Arsenical copper tools of Old Kingdom Giza craftsmen: First data
Introduction
Pyramids of Giza are monumental achievements of the Egyptian state and bureaucracy in the Dynasty 4 of the Old Kingdom (Dynasties 4–6, c. 2600–2180 BCE). At Giza were later laid out the foundations of the Old Kingdom archaeology and the site is a cornerstone of the contemporary knowledge on this era (latest summaries with further literature in Der Manuelian, 2017, Lehner and Hawass, 2017). Despite the decades of research, many questions were answered only partially. Main attention e.g. in the research of the Old Kingdom architecture is focused on the large-scale logistics of the building projects, recently enriched by unexpected new sources (Tallet, 2017). On the micro-scale, this paper aims to address one of the mundane aspects of these projects, use of the metal tools. With 15 objects, it offers so far the largest analysed corpus from the Old Kingdom settlement context. Among the very few predecessors was an Egyptian study of the tool fragments found in the first boat pit at the pyramid of Khufu at Giza (Iskander, 1960), with arsenic present in some samples.
Apart from a general opinion that all has been lost or recycled, there are many contexts with tools and model tools from the period (Odler, 2016). The framework of our research is informed by this statistical overview on the preserved archaeological contexts and on the typological assessment of the preserved artefacts. Therein, full-size functional artefacts were tentatively distinguished from the more numerous and flimsier model tool blades, expected to occur predominantly in funerary contexts. Our study focuses on one of the less frequent contexts, coming from the settlement debris of Giza, excavated a few decades ago. A wide range of archaeometallurgical techniques has been applied to characterize the Dynasty-4 metal tools. It is presumed that the objects and their fragments found in the settlement rubbish could have been used in the practical life and were later discarded. The reasons behind discard, if the object is not broken and useless, can be only guessed, but it is reasonable to assume that these artefacts underwent the same treatment as other products of the Old Kingdom metalworkers. It is approach similar to (Verly et al., 2019), where a chisel from a New Kingdom workshop context was a model for an experimental work with such artefact.
Recent research focuses on the trace elements and lead isotopes of Egyptian metalwork (Kmošek et al., 2018, Odler and Kmošek, 2020, Odler and Kmošek, submitted, Rademakers et al., 2018). The most significant result of these studies is that Egypt in its earlier periods was sourcing copper in the nearest vicinity, in the Eastern Desert and Sinai. Moreover, particular Egyptian approaches to copper smelting can be defined (Rademakers et al., 2020). Recent publications thus allow to define specific “Egyptian” approaches to the production and use of metalwork. In case of microstructures, a number of metallographies of ancient Egyptian metalwork was published (Garenne-Marot, 1984, Golden, 2002, Iskander, 1960, Kmošek et al., 2016, Lang, 1987, Maddin et al., 1984), including sometimes information on the micro-hardness of the artefacts, being proposed as a “reasonable” method to accompany metallography (Scott and Schwab, 2019, pp. 61–64). We suppose that further work on the metallurgy of Old Kingdom Giza, including the experimental approaches (Burgos and Laroze, 2020, Stocks, 2003) ought to take into account the characterization of the actual remains of metalwork. Shape reproduction is not enough, as was stressed recently, with a call for the context evaluation of the finds (Verly et al., 2019, p. 124). Our approach infers on the practically used tools from well-contextualized and dated artefacts.
Already “father of Egyptian archaeology”, Flinders Petrie, searched for the dwellings of the pyramid workers at Giza, the structures identified by him as such were rather artisan workshops (Conard and Lehner, 2001). Egyptian excavations uncovered workshops, including metallurgical, south-east of the pyramid of Menkaura, but the report is rather short and gives little data on the metallurgical installations (Saleh, 1974). A mirror from this settlement was analysed, but rather unhappily only with X-ray diffraction (Saleh, 1983). The most productive in this regard were works of the American mission at Heit el-Ghurab, in a complex of structures, nicknamed “lost city of the pyramid builders”, datable to the reigns of Khafra and Menkaura (see e.g. Lehner, 2016, Lehner, 2002). The studied corpus comes from a settlement debris dump located to the south-west of these structures, and probably contains remains of the previous phase of this settlement (Fig. 1A, Fig. 1B).
An Austrian team led by Karl Kromer excavated in the south-eastern part of the Giza necropolis in 1971–1975 (Kromer, 1978). The crescent-shaped area running in the NE-SW direction was uncovered in several squares (10 × 10 m each, Fig. 1). Not a single unequivocal settlement feature was identified. The finds of seal imprints make it possible to date the debris to Dynasty 4, the reigns of Khufu (5 imprints) and Khafra (38 sealings). Kromer presumed that some of the material was of Early Dynastic dating, but this can be dismissed on the basis of the preserved material culture, especially ceramics (A. Wodzińska, pers. comm.). The current interpretation of the context is that it was a settlement debris dump that came into existence when the later phase of Heit el-Ghurab site was being built during the reigns of Khafra and Menkaura (Lehner, 2018, Lehner and Hawass, 2017). The area of the Kromer’s excavation was re-excavated in 2018 (preliminary reports by Lehner, 2018, Witsell, 2018). New excavations have confirmed that the deposit is identifiable in profile by tiplines, as the debris was dumped basket by basket from another location, while two major deposition events were identified. The reassessment of the results even enable to ponder a possibility that the Kromer remains contained in the lower deposition strata, besides debris from workshops, also remains of a Dynasty-4 royal palace building(s). The work on the Kromer site continues to the present day and thus the interpretation in details might change.
Section snippets
Sampled objects
Material from Kromer’s excavations offers a window through which we can glimpse real-life material culture of the people participating in pyramid building and connected projects at Giza during the reigns of Khufu and Khafra. Most of the material remains in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo; part was exported to Austria and bequeathed to the Study collection of the Prehistoric Institute of Vienna University, Faculty of Arts. Material culture comprises ceramics, lithics (wide range of shapes, which must
Theory: full-size functional tools vs. models
Egyptian archaeology is generally known to be focused predominantly on the funerary contexts, and elites of ancient Egyptians themselves invested significantly to their burial equipment (Baines and Lacovara, 2002). In such funerary contexts, models of the real objects, in case of copper, tools, are expected to dominate in number, and some of these were analysed from Old Kingdom Giza (Kmošek et al., 2016, Maddin et al., 1984). But this does not mean that all objects found in the funerary
Microstructure and microhardness
Metallography, combined with microhardness tests and SEM/EDS analysis, makes it possible to study micro-sample cross-sections and provide answers to questions related to the artefacts’ microstructure, production technologies and the hardness of the objects. The microstructure of some working parts of analysed arsenical copper tools (needles G1, G24, chisel G08 and fragment of large axe blade G12) is formed by extensively worked grains of α-Cu phase with a large number of slip bands and
Discussion
Even after the publication of seminal papers by (Cowell, 1987, Eaton and McKerrell, 1976, Hours and Michel, 1974, Michel, 1972), the majority of Egyptological community seems to have difficulties in accepting arsenical copper as the material used for the production of tools and weapons before the onset of the New Kingdom in ancient Egypt. The predominant use of arsenical copper has been confirmed by recent studies (Kmošek et al., 2018, Odler et al., 2018, Odler and Kmošek, 2020, Odler and
Conclusion
The archaeometallurgical information provided on 15 artefacts from Old Kingdom Giza indicates that most of these artefacts could have been used for the specific craft tasks. Chisel G8 is most probably a full-size tool, suitable to be used for finer work with softer material, such as wood or limestone. The fragments of larger axe blades, G10 and G12, could have been used for similar softer materials. The assemblage of needles differs in hardness, but they might have all been practically used.
Author statement
We declare that this manuscript is original, has not been published before and is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere.
We confirm that the manuscript has been read and approved by all named authors and that there are no other persons who fulfilled the criteria for authorship but are not listed. We further confirm that the order of authors listed in the manuscript has been approved by all of us.
We understand that the Corresponding Author is the sole contact for the Editorial
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Martin Odler: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Visualization, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. Jiří Kmošek: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. Marek
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
The study has been compiled within the framework of Charles University Progress Project Q11 “Complexity and resilience. Ancient Egyptian civilisation in multidisciplinary and multicultural perspective” (M. Odler) and the INAA with funding from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic (CANAM project No. LM2015056) (M. Fikrle). This work was supported by the DOC Fellowship of the Austrian Academy of Sciences at the Institute of Science and Technology in Art, Academy of
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