ARCH. Arches with vaulted chambers and domed temples figure so conspicuously in modern Oriental architecture, that, if the arch did not exist among the ancient Jews, their towns and houses could not possiblf have offered even a faint resem blance to those which now exist : and this being the case, a great part of the analogical illustrations of Scripture which modern travellers and Biblical illustrators have obtained from this source must needs fall to the ground. It is therefore of im portance to ascertain whether the arch did or did not exist in those remote times to which most of the history of at least the Old Testament belongs. Nothing against its existence is to be inferred from the fact that no word signifying an arch can be found in the Hebrew Scriptures (for the word so rendered in Ezek. xl. 16, has not that meaning). The architectural notices in the Bible are necessarily few and general ; and we have at this day histories and other books, larger than the sacred volume, in which no such word as `arch' occurs. There is certainly no absolute proof that the Israelites employed arches in their buildings ; but if it can be shewn that arches existed in Egypt at a very early period, we may safely infer that so useful an invention could not have been unknown in Palestine.
Until within these few years it was common to ascribe a comparatively late origin to the arch ; but circumstances have come to light one after another, tending to throw the date more and more backward, until at length it seems to be admitted that in Egypt the arch already existed in the time of Joseph. The observations of Rosellini and of Sir J. G. Wilkinson led them irresistibly to this conclusion, which has also been recently adopted by Mr. Cockerell (Lect. iii. in Athenounz for Tan. 28, 1843) and other architects.
It is shewn by Sir J. G. Wilkinson that the arch existed in brick in the reign of Amenoph I. as early as B.C. 1540 ; and in stone in the time of the second Psamaticus, B.C. 600. This evidence is derived from the ascertained date of arches now actually existing ; but the paintings at Beni-Hasan afford ground for the conclusion that vaulted buildings were constructed in Egypt as early as the reign of Osirtasen I., who is presumed to have
been contemporary with Joseph. Indeed, although the evidence from facts does not ascend beyond this, the evidence from analogy and probability can be carried back to about B. C. 2020 (Wilkinson's Ane. Egyptians, ii. 116 ; iii. 316). Sir J. G. Wil kinson suggests the probability that the arch owed its invention to the small quantity of wood in Egypt, and the consequent expense of roofing with timber. The proofs may be thus arranged in chronological order : The evidence that arches were known in the time of the first Osirtasen is derived from the draw ings at Beni-Hasan (Wilkinson, ii. '17).
In the secluded valley of Dayr el Medeeneh, at Thebes, are several tombs of the early date of Amenoph I. Among the most remarkable of these is one whose crude brick roof and niche, bearing the name of the same Pharaoh, prove the existence of the arch at the remote period of B. C. 1540 (Wilkinson, Topography of Thebes, p. St). Another tomb of similar construction bears the ovals of Thothmes III., who reigned about the time of the Exode (Ane. Egyptians, iii. 319). At Thebes there is also a brick arch bearing the name of this king (Hoskins, Travels in Ethiopia).
To the same period and dynasty (the t8th) belong the vaulted chambers and arched door ways (see cut fig. 4) which yet remain in the crude brick pyramids at Thebes (Wilkinson, Ave. Egyptians, iii. 317).
In ancient Egyptian houses it appears that the roofs were often vaulted, and built, like the rest of the house, of crude brick ; and there is reason to believe that some of the chambers in the pavilion of Rameses III. (about B.C. 1245), at Medeente Haboo, were arched with stone, since the devices in the upper part of the walls shew that the fallen roofs had this form (see cut, fig. 3).