The excavation
and planning of these pyramids were carried out by Messrs. Borchardt and
Schafer at the expense of Baron von Bissing, the well-known Egyptologist
of Munich, and of the _Deutsch-Orient Gesell-schaft_ of Berlin. The
antiquities found have been divided between the museums of Berlin and
Cairo.
One of the most noteworthy discoveries was that of the funerary temple
of Ne-user-Ra, which stood at the base of his pyramid. The plan is
interesting, and the granite lotus-bud columns found are the most
ancient yet discovered in Egypt. Much of the paving and the wainscoting
of the walls was of fine black marble, beautifully polished. An
interesting find was a basin and drain with lion's-head mouth, to
carry away the blood of the sacrifices. Some sculptures in relief were
discovered, including a gigantic representation of the king and the
goddess Isis, which shows that in the early days of the Vth Dynasty the
king and the gods were already depicted in exactly the same costume as
they wore in the days of the Ramses and the Ptolemies. The hieratic art
of Egypt had, in fact, now taken on itself the final outward appearance
which it retained to the very end. There is no more of the archaism
and absence of conventionality, which marks the art of the earliest
dynasties.
We can trace by successive steps the swift development of Egyptian art
from the rude archaism of the Ist Dynasty to its final consummation
under the Vth, when the conventions became fixed.
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