Abstrakt
The weighing of metal is repeatedly depicted within Old Kingdom tomb scenes of metal processing, in the Memphite area as well as in the provinces. We thus know that the amount of metal (mostly copper and gold) was controlled by the administration.
Post-depositional history irreversibly changed the weight of artefacts and only a fraction of existing metal artefacts has been preserved. However, two artefact classes are preserved in statistically significant numbers, copper vessels and copper model tools.
Metallographic analyses have shown that both classes were made with considerable effort and skill. They are very important evidence of the production of a specialized craft.
The author of the presented paper examines in an ongoing project, funded by the Grant Agency of Charles University (project no. 526112), copper artefacts from documented archaeological contexts and unpublished copper artefacts from the Czech excavations in Abusir. The documentation has so far included some of the largest collections of Old Kingdom copper artefacts in Europe (The British Museum, The Ashmolean Museum, Louvre, RPM Hildesheim, ÄMU Leipzig, KHM Wien, The National Museum in Warsaw and Náprstek Museum in Prague).
One of the aims of the project is to evaluate a hypothesis that the control of the amount of metal by administration is reflected in the morphology and dimensions of preserved objects. The paper will present preliminary results of the project, using archaeological semiotics, proposed by Robert Preucel, as a method for definition and interpretation of model tools and vessels.
The data will be evaluated statistically by analyses of variance; dimensions and coefficients of variation of the assemblages will be compared. Connections with social status, as well as diachronic and synchronic development of artefacts will be examined.