white; sometimes, however they were decorated with geometrical patterns,
which repeated the leading motives employed in the sepulchral wall-
paintings. Thus we find examples of meanders interspersed with rosettes
(fig. 21), parti-coloured squares (fig. 22), ox-heads seen frontwise,
scrolls, and flights of geese (fig. 23).

[Illustration: Fig. 21.--Ceiling pattern from behind, Medinet Habû,
Twentieth Dynasty.]

[Illustration: Fig. 22.--Ceiling pattern similar to one at El Bersheh,
Twelfth Dynasty.]

I have touched chiefly upon houses of the second Theban period,[2] this
being in fact the time of which we have most examples. The house-shaped
lamps which are found in such large numbers in the Fayûm date only from
Roman times; but the Egyptians of that period continued to build according
to the rules which were in force under the Pharaohs of the Twelfth,
Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties. As regards the domestic
architecture of the ancient kingdom, the evidences are few and obscure.
Nevertheless, the stelae, tombs, and coffins of that period often furnish
designs which show us the style of the doorways (fig. 24), and one Fourth
Dynasty sarcophagus, that of Khûfû Poskhû, is carved in the likeness of a
house (fig. 25).


[1] Many of the rooms at Kahun had vaulted ceilings.

[2] Seventeenth to Twentieth Dynasties.