THE OXFORD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

ANC I ENT
YPT
DONALD B. REDFORD
EDITOR IN CHIEF

VOLUME 2
M ^R

OXJ.ORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS

2001
68 GRTD SYSTEMS
chambers,"
;.:: . r:*.p,. i:p*
{.i,'1 J'i;7'ry ;*
above the upper burial chambe4, in Khufui
pyramid.
Granite is known from ancient sources under a num-
ber of names. Ordinary granite (no color designated) is
mjt and inr-n-m3t. Red granite is m3t, inr-nfr-n-mjt, inr-n-
jbw, and m3t-rwQt. Black granite (probably better termed
granodiorite) is m3t-kmt, inr-km, and inr-km-n-mjt.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Arnold, Dieter. Building in Eg,pt. Pharaonic Stone Masoary. Cam-
bridge, 1991.
Faulkne4, Raynond O. A Concke Dictiornry of Middle Egptian. Ox-
ford, I 962.
Gardine4, Alan. Egtptian Grammar-Being an Introduction to the
Study of Hieroglypfu. 3d ed. rev. Oxford, 1982.
Harrell, James A. "An Inventory of Ancient Bgptian euarries." News-
letter of the Ameican Research Center in Egpt 146 ( 1989), 1-7, plus
cover photo.
Hmis, J. R. Izxicopyaphical Studies in Ancient Egtptinn Minerak.
Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschafter zu Berlin Institut ftir Ori-
entforschung, 54. Beriin, 1961.
Kozloff, Arielle P, and Betsy M.Bryan. Egypt's Dazzkng Sun. Amenho-
tep III and His World. BloomitgIon,lnd., 1992.
Lesko, Leonard H., and Barbara Switalski, eds. A Dictionary of Late
Egyptian.4 vols. Berkeley, 1982.
CLAIR R. OSSIAN
GRID SYSTEMS. From the early Middle Kingdom on-
ward, artists often laid out sketches of divine, royal, and
human figures on squared grids. No evidence for grids
used in this way has been found from the Old Kingdom,
although grids were used for other purposes. Instead,
from the fifth dynasty of the Old Kingdom through the
Theban eleventh dynasty of the Firs't Intermediate Period,
a simple system, using horizontal and vertical guide lines,
laid out standing human figures, especially those in rows.
Guide lines and grid lines were usually made by dip-
ping a length of string in red paint, stretching it taut, and
snapping it against the drawing surface at the desired
level. This method often left small splatters. Alternatively,
the lines could be ruled against a straight edge, creating a
crisp, more even result.
Grids were used for two-dimensional decoration in
tomb chapels, royal tombs and temples, and occasionally
for stelae. Evidence suggests that grids were also em-
ployed in the initial stage of stone statue production:
front, back, and both side views of the statue were
sketched on a grid that went over the front, back, and
sides of the rectangular stone block. A single uniform grid
would help the sculptors line up the sketches of all four
sides. Both the grids and the sketches would be cut away
as work proceeded, so little evidence has survived con-
cerning the use of grids on statues. Although grids on two-
dimensional works were also never meant to be seen
when the work was completed, in fuct a lot of evidence
*jii'=. ;": f S **jse': f * tr. i
remains concerning their use, because many tomb chap-
els were never finished and the initial artists' grids and
sketches remain visible. Furthet in tomb chapels that
were painted as opposed to being cut into relief, the grids
and sketches were not removed but merely covered by the
paint of the finished scene. Often, the paint has fallen off
to reveal the grids and sketches beneath. Thus we have a
good idea about the way guide lines and grids were used.
During the Old Kingdom and First Intermediate pe-
riod, the guide line system had up to eight horizontal lines
in addition to the baseline on which a human figure stood;
a single vertical line ran through the ear, to roughly bisect
the figure. The horizontals marked the top of the head;
the hairline at which the hair and forehead meet; the
junction of the neck and shoulders; the armpits; the elbow
of the hanging arm; the lower border of the buttocks; the
top of the knee; and the middle of the calf. Not all lines
were present on every figure. It was, for example, unusual
for both the line at the top of the head and the hairline
to appear; of the two, the hairline was more commonly
marked. The calf line was only introduced in the sixrh dy-
nasty. The knee line and the elbow line divided the hair-
line height of the figure into thirds, and the line at the
lower border of the buttocks divided it in half. When mea-
sured upward from the soles of the feet, the junction of
the neck and shoulder line was at eight-ninths of the hair-
line height, and the armpit line was at four-fifths.
Probably in the Middle Kingdom, by the late eleventh
dynasty and certainly by the twelfth, the system of guide
lines was developed into a squared grid system, in which
standing figures comprised eighteen squares between the
hairline and the soles of the feet. Thus the old hairline
became horizontal 18, the junction of the neck and shoul-
der line became horizontal 16, the elbow line became ho-
rizontal 12, t}:'e lower border of the buttocks line became
horizontal 9, the knee line became horizontal 6, and the
calf ]ine became horizontal 3. The old axial vertical was
incorporated as a grid vertical. Neither the line at the top
of the head nor the armpit line corresponded to a grid
horizontal, and these levels were left unmarked.
By the eighteenth dynasty of the New Kingdom, the
top of the head was raised to coincide with horizontal 19.
Not all the grid horizontals marked salient points of the
body, but horizontal 17 normally passed beneath the nose,
and horizontal 14 through or near the nipple. Like the
guide line system, the grid system was used for both male
and female human figures. The proportions of the figures
were not static; they varied from period to period. Early
twelfth dynasty figures that had been modeled on OId
Kingdom figures of the fifth and early sixth dynasty, had
broad shoulders approximately six squares wide, with the
armpits about four squares apart. The small of the back
was placed on or near horizontal 1 1. Female figures were
 cRrD SYSTE N^S. A cory by Lancetot Crane) of att unfinished painting of Naklt and his wife'
t.i eighteenth rlynasty.Its incomplete state allows us to see the
preliminary drawing and th! sff
! ili
iii* .o*o)
used in setting up the picture' In the torab of Nakht at Sheikh
il.lir
ti" trr" "pper left
Abd el-Ourna. (The Metropolitan Museurn of Art, 15'5' 190
lttt
lio
 70 GzuD SYSTEMS
narrower across the shoulders, roughly four to fives
squares wide, and they had a higher small of the
back,
which was at or near horizontal 12. Simi-lar proportions
were also used at the beginning of the eighteenth
dynasty.
In the intervening period, howeve4, different proportions
were used. Male figures were given shoulders of less
than
six squares wide and the small of the back was raised
to
horizontal 12, thus reducing the size of the upper torso;
female figures also became more slender. From the mid_
eighteenth dynasty, proportions changed again; the small
of the back was raised to horizontal tZ, andlhe lower bor_
der of the buttocks to horizontal 10.
In the post-Amarna period through the New Kingdom,s
nineteenth and twentieth dynasties, nonroyal male figures
become increasingly slendeq, and the small of the
back
was placed as high as horizontal 13. Royal and divine
fig_
ures were affected less in the change of proportions, yet
the lower leg was often lengthened so that it was the lower
border of the kneecap or even the tibial tubercle below
that rested on horizontal 6. As the male figures were
changed, so also were the female, to maintain their gen_
der differences. The use of the eighteen_square grid sys_
tem did not, therefore, impose a single set of proportions
on figures.
In the Middle and New Kingdom system, seated figures
normally comprised fourteen squares between the hair-
line and baseline, consisting of the distance between the
hairline and the lower border of the buttocks together
with the height of the seat. Kneeling figures, in which the
buttocks rest on the heel of the vertical foot, comprised
eleven or twelve squares, depending on whether the foot
was two or three squares high. The smaller foot seems to
have been used until the middle of the eighteenth dynasty,
and the larger foot was used in the later eighteenth dy_
nasty, as well as the nineteenth and twentieth dynasties.
During the Amarna period in the late eighteenth dy_
nasty, the grid system was modified, presumably to incor_
porate new proportions used for male and female figures,
so that twenty squares ran between the hairline and the
soles of the feet. The knee was still on horizontal 6, and
the lower border of the buttocks was still on horizontal l0
in the early style, but often it was lowered to horizontal
9 in the later style. The nipple was frequently related to
horizontal 15, not 14, showing that an extra square had
been added between the two points. The distance between
the junction of the neck and shoulder on horizontal 17
(not 16, because of the extra square in the torso) and the
hairline on horizontal 20 was three squares, not two as in
the traditional figure, showing that an extra square had
been added in the face. One of the effects ofthat change
was to reduce the length of the lower leg in relation to the
hairline height. Although few grid traces have survived
from the Amarna period, the proportions of the figures of
Nefertiti and nonroyal individuals also relate to a
twenty_
squle grid, although many figures, particularly the non_
royal, may have been drawn freehand.
With the return to orthodoxy, the traditional eighteen-
square grid was used once again. Evidence from
the Late
period's twenty-fifth dynasty shows a new grid
system to
have come into use, and it continued to be employed
through Greco-Roman times. Lack of evidence from the
twentieth dynasty and the following Third Intermediate
Period makes it hard to determine when the change
took
place, although it has been argued from evidence
in the
tomb of Montuemhat (Theban tomb 34) that it occurred
during the twenty-fifth dynasty.
In the Late period grid system, standing figures com_
prised twenty-one squares between the upper eyelid
or
root of the nose and the baseline. Horizontal 20 ran
through the mouth, horizontal l9 through the junction of
the neck and shoulders, i3 through the small of the back,
l1 through the lower border of the buttocks; 7 was at the
top of the knee, and 6 was at the bottom of the tibial tu_
bercle. A vertical ran through the ea4, dividing the male
torso across the shoulders into approximately three-and_
a-half squares on each side. Female figures were also
more slendeq, and they usually had a higher small of the
back. Male and female seated figures normally comprised
seventeen squares between the upper eyelid and the
baseline.
Unlike the Amarna grid system, which was developed
to accommodate the changed proportions of that period,
the Late period grid system did not significantly change
proportions. In the twenty-fifth dynasty and the twenry_
sixth, proportions were modeled on those of the fifth and
sixth dynasties, which later were also current in the early
Middle Kingdom and the early New Kingdom. In the Late
period system, the grid squares became only five-sixths
the size of the old grid squares, bringing the level of the
hairline to 21 and 3/5 squares above the baseline. Because
the hairline no longer fell on u j.id ho.irontal, it ceased
to be used as the upper point of a figure; instead, the up_
per eyelid or root of the nose, which coincided with hori-
zontal 21, was used. Other salient points of the body that
had been marked in the old grid system were slightly ad-
justed to coincide with new horizontals: the knee to line
7, from 7 and l/5 squares; the lower border of the but-
tocks to 1 l, from I 0 and 4/5 squares; the small of the back
to 13, from 13 and 1/5 squares; and the junction of the
neck and shoulders to 19, from 19 and l/5 squares. The
reason for this change in the grid system is not yet known.
During the different periods, the way that grids were
used varied. For example, in eighteenth dynasty tomb
chapels dated to the reigns of Thutmose III and Amen-
hotpe II, there was a tendency to employ grids far more
extensively than in the chapels of the reigns that followed.

They were not used at all in Ramessid chapels, owing to
a change in technique whereby artists painted directly on
a thin white or yellow ground that was not subsequently
repainted.
On monuments for which grids were used, artists had
a choice about how to deploy them. They could place a
single grid'-appropriate to the major figure over a com-
plete scene, then add other figures freehand, or they could
use a series of grids with different square sizes appro-
priate to the different sized figures in the scene. Some-
times the two methods were employed in the same tomb
chapel. Grids could also influence the layout of scenes,
including the placement of various objects and hiero-
gtyphic inscriptions, although the extent to which they
did so varied according to a number of factors, including
period. When figures in different poses occurred in the
same scene-such as, when a standing king makes an of-
fering to a seated deity-the figures could be drawn on
the same scale, and so fit the same grid, or they could be
drawn with slightly different scales, in which case the
same grid would not fit both figures. The first method was
widely employed in the eighteenth dlmasty and in Greco-
Roman times, while the second was more common in the
nineteenth to twentieth dlnastY.
In ancient Eglpt, squared grids functioned as artists'
tools for roughly two thousand years' They helped artists
achieve acceptable proportions and the proper layout of
rvhole scenes. The extent to which artists used grids var-
ied, as draftsmen were quite capable of drawing freehand'
Not enough evidence exists to say whether grids were
used for squaring up (in size) from smaller sketches'
Grids were helpful to artists working in cramped spaces
or from scaffolding high up on temple walls, since they
could not step back to gauge the proportions of the com-
plete figure.
GRID SYSTEMS 7I
lsee ako Painting; Relief Sculpture; and Sculpture: An
Overview.l
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Baud, Marcelle. "Les dessins dbauchs de la n6cropole th6ebaine (au
temps du nouvel empire)," Bulletin dz I'hstitut frangais d'archiolo'
gie orientale,63. Cairo, 1935. Although the author does not discuss
grid systems in any detail, she illustrates a large number of unfin-
ished scenes with surviving grids.
Blackman, Aylward M. The Rock Tbmbs of Meir vol. 2. The Tomb'
Chapel of Senbib son Ukh-hotp (8, No. 2). London, 1915. Publishes
line drawings of the decoration of a Middle Kingdom tomb chapel
with extensive surviving grids.
Edgar, Campbell C. "Remarks on Eg;rptian'sculptors'Models'." Re-
cueil de travaux rdlatifs d Ia philobgie et d l'arch6ologie igtptiennes
et asq)riennes 27 (LgoS), I 37-l 50' Discusses the so-called sculptors'
trial pieces, with incised grid lines, from the Ptolemaic period.
Edgar, Campbell C. Sculptors' Stuilies and Unfinished Works. Caito,
1906. Includes two- and three-dimensional examples of so-called
sculptor's trial pieces, with incised gr:id lines, from the Ptolemaic
period in the collection oI the Eg5ptian Museum, Cairo.
Mackay, Ernest. "Proportion Squares on Tomb Walls in the Theban
Necropolis." Joumal of Egtptian Archazologt 4 (1917)' 74-85' Dis-
cusses and illustrates with line drawings a number of scenes having
surviving grids, as found in eighteenth dynasty Theban tomb-
chapels.
Robins, Gay. Propottion and Style in Ancient Egtptian Art' Austin,
1994. The most recent study devoted specifically to the use of guide
lines and squared grids in ancient Egrptian art.
Robins, Gay. "Abbreviated Grids on Tro Scenes in a Graeco-Roman
Tomb at Abydos." In Studies in Honor of William KeIIy Sirnpson'
edited by Peter Der Manuelian, vol. 2, pp. 689-695. Boston, 1996'
Robins, Gay. "The Use of the Squared Grid as a Technical Aid for
Artists in Eighteenth D5'nasty Painted Theban Tombs'" ln Colour
and Painting in Ancient Egpt, edited by W. V. Davies' London,
forthcoming.
Romano, James F., and Gay Robins. "A Painted Fragment from the
Tomb of D'w at Deir el Gebrawi." Joumal d the Ameriean Research
Center in Egtpt 31 (lgg4),21-32. Discusses the guide lines visibie
on a painted fragment from an Old Kingdom tomb chapel at Deir
el-Gebrawi'
GAY ROBINS