78.—P. and C. xiii.
The source of chequer patterns is unmistakably in plaiting and weaving. On the oldest monuments the basket sign, neb, is chequered in different colours; so are also the baskets of farm produce carried by the servants, as shown in the tombs. The modern Nubian basket-work is well known for the many patterns which it bears like the ancient Egyptian. The chequer pattern is found in every period in Egypt, and is perhaps most common in the latest forms on the sides of thrones in the Ptolemaic age. In the Old Kingdom many varieties were in use. The plain chequers of red or black with white, the squares filled with black and red crosses on a green and yellow chequer; or diagonal square patterns developed by lines of chequers, which are often not square but elongated, thus forming general and wide-spread patterns which attract the eye on large surfaces. These are best seen in the tomb of Ptah-hotep (P. and C. xiii.) and in that of Peheniuka (L.D. I. 41), both of the Vth dynasty, Sakkara.
79.—P. and C. xiii.
80.—L.D. I. 41.
81.—L.D. II. 130.
In the Middle Kingdom we find chequers covered with bars of colour, red and green, at Benihasan.