Ancient Egyptian stone vessel production was one of the most prolific and long-lived industries in the Mediterranean. Such vessels were an important status indicator, and commonly used to hold liquids or cosmetics, for ritual and display purposes, and as canopic jars.

The earliest stone vessels in Egypt date as far back as the Late Neolithic (). From the Predynastic Period (c. 4000 – c. 3100 BC) onward, hundreds of thousands were created in a wide variety of shapes and materials, many from hard stones but the majority from soft calcareous rocks, especially travertine. Hard stone vessels were luxury items that only the elite had access to. As such, they were frequently imitated with less expensive materials. Production peaked around the early Dynastic period (c. 3100 – c. 2686 BC), perhaps due to the adoption of a turning device like the potter's wheel. At the start of the Old Kingdom focus shifted away from stone vessels towards other stone-based displays such as pyramids, statues and sarcophagi. They were also increasingly replaced by equivalents of different materials like glass, faience and precious metals. Both hard and soft stone vessels continued to be produced until the end of antiquity and beyond, although in diminished quantity and variety.

The production process of stone vessels began in a quarry, where vessel blanks (rough versions) were hewn from the bedrock. These were subsequently transported to workshops where they were hollowed out with drills. Sometimes rotary devices were used to shape them, perhaps potter's wheels or horizontal lathes. Lastly, their exterior was smoothed and decorated.

Use

Egyptian stone vessels were manufactured for everyday use, ritual and burial purposes (e.g. canopic jars), foundation deposits, temple votives, and as trade goods. They sometimes held substances like perfumes, oils, beverages or cosmetics like kohl. On their own, they had an ornamental value and were a status item that was distributed according to the steep social pyramid of ancient Egypt. Imitation pottery was available to a wider range of people.

Most stones vessels were uninscribed: Only a small portion bear the names of pharaohs or members of the royal family, titles or labels of their contents or capacity. The presence of a cartouche may mean that they originated from a royal workshop and intended for use by the royal family or as a reward for outstanding service or loyalty.

Dating stone vessels can be challenging, because they were sometimes reused, and vessels of similar shapes and materials were produced over a long time or in diverse periods.

Manufacturing process The tools and techniques used to craft stone vessels differed significantly depending on the material. A soft stone vessel could be made in a few days with stone and copper chisels. Working hard stone was a lengthy process that could have taken over a year per vessel, hence they tend to be smaller and are less numerous. Evidence for the production process includes vessel blanks and tools found in quarries, unfinished vessels, hundreds of drill-bits, shaped grinders and drill-cores, blocks with test drillings as well as excavated workshops.

Quarrying

The quarrying of stone vessels was a multi-step process. The intermediate stages have been found in great quantities at multiple quarries. For example, at the anorthosite gneiss quarry at Gebel el-Asr, which was used almost exclusively to produce hard stone vessel blanks since the Predynastic Period (c. 4000 – c. 3100 BC), or slightly earlier. Large scale exploitation of the rock started in the Second Dynasty, and as many as 90,000 blanks may have been quarried there in total. By the end of the 3rd Dynasty (c. 2686 – c. 2613 BC), the higher-quality speckled variety of the stone was largely depleted and the lower quality subtype had to be used for the statues of the 4th and 5th Dynasty, such as Khafre Enthroned. In the 12th Dynasty the site briefly experienced a resurgence.

To extract a block from the bedrock, the surrounding soil and weathered rock fragments were removed first. This step could be skipped, if naturally detached boulders were available. The block would then be split into smaller fragments (cores) that could contain the shape of a vessel. Large stone pounders were employed for this task with a diameter up to . For soft stones, copper chisels, wedges, saws and adzes were used. Fire-induced spalling technology was available, however usually not needed for smaller rocks. Each core was then worked with hand-axes or smaller pounders, by chipping off shards until a rough version of the vessel (a blank) was achieved. The quarried blanks were then transported to workshops in the Nile Valley where they were finished.

Rotary devices

The earliest evidence for a rotary device being used on Egyptian pottery goes back to the Naqada I period (c. 3600 BC). The insides of stone vessels were drilled since at least Naqada II (c. 3500 – c. 3200 BC). Rotary abrasion marks appear on the outsides of stone vessels as early as the Old Kingdom. Andrew Bevan suggests these striations to indicate the use of horizontal lathes or potter's wheels. The Potter's wheel was first used in the Near East between c. 4500 – c. 4000 BC, and in the Nile delta by Canaanite potters c. 3500 – c. 3300 BC. Preserved Egyptian wheel bearings consist of an upper pivot and a lower socket usually of basalt, granodiorite or limestone. Experiments showed their design to be capable of spinning at over 100 rotations per minute, if the stone surfaces were well polished and lubricated with viscous oil like linseed oil.

Drills To hollow the vessels out, an entry hole was made with a tubular copper flywheel drill, in combination with loose abrasive powder (e.g. quartz sand) which did the cutting. To prevent breakage during the drilling process, the vessels were put in a hole to stabilize the walls.

Extracted drill cores have a conical form and bear fine, even striations from the abrasives that embedded themselves into the matrix of the copper.

The hole was then widened with various flint gouges or shaped grinders that were driven with a weighted drill. Since the insides of the vessels were usually not polished afterwards, they retained their concentric drill marks. Flint gouges produced round interior cavities with coarse, irregular striations; shaped grinders more uniform curved slots, with finer striations.

Other methods of drilling are using a horizontal lathe, a bit-and-brace mechanism and a drill pump mechanism. Evidence for these techniques is scant, especially for earlier times.

Refining The exteriors of vessels were smoothed by hand, leaving diagonal abrasion marks. Some types of vessels had handles, which were often perforated by a chipped flint drill-bit. Polishing was time-consuming and thus done to various extents. Rotary devices may have helped speed up this process.

Some Egyptian workshops applied wax or oil to give their stone vessels a smooth and shiny look, while others finely polished the outer surface.

As a final step, decorations such as gilding, inscriptions and accessories were added.

Modern surface analysis

An interferometry analysis revealed microscopic striations from the polishing process on the surface of an Egyptian vase.

A study of predynastic stone vessels from the Petrie Museum using 3D scans concluded them to be handmade due to their quality being "virtually indistinguishable" from modern handmade objects.

History

Background and context Stone vessels were produced in West Asia as early as the Epipaleolithic (c. 20,000 – c. 9600 BC). During the Early Neolithic (c. 9600 – c. 6500 BC), a wide variety of stone vessels appear at numerous sites. For example, at Göbekli Tepe 600 stone vessels were discovered, including limestone vessels and platters, large troughs, as well as small "greenstone" vessels which had thin walls and were often decorated with geometric patterns.

In the southern Levant, vessels made from basalt and other hard stones appear in the Early Chalcolithic (c. 5800 – c. 4600 BC). In the Late Chalcolithic (c. 4500 – c. 3700 BC) the number and sophistication of these vessels increased. The exceptional quality of production (symmetrical, thin walls, great surface refinement and elaborate decorations) continued in the Early Bronze Age (c. 3700 – c. 2500 BC).

Stone vessels were traded between the cultures of the eastern Mediterranean throughout the Bronze Age, and their styles influenced each other. For example, in Crete, Minoan craftsmen produced their own types of stone vessels throughout the third and second millennium BC, however during certain periods they also imitated, imported and sometimes reworked Egyptian ones. Finished and unfinished vessels, as well as drill cores suggest the two cultures used very similar techniques.

Predynastic Period In Egypt, the earliest recorded stone vessels date to the Late Neolithic (c. 5100 – c. 4700 BC).

At the beginning of the Naqada II period (c. 3600 – c. 3200 BC), basalt vessels, quarried at Haddadin (west of Cairo), start to appear in the tombs of the sites around Maadi. They are mostly baggy cylinders and lugged ovoid jars, shapes that have equivalents in pottery and ivory.

At the same time, Upper Egypt had a far more sophisticated mortuary culture. Tombs include imported Lower Egyptian basalt vessels, and similarly shaped versions made from local materials such as red-white breccia limestone. The limited availability of such items lead to the production of pottery imitations. Another popular vessel style was the heart-shaped jar.

At the end of Naqada II, Upper Egyptian pottery start appearing in large numbers, while traditional Lower Egyptian basalt vessels decline. New zoomorphic stone vessels and palettes, as well as wavy-handles jars and multiple-tube block vessels replace them. The heart-shaped jars now have sharper rims and are sometimes gilded. Changes in political power structures would have significant impacts on the material culture in the following centuries as well.

Early Dynastic Period During the Early Dynastic Period (c. 3300 – c. 2900 BC) the uppermost classes increasingly competed for power and prestige, with an ever increasing emphasis on mortuary display. The quantity and quality of stone vessels drastically increased in the wealthiest tombs. For example, the First Dynasty cemetery at Abydos contained 50,000100,000 vessel fragments of metasiltstone and travertine and 10,00020,000 of hard stones. Vessel production peaked during this period. Softer stones such as travertine and metasiltstone were most common. Some hard stones like black andesite porphyry and white phenocrysts were popular only in the First and Second Dynasty, and otherwise rare. Cosmetic palettes, which had been produced since the Neolithic, and became exceptionally elaborate in late Naqada IIIII, were discontinued at the start of the First Dynasty.

Several new manufacturing techniques appear during this time, indicating widespread experimentation. Striations from drills on the inside of the vessels become less coarse, suggesting shaped grinding stones rather than flint gouges were used as drill bits. Obsidian and quartz-crystal vessels show the improved technical skill and the desire to show off by using the toughest rocks available. Some features were purely for display and had no practical purpose. For example, bowls were made with a cylindrical impression, using large-diameter tube drills, from the First Dynasty onward.