Essay Question:

To what extent and in what ways was the architecture of the Step Pyramid complex influenced by the plant world?

Essay written by David Rohl (1st Year Ancient History/Egyptology).

Submitted to Dr Dixon on the 20th January 1988.

In modern guides to Egypt and popular books on Egyptian history  the reader is invariably told that the Step Pyramid complex of king Zoser (c. 2630 BC), being the first monumental structure built mainly in stone, was a watershed in Egyptian civilisation. It has been said to be a building work which is 'unique in Egyptian architecture' [1] and, in its innovative design, 'represents a bold challenge to the imagination' [2].

It is certainly the case that the architect of the complex - the famous Imhotep - employed a number of new devices in the overall architectural scheme, not least of which the Step Pyramid itself is remarkable in its concept.

It is also possible, however, to discern a great many elements that indicate a continuity with what had gone before in the funeral complexes of the two earlier dynasties of the Archaic Period and, at the same time, what are believed to have been the regular features of domestic and ritual architecture - originally constructed in perishable materials - appear to have been maintained.

When Manetho described Imhotep as 'the inventor of the art of building in hewn stone' [3] he was not strictly correct, since blocks of stone have been found in the mastaba tombs of the kings of the 1st and 2nd Dynasties. The usage of this cut stone was, however, very limited and restricted to a number of functional roles such as in the construction of portcullises and wall linings [4]. In the case of the Zoser complex the change in policy is dramatic with stone being employed not only for vastly expanded structural purposes but also as a medium for adornment and decoration.

It is in this latter area that this essay is directed, in order to attempt to identify the botanical species on which the decorative stone motifs were originally based and to try and chart the development of the various architectural designs through earlier models.

Plant emblems used in the building decoration of the complex

Three basic plant types occur in the decorations of the buildings surrounding the Step Pyramid itself:

1. The papyrus plant appears in the form of  engaged columns attached to the eastern wall of  the courtyard of the so-called 'House of the  North'. As the principal emblem of Lower  Egypt, its use in this court was a major factor  in attributing to the building a ceremonial  function associated with the Northern Kingdom.

The three columns served no structural  purpose but were attached to the wall of a  shallow recess at approximately 1.5-metre  intervals, acting as some sort of symbolic  decoration [5]. The representation of three  plants suggests that Lower Egypt may have been  divided into three administrative regions at  this time. The trunk (Fig.1) of the column  closely imitated a papyrus stem with its  characteristic triangular cross-section - a  practice which later sculptors dropped for the  expediency of the simpler rounded shaft. The  columns were also slightly tapered from bottom  to top with a pronounced swelling at the base, just as in the natural plant stem. The  capitals were formed in the shape of stylised   open umbels resembling an inverted bell.

Although virtually extinct in Egypt itself  since modern times, the papyrus plant can still  be found in the upper reaches of the White Nile  in Central Africa and it is suggested that this  species, known as Cyperus papyrus L., which  grows to a height of up to 5 metres, may well  be descended from the original ancient Egyptian  variety [6].

2. The 'Lily of the South' was the emblem of Upper Egypt, and  at Sakkara a single pillar motif, supposedly of a lily, was  discovered in an identically located recess in the courtyard  of what is now called, for obvious reasons, the 'House of  the South'. I have been unable to find a published  illustration or photograph of this pillar and so am unable  to describe its appearance. However, in spite of the 1000-year interval, it would most likely have resembled the  heraldic pillar of the 18th Dynasty found at Karnak (Fig.2)  upon which a group of three lily pillars are carved in high  relief. The column is identical in shape to the papyrus  motif but the flower umbellates to form three semi-pendent  petals.

Unfortunately, a modern-day species around which to  attribute the ancient Egyptian lily design cannot be readily  identified and, perhaps more to the point, the climate of  Egypt is wholly unsuitable for this type of  plant. Lilies 'are not tolerant as regards  soil and flourish under certain definite  physical and hydrological conditions only ...  Prolonged dryness is anathema to them. At the  same time, too great heat can destroy them if  the base of the plant is not protected by a  layer of organic debris or thick turf-like  vegetation.' [7] Clearly the very conditions  that weigh against the successful growth of the  lily are those that are characteristic of Upper  Egypt. There is therefore a considerable  problem here in identifying the original source  of this motif.

3. The third plant motif creates a similar  problem, as evidence for its origins is just as  obscure.

On each of the facades of both the Houses  of the North and South, and on certain of the  chapels in the heb-sed court, there appears a  series of either three or four engaged columns,  with fluted shafts and capitals composed of two  pendent leaves in profile (Fig.3). In the  centre of the capital a square hole was cut  which must have originally engaged a wooden standard - although nothing now remains to  confirm this [8]. Fluting, of course, was not  extensively used again in ancient architecture  until the Greek Dorian Period some 2000 years  later.

These particular columns were discussed at  length in the 1940s and 50s in order to try to  identify the original source of the design.  Ricke tried to maintain that the fluting  represented coniferous timber pillars on which Fig. 2  'stylized traces of the incisions made by the  rounded cutting-edge of the tools used by the  early Egyptians in dressing the surface of the  trunk' had created a scouring effect in  parallel lines [9]. This was a very tenuous  hypothesis and was greatly undermined by other  known architectural features representing wood  - such as the log-beam ceilings of the entrance  colonnade - which clearly show no such  markings.  Lauer, the architect-turned-

Egyptologist whose name is now synonymous with  the Step Pyramid thanks to the years he has  spent in reconstructing the complex, also Fig. 3  viewed the columns as representing tree trunks,  but regarded the fluting as a deliberate decorative device  [10].

Neither of these proposals was convincing and so a  third hypothesis was suggested by Newberry [11]. He  proposed that, like the papyrus and lily pillars, these  engaged columns represented a single stem of a plant known  in ancient times as the Silphium. This plant was engraved  on Greek coins from Cyrenaica and was at first thought to be  Thapsia garganica, which grows today around Cyrene. Thapsia  (Fig.4), however, has none of the properties that the  classical writers ascribe to Silphium. Growing to a height  of only one metre and without a straight stem section seems  also to rule it out as the model for the Sakkara motif [12].

Newberry, therefore, searched for an  alternative umbellifer and came up with  Heracleum giganteum which grows to around five metres in height with a stem diameter of 6 cms  at the base. He found that: 'The stems are  hollow and when in the green state are ribbed,  but when dry are beautifully fluted.' [13]  (Fig.5). Just as in the column capitals, this  plant also had broad pendent petioles spaced at  intervals along the stem.

Thus a botanical specimen had been found  to match the characteristics of these unusual  pillars - a type of motif which does not re-occur again throughout the architectural  history of Egypt. The only snag is that today Heracleum giganteum is a native plant of  eastern Anatolia and the Caucasus and no  similar species are to be found in Egypt or  North Africa [14]. As we have seen though, it  is not necessarily the case that a species has  to be represented in the modern flora of the  Nile valley or delta to qualify as a candidate  for an ancestral variety. Eradication of flora Fig. 5  and fauna through land reclamation, farming,  building or hunting did take place in a number of known  instances; it readily comes to mind that the marshlands of  Egypt were once natural habitats for both papyrus and  hippopotami but no examples of either remain along the lower  reaches of the Nile today. However, in the case of the  Heracleum we do not even poses representations of this plant  in ancient Egyptian art, unlike the papyrus, lily and  hippopotamus of which there are many examples.

The search for precursors to the architectural features of the Step Pyramid complex

One of the most important discoveries made by Lauer in unravelling the mysteries of the origins of the Zoser-complex architecture was that the fluted columns and papyrus-stem pillars had originally been painted red - the colour ancient Egyptian artists used to represent wood. It became clear, therefore, that at least some of the elements were reproductions in stone of what were already much enlarged timber replicas of plantlife. In other words, the designs had been through an earlier process of transference from plant into wood and consequently had probably already been in use in ritual and palace architecture at Memphis for some time. Thus:

"The architect of the Step Pyramid was ... chiefly  concerned with reproducing in stone forms which were  already well established in less durable materials  rather than inventing new designs in which the special  properties of stone could be exploited to greater  advantage." [15]

To confirm this, the complex displays other unusual features such as stone doors which lie three-quarters open with their enormous hinges also carved in solid stone. As already mentioned, the ceiling slabs of the entrance colonnade were shaped to represent logs and another wall was carved as an imitation wooden fence.

Similarly, reed matting was reproduced in a mosaic of blue tiles deep within the subterranean chambers of both the pyramid itself and the southern tomb. Even blinds were imitated in the same tiles, 'rolled up' to reveal niches containing reliefs of the king performing rituals in the afterlife [16].

If wood carving had developed to this degree in the Archaic Period one would expect evidence of the artisans' skills to show itself in other materials used for carving but which are perhaps more durable - such as ivory. And indeed, a few samples of miniature fluted columns have been found in the tombs of the 1st Dynasty - in particular, a fine example from the Abydos mastaba of king Djer was discovered by Petrie (Fig.6) which is thought to be Fig. 6 part of a piece of furniture [17].

A fourth type of pillar found in the complex, is known as a ribbed or fasciculated column and appears to be of a different class to the others so far discussed. The papyrus, lily and fluted columns 'imitate a single stem of a plant' but much enlarged, whereas the ribbed type may represent near to life-size bundles of reeds [18] – or bundles of the Heracleum giganteum – which were used in much earlier times as a supports for reed-built dwellings or shrines. It has been stated that Heracleum giganteum is an extremely rigid plant when dry and has the characteristic strength of the bamboo, [19] it would therefore have been an excellent choice as a load bearing material.

It is now generally believed that, at an intermediary stage, when trade with the Lebanon began to thrive, important Egyptian buildings acquired cedar pillars carved to represent the reed bundles in a stylised form. It was therefore only a matter of time before a pharaoh with enough resources came to the throne determined not only to ensure the continuance of his 'house of a million years' by building it in durable stone but that the architecture should reflect as closely as possible the character of his earthly household – the palace.

The origins of monumental architecture in the Archaic Period

So far we have looked at the materials that might have been in use in Egyptian buildings before Imhotep re-modelled them in stone. Now the design of those buildings plays a part in providing a possible answer to the question of the origins of those botanical emblems used by the ancient Egyptians but which are not indigenous to the region.

The facades of the House of the North and the House of the South, as well as a number of heb sed chapels, resemble to an uncanny degree the modern-day Marsh Arab dwellings (mudhif) of southern Iraq (Fig. 7). These reed huts have arched facades, the shell of which is composed of tall reed bundles bent from each corner and secured at the centre to form the arch. Two or three vertical reed-bundle pillars are attached at intervals to the arch to give it rigidity and the spaces in between are filled by reed matting secured to the uprights. There is no doubt that this form of architecture is extremely old and that it formed the basis of the earliest free-standing buildings in Mesopotamia. The hieroglyphic sign representing the Shrine of the South confirms that this was also the building technique employed in early Egypt [20]. It has also been shown that the later decorated surfaces of mudbrick buildings were copies of painted patterns from the matting panels of the older reed huts.

Although it is dangerous to draw too definite a conclusion on the matter, it does appear that the earliest model for the Zoser enclosure wall facade is to be found in southern Mesopotamia. The 'palace facade' of the Archaic mastabas also has close parallels with the architecture of Uruk (at the close of the Gerzean Period c. 4000 BC). Emery, in discussing the recessed panelling of the 1st-Dynasty royal mastabas is forced to conclude that:

"... with the advent of the dynastic race, this form of  monumental architecture makes its first appearance, and  it is in this form of building that the Mesopotamian  connexion is most apparent. The striking similarities  of the recessed brick buildings of both areas is too  obvious to be ignored, particularly when we consider  that in Egypt there is apparently no background or  evidence of development for these immense and intricate  structures." [21]

The remains of painted decoration on the Sakkara mastabas shows that these mudbrick structures were also imitations of reed and tented forerunners. The patterns employed on panels of the tomb of Ka'a at Sakkara are identical to those found on columns from Uruk [22]. Furthermore, there is also an artistic influence, apparently from the Susa region, discernable in the motifs adopted during the 1st Dynasty on decorative luxury items such as knife handles and cosmetic palettes [23]. Finally, the floret emblem found on the Narmer palette appears to strongly resemble the insignia of divinity represented on many Mesopotamian royal stelae.

Those scholars who support the hypothesis that Egyptian civilisation began as a direct result of the influx of a foreign group into the Nile valley, suggest that the infiltration occurred through the Wadi Hammamat and that these foreigners came by sea from Southern Mesopotamia via the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. This route would explain why the new architecture and artistic motifs appear first in the Naqada/Abydos region rather than uniformly across Egypt.

It may be then that the architecture of the Zoser Step Pyramid complex reflects back to the beginnings of the dynastic period and that the ancient botanical motifs which in living plants have remained so illusive in North East Africa may perhaps be traced, along with other architectural forms, to the ancient civilisations of the Euphrates marshlands.

It may even be possible to take one further tentative step backwards by suggesting that the race of people, who first entered Mesopotamia and then at a later date colonised Upper Egypt, originally came from the hill country of the southern Caucasus around Lake Van and Lake Urumiyeh - where Heracleum giganteum grows in abundance and a region which is also renowned for its numerous varieties of long-stemmed lilies. In the mountain belt that runs from western Turkey to the Caucasus the 'Madonna Lily' (Lilium candidum) grows in some quantities and it is this lily which is generally accepted as the variety represented in the Middle Minoan art of Crete. Schauenberg is also prepared to give to this species the Egyptian association that we are searching for:

This is the oldest lily cultivated in Europe. The Cretans and Egyptians from time immemorial, regarded it as a sacred, medicinal plant. [24]

The strange fact is however that this plant does not grow either in Crete or Egypt and, if this is the source of the 'Lily of the South', its origins must be sought well outside Egypt in more temperate climatic zones [25].

The connection between Urumiyeh and Urartu on the one hand and Ur, Uruk, Eridu on the other is readily discernable. To this, at the risk of overstating the argument, one might add that the eponymous ancestor/deity of Urartu/Hurru Land was 'HUR/HRU' and the question could be asked as to whether there might not be some sort of link with the Egyptian Shemsu Hor ('the followers of Horus') - the name given to the earliest kings listed in the Turin Canon [26].

Whatever speculations of this kind might be applied to the problem of the origins of Egyptian culture, it seems that the architecture, and particularly the plant motifs, of the Zoser Step Pyramid complex should be added to the growing evidence in favour of a strong foreign influence on the development of Egypt's early dynastic civilisation.

Notes and References

1. V. Seton-Williams & P. Stocks:  Blue Guide: Egypt, (Ernest  Benn, London 1983), p. 421.

2. W. J. Murnane: The Penguin Guide  to Ancient Egypt, (Allen Lane,   Fig. 8  London 1983), p. 163.

3. W. G. Waddell: Manetho, Loeb Classical Library, (William  Heinemann, London 1971), p. 43.

4. See the chapter entitled 'Archtitecture' in W. B. Emery: Archaic Egypt, (Penguin Books, Harmondsworth 1961), pp. 175-91 for a discussion on the materials and methods of production employed in the construction of the early royal mastabas of the Archaic Period.

5. See Plate 11 in I. E. S. Edwards: The Pyramids of Egypt, (Penguin Books, Harmondsworth 1985), p. 47, for a photograph of the restored recess.

6. E. Wilson: Ancient Egyptian Design, (British Museum  Publications, London 1986), pp. 18-19.

7. P. Schauenberg: The Bulb Book, (Frederick Warne, London  1965), p. 197-98.

8. For the method of attachment of these proposed standards see  J.-P. Lauer: Histoire Monumentale des Pyramides D'Egypte,  Volume I - Les Pyramides a Degres, (Institut Francais  D'Archaeologie Orientale, Cairo 1962), pp. 156-57.

9. H. Ricke: Beitrage zur agyptischen Bauforschung and  Altertumskunde, Volume 4, (Zurich 1944), pp. 78-79.

10. J.-P. Lauer: Etudes complementaires sur les monuments du roi Zoser a Saqqarah (Suppl. aux Annales du Service, No. 9), p.36.

11. I. E. S. Edwards: 'Some Early Dynastic Contributions to Egyptian Architecture' in JEA, Volume 35 (1949), pp. 125-26.

12. R. M. Smith & E. A. Porcher: History of the Recent Discoveries at Cyrene, (Day & Son, London 1864), pp. 87-89.

13. Edwards: 'Some Early Dynastic Contributions' op. cit., p. 126.

14. I was unfortunately unable to find any commentary or  description of Heracleum giganteum other than that of  Newberry, but this may be because this is another, perhaps  earlier, name for Heracleum mantegazzianum, the giant  hogweed, which grows in abundance along the banks and flood  plains of the rivers in the hill country known in ancient  times as Urartu - that is the area south of the Caucasus  Mountains around Lakes Van and Urmia (Urumiyeh). This is  believed to be the general region from whence the race known  as the Hurrians moved southwards to occupy parts of northern  Syria. Another fluted/ridged-stemmed plant was Heracleum  Persicum which is native to western Iran (the area of  ancient Elam). Both of these species grow to a height of  five to six metres as described by Newberry. Less  spectacular umbelliferae include the common Parsley, Carrot,  Hedge Parsley and Hemlock.

15. Edwards: 'Some Early Dynastic Contributions' op. cit., p. 123.

16. C. M. Firth & J. E. Quibell: The Step Pyramid, Volume II,  (Imprimerie de l'Institut Francais, Cairo 1935), plate 43.

17. W. M. F. Petrie: The royal Tombs of the earliest Dynasties,  Volume II, (EES, London 1901), plate XXXIV, No. 73.

18. Ricke's explanation of this architectural feature (op. cit.,  p. 78) is as implausible as his fluted columns theory and  need not be dealt with here. Although it has been argued  that the columns might be representations of Heracleum  giganteum in its green state, with ribbed stem, it seems  that what appears to be an imitation of leather capping over  the tops of the bundles and the rounded plinth bases at the  contact point with the ground lends strong support for the  bundle hypothesis. Unlike the other three columns, this  type does not have a true capital which also suggest that it  was not intended to represent a natural botanical species.

19. Edwards: 'Some Early Dynastic Contributions' op. cit., p.  127.

20. Firth & Quibell: The Step Pyramid, op. cit., plate 17.

21. Emery: Archaic Egypt, op. cit., p. 177.

22. L. Woolley: Ur 'of the Chaldees', new revised edition by P.  Moorey, (Herbert Press, London 1964), p. 37.

23. B. G. Trigger et. al.: Ancient Egypt: A Social History,  (Cambridge University Press, 1983), p. 37.

24. Schauenberg: The Bulb Book, op. cit., p. 204.

25. Lilium candidum is a white flower but there is a similar  variety, Lilium monodelphum, which is yellow and is a native  of the Crimea, the northern side of the Caucasus from the  Black to the Caspian Sea, and the central Caucasus on the  south side as far as northern Turkey. These two lilies grow  up to 4 feet tall and the latter species can certainly look  spectacular growing in its thousands in mountain meadows.

26. Waddell: Manetho, op. cit., p. 5, note 5.