MANUAL OF EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY

AND

Guide to the Study of Antiquities in Egypt

FOR THE USE OF STUDENTS AND TRAVELLERS.

BY
G. MASPERO, D.C.L. OXON.
MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE;
PROFESSOR AT THE COLLÈGE DE FRANCE;
EX-DIRECTOR GENERAL OF EGYPTIAN MUSEUMS.

TRANSLATED BY

AMELIA B. EDWARDS.

NEW EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED BY THE AUTHOR.

With Three Hundred and Nine Illustrations.

1895.

Library Card Details:

Description:  Study and guide for student and traveller in Egyptian antiquities.

Classification:  Archaeology & Anthrophology / Archaeology

Publication Date:  1895

Length:  335 pages

Illustrations:  over 300 black and white

Book attributes:  Printable / No code required to open book

Book ID:  GC-EAX-Gaston

Download Size: 4.5 MB

Sample Text from eBook:

1.--PRIVATE DWELLINGS.

The soil of Egypt, periodically washed by the inundation, is a black, compact, homogeneous clay, which becomes of stony hardness when dry. From immemorial time, the fellahin have used it for the construction of their houses. The hut of the poorest peasant is a mere rudely-shaped mass of this clay. A rectangular space, some eight or ten feet in width, by perhaps sixteen or eighteen feet in length, is enclosed in a wickerwork of palm- branches, coated on both sides with a layer of mud. As this coating cracks in the drying the fissures are filled in, and more coats of mud are daubed on until the walls attain a thickness of from four inches to a foot. Finally, the whole is roofed over with palm-branches and straw, the top being covered in with a thin layer of beaten earth. The height varies. In most huts, the ceiling is so low that to rise suddenly is dangerous both to one's head and to the structure, while in others the roof is six or seven feet from the floor. Windows, of course, there are none. Sometimes a hole is left in the middle of the roof to let the smoke out; but this is a refinement undreamed of by many.

Fig 1.--Brickmaking, from Eighteenth Dynasty tomb-painting, Tomb of Rekhmara.