Fig. 81.—Objects from the Lake Dwellings (from Keller).
A, Bronze Knife (Lake of Bienne); B, Ornamented Pottery; C, Moon Image of earthenware; D, Part of an Iron Sword (Gaulish work); E, Moon Image of bronze; F, G, H, I, J, Earthenware Vessels; K, Embroidered Cloth.
The builders of the lake dwellings are supposed to have been a branch of the Celtic population of Switzerland, belonging to prehistoric times, and was in its last stage of decadence before the Celts took their place in the history of Europe. Although many remains of bronze and iron implements have been brought to light from the relic beds of the lake dwellings, this does not prove that the inhabitants were acquainted with their manufacture, for most of the articles were probably obtained by barter from the people of the mainland.
A beautiful bronze knife is seen at Fig. 81, A, found in the lake of Bienne, and part of a sword in iron, of Gaulish, or “late Celtic” workmanship, from Marin, Lake Neuchâtel (Fig. 81, D).
Highly interesting are the “moon-stones” and “moon-images” of this period, made in stone, earthenware, and bronze. These crescent moon-images have a religious significance, and have doubtless been used to decorate the tops of their entrance doors (Keller) or other conspicuous places in their dwellings, as emblematic images of their worship of the moon.
The figure at C represents an earthenware moon-image with a flat base for standing purposes. The decoration on this is peculiarly interesting, as showing one of the earliest fascine patterns, doubtless derived from the floor construction of the dwellings, or from the lashings of withy bands used to fasten the stone axes and celts to their hafts. This kind of ornament has been used very much in the Bronze age weapons, implements, and other objects. The moon-image at E is made of bronze, with a handle and a ring to hang it by. It was probably worn as an amulet or decoration suspended from the neck of a Celtic priest. Remains of many kinds of plants, seeds, corn, and fruit have been found, usually in coarse earthen pots; also cakes and loaves of bread, and mill-stone “crushers” for grinding corn. Domestic animals, such as cows, goats, and dogs, were kept by the lake dwellers. Fishing and fish-curing, as may be easily inferred, was an important industry with these interesting people.
CHAPTER VII.
EGYPTIAN ART.
According to their most ancient traditions, the Egyptian race descended from a point high up on the Nile, or the land of Ethiopia, but modern science proves them to belong to a Caucasian race, and not of the Negro type. The name Egypt has been derived from “Het-ka-Ptah,” one of the titles of the city of Memphis, which means “The Temple of the Genius of Ptah,” and has been interpreted by the Greeks as “Aiguptos,” the latter being the old name for the Nile.
On the south of Egypt dwelt the Nubians or Ethiopians; on the west the Libyans, a fair-skinned race, who, being a warlike people, were employed by the Egyptians as mercenary troops; and on the north-east the nomadic Semitic tribes of Edom and Southern Syria. The latter people often wandered west to feed their flocks in the Delta of Lower Egypt, and in course of time formed, with the Phœnician traders, a large proportion of the population of the lower kingdom of Egypt. It was on the north-east frontier, on the Isthmus of Suez, that Egypt had most to fear from her foreign enemies.
Nearly all the art of the various peoples and nations of the world was developed in relation to their religion, and most of it—as elsewhere stated—originated in symbolic signs that represented, under various forms, human or otherwise, the original objects or phenomena which they worshipped. This was the case especially so in Egypt; and this must be our plea to describe here briefly the principal outlines of the Egyptian religion.
Fig. 82.—Isis nursing her Son, Horus. (P. & C.) Height, 19 ins.
The religion of the Egyptians had two developments, one tending towards Monotheism, and the other to Polytheism. They believed in one god, who was the king of all gods; and, on the other hand, they had their mythical gods, who personified whatever was permanent in natural phenomena, such as the sun, moon, sky, stars, earth, light, darkness, floods, the seasons, the year, and the hours. The goddess Nut represented the sky, and was known also under the names of Neith, Isis, Hathor, Sekhet, &c., which were the names of the sky at sunrise or sunset (Fig. 82). The sun had names without number, as Rā, Horus, Ptah, Tmu, Setek, Amen, &c. (Figs. 83, 84). Osiris and Sekru are names of the sun after he has set, or is “dead and buried” (Fig. 85). Osiris is king of the dead, and, in mythological language, he is slain by his brother Set, who personified night, who in his turn is slain by Horus (Fig. 82), who is the heir of Osiris. Horus signifies the “one above,” and Amen-Rā, the great king of all the gods, signifies “the one who hides himself.” The great Amen-Rā was the mightiest god in all the Egyptian pantheon. He was the great god of Thebes.
The gods were represented in human shape, and also m animal form. The animals, or animal combinations, were simply symbolical of the gods on account of certain attributes common to each, or in some cases because they bore the same name.
The Egyptians were intense believers in a future state, hence the great care bestowed on their dead, for they believed that the body should be preserved in order to insure a state of bliss for the soul in the future world. Every human being had its “double,” or ghost “Ka,” as well as its ghost “Ba,” which we often find represented under the form of a human being with a hawk’s head. Sometimes the image of a man was buried with him. This was to represent his “double,” and is, therefore, called a “Ka” statue, or image. The “Ba,” or soul, was supposed to be “luminous.”
Fig. 83.—Amen, or Ammon, bronze. (P. & C.)
Fig. 84.—Ptah, from a bronze Actual Size. (P. & C.)
It is supposed that many of the animals and animal forms buried with and painted on the coffins of the Egyptian dead were, in remote times, the sacred animals or “Totems” belonging to the dead man’s family. “Totem worship” may have been the most ancient form of the Egyptian religion. The Temple of Bubastis (in the Delta) was sacred to the goddess Bast, or Pasht, the cat-headed goddess (Fig. 86). The cat was, therefore, a sacred animal or a “Totem,” in ancient Egypt, like the ibis, hawk, asp, beetle, &c., totems; and so in the district or town of Bubastis the Cat Clan, or worshippers of the cat-headed goddess Pasht, built the rock-cut temple called Speos Artemidos, near Beni-Hasan, and dedicated it to her worship.
Fig. 85.—Osiris. (P. & C.)
Fig. 86.—The Goddess Bast, or Pasht. Actual Size. (P. & C.)
The writing of the Egyptians is classified under three heads: the “Hieroglyphic,” or the form in which it appears on the monuments; the “Hieratic,” or priestly writing, as used on the