the length of logs obtainable to form the roof. The growing
desire for ostentation found a way to enlarge the tombs by
building them with a number of chambers. The burial was placed in
the central chamber and the burial furniture in the additional
chambers. In this way the separation of the furniture and the
actual burial was brought about.




V. THE OLD EMPIRE


Another change comes in the Fourth Dynasty, and is to be noted
first in the royal tombs, as is always the case. The Egyptians
had now learned to cut stone and build with it. The burial
chambers hollowed in the solid rock were necessarily smaller than
the old chambers dug in the gravel and no longer sufficient to
contain the great mass of furniture gathered by a king for his
grave. On the other hand, the chapels with the increase in
architectural skill could be build of great size. Corresponding
to these technical conditions we find a great increase in the
importance of the chapel. It becomes a great temple, whose
magazines were filled with all those objects which had formerly
been placed in the burial chamber and were so necessary to the
life of the spirit. The temples of the third pyramid, for
example, contained nearly two thousand stone vessels. Great
estates were set aside by will, and the income appointed to the
support of certain persons who on their side were obliged to keep
up the temple, to make the offerings and to recite the magical