Making stone vessels in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt.

Making stone vessels in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. How were the fine stone jars and vessels of ancient Egypt Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism. andMesopotamia made? An experimental test of materials and techniquesexplores the methods of early drilling. Similarities between the Uruk and Jemdet Nasr Jemdet Nasr is an archaeological site in modern Iraq. The name is also used for an early Bronze Age culture of southern Mesopotamia, the Jemdet Nasr Period, which flourished around 3000-2900 BC.During the Jemdet Nasr period writing began in southern Mesopotamia. periods ofMesopotamia (c. 3600--2900 BC) and the Gerzean and early dynasticperiods of Egypt (c. 3500--2900 BC) include cylinder seals, the recessedpanelled facade design in architecture, the use of pictographs,decorative art decorative artn.1. Art produced or intended primarily for utility, including jewelry, furniture, and other crafts.2. Any of the art forms, such as pottery, weaving, or jewelry making, used to create such art. and the shapes of stone vessels. And craftsmen fromMesopotamia and Egypt necessarily developed similar tools and techniquesfor manufacturing stone vessels. In order to explore these similarities,I investigated the use of a specialized Egyptian tool in making alimestone vase. It is generally thought that the cold beating, or forging, of trulysmelted and cast copper into tools and other artefacts first occurred inEgypt around 3500 BC (Hoffman 1980: 207), castings being made inrudimentary open moulds at this period (Petrie 1917: 6). Coldforged,cast copper tools were also manufactured in Mesopotamia (Moorey 1985:40--46). The technique of beating copper into sheets must have existedin both Egypt and Mesopotamia, where vessels of this metal were found atUr by Sir Leonard Woolley Noun 1. Sir Leonard Woolley - English archaeologist who supervised the excavations at Ur (1880-1960)Sir Charles Leonard Woolley, Woolley (Woolley 1955: 30--31). Sheet copper isessential to the making of copper tubes, indispensable tools fordrilling out stone vessels. It is likely that rolling copper sheet intotubes imitated nature's own architecure -- that of hollow reeds.The direct casting of copper into open, tubular-shaped moulds may alsohave been adopted by both civilizations. Stone vessel manufacturing technology In Mesopotamia, and Egypt, copper tubular drills were used for theinitial hollowing of the interiors of vases and jars made from hard andsoft stone (Woolley 1934: 380; Moorey 1985: 51; Reisner 1931: 180; Lucas1962: 74). Striations are clearly visible on the inside walls ofvessels, caused by the abrasive material employed with the drills.Although the stone-cutting, copper tubular drill has never been located,it would have been directly driven by a shaft of wood driven firmly intothe top end (FIGURE 1a) and rotated by a bow-string (with the top of theshaft in a stone bearing-cap), or twisted clockwise, and anti-clockwiseby wrist action. It is unlikely that shafts were rolled between thepalms. [CHART OMITTED] Subsequently, Mesopotamian and Egyptian bulbous bulbous/bul��bous/ (bul��bus)1. bulbar.2. shaped like, bearing, or arising from a bulb.bulboushaving the form or nature of a bulb; bearing or arising from a bulb. vessels -- thoseconsiderably wider inside than at the mouth -- were further hollowed bygrinding with another tool, a stone borer (Zool.) any animal that bores stones; especially, one of certain bivalve mollusks which burrow in limestone. See Lithodomus, and Saxicava.- Tylor.See also: Stone of elongated form. Themid-point of its long axis long axisn.A line parallel to an object lengthwise, as in the body the imaginary line that runs vertically through the head down to the space between the feet. was made to narrow equally from both sides.Seen from above, the borer assumes the shape of a figure-of-eight,enabling a forked shaft to engage with the waist. The top is normallyflat, the bottom curved. In Egypt, this particular borer has beendiscovered at Hierakonpolis, a site associated with late predynastic andearly dynastic stone vessel production (Quibell & Green 1902: plateLXII, 6) (FIGURE 1b); Mesopotamian figure-of-eight shaped stone borerswere discovered by Woolley at Ur (Woolley 1955: 75, figure 15b) (FIGURE1c). Circular borers were used to grind stone bowls whose interior wasno wider than the mouth. A stone borer in the British Museum (BM 124498from Ur), curved underneath and flat on top, has a piece cut out fromeach side of its upper surface, also for retaining a forked shaft. AtUr, stone borers were common in the Uruk and Jemdet Nasr periods, andWoolley thought that the constricted parts of these stone borers wereengaged by a forked wooden shaft driven by a bow (Woolley 1955: 14)(FIGURE 2). Borers made from diorite dioriteMedium- to coarse-grained igneous rock that commonly is composed of about two-thirds plagioclase feldspar and one-third dark-coloured minerals, such as hornblende or biotite. are common to Mesopotamia andEgypt; other stones utilized in Egypt included chert chert:see flint. , sandstone andlimestone. [CHART OMITTED] Striations on Mesopotamian vessels, and the bottom surfaces ofstone borers, are similar to striations seen on their Egyptiancounterparts -- generally 0.25 mm wide and deep. Archaeological (e.g. BM124498 borer from Ur; Petrie 1883: plate XIV, 7, 8; 1884: 90; PetrieCollection alabaster alabaster,fine-grained, massive, translucent variety of gypsum, a hydrous calcium sulfate. It is pure white or streaked with reddish brown. Alabaster, like all other forms of gypsum, forms by the evaporation of bedded deposits that are precipitated mainly from vase UG 18071) and my recent experimental evidence(Stocks 1988: 111--36) strongly indicate that stone borers, and coppertubes, were both employed with quartz sand abrasive. The copper tubular drill, rotated with sand abrasive, produces acylindrical slot round a central core, which is removed to make thefull-sized hole. Stone borers, in particular the figure-of-eight shape,were mainly used to enlarge holes already made by a tubular drill. Nocopper tubes for drilling stone have ever been discovered in Egypt orMesopotamia; tubes wear down during use, and the short stubs left wouldhave been melted down as scrap. Neither the forked wooden shafts nor thetools that drove them have been discovered. However, they areillustrated in a number of Egyptian tombs constructed between DynastiesV and XXVI; there are no known representations from Mesopotamia. In these Egyptian illustrations, the vessel obscures the lower,working end of the tool's shaft. However, during Old Kingdom timesthe ideogram used in words for 'craft', 'art' andother related words depicts a forked, central shaft with two weights(Gardiner 1957: 519, sign U25; Murray 1905: I, plate XXXIX, 65) (FIGURE3a); by the New Kingdom, this ideogram had changed to a forked shaftlashed to a central shaft with one circular weight (Gardiner 1957: 518,sign U24; Davies 1943: II, plate LIV) (FIGURE 3b). From Dynasty Vonwards, a forked shaft was secured to the central shaft of a tool, asseen on a representation from a Dynasty V tomb at Saqqara (Cairo MuseumJE39866) and a painted Dynasty XII representation (Fitzwilliam MuseumE55.1914 limestone fragment from Lahun). [CHART OMITTED] The Old Kingdom tool consisted of a straight wooden shaft, inclinedat an obtuse angle near the top and tapered to a curved, blunt point; itwas probably manufactured from a suitable tree branch. Two weights werefastened immediately under the inclined and tapered top part (see FIGURE3a) to place a load upon a drill-tube or stone borer. The tool for preliminary drilling operations would have had acopper tube force-fitted on its central shaft (FIGURE 4): some tombillustrations may display a central shaft fitted with a tube fordrilling purposes, particularly for wide-mouthed vessels; an unfinishedporphyry Porphyry, Greek scholarPorphyry(pôr`fĭrē), c.232–c.304, Greek scholar and Neoplatonic philosopher. He studied rhetoric under Cassius Longinus and philosophy under Plotinus. vase (Cairo Museum JE18758) was drilled with eight adjacentholes to excavate the central mass. It is likely that the drilling tooldid not change in form, except for the manner in which it was weighted;a tubular drill would not have damaged its wooden shaft during use, andnew tubes could be fitted to the same shaft time and time again. Theideogram shows only the visually interesting and informative view of theforked shaft and borer, rather than a tube (cf. FIGURES 3 & 4). [CHART OMITTED] The tool was adapted for its secondary role, that of a boringimplement, by lashing a forked shaft to the central shaft (see FIGURE3b) to engage with figure-of-eight and circularshaped borers (FIGURE 5).Another type of stone borer -- an inverted truncated cone with two slotscut opposite each other in the upper, horizontal surface -- was employedto shape a vessel's mouth (uncatalogued cone, Petrie Collection,University College, London). Crescent-shaped flints, also engaged byforked shafts, were used exclusively for cutting soft stone, forexample, gypsum gypsum(jĭp`səm), mineral composed of calcium sulfate (calcium, sulfur, and oxygen) with two molecules of water, CaSO4·2H2O. It is the most common sulfate mineral, occurring in many places in a variety of forms. , without sand abrasive (Caton-Thompson & Gardner1934: 105, 130). In extended use, the forks of reconstructed toolsshowed wear (Stocks 1988: 168--213). A worn-out forked shaft could bereplaced by lashing a new one to the central shaft, much as a drill-bitis replaced on a modern electric drill. As the destruction of a forkedcentral shaft would render the whole tool useless, the tool may haveevolved from this original configuration. [CHART OMITTED] The Twist/Reverse Twist Drill (TRTD TRTD Treated ) Some copper drill-tubes were driven by bows, e.g. in sarcophagus sarcophagus(särkŏf`əgəs)[Gr.,=flesh-eater], name given by the Greeks to a special marble found in Asia Minor, near the territory of ancient Troy, and used in caskets. manufacture in Egypt (Stocks 1988: 114--15, 144--67), but thedifficulties of making stone vases with thin walls excluded thistechnique. I found that the mechanical stresses imposed on thin stonewalls by precessional forces in bow-drilling breaks the vessel. Also,the backward-and-forward movement of a bow causes sand trapped outsidethe tube to enlarge the internal hole out towards the external wall ofthe vessel, particularly in soft stone. Drill cores produced bybow-driven tubes are tapered (Petrie 1883: plate XIV, 7), which is atvariance with the archaeological evidence for stone vessel drilling. Anuncatalogued Old Kingdom alabaster vase in the Petrie Collection stillretains its parallel-sided core in a hole made by a tubular drill. I found it best to twist the tool first clockwise, by approximately90[degrees], and then anti-clockwise to its starting position. One handgrips the inclined and tapered top part, or handle; the other hand gripsthe central shaft, just below the weights. The curved handle fits thesemi-clenched hand perfectly, and must have been chosen and carved forthis purpose. In using a figure-of-eight stone borer, the craftsman mustperiodically change the position of his hands, in order to cut evenlyaround the whole circumference of a vessel. The twist/reverse twistmotion produces a core with parallel sides (FIGURE 6). I have named thistool the Twist/Reverse Twist Drill, or TRTD (Stocks 1988: 178), callingit a 'drill' even though its other function was boring. [CHART OMITTED] The use of figure-of-eight shaped stone borers of differentdimensions allowed gradually changing internal diameters to be ground,and the initial process of undercutting vessel shoulders. The stoneborer, when employed with sand abrasive, gives so much resistance that Ifound it could not be rotated by a bow (as suggested by Woolley). Experiments with stone borers In Mesopotamia, only the stone borer has survived to indicate howMesopotamian craftsmen made stone vessels. The figure-of-eight borer,common to both Egypt and Mesopotamia, is crucial evidence. It is only byusing the Egyptian sources, and by experiment, that Mesopotamian stonevessel manufacturing techniques can be assessed. Figure-of-eight and circular borers were tested for rotation by abow. The figure-of-eight shaped borer usually touches a worked surfacein two distinct places, either side of the forked shaft, whereas acircular borer engages with the whole of its lower surface. Dry sandabrasive was employed, as previous experience with copper tubes andstone borers (Stocks 1988: 124--32) has determined that wet sandabrasive is not efficient. The essence of drilling and boring with sandabrasive, which contains relatively large quartz crystals, is thecontinual replacement of worn crystals by fresh, angular ones at thecutting face. Wet sand, or wet sand dryingout, prevents this. Coppertubes can drill stone, even granite, because individual quartz crystals,which are mainly angular in shape, embed themselves into the softercopper for a fraction of a second and are swept around the stone'ssurface. (I found that a pressure of 1 kg/[cm.sup.2] upon adrill-tube's cutting face is optimum.) Stone borers also engagequartz crystals, but not so well. Very wet, or fluid, sand will interchange, but is unsuitable forother reasons. The sand, when ground, turns into a fine powder, with thetexture of flour. This powder packs inside a tubular drill and, evenwhen perfectly dry, sticks together in one mass and remains inside thetube when it is removed from a hole. In this way, the powder from drysand can be withdrawn from deep, tubular holes drilled into asarcophagus (essentially a giant stone vessel), whereas wet powdercannot. Egyptian and Mesopotamian craftsmen must have discovered theseproperties of sand for themselves. After experimenting with different powders obtained from drillingboth hard and soft stone by copper tubes, I propose that ancientcraftsmen employed these by-products for drilling stone beads, polishingstone artefacts and creating faience faience(fāĕns`, –äns`, fī–)[for Faenza, Italy], any of several kinds of pottery, especially earthenware made of coarse clay and covered with an opaque tin-oxide glaze. cores and glazes (Stocks 1988:127--8, 235, 261--4; 1989a: 528; 1989b: 21--6). A stiff paste can bemade by adding sodium bicarbonate sodium bicarbonateor sodium hydrogen carbonate,chemical compound, NaHCO3, a white crystalline or granular powder, commonly known as bicarbonate of soda or baking soda. It is soluble in water and very slightly soluble in alcohol. (natron na��tron?n.A mineral of hydrous sodium carbonate, Na2CO3��10H2O, often found crystallized with other salts.[French, from Spanish natr��n, from Arabic in ancient times) and water tothe powder obtained from drilling soft stone -- limestone or calcite calcite(kăl`sīt), very widely distributed mineral, commonly white or colorless, but appearing in a great variety of colors owing to impurities. (Egyptian alabaster). Moulded or modelled into any shape and fired at850[degrees]C, it becomes a stable, hard, whitish material, speckledwith blue spots from particles of copper worn off the drill-tube. Glazedwith a runny run��ny?adj. run��ni��er, run��ni��estInclined to run or flow: runny icing; a runny nose.runnyAdjective[-nier, -niest paste, made with powder derived from drilling hard stone,for example, rose granite and diorite, and fired again at 800[degrees]C,turned the glaze blue. These core and glaze materials are similar toEgyptian faience in appearance. A scanning electron micrograph (SEM)shows that the powdered material contains many particles within the sizerange of 0.5--5 microns (FIGURE 7), particularly in hard stone powder.Breathing these fine particles causes lung damage to craftsmen (Stocks1988: 127, 204--5; Curry et al. 1986: 58--9, figure 2). [CHART OMITTED] Each test borer was admitted into a previously prepared hole, whichimitated the interior of a partly bored vessel (Stocks 1988: 189). Aforked shaft was engaged with each borer. A stone bearing fitted the topof the shaft, turned by a bow. The figure-of-eight borer jammed in thehole and caused the bow-string to slip on the shaft. The reason was theresult of an out-of-balance centrifugal force acting upon the end of theborer swinging away from the operator. Similar jamming occurred with thecircular borer. Even if a borer could be rotated by a bow, sand-inducedfriction is so high that constantly to overcome it creates unacceptablestresses. The experiments do not support the driving of Mesopotamianborers by bow-driven forked shafts. Experimental manufacture of a stone vessel In order to test whether the TRTD could be used to make a stonevessel, a small, barrelshaped vase (FIGURE 8) was first shaped from softlimestone by copper chisels and adzes, flint punches, chisels andscrapers and sandstone rubbers. It was excavated by two copper tubes,and stone borers (Stocks 1988: 192--212). After shaping, the vase wasseparately drilled by each tube, one within the other, so as to weakenthe core. The eyes in some ancient statuary stat��u��ar��y?n. pl. stat��u��ar��ies1. Statues considered as a group.2. The art of making statues.3. A sculptor.adj.Of, relating to, or suitable for a statue. were made this way, and atubular core that was formed by two tubular drills employed in thisfashion was found by W.M.F. Petrie (Petrie 1917: plate LII Adj. 1. lii - being two more than fifty52, fifty-twocardinal - being or denoting a numerical quantity but not order; "cardinal numbers" , 61). Thedrills were located by chipping and scraping circular grooves thatmatched each drill's diameter. (An uncatalogued alabaster vessel inthe Petrie Collection has a similar groove in its top surface.) I usedflint punches, chisels and scrapers to create these grooves, and thetools were also found to be effective for granite and diorite. Ancientvessels and hieroglyphs in hard stone were probably shaped and cut bythese types of flint tools (Stocks 1988: 246--73). [CHART OMITTED] The drilling took five hours to complete. As soon as a core filledthe hollow drill, it was carefully broken off by copper chisel andmallet mallet,n a hammering instrument.mallet, hard,n a small hammer with a leather-, rubber-, fiber-, or metal-faced head; used to supply force or to supplement hand force for the compaction of foil or amalgam and to seat cast ; this technology allowed ancient drill-tubes to reach to thebottom of deep vessels, and explains why TRTD stone weights were placedhigh up the shaft. Boring the hole to match the bulbous exterior, byfigure-of-eight stone borers, occupied another 10 hours. At anyparticular point of enlargement, a borer that was slightly longer thanthe existing internal diameter was selected for use. A borer entered thevessel vertically, and was then turned horizontal; sand was poured intothe vase, level with the borer. A forked shaft could now be engaged withthe borer. It took an hour to undercut the vase's shoulders byhand-held, hook-shaped flint scrapers, and hook-shaped stone borers,used with sand abrasive. Tests to drill rose granite and diorite, by a copper tube, showedthat these stones took 15 times longer to drill than limestone (Stocks1988: 212, 340). A granite, barrel-shaped vessel, of similar dimensionsto the limestone vase, would take me 75 hours to excavate by drill-tube,although experienced ancient craftsmen would have bettered my cuttingrates in both stones. Some test results, which record ratios of copperlost from drill-tubes to excavation depths in stone, and excavationrates, were obtained from drilling granite, diorite, calcite and softlimestone by bow-driven and twist/reverse twist driven copper tubes(TABLE 1).material ratio: bow-driven twist/reverse copper to rate (cubic twist rate (cubic stone cm per hour) cm per hour)granite 1:3 2 0.4diorite 1:3 2 0.4calcite 1:>100 30 6limestone 1:>100 30 6 Conclusions It is apparent that ancient Mesopotamian and Egyptian stone vesselcraftsmen must have adopted the twist/reverse twist manner of drivingtheir tubular drills and stone borers. Egyptian representations of the tool show its extreme simplicity ofform; nowhere in Egyptian representations of stone vessel productiondoes the ancient artist ever display a stone borer being driven by abow. Tomb artists never showed a tubular drill being driven by a bow,although the use of bow-driven tubes must have been well known. Theexperiments demonstrate that the twist/reverse twist technique providedthe only satisfactory method any ancient stone vessel craftsman couldhave employed for driving tubular drills and stone borers. Thefigure-of-eight borer can only be driven with the leverage and controlof the Twist/Reverse Twist Drill, and the finding of such borers inMesopotamia indicates the use of some form of this tool. Acknowledgement. I am indebted to Peter Clayton for reading apreliminary manuscript and suggesting some useful amendments to thetext. However, the ideas expressed here are entirely the responsibilityof the author. References CATON-THOMPSON, G. & E.W. GARDNER. 1934. The desert Fayum.London: The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain andIreland The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) (founded 1871) is the oldest anthropological society in the world. 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