182).
Every year, these models are found in sufficient number to establish examples of progressive series.

Apart from isolated specimens which are picked up everywhere, the Gizeh collection contains a set of fifteen from Sakkarah, forty-one from Tanis, and a dozen from Thebes and Medinet Habu.
They were intended partly for the study of bas-reliefs, partly for the study of sculpture proper; and they reveal the method in use for both.[37] [Illustration: Fig.

182 .-- Sculptor's trial-piece, Eighteenth Dynasty.] The Egyptians treated bas-relief in three ways: either as a simple engraving executed by means of incised lines; or by cutting away the surface of the stone round the figure, and so causing it to stand out in relief upon the wall; or by sinking the design below the wall-surface and cutting it in relief at the bottom of the hollow.

The first method has the advantage of being expeditious, and the disadvantage of not being sufficiently decorative.

Rameses III.