Square Grids in the Tomb of Akhethotep – Questions and Doubts

Résumé

The proportions of the human figure in Egyptian art were determined on the basis of simple and rarely changing rules. The oldest preserved guidelines used for this purpose come from the times of the Fifth Dynasty, and the square grids from the mid-Twelfth Dynasty. The objective of this article is to interpret the guidelines from the chapel of vizier Akhethotep, dated to the Fifth Dynasty, and answer the following questions: when were they made and what rules were used to determine the proportions of the vizier’s body? To do this, the author proposes employment of a measuring method which uses square grids as the main tool and the smallest element of the grid, that is, the square module as the basic measurement unit.