146.—P. [111].
Another variety in this pattern remains to be noticed. On very many compound lotus patterns there is a pendant from each end of the side sepals. This does not appear until the XVIIIth dynasty on the monuments: it is then sometimes single and sometimes double. But here, as in the spirals, the scarab type is an earlier stage than the architectural. On the architecture it is quite unintelligible, and a mere conventional monstrosity; while on a scarab of green jasper—which from the style and material seems certainly to be before the XVIIIth dynasty, and probably of the XIIth—there is an already conventionalised lotus group, with the four sepals and inner petals already developed into a sort of “tree pattern,” and the lower two sepals have a pendant, partly worn away, but clearly showing a triply-branching line like a small lotus flower. This is the earlier stage of this conventional pendant; but even here, although the pendant itself is rational, the position of it is hard to explain. Probably we must wait for some early scarab to clear up the real origin of this curious and puzzling form.
147.—F.P. coll.
We have now traced the evolution of the various forms of the lotus pattern in Egypt, and seen how the main Assyrian and Greek types of the palmetto and the anthemion arose, which were confounded together owing to their similarity.
Other plants were often confounded with the lotus in decoration, by the ancients as well as by moderns. We have noticed some examples of this; and it is well shown in the group of boat-builders, to whom, apparently, bundles of papyrus with lotus flowers are being brought, in the IVth dynasty tomb of Shepseskau (L.D. II. 12).
Much use was made of papyrus in the floral work of Tell el Amarna. On the painted pavement groups of papyrus with large red fluffy heads of seed vessels are figured; and on the coloured tiles the landscape view of the papyrus plant in strictly natural treatment is a frequent subject. But these belong rather to artistic than to ornamental work.
Fig. 148.
