Surveyor's Stake from a Foundation Deposit for Hatshepsut's Temple

Unknown

ca. 1479–1458 B.C. · Wood · Egyptian Art

The Egyptian foundation ceremony was called "the stretching of the cord." This refers to the ritual of dedicating a temple, but it also describes the action of laying out the temple's ground plan by driving stakes into the earth and stretching a piece of cord between them. The stake (22.3.246) and a mallet (22.3.245) in this photograph are from one of the foundation deposit delineating the perimeter of Hatshepsut's temple at Deir el-Bahri.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 1479–1458 B.C.

Medium

Wood

Department

Egyptian Art

Credit line

Rogers Fund and Edward S. Harkness Gift, 1922