Dieter Arnold (1) (1936–)

Strangely disappointing. I say “strangely” because Dieter Arnold is the acknowledged modern expert on Egyptian building and architecture, and his Building in Egypt: Pharaonic Stone Masonry is the definitive book. However, the Encylopaedia of Ancient Egyptian Architecture seems thrown together, with detailed accounts of some topics and cursory coverage of others. The entries divide into: building features (walls, roofs, columns, etc.); sites (Giza, Hierakonopolis, etc.); and structures (the pyramid of Sahure, the temple at Karnak, etc.).

Arnold spends a lot of space covering relatively obscure temples on the Upper Nile in the Sudan, at the expense of places like Karnak and Giza (to be fair, some of these are now lost beneath Lake Nasser and thus probably deserve some discussion while they’re still remembered). I also suspect some problems with the translation. Arnold comes from the European school of Egyptology, where you start out as a classicist in Greek and Latin history, learn the Egyptian language, and only then learn archeological technique (as opposed to the American school, where you start out as an archeologist and learn Classical and Ancient languages). The Europeans generally use the Greek form of Egyptian names (Cheops, Amenophis) while the Americans use the Egyptological form (Khufu, Amenhotep). Arnold uses a mix, with the Great Pyramid indexed under Khufu but the Classical Greek names for Egyptian cities (Heliopolis, Leptopolis). He also uses a great many terms from Classic Greek architecture – anathyrosis, entablature, etc. This sometimes makes it hard to track down exactly the entry you want since you’re not sure which language it will be indexed under. The book is extensively and helpfully illustrated; however, I noticed a couple of cases where Arnold uses an “Egyptianized” drawing of some architectural process or feature – the cutting of a large block with a rocker saw, for example – without making it clear that this is a hypothetical interpretation. The use of actual Egyptian paintings reproduced as stylistically similar line drawings – the brick making scene from the tomb of Rehkmire, for example – might confuse a naïve reader into thinking that (for example) the rocker saw illustration was also from a tomb painting somewhere.

There is, of course, a great deal of useful information. I had always thought the Egyptians never used the pulley, but Arnold comes up with an Old Kingdom example. Similarly, I had not realized the extent that the vault was used. I’ve only seen two buildings with vaults in Egypt – the Late Period tomb of the Divine Adoratrice Amenirdis at Thebes and some sort of workshop in Giza – but Arnold finds examples of vaults going all the way back to the Early Dynastic. Interestingly, vaults tended to be used in private homes and shops rather than temples and tombs – perhaps there was some sort of religious objection to them? This might account for their apparent rarity; ancient Egyptian towns were built in the cultivated area, where land was precious – thus most ancient towns are underneath modern ones. Tombs and temples were usually built out in the desert and therefore much easier to excavate (and better preserved).

I’m not sure what audience would find this book useful. Someone interested in the history of architecture might find the Egyptian prototypes of Classical forms useful; I expect that except for a few topics a student of Egyptology would be better off with Building in Egypt: Pharaonic Stone Masonry.… (altro)