FINELY MADE BIFACIALS
Chapter 2. There is some suggestion that the quality had a metaphoric meaning As
5) and bracelets (Appendix 1, 9.7; plate 66), again largely from elite graves The
function of ‘razors’/funerary palettes (Appendix 17.44, plates 4-5 and 17-18) is unknown, thus we cannot be sure that the polishing did not have utilitarian purpose. While some polished ‘razors’ are Old Kingdom in date, possible examples were found in the 18th Dynasty tomb of Tutankhamun (Murray and Nuttall 1963, 32o; plate 5.2), though here described as being made of ‘hard, crystalline limestone’. Flint bracelets, some polished and others not, occur in the Early Dynastic through to the Old
Kingdom.
Early Dynastic amuletic polished flint psS-kf are also known (e.g. British Museum EA37279; Petrie 1902, 24 and pl. 51.22; Spencer 1980, 101 (755), pl. 79). Later examples in other materials are published (Roth 1992). It is clear that these items are ‘ritual’ (6.7.1.3), though not all are polished.
‘Burnishers’ (plate 3) are also polished, but with the exception of UC134 from Amarna (maps 3 and 5), and thus probably New Kingdom or later, are largely
undated. If these items are indeed goldsmith’s burnishers, their polishing is necessary to their function (Appendix 1.5).
Flint axes are rarely polished, though there are two possible examples, M3546 from 1st–3rd Dynasty Koptos (map 6; Appendix 2) and an example from 3rd Dynasty Giza (map 4; Petrie 1907, pl. 111A). Old Kingdom polished stone axes are in
materials other than flint. The polishing of the working edge may act as a utilitarian device, though polishing the whole surface is kinetically unnecessary.
The only other examples of polished artefacts of which I am aware include a 3rd Dynasty artefact from Mastaba T at Giza (Petrie 1907, 8, pl.3a). It is unclear what this is. It is about a foot long and 2 inches wide. It is not the standard shape to be the roughout of a ripple-flaked knife. Caton-Thompson and Gardner (1934, 26) also refer to ‘the little polished rods of unknown use in the St Germain Museum found by de Morgan in the Abydos Royal tombs’. Two similarly strange unpublished pieces are PR.1901.40.26.2 and PR.1901.40.20, both from the tomb of Djer at Abydos (map 4).
30
142 PR.1901.40.25 is perhaps a fragment of a polished knife handle again from the tomb of Djer.
Finally, there are 18th Dynasty flint and limestone knives with flint inclusions. The length of such knives varies from 100 to 168 mm. While this could arguably be considered within the range size of a small flint knife, they are not sharp enough to be used. Polishing of the ‘working’ edge makes the item useless for cutting. Polished flint knives have been found in the tomb of Tutankhamun (Murray and Nutall 1963, 32, p and q, 620/ 62, 63). These are similar to the seven ‘limestone’ miniature knives found in tomb TT 55 (Davis, 1910 reprinted 2001, 38, pl. 2) with flint inclusions (Bell 1990, 105, fig.3). Finally there is the unprovenanced example inscribed with the name and title of the Memphite High Priest of Ptah (glossary), Ptahmose (British Museum 5472, Hall 1931, 48, pl.7.1; Maystre 1992, 268). The fact that this is inscribed enhances its special nature. These knives are particularly interesting as their finds contexts plausibly connects them with the “opening of the mouth” ceremony (5.2.4.7).
It is self-evident that polishing may be equated with aesthetics, luminosity and/or increased production costs. Further, it is noticeable that most polished items (knives, bracelets, psS-kf) occur largely in wealthy graves of the Early Dynastic – mid Old Kingdom.
Unpolished flint items always greatly outnumber polished items. However, in the Early Dynastic, polished flint and rock crystal are particularly salient in elite graves, along with unpolished flint (their appearance on settlement sites is largely unquantifiable for this period due to excavation bias).
We have seen that ivory, flint and claws are connected (above, 4.2.3).
Archaeological evidence for this is particularly strong in the Early Dynastic (6.2.1.2) but indirect textual evidence continues until the Ptolemaic Period. One of the reasons for this connection could lie in the colour/luminosity of both flint and ivory.
Finally, as will be shown (5.2.4.1), there is slight evidence that flint artefacts were placed near the head of the deceased. Later textual evidence connects the head with the solar and it has been suggested that solar minerals were so placed to protect the deceased. The problem here is in using late text to explain an early archaeological phenomenon.
What was the metaphoric value of shiny stone in Egypt? Ethnographic parallels (see above) suggest shininess could metaphorically represent the celestial and/or power, particularly where enhanced by rarity and effort expenditure (see below), and
143 thus be associated with the elite. The connection between flint and the celestial is discussed in Chapter 6.
Alternatively, or additionally, luminous items could aid rebirth, as suggested for the juxtaposition of copper daggers and the ancestral dead in graves and
iconography of Copper Age Italy (Keates 2002). Flint knives are not put in graves as afterlife weapons. Gilbert (2004, 33, 70) shows that the knife is unlikely to be a weapon and they are not even mentioned in McDermott (2004). They must therefore be significant in graves for other reasons and that of rebirth is plausible.
There is evidence that light and shiny materials more generally had cultic significance. A brief analysis of a 6th Dynasty deposit at Elephantine (map 8) from Dreyer (1986) shows that ‘shiny’ artefacts predominate, suggesting their metaphoric value at this time. Here, there are 457 numbered small finds (though some are groups of objects); of these, 402 are faience. The 12 flint tools listed are described as
predominantly grey or light brown. Additionally items of ivory, limestone, pottery, gold, carnelian, breccia, sandstone, travertine, copper and unusual shaped natural flint pebbles and rock crystal were also deposited. In later periods coffins and shabti figures were varnished. Gold is also apparent in graves. Faience is discussed below as another shiny material associated with cultic places.
Related to luminosity is the notion of the multicoloured, as both may be considered dazzling. The juxtaposition of colour varieties in the fine bifacial
arrowheads from grave D29 at Abydos (map 4) is such an example (4.3.1; plate 57), though I know of no others.
Textual evidence for Egypt
Modern western understanding of the word ‘colour’ is unlikely to correspond to any Egyptian linguistic term but instead is confused with terms for hue and texture (Baines 1985a, 284–285; Quirke 2001, 187–188). Egyptological textual and iconographic research has shown partial correspondence with ethnographically suggested colour categorisation in Egyptian religion: that the basic colours are black, white and red. Baines (2001, 155 footnote 2) discusses Quirke’s suggestion that ‘blue’ should be the fourth basic Egyptian colour term.
It is clear from Egyptian artefacts that while the ancient Egyptians recognised many colours – they used pigments for reds, blues, brown, grey, pink, etc. – text shows that they only had abstract colour terms for black, white, red and green (Baines 1985b; Baines 2001, 145; Scarre 2002, 228). The different coloured pigments seem to have
144 been called by different names, but not the colours themselves. Thus, ‘language is far less discriminating than perception’ (Gage 1999, 112) and we should not assume that only colours used in text signified to the Egyptians. Colours were associated with certain minerals which exclude other colours (Aufrère 2001, 160). Thus, dark blue is indicated by reference to lapis lazuli, green for malachite and feldspar, etc. Flint is not a colour indicator, probably as it occurs in a number of different colours, and is rarely of a strongly distinctive hue.
Textual evidence shows that various colours were metaphoric in ancient Egypt. Black (km) is popular in Egyptian text in association with flint, used adjectively for the flint knife, as well as for some amulets. However, km does not just mean ‘black’ but also ‘dark’ (Quirke 2001, 188), thus it can mean ‘brown’ (Harris 1961, 228). Black was associated with the colour of Osiris and hence death and resurrection (Spence 1999, 115; Wilkinson 1999, 104–126; Taylor 2001, 166), the underworld, and was used in magical rituals to ‘harness dangerous supernatural beings to protect or serve the officiant’ (Pinch 2001, 183).
Examples of flint described as km:
a) Early Dynastic PT 290 (413) is discussed in 6.2.1.1. An alternative version of the same spell describes a particoloured knife (the significance of
‘particoloured/multicoloured’ is discussed below).
b) In 13th Dynasty–Second Intermediate Period Papyrus Ramesseum V No. XVII, black flint is to be used to ease StiwAw muscles (French translation in Bardinet 1995,
479; transcription and English translation in Barns 1956, 33; German translation in Deines et al. 1958, 32).
c) It also appears in Papyrus Ramesseum Nr. XX (French translation in Bardinet 1995, 475; transcription and English translation in Barns 1956, 34; German translation in Deines et al. 1958, 31).
d) Black flint is also used against eye ailments in New Kingdom Papyrus Ebers 59, 20 (375) (WB V, 486 (5); Deines et al. 1958, 42; Bardinet 1995, 307) and in Papyrus Ebers 62, 14–15 (412) (WB V, 486 (5); Bardinet 1995, 311; Deines et al. 1958, 43; cited in Aufrère 1991, 564, 568 note 20; Wreszinski 1913, 113).
e) At Ptolemaic Dendera (map 6), there are two references to the destruction of Seth using a black flint knife (6.4.2). The Ptolemaic Dendera amulet table discussed in
4.3.1, describes black flint for some amulets and pale coloured flint for others. Black
145 cited in Aufrère 1991 I, 180–181; Neugebauer and Parker 1969 III, 134–139; Midant- Reynes 1981, 42). It is possible that in some of these instances obsidian is meant rather than black flint (2.3.2.3).
I now turn to ‘green’. In the Pyramid Texts, knives, presumably of stone, are described as wAD, (e.g. Utterance 228 (228), discussed in 6.2.1.1), generally translated as ‘green’ and usually explained as malachite or other green stones (Harris 1961, 104). The word wAD can mean ‘fresh’ (Harris 1961, 225; Baines 1985b, 284; Pinch 2001, 183; Quirke 2001), possibly alluding to the wDAt eye31. The freshness or newness of flint may imply renewal and rebirth. There are allusions to green stone from the mountains, said to be the double of a serpent, in a Graeco-Roman demotic version of the solar eye myth in Papyrus Leiden I 384 (Smith 2002, 137). Harris (1961, 104–105) discusses wDAwDAt /
wDAty
where the eyes of a statue are said to be made of thismaterial. Since eyes of statues may be rock crystal there could be some connection between rock crystal, and wAD. Aufrère (1983, 18) provides further references to
wAD
eyes of gods, and further describes an instance of this from BAXw, thus making wAD similar to flint in having eye (6.2.2.3) and BAXw (6.2.1.1) connections. There is textualevidence that wAD can also mean the same hue as ‘red’ (Baines 1985b, 284; Quirke 2001, 188). It should also be pointed out that, for the Egyptians, there is evidence that what we would call ‘blue’ would have been classified as ‘green’ (Baines 1985b, 286; Bianch 1998, 30, footnote 61).
The word HD means more than ‘white’ but also incorporates ‘bright’ (Quirke 2001, 188). Text shows that generally HD implied purity and happiness (Kees 1943,
456; Aufrère 1991 II, 576; Spence 1999, 116; Taylor 2001, 165) and also means light and silver (Pinch 2001, 183; 2002, 183). Flint, as HD, appears in the Dendera amulet table (4.3.1), and similarly in a list of the 24 minerals presented at Khoiak as ds HD ds
km (Mariette 1870 IV, pl. 39, col. 142). I have wondered if this means ‘black and
white flint’ or as ‘shiny, black flint’. Ds HD also appears as a material for offering trays (Louvre AA88; Breasted 1906 IV, 494–496; Vercoutter 1950, 85–114).The meaning of ds