atshepsôwet (cf. section [40]), is not explainable by Choisy’s ‘long-bag’ theory.
The book would have been infinitely improved if it has contained a few references.
J. COUYAT et P. MONTET, Les inscriptions hiéroglyphiques et hiératiques du Ouâdi Hammâmât, in Mémoires publiés par les membres de l’Institut français du Caire, vol. XXXIV, p. 54 (Imprimerie de l’Institut français).—References to iron-workers from inscriptions on the rocks at Wady Hammâmât (section [25]).
(51) DECOURDEMANCHE (J. A.), in Annales du Service, vol. XII, p. 215, gives details of various systems of lineal measures which he suggests are derived from an original talent, taken from measures on the Abydos monuments excavated by Amélineau in 1899 (see section [18]).
DECOURDEMANCHE, Poids et Mesures, published at Paris by Gautier-Villars, 1909.—This gives a large number of systems of the divisions of the cubit and foot and shews clearly how cautious one must be in deducing anything from a single unit of measurement unless it is subdivided as in the case, for example, of a cubit rod. It is possible, in this book, to find an ancient example of almost any unit of length which could be imagined.
(52) FONTANA (Domenico), Della transportatione dell’obelisco Vaticano et delle fabriche di nostro signore papa Sisto V fatte dal cavaliere Domenico Fontana, architecto di sua Santità.—This is a rare book published in 1590, but a good précis is given by Lebas in his L’Obélisque de Louxor and in GORRINGE, Egyptian Obelisks. The obelisk was moved from the Circus of Nero at Rome to the Piazza di San Pietro in 1585, the method being the ‘heroic’ one of lifting it bodily by blocks and tackles. A gigantic tower of wood, known as ‘Fontana’s Castle’, was erected over the obelisk, being made of compound wooden struts of a metre square in section. From the cross-beams of the tower pairs of blocks and tackles were attached at four points along the obelisk, which was protected by matting and planks. The obelisk was first raised sufficiently high, being wedged as well from below, to enable a ‘cradle’, or platform on rollers, to be introduced underneath it. The obelisk was then lowered on to the cradle and pulled to its new site, first down an inclined plane and thence on level ground. The blocks and tackles were worked by a large number of capstans. The erection was done in exactly the reverse way to the lowering. The whole story as translated by Lebas, makes curious reading, and I cannot resist giving a few extracts. He says (L’Obélisque de Louxor, pp. 178 et seq.): “Public curiosity . . . . . attracted a large number of strangers to Rome. All roads leading to the square were barricaded, and a bando of the pope, published two days before, punished by death anybody who did not respect the barrier . . . . . On the 30th April, two hours before daylight, two masses were celebrated to {52} implore the light of the Holy Spirit. Fontana, with all his staff, communicated. On the eve of the lowering he had been blessed by the Holy Father. . . . . ” Before the work began, Fontana told his workmen: “The work we are about to undertake is consecrated to religion, the exaltation of the Holy Cross”; thereon everyone recited with Fontana a pater and an ave. Gorringe comments on this (Egyptian Obelisks, pp. 114 to 117) saying: “A striking scene it must have been and typical of that curious age”. If, however, one compares Fontana’s account with that of the erection of the New York obelisk, one is struck, not with the difference, but with the resemblance between the two ceremonies, the later one being undoubtedly more tedious to the spectators, as there were no inquisitors and familiars waiting in a corner, to mete out summary punishment to anyone misbehaving.
GARDINER (Dr. Alan), Egyptian Hieratic Texts, Part I.—On paragraphs XII, XIII and XIV, some details are given as to the removal of an obelisk from a quarry, the removal of sand from under a colossus during erection and the construction of an embankment of brickwork, set as problems by one scribe to another. The relevant passages are quoted in extenso in sections [28] and [35].
GARLAND (H.), in The Journal of the Institute of Metals, no. 2, 1913; article on Metallographical Researches on Egyptian Metal Antiquities.—The author gives a very technical account of his examination of Egyptian copper and bronze tools and weapons by means of micro-photographs. He proves that the shaping of the tools by hammering was done either cold or far below the annealing temperature; by this means a better cutting edge could be obtained. He does not speculate on how far hammer-tempering could be carried, confining himself to the actual results of his examination of the tools as they were found and after annealing.
GOLÉNISCHEFF (W.), Hammâmât, II, no. 3.—References to iron workers (section [25]).
(53) GORRINGE (Lieut.-Commander H. H., U. S. N., Egyptian Obelisks, published in 1885 by Nimmo, 14, King William St., Strand.—The obelisk, which originally formed a pair with the London Obelisk, had already been once removed in Roman times from Heliopolis to Alexandria, where it was still standing. It was lowered by fitting it at its centre of gravity, with a pair of enormous steel trunnions supported by a steel tower on each side of the obelisk. The point was lowered (or rather it crashed) on to a tower made of wooden baulks laid alternately. A similar wooden tower was then built near the butt end of the obelisk and after raising the obelisk from each end with hydraulic rams, the trunnions were removed. The mass was then lowered from each side in turn by supporting the obelisk by the rams while a course of baulks were removed from the tower, and continuing the process until the obelisk lay on the ground. It was floated in a wooden caisson from the shore to the dock and introduced into a steamship called the Dessouk by opening a port in her bows. At the American end, it was placed on a railway line and pulled to Central Park, where the trunnion and towers were again used in the opposite order to the lowering. For the short moves, such as moving it into the hold of the ship, it was rolled on cannon-balls running in channel irons. {53}