Building in Egypt: Pharaonic Stone Masonry

Abstract

The appearance of Dieter Arnold's Building in Egypt prompted this reviewer to re-read Somers Clarke's and Reginald Engelbach's classic Ancient Egyptian Masonry, published likewise by the Oxford Press as long ago as 1930 and virtually unobtainable secondhand for many years. For more than six decades this is the manual to which Egyptologists have turned for information on all aspects of stone-working. It was in many ways a seminal work, and though largely superseded by the new publication it can still be consulted with profit. The illustrations will always be useful, since some are by now historic in the sense that they preserve a record of the activities of ancient masons in the quarries or on the monuments, or show details of buildings that have been fully excavated since the original publication or have been radically altered in appearance through restoration in the past 60 years. The two books of necessity cover much the same ground, though Clarke and Engelbach include sections on doors and doorways, windows and ventilation openings, the facing, sculpting, and painting of masonry surfaces, as well as brickwork, matters that are not dealt with, or hardly at all, by Arnold. The main aim of Building in Egypt is not the description of Egyptian architectural forms as such, but of their construction. By and large only the technical aspects are considered. The supreme merit of the new publication is that it incorporates knowledge that has accrued over recent years, either by excavation or restoration. Many of the new facts derive from the meticulous excavations and publications of Egyptian monuments by the author himself, notably in the pyramid complexes and royal tombs of the Old and Middle Kingdoms in Dahshur and the Theban area. The work of French Egyptologists and architects at Karnak is also drawn upon. Evidence is