EXCAVATIONS IN EGYPT BOECHAEDT. 451 



to reconstruct in a drawing the interior decoration of an Egyptian 

 living room. 



The " deep hall " or the dining room of the General Ra'-mose house 

 was 7 by 7 meters in size, with entrances from the northwest through 

 two vaulted doors in the center, and on the eastern side of these a 

 single door counterbalanced by a false single door on the western 

 side (pi. 5, right half). In this way there was produced that sym- 

 metry which is an absolute requisite in Egyptian architecture. 

 Double doors with an additional single door between two rooms was 

 at that time customary. The two side walls exhibit the same archi- 

 tectural arrangement: in the center are double niches with single 

 doors or niches on either side of these as might be needed. The back 

 wall, however, has only the two side doors, without the central vaulted 

 doors or niches ; in their stead there is on the floor the usual low eleva- 

 tion thought to be the place for the seats of the master of the house 

 and his wife. Corresponding to this at the center of the west wall, 

 there is the usual platform made of limestone, with raised sides 

 (pi. 5, left half), perhaps the seating place during meals, since it is 

 provided with receptacles for waste water, the washing of the hands 

 before meals playing an important part in ancient Egypt. In this 

 dining room there are also traces of four pairs of columns which 

 stood in two rows (pi. 6, the two holes in the brick plaster of the 

 front), and the limestone base of one of these columns may still be 

 seen. The arrangement of the windows can be determined from the 

 position of the staircase, which renders an opening for a window in 

 the middle of the wall impossible, for there was space only for the 

 door lintel, the fragments of which were found on the floor. It may 

 seem strange that the doors were so low, but in Egyptian houses they 

 were made just a man's height. 



So much about the ground plan of the room and its architectural 

 construction. 



The painting on the walls, made directly on the Nile-mud plaster, 

 is everywhere nearly as high as the remains of the walls themselves, 

 reaching in some parts 1.30 meters above the floor. On the floor of 

 the room were found fragments of the painting fallen from the up- 

 per parts of the walls, including parts of richly painted door head- 

 pieces, chamfers, tore, etc. Such were the data from which to re- 

 produce a colored drawing of the room. The result is quite satisfac- 

 tory, but as here represented in black and white (pi. 13) the light 

 and shade effects of the colors could not fully be preserved, though 

 the general impresssion is accurately rendered. The color tone of 

 the wall is greenish-brown, like Nile mud. The doors have black- 

 bordered white frames and white chamfers. The idea underlying 

 this color combination must have originally been to represent lime- 

 stone doors set in brick masonry. But in the present case this idea 



