ON USEFUL AND ORNAMENTAL STONES OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 5 



anorthosite from a Canadian locality with the Egyptian speci- 

 men to show the resemblance. 



I did not see this rock in place, but Newbold seems to 

 have found it in the mountain range eastward of the Nile, 

 and it will no doubt be found to be related to the Lauren- 

 tian axis of that range. The banded varieties or anorthosite 

 gneisses, to which the material of the statue belongs, used to 

 be regarded as altered sedimentary rocks. They are now 

 more usually classed with igneous products, as either intru- 

 sive masses laminated by pressure or bedded igneous rocks 

 consolidated and altered. In all probability, the latter is the 

 more correct view. 



It has been usual to call the material of these anorthosite 

 statues diorite. For this there is a justification in the fact 

 that the materials are in great part similar to those of that 

 rock ; but the lamination, the crystalline structure, and the 

 proportions of the constituents are different. A singular 

 conjecture has also been started, to the effect that this 

 material was derived, as well as the diorite found on the old 

 Chaldean site of Tel-loh, from quarries in the Sinaitic Pen- 

 insula, and it has even been imagined that a primitive school 

 of sculpture existed at Sinai. Such hypotheses are, however, 

 altogether baseless. The Chaldeans could obtain such ma- 

 terials from the mountains on the Persian frontier, and the 

 Egyptians from those of their own eastern territory, and 

 neither could easily have transported large masses of stone 

 from the Sinaitic district. 



The stone in question has many good points as a material 

 for sculpture. It is of uniform texture and of moderate 

 hardness, between that of marble and quartz. It is free 

 from the quartz grains that render granite intractable. It is 

 tough and takes a high polish. Its colour is agreeable, like 

 that of a banded white and grey marble, and its lustre is 

 superior to that of marble. It is extremely durable and 

 resisting, and not liable to discoloration by weathering. 

 Such properties, no doubt, commended it to the sculptors of 

 the remote period of King Kephreu, and it is perhaps re- 

 markable that a stone with so many good qualities has been 

 neglected by more modern artists. The statue of Kephren 

 now in the Gizeh Museum bears testimony by its excellent 

 preservation to these properties, and probably the other 

 statues which accompanied it would have been equally 

 perfect had they not been wilfully broken. In the later times 

 of Egyptian art this stone seems to have lost its attractions 

 or fallen out of fashion, except for small objects. 



