ABOUT THE PROJECT

Our project aims to scrutinize all types of burial containers from the Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period (stone, wood, reed and pottery) from localities all over Egypt from three main perspectives:

1) burial container production and the processes related to it, including acquisition of raw material, question of specialised workshops/domestic production, craftsmen involved in the containers manufacture or decorative techniques used;
2) socio-economic implications of containers production, encompassing above all the role of the social status in the choice and acquisition of material as well as king’s influence in this process;
3) religious aspects, specifically the influence of religious notions on the choice of a particular material, decorative motifs, colour spectrum or the development of the offering formulae with special attention paid to the evolution of the prophylactic elements.

One of the main outcomes of the project is a freely accessible online database of all kinds of burial containers from the above-mentioned periods which is attached on the website.