A history of art in ancient Egypt page 117 (14585903829)

Identifier: historyofartinan01perruoft
Title: A history of art in ancient Egypt
Year: 1883 (1880s)
Authors: Perrot, Georges, 1832-1914 Chipiez, Charles, 1835-1901 Armstrong, Walter, Sir, 1850-1918
Subjects: Art -- Egypt History Egypt -- Antiquities
Publisher: London : Chapman and Hall
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN



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Fig. 24.—Bakers. From a tomb. (Boulak, 9I inches high. Bourgoin.) servant and soldier, are united in the person of a single individual.In families which did not belong to these aristocratic classes there . VOL. I. F A History of Art in Ancient Egypt. was, in all probability, more heredity of occupation ; in the ordi-nary course the paternal employment fixed that of the children,but yet there was nothing approaching to an absolute rule. Thevarious trades were formed into corporations or guilds, rather thancastes in the strict sense of the word. From this it resulted thatgreat natural talents, fortunate circumstances, or the favour of thesovereign could raise a man of the lowest class up to the highestdignities of the state. In the latter days of the monarchy wehave an example of this in the case of Amasis, who, born amongthe dregs of the population, finally raised himself to the throne.^
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Fig. 25.—Women at a loom. From a tomb at Beni-Hassan. (Champollion, 381 bis ) Such events were of frequent occurrence in all those orientalmonarchies where the will of the sovereign was the supreme andundisputed law. Even in our own days, similar things have 1 Herodotus, ii. 172. For an earlier epoch, see the history of a certain Ahmes,son of Abouna, as it is narrated upon his sepulchral inscription, which dates fromthe reign of Amosis, the founder of the eighteenth dynasty (De Rouge, Mhnoiresur rInscription dAhmes, Chef des Nautoniers, ^Vo. 1851, and Brugsch, HistoiredEgypte, t. i. p. 80). Starting as a private soldier for the war against the Shepherds,undertaken for the re-conquest of Avaris, he was noticed by the king for hisfrequent acts of gallantry, and promoted until he finally became something in thenature of high admiral. The Constitution of Egyptian Society. 35 taken place in Turkey and Persia to the surprise of none butEuropeans. When the master of all is placed so high a