by Sarah Harris

Created on: December 22, 2008

I have seen a few tombs in Egypt myself. I have stood in the door way and peered into the space which nobody has seen in over 3000 years.

How they dug out the tombs from the rock is a marvel. The tools they had was basic compared to modern tools of today. The masons had tools of stone and metal. They would dig out the stone until they had the basic layout of the tomb. With any extra rooms that the future occupier wanted. Then they would prepare the walls by smoothing them out with round stones.

They wouldn't get the walls totally smooth this way as the next stage would do that. The plasterers would be working behind the craftsmen smoothing out.

The plasterers would apply a few layers of plaster, nearly the same type of plaster that we use today. This would render the surface good enough to start the decoration. But they would not make it completely smooth. As they believed that the walls then had lost its soul if it was completely flat.

This bit is always my favorite part. The artists were masters of there art. They would have started of when they were children, learning the hieroglyphics. They were the base of the art. They practised on shards of discarded pottery. Some of which have been found in places like Deir el Medina (the craftsmen village near the Valley of the Kings). They would have used papyrus reeds chewed at one end to make a brush.

To start to paint onto a wall they would first put a grid onto it. They dipped string into red paint and then twanged it onto the wall. A standing person was 19 cubits and a sitting person was 13 cubits tall. They would draw the scenes onto the wall and then make any adjustments that were needed. The colours used were not just picked at random

Red: For life and victory, but also for rage and anger. It was made using red ocher and oxidized iron. Green: For new life and vegetation. Osiris was painted green to symbolize re birth. It was made from malachite. White: For purity and omnipotence, it was made from chalk or gypsum. Black: Symbol of death and the night. Ahmose-Nefertari was always depicted with black skin as she was the patroness of the burial necropolis. It was made from charcoal. Yellow: It symbolized gold and the sun. They believed the gods bones were made from gold so they thought that everything that was gold was ever lasting. It was made using ochres but in the later times it was made using arsenic trisulphide. Blue: It symbolized the Nile but also cosmic matters. It was made using copper and iron oxides mixed with calcium and silica.

My favorite tomb painting is in the tomb of Dhuti-Hotep. Its of a statue being dragged by workmen.

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