch."
M. Maspero, in his large Histoire ancienne des peuples de r Orient} apparently accepts a somewhat similar dating. He places Sneferu, first king of the fourth dynasty, at 4100 B.C., "with a possible error of several centuries more or less."
Professor Petrie, in one of his more recent works, 2 places the reign of Mcnes between 4777 and 4715.
We can therefore admit, in taking a minimum date, that all the monuments dealt with in this book are anterior to the fourth millenary B.C. ; but having thus obtained a provisional date for the termination of the primitive period, it would be equally advisable to assign one also for the commencement of that period. But here the difficulty is still greater, and a calculation can only be based upon extremely vague presumptions. For the. development of the primitive civilization Dr. Petrie demands about two thousand years, and as he places the commencement of Pharaonic Egypt about 5000 B.C., the most ancient of the monuments which we are about to consider would necessarily date back to about 7000 B.C. 3
As we find ourselves in our own country face to face with immense periods of prehistoric ages, without being able to assign any precise dates to the different stages of civilization which can be established, it has been necessary to find a convenient terminology to enable us with ease to classify the objects found. To this end -a series of deposits characteristic of an age has been chosen, and to that age the name of the deposit has been given. Thus terms have been created which are universally accepted, such as Chellean, Mousterian, Magdalenian, etc. It would be extremely convenient to be able to do the same in Egypt, and in fact the
1 Paris, Hachette, i. 1895, p. 347, note 2. In the new Guide to the Cairo Museum, Cairo, 1903, p. 2, the same author places the first dynasty at about 5000 B.C.
* Abydos, i. p. 22.
3 Mr. Maclver has recently attempted to combat these conclusions, but his arguments are not conclusive. In his calculations he has not taken into account that the tribe who interred in the El Amrah cemetery may have been nomads who would only return periodically to that locality, a circumstance that would completely change the conclusions to be drawn from the number of tombs. Sec MAC!VER & MACE, El Amrah and Abydos, pp. 50-52.
PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS. 19
Naqada age, so called from the principal cemetery of that period which has been explored, is a term already applied to the entire primitive period. In scientific books the Naqada civilization, the me n of Naqada, etc., are already commonly referred to. Petrie has gone still farther, and instead of names he has proposed to make use of numbers.
Relying upon the study of types of pottery, which are extremely varied during the primitive period, Dr. Petrie has succeeded, by a series of classifications which it is impossible for me to describe here, in separating all known types into a series of 50. To these he has applied numbers ranging from 30 to 80, which numbers represent the successive periods of the prehistoric age. To these numbers he applies the term sequence dates. The contents of a tomb, when studied on the basis of these classifications, furnish a maximum and a minimum number, the average of which indicates the relative age of the burial.
This scheme originated by Petrie is very ingenious, and is only rendered possible by the large number of intact graves which have been discovered. Notwithstanding the various criticisms to which his method has been subjected, up to the present time no one has apparently been able to bring forward facts to contradict his results. It is owing to this system that we can say of the type of a statuette or of a scheme of decoration that they occur, for instance, between the sequence dates 35 and 39 ; and it is thus that similar indications must be understood, as they are met with in the pages of this book. We must explain that the numbers previous to 30 have been reserved in case a lucky find should bring to light monuments more ancient than any already known. 1 As I have previously mentioned, the point of union betsvcen the sequence dates and the reigns of the kings of the first dynasty has been established on the evidence of the small prehistoric town of Abydos, and Petrie has fixed the reign of Menes as coinciding with the- sequence date 79.-'
1 PETRIE, Sequences in Prehistoric Remains, in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxix. 1900, pp. 295-301 ; PETRIE, Diospolis parva, pp. 4-12; S. REINACH, Review of the preceding in I'Anthropologie, xi. 1900,
pp. 759-762.
3 PETRIE, Abydos, i. p. 22.
20 PRIMITIVE ART IN EGYPT.
It is on the basis of these sequence dates that we can state of certain objects that they are specially numerous during the first or second half of the prehistoric period-
I have endeavoured to multiply the illustrations, which can never be sufficiently numerous in a work where the text is intended merely to serve as a summary commentary on the monuments. The source of each of the illustrations is indicated in the following manner : When, for instance, there is quoted in the text Naqada, pi. Ixiv. 78, and Diospolis Parva, ix. 23, the mark 78 will be found at the side of the illustration taken from Naqada, and D. 23 beside that taken from Diospolis. A. signifies Abydos ; R. T. Royal tombs ; Am., A., or El, El Amrah ; etc. These annotations, in connection with those at the foot of the page, should, I think, render it easy to trace the originals of the illustrations. In some very exceptional cases, especially in Figs. 7 and 17, which give examples of objects which it is necessary to refer to again later, the indications relating to the identification of the objects will be found in the passage where they are treated in detail. 1
In concluding these preliminary remarks, I do not attempt to conceal the defects this work may contain. It is, in fact, hazardous to write on a subject so new as this, and especially on a class of objects the number of which increases from day to day. I sincerely hope that in a few years new discoveries will have rendered this book altogether inadequate. I have simply endeavoured to render it as complete as possible, hoping that it will remain, at any rate, a summary of the question as it existed at the moment of publication.
1 Following the example of M. SALOMON REINACH in La Sculpture europeenne avant les influences greco-romaines , I have myself drawn the greater part of these figures (except those signed with a monogram). These must, however, he considered entirely as sketches, by no means intended to supersede the original publications.
21
CHAPTER II. PERSONAL ADORNMENT.
T)RIMITIVE races paint almost the whole of the body. The only exception are the Esquimaux, who cover their bodies with clothing, at all events, when they quit their huts. The Australian always has a store of white clay, or of red and yellow ochre in his pouch. In daily life he is content with various smears on his cheeks, shoulders, or chest ; but on solemn occasions he daubs the whole of his body. 1
Is it possible to prove that any similar custom existed among the primitive Egyptians? First we must remark that "colouring materials, such as red and yellow ochre, malachite, and sulphide of antimony, are frequently found in the tombs " ~ ; these colouring materials arc usually contained in small bags, placed near the hands of the deceased person. 3
There is no evidence, I believe, to show that they painted the whole of the body, but there is a clay statuette which has designs painted over the whole body. This interesting object was discovered at Tukh ; it represents a woman, standing, with her arms above her head, in a position we shall find again in the decoration of vases. In the chapter dealing with that subject we shall make an attempt to determine, if possible, the meaning of this attitude.
The designs painted on this statuette are of various kinds. In the first place there are figures of animals, goats or antelopes, which Petrie remarks are absolutely identical with those on the
1 GROSSE, Les Debuts
9 DE MORGAN, Kechcrches sur les origines de VEgypte, ii. p. 51.
s PETRIE, Ncujada, p. 30.
22
PRIMITIVE ART IN EGYPT.
red pottery with white line decoration. We should next observe the zigzag patterns, and finally the motives borrowed from plants. All these decorations occur upon the pottery contemporary with the commencement of the prehistoric period between 31 and 32 (sequence dates). This indicates that the figure in question is of extreme antiquity, and we may consider it as one of the earliest female figures known, with the exception of the ivories discovered
FIG. 5. FIGURE OF A WOMAN WITH DESIGNS PAINTED OVER THE WHOLE BODY.
Grey clay with black paint.
in the caves of the south of France l (Fig. 5). M. de Morgan, reproducing this same figure, remarks that "it would be easy to find a large number of analogies among the tribes of Central Africa, of Asia, and of Oceania." 2
1 PETRIE, Naqada, pi. lix. 6 (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford). The examples of pottery quoted by Petrie for comparison with the paintings are the following : pi. xxviii. 34, 48; pi. xxix. 77, 85^, 91-95.
9 DE MORGAN, Recherches sur les origines dc I 'Agypte, ii. p. 56, h>. 101.
PERSONAL ADORNMENT. 23
The most interesting comparison from this point of view is one indicated by Petrie, who observes how greatly the painted designs on the body recall the tatoo-marks of the populations to the west of Egypt, those Timiliu (Libyans) who, as we shall frequently have occasion to remark, present many analogies with the primitive Egyptians. The subject of tatooing we shall consider presently.
Two clay female figures in the Petrie collection, University College, London, and a similar fragment in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, are also painted with designs analogous with those on the Tukh statuette 1 (Fig. 6).
It will thus be seen that evidence relating to painting the body is very scanty, and only enables us to assert that women were in the habit of decorating the body with various patterns. Also, it is not absolutely certain, in the objects quoted here, that we have not to deal with tatooing ; it is only the discovery of colouring materials in the tombs that leads us to believe that they are instances of painting.-'
On the subject of painting the eyes we happily possess far clearer evidence : for this purpose malachite was used, ground to powder and apparently mixed with some fatty substance. With this paint a rather broad line was drawn round the eye, which, besides being decorative, had a utilitarian purpose.
As Petrie observes, Livingstone records that in the centre of Africa he found that the best remedy against obstinate sores was powdered malachite, which the natives provided for him. The same author compares the coating of colour which preserved the eye from the blazing glare of the desert with the custom of the Esquimaux, who blacken the skin round the eye to protect it from the glare of the sno\\. :
1 My attention has been drawn to similar figures at the Turin Museum, which show distinctly the line of paint below the eyes which we are about to consider.
1 For painting the body and tatooing in pre-Mycenaean Greece, see buNKi ..\BKI,, Antiquites premycenicnncs. tudc sur la plus ancienne civilisation dc la Gri-cc, in the Mcmoircs de la Societe royale dcs antiquaires dn A'osd, new series, 1896, pp. 46-50.
3 PKIKII;, Jn',t\/,,i,'is ///; vj ( p. 20.
PRIMITIVE ART IN EGYPT.
FIG. 6. FIGURES OF WOMEN. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE. LONDON.
Grey clay with greenish paint. On the figure to the left the painting has scaled off, and only a few lines on the torso can now be distinguished.
The following facts prove that this custom existed in Egypt during the primitive period. Shells containing green paint have been discovered in the tombs, 1 and similar traces of colour have
1 PETRIE, Naqada, p. 6, tomb 522 Dallas; p. 15, tomb 23 Ballas ; p. 16,
PERSONAL ADORNMENT. 25
been found on ordinary pebbles, very much polished, which are invariably found with the slate palettes. 1
These palettes, of which we shall frequently have occasion to speak in the course of this work, served for grinding the malachite, which was crushed to powder on them by means of the pebbles I have just mentioned. The fact is demonstrated in an undeniable
FIG. 7. SLATE PALETTES USED FOR GRINDING PAINT.
manner by the traces of green paint found on them, and also by the cavities worn in them by prolonged grinding 2 (Fig. 7) Petiie has also occasionally found traces of haematite on them.
The palettes were fated to fulfil a brilliant destiny. Later
tomb 87 Ballas. The same use of shells in the fourth dynasty has also been established. See PETRIE, Medum, London, 1892, pi. xxix. 17, p. 3.;: "The shell contains powdered blue carbonate of copper as paint."
1 PETRIE, \aqada, pp. 10, 19, tomb 5 Naqada. A fine specimen of a palette with traces ot paint, from Gebelein, at Oxford.
- I'KIKIE, ^'ai/ada, p. 43.
26 PRIMITIVE ART IN EGYPT.
on we find them developed into real works of art, of immense size and apparently employed ceremonially.
We must mention the custom that existed in the primitive period of painting the bones of the deceased with red colour. Among the Australians the adolescent is painted red for the first time at his initiation, when he joins the community of the men. " Painting with red, characteristic of entrance into life, is employed also for death." l
Without more evidence than we possess we cannot determine how far this custom was general among the primitive Egyptians. I have only met with one instance mentioned by Petrie. 2
Did the habit of painting the body, and more especially of drawing a line of green paint round the eye, continue in Egypt at the historic period ?
Erom the earliest times the skin of the men on the monuments is generally represented as being of a brownish red colour, dark in tone, while the skin of the women .is yellow. M. Maspero, in his Histoire ancienne des peuples de r Orient classique} expresses himself thus on the subject : " The men are generally coloured red in these pictures ; in fact, one can observe among them all the shades seen among the population at the present day, from the most delicate pink to the colour of smoked bronze. The women, who are less exposed to the glare of the sun, are usually painted yellow, the tint being paler if they belonged to the upper classes."
This explanation might very easily be accepted. It even explains the exceptions to the red and yellow colourings which we observe on a certain number of monuments, where the skin of the women, for instance, instead of being painted yellow, is very nearly the natural colour. As an example I will mention the figure of a daughter of Prince Tchuti-hetep, in the tomb.; of El Bersheh 4 ; or, again, the representations
1 GROSSK, loc. cit. pp. 41, 42.
- Nayada, p. 25, tomb 234.
3 Vol. i. p. 47.
' XKWBKKKY, El Bersheh, i. frontispiece.
PERSONAL ADORNMENT. 27
of Queen Aahmes at Deir-el-Bahari, and of Queen Thiti, where the pink flesh colours contrast with those of thousands of other ladies painted in bright yellow on the walls of their tombs. 1
I, however, am disposed to see in the singular colouring of the Egyptians a custom resembling that of primitive nations, especially as the colours employed, red and yellow, are those most frequently in use among them. Analysing the primitive "palette," Grosse thus expresses himself: "Red, especially a yellowish red, is the favourite colour of primitive peoples, as it is of almost all nations. . . . Goethe undoubtedly expresses the general sentiment when in his Farbenlekre he speaks of the exciting influence of a yellowish red. It is for this reason that red has always played an important part in the toilet, especially in that of men. The habit of victorious Roman generals of painting themselves red has vanished with the Roman republic . . . Yellow is of similar importance, and is also employed in the same manner. . . ." 2
I believe it is by no means impossible to apply these principles to the Egyptians, and although I do not wish to assert that the custom of painting the skin in this manner was in vogue at all periods, yet I suppose that during a fairly long period it was sufficiently general to give rise to the convention of representing men in red and women in yellow. 3 The custom of painting round the eyes with green or, more accurately, of underlining the eye with a dash of green paint can with much greater certainty be attributed to Egyptian civilization.
Petrie reports that he discovered in a tomb of the first dynasty (M. I. Abydos) some powdered malachite in a small ivory box
1 NAVILLE, Dcir-c/-/>IKKK, I-'.^yf>t, 5th ed. Leipsic, 1903, p. xxxvi.
28 PRIMITIVE ART IN EGYPT.
in the form of a duck l a very interesting object as prototype of the numerous boxes of paint of the same form which have frequently been found in tombs of the Second Theban Empire, and of which several museums contain specimens 2 (Fig. 8).
The monuments of the fourth dynasty clearly show the line of green colour under the eyes, especially two door-posts at the Cairo Museum, on which is figured the wife of a personage named Sokar-khabiu, " who was called Hathornefer-Hotep as her great name, and Toupis as her short name this woman's features recall the Nubian type ; she has a line of green paint under the
eyes." 3 The celebrated statues of Sepa and of Nesa at the Louvre have the same lines. " The pupils, the eyelids, and the eyebrows are painted black, and below the eyes
FIG. 8.-h^RY Box IN FORM is a line of S reen -" ' The mummy OF A DUCK. O f Ranefer, who lived about the com-
mencement of the fourth dynasty, was closely enveloped in linen wrappings, and on these the eyes and eyebrows were painted green. 5
The green powder used in preparing the paint was enclosed in small bags, which are frequently represented in the lists of offerings. They were made, as these pictured representations show, of leather or skin,' 5 and the specimens found in the graves confirm the accuracy of this detail. Occasionally also the paint was placed in small vases or baskets. I cannot attempt to enter into the question of the composition of this green paint in Pharaonic Egypt, nor stop to describe the various paints in 'use at the same period. It would have no bearing on
1 PETRIE, Diospolis paiva, p. 20. Published in PETRIE, Royal Tombs, i. pi. xxxvii. i see p. 27 ; id. ii. p. 37.
8 An example in PETRIE, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara, pi. xviii. 10, and p. 35 ; txvo others in LEEMANS, Aegyptische Monumenten van het Nederlandsche Museum van Oudheden te Ley den, ii. pi. xxxvi. 565, 567.
3 MASPERO, Guide to the Cairo Museum, Cairo, 1903, p. 40, No. 62.
4 DE ROUGE, Notice des monuments, A 36-38, pp. 26, 27.
5 PETRIE, Medum, p. 18.
c GRIFFITH, Rent Hasan, iii. pi. iii. 27, p. 14.
PERSONAL ADORNMENT. 29
the subject of this work, and it has already been admirably done by others. 1 I must, however, mention the traces left in Egyptian writing and ritual by this use of green paint.
A hieroglyphic sign ^^ clearly shows the line of colour drawn below the eye, and this sign, in addition to other uses, serves
to determine the name Uazu FT _y S~) f tne powder and of green paint. 2
In the rituals frequent allusions are made to green paint, occurring as early as the Pyramid texts, and the belief in the protective and curative virtues of the paint was such, even at that time, that the Uzait, the painted eye, was called the sound or healthy eye. This point has been rendered perfectly clear by Maspero, who has several times written on the subject. 3
The daily ritual of the divine cult in Egypt, and also the funerary rituals, mention bringing a bag of green paint as a means whereby the god, or the deceased person, " makes himself heilthy with all that is in him." 4
Finally, a curious text is expressed in these terms : " He brings to thce green paint for thy right eye, and mestem [another paint] for thy left eye." 5
The designs with which primitive man paints his skin have no persistency of character ; they can be got rid of at will and others substituted. Under some circumstances it may be
1 WIEDEMAXX, A., Varieties of ancient " AW//,'' in PETRIK, Medum, pp. 41-44. FLOREXCE & LORET, Le collyre noir et le collyre vert du tombeau dc la princesse Noubhutep, in DE MORGAN, Fouilles d Dakckour, March June, 1894, pp. 153-164; also printed separately, Vienna, 1895, 16 pp.
* MASPERO, Kerns
' M AM KUO, Xotes ait jour le jour, 25, in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology i xiv. 1902, pp. 313-316, and La table d offrande.s des tombeaux cgypticns, in the Revue de I'histoire dcs religions, xxxv. 1897, p. 297 (separate reprint, p. 23). PETRIE, Medum, pi. xiii. MARIETTE, Monuments divers,
>-t-rn<-i His en gypte et en Italic, Paris, 1889, pi. xix. d, where | ' ^ occurs from a
OOO
ma-;.iba of the beginning of the fourth dynasty.
1 See MOKKI, Lerituel du culte divin journalicr en gypte, in the Annales
I/H .1///V,-. C,nhni-t, ttihliolh ft/ n,- i/c/i/i/cs, xiv. pp. 71, 109, 199.
VCZK, the symbol of the goddess Neitk ; and in this connection we are led to consider the name of the wife of an Egyptian king of the first dynasty called Meri-Neith. M. Maspero writes thus on the subject : " The name of Meri-
1 WIEDEMANN, Die Urzeit Aegyptens und seine dlteste Bevolkerung, in Die Umschau, September 23rd, 1899, pp. 756-766. Les modes d'ensevelissement dans la necropole dc Ncgadak et la question de I'origine du peuple egyptien, in DE MORGAN, Recherches sur les engines de rgypte, ii. pp. 221, 222. PETRIE, Naqada, pp. 45, 46. Tatouages des indigenes de I'Algerie, in I'Anthropologic, xi. 1900, p. 485.
2 LEPSIUS, Denkmiiler aus Aegypten imd Acthiopicn, iii. pi. 136.
I'KRSONAL ADORNMENT. 31
Neith is interesting," apart from its being a royal name; "but we were already aware from other proofs of the important part played by Neith in the religion of the earliest centuries. The ladiVs of high position who are buried or mentioned in the mastabas of the Memphite period have, as favourite titles, thoseof ' Prophetess of Neith ' or ' Prophetess of Hathor.' Neith appears to have been a goddess of Libyan origin, and the predominance of her cult during the primitive period is noteworthy at this moment, when the Berlin school is Semitizing to the utmost the language and the population of Egypt." l
FIG. 10. LIBYANS FROM THE TOMB OF SKTI I.
This leads us to enquire whether the painting and tatooing of the body had not some other object, in addition to an aesthetic one. In order to answer this we must examine our ethnological evidence. Family and tribal marks arc generally to be recognized, and as it sometimes happens that a tribe selects the symbol of a divinity for its distinctive mark, there is a chance of finding religious signs among tatoo-marks. 2
1 MASPERO, in the Rrvue critique, November I2th, 19x0, p. 366. For the contrary opinion, but with inadequate arguments, see MAC!VER & WiLKiN f I.iliyan Notes, London, 1901, pp. 69, 70. For Meri-Neith see SETHE, Beitrdge zitr iiltcsten Gesr.hichte Aegvfitcns (Untcrsuchungen zur Geschichte und Alterthmnskundc Aegyptcnx, licrtuisgegebcn van Kurt ^cthc, iii. i), pp. 29, 30.
* GROSSE, he. cit. p. 55 et. seq.
32 PRIMITIVE ART IN EGYPT.
Occasionally tatoo-marks are actually pictographic, and convey a meaning. An American Indian, for instance, bore on his arm zigzag lines signifying " mysterious power." l Also, tatooing may be intended to serve a medical purpose. 2 The Egyptians of the classical period tatooed themselves occasionally on the breast or on the arms with the names or representations of divinities. This custom was perhaps exclusively confined to the Second Theban Empire ; I do not remember to have met with an example outside that period. It will be sufficient to mention some instances of this. Amenophis IV. and his queen bore the names of the god A ten tatooed upon the breast and arms. With reference to this subject Professor Wiedemann remarks that Libyan influence can clearly be traced during this reign. 3 A stela in the Pesth Museum shows a personage contemporary with Thothmes III., who bears on his right arm a cartouche of that king. 4
On other examples we find the figure of the god Amon-Ra tatooed on the right shoulder, notably on a statue of a kneeling scribe in the Turin Museum. 5 Another statue in the Leyden Museum (D 19) bears on the right shoulder a small figure of Amon-Ra, and on the left shoulder the cartouche of Amenophis
1 GARRICK MALLERY, Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1888-9, Washington, 1893, pi. xvii. p. 235. Examples by HOERNES, Urgeschichte der bildenden Kunst in Europa von den Anfdngen bis ttm 500 vor Chr., Vienna, 1898, p. 31, note 4. There the author also mentions the Libyans of the tomb of Seti I.
2 FOUQUET, Le Tatouagc medical en Egypte dans rantiquite et a Vepoque actuelle, in the Archives d'anthropologie criminelle, xiii. 1899, p. 270 et seq. See BUSCHAN in the Centralblatt fur Anthropologie, iv. p. 75, and R. VERXEAU in f Anthropologie, x. 1899, p. 99. Professor Petrie draws my attention to the mummy of a priestess of the sixth dynasty, in Cairo, where there are numerous tatoo-marks on the body.
:| WIEDEMANN, Die Urzeit Acgyptens ... in Die Umschau, iii. 1899, p. 766, and in DE MORGAN, Kecherches sttr les origines de VEgypte, ii. p. 222. For the figured representations see LEPSIUS, Denkmdler, iii. pi. 106, 109. Professor Petrie has remarked to me that in this case the so-called tatoo-marks may be, in reality, small plaques of glazed pottery fixed on fine muslin. At Tel-el-Amarna similar plaques are found witli the name of the god Aten.
4 MASPERO, Notes sur differents points de grammaire et d'histoire, in the Melanges d'archeologie cgyptienne et assyrienne, i. 1872, p. 151.
5 MASPERO, Histoireancienncdcs pcuplcs del' Orient classiquc, ii. p. 531, figure.
PERSONAL ADORNMENT. 33
[I. ?] l Another example from the same museum (V 82) represents a sculptor who bears on his breast and shoulders the tatooed sign
H 8
^8n> temple of Ptah. Finally, a small statuette, of which
the upper part alone remains, in the Cabinet des Mtdailles in Paris, shows that on \ the breast and shoulders signs were tatooed, the meaning of which we cannot always follow, and which bear considerable resemblance to the marks found on pottery (Fig. 11).
FIG. II. FRAGMENT OF A STATUETTE WITH TATOO-MARKS ON THE BREAST AND RIGHT SHOULDER.
Cabinet des Me'dailles, Paris.
With regard to decorative tatoo-marks, they are somewhat rare on Egyptian remains of the classical period. They occur, however, on a small figure of a woman in fatence in the Berlin Museum (No. 9,583), 2 on a stela in the Cairo Museum (No. 20,138),
1 LEEMANS, Aegyptische Monumenten van het Nederlandsche Museum van Oudheden tc Ley den, ii. pi. 4.
1 STRATZ, Ueber die Klcidiing der dgyptischen Tdnzerinncn in the Zeitschrift fttr dgyptische Sprache, xxxviii. 1900, p. 149.
3
34 PRIMITIVE ART IN EGYPT.
where a man is decorated on the breast with tatoo-marks, 1 and finally in a representation of a tomb of the Second Theban Empire. 2
" The perforation of the ear, the nose, or the lips is done with a view to placing some kind of ornament in the hole thus obtained ; this form of mutilation may therefore be considered as a natural step towards the second method of personal adornment, which consists in placing or hanging ornaments upon the body." 3 1 am not certain that the prehistoric Egyptians practised these mutilations, nevertheless, I wish to draw attention to the use of ear-studs in the classic period ; and, first, we will observe that one of the Libyans of the tomb of Seti I. is wearing ear-studs, judging from the plates published by Belzoni and by Champollion. Lepsius, in the plate of which our Fig. 10 represents a part, has not noted the ear-stud. 4 (See Fig. 19.)
In Egypt the wearing of ear-studs is fairly frequent, but only at the commencement of the eighteenth dynasty. As Erman remarks, 5 these ear-ornaments are either broad discs or large rings. During the reign of Amenophis IV. one finds that men wore these ear-ornaments as much as women. 6
1 LANGE & SCHAEFER, Grab- und Denksteine des mittlcren Reichs (Catalogue general des antiquites Egyptiennes du Mus6e du Caire), i. p. 163 ; iv. pi. Ixxxvi. p. 465.
8 LEPSIUS, Denkmaler, iii. 2. See ERMAN, Life in Ancient Egypt, p. 230 and fig. p. 216. See MASPERO, Histoire ancienne des peuples de I Orient classique, i. p. 54, and note 3. See ALFRED HERZ, Tdttowirung, Art und Verbreitung, Leipsic, 1900 (Doctor-dissertation, Universitat Erlangen). On the subject of tatooing and painting the body among the Greeks, see WOLTERS, P., 'EXa^ooriKTOf, in Hermes, xxxviii. pp. 265-273.
3 DENIKER, Lcs races et les peuples de la terre, Paris, 1900, p. 209.
4 BELZONI, Plates illustrative of the Researches and Operations of G. Belzoni in Egypt and Nubia, London, 1821, pi. viii. CHAMPOLLION, Monuments de VEgypte, pi. ccxl. For a reproduction of the head after this plate see PERROT & CHIPIEZ, Histoire de I'art dans ^antique, i. Egypte, fig. 528, p. 796. It is much to be regretted that the various publications of this important representation vary so greatly in the details. It is very desirable that an edition definitive should be made.
5 ERMAN, Life in Ancient Egypt, p. 228.
fl STEINDORFF, Vier Grabstelen aus der Zeit Amenophis IV., in the Zeitschrift fiir Aegyptische Sprache, xxxiv. 1896, p. 66.
PERSONAL ADORNMENT.
35
The woman represented in the charming statuette of the Bologna Museum (Fig. 12) "is very proud of her large ear-ornaments, and is gravely pushing one of them forward, either to show it off or to assure herself that the jewel is safely in its place." l These discs are found not infrequently in tombs of the Second Theban Empire, and a certain number appear to have been intended to be fixed in the lobe of the ear, which must necessarily have been greatly distended. 2
Professor Schweinfurth has published a ring in brocatel belonging to the primitive period, which, judging from its shape and also from its external profile, can only have been used as a lip-ring. 3
\Vc now pass to the consideration of methods of hairdressing in ancient Egypt. On one of the earliest vases of the kind called by Petrie " cross-lined pottery," which was only in use at the beginning of the primitive period (sequence dates 31-34), a combat between two men is represented (Fig. 13). One of the combatants has his hair divided on the top of the head into four tresses, which hang down his back . '
1 MASPERO, Histoire andenne des peuples de i } Orient classiyitc, ii. p. 533 and fig., where the author states, probably erroneously, that the statuette belongs to the Turin Museum. Petrie's photograph of the same, from which he has reproduced it, is No. 83 of the Italian series, but has the letter B, indicating Bologna.
8 If it is doubted that such a distension of the ear, in some cases very considerable, can be a fact, such examples as are represented by SCHURTZ, Urgeschichte dcr Kultur, Leipsic, 1900, pp. 65 and 396, will carry most complete conviction. ELLIOTT SMITH, Report on t/t<- Minnntv of the Priestess Nesitet-ncb-taui, in the Annales du service des Antii/idtfs de VEgyptc^ iv. 1903, p. 158.
3 SCHWKIM IK i n, Ueber eincn Altiigyf>tisclicn Ring aits Brocatelle, in the Verhandlun^cn dcr hcrl. Anthropol. Gescllschaft (February, 1902, pp. 99, 100).
4 PETRIE, Diospolis parva> p. 14 : " M. Schweinfurth avait 6mis 1'idee que les 'n6olithiques' egyptiens se teignaient les cheveux en blond (par decoloration
FIG. 12. WOODEN STATUETTE IN THE BOLOGNA MUSEUM, WITH IVORY EAR-ORNAMENTS.
PRIMITIVE ART IN EGYPT.
Other remains of more recent date show the hair arranged in a variety of ways, the hair worn long and divided into
two rows of curls, framing the face and hanging down to the shoulders : ; or short hair in small curls, either round or of " corkscrew " form, arranged in parallel rows from the nape of the neck to the crown of the head 2 ; or, again, in other instances, the whole of the hair massed in a single thick plait, which, falling from the crown of the head, hangs down the back 3 (Fig. 14).
All these methods of hairdressing for men are also found on the monuments of the Ancient Egyptian Empire, where in this respect the Egyptians appear to have faithfully followed the traditions of their predecessors. The single plait, however, is no longer worn by men ; by this time it
a 1'aicle de chaux ou d'urine) ou en roux (par coloration avec du henn6). M. Virchovv croit devoir ecarter cette hypothese. . . ." SALOMON REINACH, review of VIRCHOW, Ueber die ethnologische Stellung der prdhistorischen und protohistorischen Aegypter (AbFIG. 13. POTTERY VASE WITH DESIGNS IN handlungen der Prcuss. Akademie WHITE REPRESENTING MEN FIGHTING. der Wissenschaften, Berlin, 1898), in
VAnthropologie, ix. 1898, p. 447. 1 QUIBELL, Hierakonpolis, i. pi. ii.
- Id. pi. v. and vi., and PETRIE, The Races of Early Egypt, in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxi. pi. xix. n and 12.
3 QUIBELL, Hierakonpolis, i. pi. xi. and xxvi. a, and PETRIE, Royal Tombs of the Earliest Dynasties, ii. pi. iv. 4.
PERSONAL ADORNMENT. 37
is worn only by children, or as one of the distinctive marks of princes and certain high sacerdotal dignitaries. In this case, when we see it represented on the monuments of the Second Theban Empire, the plait has usually lost its original form, and is transformed into a fringed band hanging over the ear. 1
The earliest female figures have no trace of any hair whatever, and it might be considered that the head was entirely shaved.
FIG. 14. IVORY STATUETTE. A crouching captive. The hair, in a thick plait or twist, is hanging down the back.
It is probable, however, that this is owing to the inexperience of the artist, who did not understand how to render hair. 2
1 For the types of wigs of the Ancient Empire, see ERMAN, Life in Ancient Egypt, pp. 219-222. For the side-locks of children and of princes, ib. pp. 1 17, 235, 314, reproduction of the lock transformed into a decorated bandeau. This forms an interesting example of the laws of evolution of clothing as laid down by DARWIN, G. H., devolution dans le vetcmcnt, in the Kevue de rUnii>crsitc
Petrie shows yet another arrangement, the whole of the hair being drawn slightly to one side in a thick plait, which hangs down the right shoulder-blade 3 (Fig. 15).
1 QUIBELL, Hicmkonpolis, i. pi. ix. PETRIE, Royal Tombs, ii. pi. iii. a, 8.
2 QUIBELL, loc. cit. i. pi. ix. xi. See, farther on, various female figures which show numerous examples of the two kinds of hairdressing. It is possible that a certain number of rings, hitherto classed as bracelets, were employed in hairdressing to support the curls, as they are found used in Greece (tettiges) and in the Punic tombs. See GSELL, Fouilles de Gouraya: Sepultures puniqucs de la cote algerienne (publication of the Association Historique de I ' Afrique dn Nord), Paris, Leroux, 1903, p. 39.
:< PETRIE, Abydos, ii. pi. iv. p. 25.
PERSONAL ADORNMENT. 39
Here, again, we find modes of dressing the hair identical with those in use among women at the commencement of the Ancient Empire, such as are represented, for instance, in the celebrated statues of Nofrit, at Cairo, and of Nesa, at the Louvre. 1
Savages of the present day delight in decorating their hair with various objects, such as feathers, shells, carved combs and pins, and we . find this same custom prevailing among the primitive Egyptians. We first meet with feathers, which the men stuck in their hair ; this is specially noticeable on a fragment of a slate palette in the Louvre. 2 The feathers worn in this way are ostrich feathers, and it is a question whether there was not a religious significance in this method of employing them. The feather is found later as the headdress of the goddess Maat, and also it is employed in writing her name, which, in the Pyramid texts, is determined by a hawk bearing the feather on its head. 3 On the ancient statues discovered at Koptos by Petrie, the emblem of the god Min is surmounted by an ostrich feather. 4
I must mention here that ostrich eggs have been found in prehistoric tombs, showing traces of painting and engraving (Fig. 1 6). The custom of depositing ostrich eggs in tombs has several times been observed at different periods of Egyptian history. 5 At HO Petrie discovered clay models of ostrich eggs :
1 See ERMAN, Life in Ancient Egypt, pp. 222, 223.
2 HEUZEY, Egypte ou Chaldee, in the Comptcs rendus de VAcademie des inscriptions et belles lettres, 1899, pi. on p. 66. See, farther on, our Fig. 25.
3 GRIFFITH, in DAVIES, The Mastaba of Ptahhetep and Akhcthetep at Saqqare/t, i. p. 15.
4 PETRIE, Koptos, pi. 3.
5 DE MORGAN, Recherches sur les origines de f Egypte, ii. pp. 35, 69, and 100. PETRIE, Naqada, p. 19, tomb 4; p. 28, tomb 1480 (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford). At the historic period, ostrich eggs and feathers were imported from the land of Punt, and perhaps also from Asia, if we credit a scene in the tomb of Harmhabi. See BOURIANT, Le Tombeau d'Harmhabi, in the Memoircs de la Mission archcologif/ue francaise du Caire, \. pp. 420 and 422, and pi. iii. and iv. We must also remember the discovery of painted eggs in the Punic tombs of Carthage (GsELL, Fouilles de Gonraya, Paris, 1903, pp. 35-37, where the author questions whether ostrich eggs were not decorated by the Greeks of Egypt or of Asia Minor), and even in a tomb of the valley of Betis in Spain (tAnthropologie, xi. 1901, p. 469). See also PETRIE, \nukmtis, i. p. 14 and pi. xx. 15. It must, nevertheless, be remembered that the ostrich egg was employed for industrial
40 PRIMITIVE ART IN EGYPT.
one of these is decorated with black zigzag lines in imitation of cords 1 ; the others are simply painted with white spots 2 (Fig 16).
The ostrich feather almost without exception is found placed in the hair of lightly-armed soldiers of ancient times, and a trace of
this is preserved in the hieroglyph ^|- 3 The Libyans of the tomb of Seti I. have two feathers stuck in their hair.
FIG. 1 6. OSTRICH EGGS.
A fragment with incised figures ; also clay models showing traces of painting.
Naqada and Hu.
From
The women delighted in the use of decorated combs and pins for fastening up their hair ; these were made of bone or ivory,
purposes. See TYLOR & GRIFFITH, The Tomb of Paheri at El Kab, pi. iv. and p. 1 8. PETRIE, Illahun, Kahun and Gurob^ pi. xxii. and p. 19. PETRIE, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara, p. 32. Mr. J. L. Myres contributes the following interesting note relative to the persistence of the commerce in ostrich eggs in the north of Africa : " The transsaharan trade in ostrich eggs persists. The eggs, as far as I could ascertain in Tunis and Tripoli (in 1897), come via Kano, along with the consignments of feathers, and emerge at the Mediterranean seaboard termini, where they are in request as pendant ornaments in the mosques."
1 PETRIE, Diospolis parva, pi. v. and p. 33 (tomb BIOI).
HU, tomb 6262 and 656 (2 examples), (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford).
3 See the remarks of MAX MULLER, Asien und Europa nach altagyptischen Denkmalcrn, p. 3 et seq.
PERSONAL ADORNMENT.
and were often decorated at the top with figures of animals;
occasionally even a human figure is found on them. Petrie
remarks that these combs were especially numerous at the
commencement of the prehistoric period between 33 and 44
(sequence dates), while the pins,
of which the most common
type is decorated with a small
figure of a bird, are found
throughout the whole of the
prehistoric period 1 (Fig. 17).
We shall have an opportunity
of examining these more in
detail when studying ornamental
art, but we will here observe
that it is possible these combs
and hairpins had a magical
purpose, as is notably the case
in China. 2
The art of decorating the hair and of arranging it in a complicated manner does not appear to have been raised to any high level in primitive Egypt. Nevertheless, there are certain indications which seem to point to a more elevated
ideal. Is it not possible to
. . , , FIG. 17. COMBS AND A PIN, DECORATED
recognize in the head-dresses WITH ANIMAL AND B,RD FIGURES.
of certain kings, queens, and
divinities on monuments of the classical period survivals of
1 PEFRIE, Diospolis parva, p. 21. See pi. vi., where pins, a combined comb and pin, and also a spoon are to be seen still entangled in the hair of a woman.
1 J. J. M. DE GROOT, The Religious System of China, i. pp. 55-57 : "Among the hairpins provided for a woman's burial is almost always one which is adorned with small silver figures of a stag, a tortoise, a peach, and a crane. These being emblems of longevity, it is supposed that the pin which is adorned with them will absorb some of their life-giving power, and communicate it to the woman in whose hair it is ultimately fastened." Example quoted by FRAZER, The ( roll/en Bough, 2nd ed. i. p. 48.
42 PRIMITIVE ART IN EGYPT.
earlier fashions? Observe, for example, the head-dress worn by the queens, which is formed of the feathers of a vulture, with the head of the bird arranged in front of the forehead. 1 A large number of instances of decorations for the hair comparable with those of Egypt can be furnished by ethnology. 2
One solitary fact bears witness to the honour in which elaborate hairdressing was held in primitive Egypt, and that is the custom of depositing in the tombs head-rests, which were used during sleep to preserve artistic coiffures, not intended to be renewed every day, and which it was desirable to keep in good order as long as possible. 3
FIG. 18. BAND OF FALSE HAIR. From the tomb of King Zer, of the first dynasty.
Under the Ancient Empire the charge of the king's hair and of his wigs was bestowed on great personages. Maspero mentions an inspector of wig-makers to the king, and also a director of wig-makers to the king, contemporary with with the fourth and fifth dynasties. 4 Petrie discovered in the tomb of King Zer, of the first dynasty, at Abydos, a band of false hair (Fig. 18), composed of curls, and apparently intended
1 See an example of this head-dress upon the stela of Queen Nubkhas in the Louvre (C 13), dating back to the thirteenth dynasty. It is the earliest example I know.
a GROSSE, Les Debuts de rArt, pp. 67, 68.
3 SCHURTZ, Urgeschichte der Kultur, Leipsic, 1900, p. yftetseq.
4 MASPERO, Histoire ancicnne des pe^^ples de I* Orient classique, i. p. 278, note i.
PERSONAL ADORNMENT. 43
to be worn on the forehead. 1 The Libyans of the tomb of Seti I. are wearing two rows of similar curls between their hair, which is divided and falls on both sides of the head (Fig. 19).
Very numerous examples show that the men ordinarily wore their beards trimmed to a point. We shall meet with some of these when we are considering representations of the human figure.
FIG. 19. HEAD OF ONE OF THE LIBYANS FROM THE TOMB OF SETI I.
Showing the ear-ring, the rows of curls on the forehead, and the hair falling over the right shoulder.
We must here pause a moment to consider a curious figure in the MacGrcgor Collection 2 (Fig. 20), where the hair, as well as the beard, is enveloped in a kind of pouch which completely conceals them. If it is not, as Naville suggests, "a
1 PETRIE, Abydos, i. pi. iv. 7 and p. 5 : " The fringe of locks is exquisitely made, entirely on a band of hair, showing a long acquaintance with hair work at that age. It is now in the Pitt-Rivers Museum at Oxford."
1 NAVILLE, Figurines egyptiennes de I'epoque arc/iau/ne, ii., in the Rccueil de iravaux relaiifs d la philologie et a I'archeologic egyptiennes ct assynennes, xxii. 1900, pi. vi. and p. 68.
44
PRIMITIVE ART IN EGYPT.
conventional or childish representation of hair," one might here recognize an object related to the royal toilettes of the classical period, where a false beard was affixed by means of straps. What can have been the object of this sort of covering ? Was it used in order to ensure purity, for instance, during religious ceremonies? May not the custom which prevailed among the Egyptian priests of completely shaving themselves have been simply a radical measure for avoiding all contamination that
FIG. 20. FIGURE FROM THE MACGREGOR COLLECTION.
With a bag for the hair and beard, and a sheath to protect the lower part
of the body.
might arise from the hair and beard ? 1 This is merely a suggestion which I throw out, and on which I do not wish to insist unduly. 2 A comparison might be suggested with the
1 One might compare this with the habit of our modern surgeons, who occasionally cover the hair and beard during operations in order to avoid any risk of infection for the patient.
2 On the subject of wearing a natural or false beard see ERMAN, Life in Ancient Egypt, especially pp. 225, 226, and the various passages quoted in the index under " Beard." The motive suggested by MORET, Coup d'oeil surV Egypte primitive, p. 5, for the wearing of wigs and false beards, seems to me to be unfounded.
PERSONAL ADORNMENT. 45
paddn of the Magian 1 religion ; or, again, with the Jewish custom of covering the beard as a sign of mourning. 2
There is a small series of interesting objects which affords a proof that the custom of covering the lower part of the face with a veil was already known in the second half of the primitive period (sequence dates 50-61). These are small objects of shell, of limestone, or, more rarely, of copper, which were suspended in front of the forehead. At the base is a hook, which, as Petrie has conjectured, was used to support a veil. One of these pendants has been found still in position upon a skull, and shows clearly the manner in which it was worn. One specimen, decorated with lines in imitation of plaited work, points to the fact that these pendants were also made of woven fibre, and this would explain their rarity in the tombs, as only those in more enduring materials would survive (Fig. 21). Other specimens have not the hook at the lower end, and must therefore have been worn merely as ornaments on the forehead. Two specimens belonging to the Petrie Collection are in the form of female figures.
It is possible that the pendants and veil before the face were worn by men f as well as by women, or even exclusively by men, to judge by the custom of the Touaregs, and also of certain Arabs. 3 After prehistoric times in Egypt there are no traces of this custom of veiling the face, and it
1 In the Magian religion the officiant has the lower part of the face covered with a veil, the paddn (av. paitidana), which prevents the breath from defiling the sacred fire, and the hands covered with gloves. Cf. DARMESTETER, Zend Avesta, i. p. Ixi. He also wears \\\t paddn in eating, in order not to contaminate the food, which he swallows at one gulp between two intakings of breath ib. ii. p. 214, No. 31. The paddn was worn by the magi of Cappadocia, at the time of Strabo (Augustus), xv. 733 c, ndpas TriXomif KadttKvias fmrqfM6n fi/Xpt TOV KaXvTTTfiv Tu \ti\T) rag irapoyvaoidas. (Note contributed by M. Franz Cumont.)
1 BENZINGER, Hebrflische Archtlologie (Grundriss der theologischen Wissenschaften, Zweite Reihe, Erster Band), Freiburg i. B. and Leipsic, 1894, p. 165.
3 FRAZER, The Golden Dough, 2nd ed. i. p. 313: "Among the Touaregs of the Sahara all the men (and not the women) keep the lower part of their face, especially the mouth, veiled constantly ; the veil is never put off, not even in eating or sleeping." Also note 3 : " Amongst the Arabs men sometimes veiled their faces."
46 PRIMITIVE ART IN EGYPT.
was the Arabs who introduced it once more in the seventh century A.D. 1
Grosse, in his book Les Debuts de r Art? refers to an interesting remark of Lippert : " The principle followed in selecting the
FIG. 21. ORNAMENTS FOR THE FOREHEAD. The two upper ornaments have been used for hanging a veil before the face.
portions of the body to be adorned with ornaments is governed by practical considerations, and is a principle into which con-
1 PETRIE, Naqada, pi. Ixii. 21-23, an< ^ p. 47 ; Diospolis parva, pi. iii. and p. 22. Prehistoric Egyptian Carvings, in Man, 1902, No. 113, pp. 161, 162, and pi. 1. 5-7. See SOCIN, A., Doctrines of El Islam, in BAEDEKER, Egypt, 5th ed. 1902, p. Ixvii. " The practice of wearing veils dates from very remote times (Gen. xxiv. 65 ; Isa. iii. 22, 23), though it is doubtful whether it was customary among the ancient Egyptians, as veiled women never appear upon the monuments."
2 Pp. 63, 64.
PERSONAL ADORNMENT. 47
siderations of ideal arrangement do not enter. . . . The parts of the body which are destined to carry ornaments are those contracted above larger portions which are bony or muscular. These parts are the following: the forehead and the temples, with the projecting bones below and the support afforded by the ear, the neck and shoulders, the sides and hips ; with the legs it is the part above the ankles ; with the arms, the biceps, the wrist, and in a lesser degree the fingers. Primitive man makes use of all these for affixing ornaments ; but he was not led to this choice by aesthetic reasons, but by purely practical considerations."
We have already spoken of the arrangement of the hair among the primitive Egyptians. We must now study their necklaces, waist-belts, bracelets, and rings, and see in what manner clothing may have developed out of these entirely elementary decorations.
The simplest form of such decoration consists in attaching to different parts of the body " thongs of leather, sinews of animals, or herbaceous fibres." 1 These in turn were hung with shells, beads, claws of animals, etc.
In Egypt shells frequently occur in prehistoric tombs. Pierced with a hole, they were evidently used as ornaments, 2 and their use was continued into historical times, when shells were even imitated in glazed pottery, or in metal, to form parts of necklaces. I must content myself with a mere reference to the marvellous jewels found at Dahchour by M. de Morgan. 3
A large number of beads have been discovered in the tombs of the primitive Egyptians, of which the forms remain practically the same throughout the whole of the prehistoric period. This is not the case with the materials of which they were made and Petrie has drawn up a chronological list of these with considerable detail. 1
Most of the ivory objects found in the tombs, which Petrie believes to be stoppers for leather bottles, I am inclined to consider as necklace ornaments. " They are a species of pendant, formed
1 DENIKER, Les races et les peuples de la tcrre, p. 211 et seq. 3 DE MORGAN, Rccherches sur les origincs de l'gypte, ii. p. 59.
3 DE MORGAN, l-'otdllcs
of ornamentation. 3 It is probable that these rings were also worn on the legs, as shown in the representation of the chief of the land of Punt at Deir-el-Bahari. 4
As a question of stone-working it is astonishing to find primitive man making rings in flint. 5 Many conjectures have
1 PETRIE, Naqada, pi. xliii. I (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford).
2 PLEYTE, Chapitres supplemcntaires du Livre des Morts, i. pp. 147, 148. SCHWEINFURTH, Artes Africanac, Leipsic and London, 1875, pi. iii. 12.
3 PETRIE, Naqada, pp. 42 and 47.
4 PLEYTE, ib. fig. facing p. 147.
5 DE MORGAN, Rccherches sur les origines de rgypte } ii. pp. 60, 61.
PERSONAL ADORNMENT. 51
been hazarded to explain the manner in which this was accomplished, but it remained for the fortunate discoveries of Seton Karr at \Vady-el-Sheikh to show us all the phases of the work. 1 The frequent occurrence on Egyptian monuments of Pharaonic times of collars, bracelets, and anklets has frequently been remarked on, and we need not therefore dwell longer on that point. 2
The primitive Egyptian was also well acquainted with fingerrings, especially in ivory, either plain or decorated with a knob. Two very curious specimens show that occasionally they were
D.23
o.zs
FIG. 24. IVORY RINGS.
decorated with figures of animals ; one of these has two feline animals on it, 3 and on the other are four hawks 4 (Fig. 24).
So far we have not dealt with the decoration of the hips, and this because there is not, to my knowledge, any monument of the primitive period which shows us such a decoration. There exists no statuette, no drawing, on which we can see a thong of leather round the waist adorned with beads or pendants. But it is difficult to say whether the beads and pendants which
1 SCHWEINFURTH, AcgyptiscJicr Ringe aus Kiesclmassc, in the Zeitschrift fur Ethnologic, xxxi. 1899, p. 496 et seq. FORBES, On a collection of stone implements in the Mayer Museum, made by M. H. W. Seton Karr, in mines of the ancient I'.^vfitians discovered by him on the plateaux of the Nile Valley, in the Bulletin Liverpool Museum, ii. Nos. 3 and 4, pp. 78-80, and fig. on p. 82.
* ERMAN, Life in Ancient Egypt, p. 227.
3 A specimen in the MacGregor Collection, Tarn worth (No. 1,409 a).
1 PETRIE, Naqada, pi. Ixii. 30 ; Ixiv. 78 and p. 47. Diospoiis, ix. 23 ; x. 24, 25, and pp. 21, 22.
52 PRIMITIVE ART IN EGYPT.
have been discovered may not have decorated that part of the body as appropriately as they did the neck, arms, and legs. By analogy, therefore, we can imply the use of ornamental girdles ; and here we verge on the interesting subject of the origin of clothing.
"The skin of an animal is suspended from the cord tied round the throat, and forthwith it is transformed into a mantle. With the Fuegians this piece of skin is so scanty that, in order to protect the body effectually, it has to be turned, following the direction of the wind. The thong round the waist, the belt, is also hung with various appendages, and becomes a petticoat.
" The leafy branches which are thrust by the Veddahs under their waist-belts, the pieces of bark held by the same belt among the Niam-Niam, the ' sarang ' of the Indo-Malay, which supplies the elements both of petticoat and of girdle all these are the prototype of the petticoat." l
Writing of the indigenous inhabitants of the Andaman Islands, Grosse expresses himself as follows : " There is, however, one tribe the women of which wear nothing round the waist but a very fine string, from which some quite short fibres hang ; this must evidently be a mere ornament." 2
Erman has already remarked that, under the Ancient Empire, the Egyptians of the lower classes, principally those who were brought by their occupation into habitual contact with water, are occasionally represented as absolutely nude ; while their fellow workers, for the most part, are wearing only a narrow girdle with a few short strips hanging down in front. 3 These can scarcely be called articles of clothing ; and yet one would hesitate to call them ornaments, if one were not assured by numerous ethnological parallels.
I may add that in some cases this simple cord knotted round the loins served as an amulet. On this subject I will quote the curious observation of Dr. Stacquez, who, on the
1 DENIKER, Les races et les peuplcs de la terre, p. 312. 8 GROSSE, Les Debuts dc VArt, p. 70. 3 ERMAN, Life in Ancient Egypt, p. 212.
PERSONAL ADORNMENT. 53
subject of the modern population of Thebes, writes thus : " The greater number of boys were entirely nude, and among them were some who might have been fifteen years old. But they all wore a fine thread round their bodies in form of a girdle. To go entirely naked was the natural course of events for these folks, but it would have been the height of indecency to have omitted to tie a thread round their loins, and no one would have dared to show himself in that state. I asked the reason of such a custom, and I was told that it had always existed that it was considered that the thread concealed their nakedness, and that it represented the garments that they could not wear owing to the high temperature of the country. I myself believe that the thread should be considered as a species of amulet, and for this reason : in some parts of Egypt it is the habit to have a small cord tied by the sheikh round the wrists and ankles as a preservative against sprains and other accidents while working or walking. It is therefore possible that the thread encircling the loins among the inhabitants of Thebes is a similar practice passed into a habit, of which the reason 'is forgotten." 1
It should also be remembered that under the Second Theban Empire the young female slaves and the dancing women wore as their only clothing a girdle, which occasionally may have been ornamented. 2
Let us see how this was during the primitive age. On the famous painted tomb of Hierakonpolis, with which we shall later have to deal at length, there arc several personages whose only garment appears to be a girdle knotted round the waist. The same is seen on the palettes and mace-heads from the same locality, where the forms are already verging on those of the Ancient Empire. 3
1 STACQUEZ, L'gyptc, la basse Nubie et le Sinai, Liege, 1865, pp. 252, 253. See also MASPERO, Histoire ancienne des peitplcs de r Orient classique, ii. p. 526.
- ERMAN, loc. cit. p. 216. STRATZ, I'chcr die Klcidnng der agyptischcn 'I'.in-.criiuicn, in the Zeitschrift fiir ligyptische Sprache und AUcrtumsktuntc, xxxviii. 1900, pp. 148, 149.
3 CAPAKT, La fete f>cr Us Anon, in the Revue d'histoire des religions, xliti. 1901, p. 255.
54 PRIMITIVE ART IN EGYPT.
To this girdle various objects were attached, and two of these can be recognized on existing objects with considerable precision. One is the tail of an animal ; the other is a sheath for protecting or concealing the lower part of the body.
The warriors or huntsmen that we find represented on the fragment of the Louvre palette wear the tail of an animal, possibly a jackal, attached to their girdle (Fig. 25). It is interesting to note that this caudiform decoration is found among a considerable number of nations. 1 In Egypt, during the Pharaonic age, the tail is an ornament of princes and priests, and the Marseilles Museum actually possesses a specimen in wood. 2 The representations of tails on the objects found at Hierakonpolis form exactly the transition between the tails of the primitive period of the Louvre palette, FIG. 25. HUNTSMAN. and those of the king and gods on Wearing a feather on his Egyptian classical monuments.
head, and the tail fixed T , T . , r 11-
to his girdle. Wlth re f er ence to the sheath just
mentioned, its purpose has been recognized
and its signification explained by M. Naville. 3 It can be specially well recognized on the statuette in the MacGregor Collection figured above (Fig. 20), and also upon a considerable number of ivory figures which we shall consider later. This is how it is described by M. Naville: "The most characteristic feature in this statuette is the large sheath or horn, which, held by a narrow girdle, covers the genital organs. ... It appears to be made of some resisting material, such as metal, wood, or thick leather. This sheath extends half-way up the stomach. It is composed of a cylinder, to which is joined another narrower one, at the
1 For a fine example see DENIKER, op. cit. frontispiece.
2 MASPERO, Histoire andennc dcs peuples de V Orient classique^ i. p. 55, note 3.
3 GROSSE, Les Debuts dc I'Art, p. 70, mentions among the Botocudos of Brazil, according to Prince de Wied, an " etui de feuilles qui cache les parties genitales." See YRJO HIRN, The Origins of Art, London, 1900, pp. 215, 216.
PERSONAL ADORNMENT. 55
commencement of which are two ovoid protuberances, which are an attempt to imitate nature. . . ." 1
M. Naville was enabled to identify this with complete certainty by a similar covering, which is, he says, " a tradition, a characteristic trait of that Libyan group which, during the nineteenth dynasty, allied itself with the people of the Mediterranean to march against Egypt." This sheath during the Egyptian period bore a special name ; it is called
At the same time that the tail and the sheath were attached to the girdle, it was also possible to hang from it the skin of an animal, a mat, or a piece of stuff, and the loin-cloth was created. The animal's skin could with ease be placed as an ornament on the shoulders ; it was easy to wrap oneself in a mat, a skin or a piece of woven stuff, and in this manner the mantle was evolved. All these elementary garments are found in the historic period, and also in the primitive age.
The skin of a panther, girded round the loins and covering the lower part of the body, was still in use among the negroes of the Upper Nile at the time of the nineteenth dynasty. Placed on the shoulders, it had become one of the insignia of certain priests and nobles as early as the beginning of the Ancient Empire. 3 One of the warriors of the painted tomb of the primitive age at Hicrakonpolis is thus clothed in a panther's skin, while his adversary is holding a shield formed of a similar skin 4 (Fig. 26).
1 NAVILLE, Figurines egyptiennes de Vcpoque archatquc, ii., in the Recucil dc travaux relatifs a la philologie et a Parchcologie egyptiennes ct assyrienncs, xxii. p. 69 et seq.
* See F. VON LUSHAN, Zur anthropologischcn Stcllnng der altcn Aegypter, in Globus, Ixxix. 1901, pp. 197-200: "Aenliche Taschen nun giebt es heute noch im Westlichen Sudan, besonders bei den Moba im Nordlichen Togo, wo sie ganz allgemein von alien Mannern getragen vverden."
3 MASPERO, Histoire ancicnne des peuples de r Orient das sique, i. pp. 53 and 55, and p. 53, note a.
4 QUIBELL & GREEN, Hierakonpolis, ii. pi. Ixxvi. : " I take the figure of the man holding up the skin as showing that he has had it on his back, and has had to remove it to use as a shield. It is the origin of the shield from the loose clothing skin, and from that the stiff shield with wood frame was derived. But 1 do not think that it is here shown as a defensive shield alone." Note by Professor Petrie.
56 PRIMITIVE ART IN EGYPT.
The loin-cloth, either narrow or wide, is frequently represented on the primitive monuments on the palettes and maces of Hierakonpolis, in the tomb paintings, and again on the ivory figures. 1 I am not at all certain that the women wore wide loin-cloths, and it is with considerable doubt that I refer here to the painted tomb of Hierakonpolis. I cannot assume with any certainty that the two figures at the top of Plate Ixxvi. Hierakonpolis , ii. are intended to represent women ; and yet the similarity of their attitude with that of the female figures on the pottery appears to be noteworthy.
Finally, the long cloak, the use of which in historic times has been so ably dealt with by M. Maspero, 2 appears several times on the remains of the primitive age. There is, for instance,
FIG. 26. WARRIORS. Clothed in a panther skin, or holding a shield formed of a similar skin.
the figure of a woman in the British Museum, 3 arid several ivory statuettes from Hierakonpolis, which show the cloak, sometimes plain and sometimes decorated with geometric patterns. 4 Petrie has very justly compared the decorated mantle on one of these figures with the fragments of leather painted in zigzag lines found by him at Naqada, and they again may be compared with the clothing of the Libyans of the tomb of Seti I. 5 (Fig. 27). These
1 For the loin-cloth or short skirt in Egypt during the Ancient Empire see ERMAN, Life in Ancient Egypt, pp. 202-206, and SPIEGELBERG. Varia, xlviii. /.u dem Galaschurz des alien Reichcs, in the Rccueil dc travaux relatifs a la philologie et d larcheologie cgyptienncs ct assyricnnes, xxi. 1899, pp. 54, 55.
2 MASPERO, Histoire andennc des peuplcs de VOiient classique^ i. pp. 55-57.
3 BUDGE, A History of Egypt, i. p. 53.
4 QUIBELL, Hierakonpolis, i. pi. ix. and x.
5 PETRIE, Naqada, pi. Ixiv. 104 and p. 48. See also PETRIE, The Royal Tombs of the Earliest Dynasties, ii. pi. iv. 3, 4, 5.
PERSONAL ADORNMENT. 57
decorations probably represent embroideries, as sho\vn in the ivory statuette of a king of the first dynasty discovered by Pctrie at Abydos, of which reproductions are given farther on. 1 Finally we must mention a small figure of a woman tightly
FIG. 27. FIGURES OF WOMEN.
Wrapped in cloaks, one of which is decorated. Below are fragments ot leather with painted decoration.
wrapped in a cloak, discovered by Petrie at Abydos, and dating from the commencement of the first dynasty. 2
The long cloak was fastened by means of studs intended to
1 PETRIE, Abydos, ii. pi. ii. and xiii. p. 24.
- PETRIE, The Royal Tombs of the Earliest Dynasties, ii. pi. iii a } 8 and
p. 21.
58 PRIMITIVE ART IN EGYPT.
be slipped through loops, on the principle of our military frogs. Petrie discovered examples of these in glazed pottery in the temenos of the temple of Osiris at Abydos. 1
We have now arrived at the close of our study of personal -adornment as it existed in primitive Egypt this earliest manifestation which is yet so rich in artistic feeling. The immediate conclusion to be drawn from these re
