DOI Artikel:
Aksamit, Joanna: Stone Vessels from Edfu in the National Museum in Warsaw
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18950#0017
IFAO's excavations at other sites, particularly at Deir el-Medina. Those
objects still form the core of the Egyptian collection of the Gallery of
Ancient Art; the finds from Edfu are also uniąue in Poland as the only so
numerous group of antiąuities coming from controlled excavations at a
single site in Egypt.
A set of almost 200 stone vessels is one of the most important groups of
objects from Edfu in the Warsaw collection. The chronological overview of
those vessels should be started with a mention of about 15 mostly fragmen-
tary bowls, plates and cylindrical jars madę of calcite (called also Egyptian
alabaster) and schist (greywacke),2 dated to the Late Predynastic and Early
Dynastie Period.3 The bulk of the stone vessels from Edfu in Warsaw datę
between the late Old Kingdom (5th-6th Dynasty) and the Second Intermediate
Period (late 13th-17th Dynasty) and the most remarkable specimens come
from the Old Kingdom. Particularly noteworthy are: a large cylindrical
ointment jar with a cartouche of King Teti (6th Dynasty) on the lid (ill. 3)4 and
a globular vessel with the titles of King Elnis (5th Dynasty) incised around the
shoulder (ill. 2).5 On the latter vessel the cartouche with Unis’ nomen was
erased already in antiąuity, but nsw bity and Horus names of the King were
left untouched. The shape most freąuently occurring among the Old
Kingdom vessels is that of the ointment jar with a cylindrical, slightly concave
body, wide fiat rim and foot (ill. 5), and the most commonly used stone is
2 The so-called Egyptian alabaster (geologically calcite, recently described also as travertine; cf
B. Aston, Ancient Egyptian Stone Vessels: Materials and Forms, Studien zur Archaologie und
Geschichte Altagyptens 5, Heidelberg 1994, pp. 42-47; B. Aston, J.A. Harrelł, I. Shaw,
“Stone”, in Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology, ed. by P.T. Nicholson, I. Shaw,
Cambridge 2000, pp. 59-60) was a materiał most widely used for manufacturing stone vessels
in Egypt; therefore, in the present article a vessel madę of calcite is meant wherever the
materiał is not listed. The stone traditionally called schist should rather be named greywacke,
cf. Aston, op. cit., pp. 28-32, Aston, Harrell, Shaw, op. cit., pp. 57-58.
3 Almost all those vessels have been restored from fragments and substantially reconstructed.
Until recently only one cylindrical jar of this group was published, mistaken for a stand:
B. Ruszczyć, “Alabaster Tables from Edfu. Glosses to Considerations on Egyptian Vessels”,
Etudes et Travaux, 3, 1969, pp. 38-39, fig. 3. The whole group is described in detail in
J. Aksamit, “Predynastic and Early Dynastie Antiąuities from Edfu in the National Museum in
Warsaw”, in Egypt at its Origins. Studies in Memory of Barbara Adams. Proceedings of the
International Conference “Origin of the State. Predynastic and Early Dynastie Egypt”, Kraków,
28,h August - V September 2002, ed. by S. Hendrickx, R.F. Friedman, K.M. Ciałowicz,
M. Chlodnicki, (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 138), Leuven 2004, pp. 523-535.
4 Inv. no. 139962, see: K. Michałowski, Ch. Desroches, J. de Linage, J. Manteuffel, S. Zejmo-
-Zejmis, Tell Edfou 1939 (Fouilles franco-polonaises. Rapports III, later ąuoted as: Tell Edfou
1939), Cairo 1950, p. 176, no. 72, pl. XVI, 10-11, cf B. Ruszczyć, “Grobowiec dostojnika
Izi”, Rocznik Muzeum Narodowego w Warszawie, 3, 1958, p. 60, fig. 3; 5000 Jabre Agyptische
Kunst, exh. cat., Villa Hiigel, Essen 1961, p. 90, no. 54; B. Ruszczyć, Egipskie naczynia
kamienne, Warsaw 1963. Analogous vessel with a cartouche of Pepi I: C.M. Firth, B. Gunn, Teti
Pyramid Cemeteries II, Cairo 1926, pl. 13.
5 Inv. no. 139966, see: Tell Edfou 1939, p. 176, no. 75, pl. XVI, 14, cf Ruszczyć, “Grobowiec...”,
op. cit., p. 58, fig. 4; 5000 Jahre..., op. cit., p. 90, no. 53, Ruszczyć, Egipskie naczynia..., op. cit.
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objects still form the core of the Egyptian collection of the Gallery of
Ancient Art; the finds from Edfu are also uniąue in Poland as the only so
numerous group of antiąuities coming from controlled excavations at a
single site in Egypt.
A set of almost 200 stone vessels is one of the most important groups of
objects from Edfu in the Warsaw collection. The chronological overview of
those vessels should be started with a mention of about 15 mostly fragmen-
tary bowls, plates and cylindrical jars madę of calcite (called also Egyptian
alabaster) and schist (greywacke),2 dated to the Late Predynastic and Early
Dynastie Period.3 The bulk of the stone vessels from Edfu in Warsaw datę
between the late Old Kingdom (5th-6th Dynasty) and the Second Intermediate
Period (late 13th-17th Dynasty) and the most remarkable specimens come
from the Old Kingdom. Particularly noteworthy are: a large cylindrical
ointment jar with a cartouche of King Teti (6th Dynasty) on the lid (ill. 3)4 and
a globular vessel with the titles of King Elnis (5th Dynasty) incised around the
shoulder (ill. 2).5 On the latter vessel the cartouche with Unis’ nomen was
erased already in antiąuity, but nsw bity and Horus names of the King were
left untouched. The shape most freąuently occurring among the Old
Kingdom vessels is that of the ointment jar with a cylindrical, slightly concave
body, wide fiat rim and foot (ill. 5), and the most commonly used stone is
2 The so-called Egyptian alabaster (geologically calcite, recently described also as travertine; cf
B. Aston, Ancient Egyptian Stone Vessels: Materials and Forms, Studien zur Archaologie und
Geschichte Altagyptens 5, Heidelberg 1994, pp. 42-47; B. Aston, J.A. Harrelł, I. Shaw,
“Stone”, in Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology, ed. by P.T. Nicholson, I. Shaw,
Cambridge 2000, pp. 59-60) was a materiał most widely used for manufacturing stone vessels
in Egypt; therefore, in the present article a vessel madę of calcite is meant wherever the
materiał is not listed. The stone traditionally called schist should rather be named greywacke,
cf. Aston, op. cit., pp. 28-32, Aston, Harrell, Shaw, op. cit., pp. 57-58.
3 Almost all those vessels have been restored from fragments and substantially reconstructed.
Until recently only one cylindrical jar of this group was published, mistaken for a stand:
B. Ruszczyć, “Alabaster Tables from Edfu. Glosses to Considerations on Egyptian Vessels”,
Etudes et Travaux, 3, 1969, pp. 38-39, fig. 3. The whole group is described in detail in
J. Aksamit, “Predynastic and Early Dynastie Antiąuities from Edfu in the National Museum in
Warsaw”, in Egypt at its Origins. Studies in Memory of Barbara Adams. Proceedings of the
International Conference “Origin of the State. Predynastic and Early Dynastie Egypt”, Kraków,
28,h August - V September 2002, ed. by S. Hendrickx, R.F. Friedman, K.M. Ciałowicz,
M. Chlodnicki, (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 138), Leuven 2004, pp. 523-535.
4 Inv. no. 139962, see: K. Michałowski, Ch. Desroches, J. de Linage, J. Manteuffel, S. Zejmo-
-Zejmis, Tell Edfou 1939 (Fouilles franco-polonaises. Rapports III, later ąuoted as: Tell Edfou
1939), Cairo 1950, p. 176, no. 72, pl. XVI, 10-11, cf B. Ruszczyć, “Grobowiec dostojnika
Izi”, Rocznik Muzeum Narodowego w Warszawie, 3, 1958, p. 60, fig. 3; 5000 Jabre Agyptische
Kunst, exh. cat., Villa Hiigel, Essen 1961, p. 90, no. 54; B. Ruszczyć, Egipskie naczynia
kamienne, Warsaw 1963. Analogous vessel with a cartouche of Pepi I: C.M. Firth, B. Gunn, Teti
Pyramid Cemeteries II, Cairo 1926, pl. 13.
5 Inv. no. 139966, see: Tell Edfou 1939, p. 176, no. 75, pl. XVI, 14, cf Ruszczyć, “Grobowiec...”,
op. cit., p. 58, fig. 4; 5000 Jahre..., op. cit., p. 90, no. 53, Ruszczyć, Egipskie naczynia..., op. cit.
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