THE EARLIEST SCULPTURE
There are but few monumental remains from the early dynasties. The great rock-cut scene of Semerkhet, of which this shows a part, is the main example. The figures are only summarily cut in the natural face of the sandstone; but the truth of the outline is better than in any of the more pretentious work of later times in the same region.
It appears that the use of fine materials was at its height under Mena and Zer. Zer has the largest and best-built tomb, Zet shows the greatest delicacy in work, and Den seems to have had the most showy objects. The changes in about five generations here were much like those in an equal time from Amenhotep I. to III. in the eighteenth dynasty. Then decay markedly set in, and there was no revival until the Pyramid kings. But some development in the use of materials went on; and Zeser, of the third dynasty, is said to have built a stone palace; while Khasekhemui, a generation earlier, had a limestone chamber for his tomb, and carved granite for the door-jambs of his temple, at about 4950 B.C. These instances are the earliest use of stone for construction that are yet known; though as early as the middle of the first dynasty King Den had a pavement of red granite in part of his tomb.
Age of the Pyramid Builders
PYRAMID BUILDING. We now approach to the well-known age of the pyramid builders, when the civilisation appears at its highest development in most respects. We shall not deal with this in detail, as it falls into the ordinary historical period which appears elsewhere in this work [see Egypt]. But it may be useful to give the most essential facts of the material civilisation, which may otherwise be lost sight of in the mass of the history.
In stonework the accuracy reached its highest point in the fourth dynasty, when the Pyramid of Khufu was constructed with an average error of less than 1 in 15,000 of length, and even less in angle. The later work fell off from this accuracy; but in the twelfth dynasty the granite sarcophagus of Senusret II. was wrought with an average error in straightness and parallelism of under seven-thousandths of an inch, and an error of proportions between different parts of less than three-hundredths of an inch. There was no attempt to reach this high degree of accuracy in the later work. In sculpture the main character of the work of the Pyramid kings is its dignity and grandeur, representing individualism on the highest plane of abstraction.
THE BUILDING OF THE PYRAMIDS IN THE ZENITH OF EGYPTIAN CIVILISATION
The age of the Pyramid builders may be regarded as the height of Egyptian civilisation. The greatest accuracy in stonework was reached during the fourth dynasty, when the Pyramid of Cheops, or Khufu, was constructed with an average error of less than 1 in 15,000 of length, and of even less in angle. In the twelfth dynasty the granite sarcophagus of Senusret II. was wrought with an average error in straightness and parallelism of under seven-thousandths of an inch.