Pig fat in Early Dynastic Egypt?

Here is a grotty (sorry) picture of one of our Early Dynastic pots (AB98). It came to us from Aberystwyth University in 1997, is 45.5cm high and is oozing 'oil'. Recently the oil has been analysed by Andrew Hardy and Paul Finch. It was found to contain non-ruminant (i.e. not cow or sheep/goat) animal fat, probably pig fat. There were also traces of grasses which possibly scented the oil.

We do not know where this vessel came from, though it is likely to have come from a tomb.

Apparently Early Dynastic (3100-2686 BC) Egyptian royal courts had departments which dealt with the raising of pigs and a separate department for rendering cow fat (Wilkinson 1999, 110). Oil was used in food but also for anointing and for cosmetics. Many hundreds of such jars have been found in the tombs of the elite.

The results have been published in Pharmaceutical Historian 47/1 2017.

References
Wilkinson, T.A.H., 1999. Early Dynastic Egypt. London and New York.

Photography and Egyptology

On Friday 18th December the Egypt Centre opened its cases to photographers. Or rather, we took objects off display and invited people to come and photograph them. We know have an exhibition of some of the resultant work which is on display in the Taliesin bar area.

The point of this was to see if photographers would view our artefacts any differently than Egyptologists might. Well you can decide for yourself.

The Exhibition will run in the Taliesin from 4th Feb—10th March before touring to the following destinations:

The Grand Theatre from Swansea 21st March         

Carmarthen Museum from 11th April   

Cynon Valley Museum from 25th May

Here are just a couple to wet your appetite (for the Egyptologists you can click on the accession numbers to find a bit more about the objects). The top is W379 and the bottom, W307.

Early Dynastic Status Symbols- stone in funerary contexts

W401b is a squat, breccia round-based bowl with lugs. It measures 18cm in height. The lugs have no holes through them, which may suggest that the vessel was unfinished, or its purpose was symbolic.

Vessels such of these would have been laborious to make and their manufacture may well have been a royal monopoly. Thus, it has been suggested that they are status symbols or ‘powerfacts’. They are only found in the graves of the wealthy and some even have gold leaf on them. A number are inscribed with the names of kings and from the names it appears that some kings took vessels of other kings for their own funerary complexes. It is also seems likely that kings may have given gifts of stone vessels to courtiers and members of their family.

This type of vessel dates from the Predynastic Naqada II Period to the 5^th Dynasty, though is most common during the 1^st to 3^rd Dynasties, the heyday of Egyptian stone vessel production. It has been estimated that more than 40,000 stone vessels were put in the step pyramid at Saqqara alone! Large numbers have also been found at Abydos and smaller numbers elsewhere in Egypt. You can see more vessels of this date elsewhere in this gallery.

This example is made from limestone breccia. Pottery vessels are sometimes found with spiral patterns, like the one on the right, suggesting that they were copying breccia examples.

It is sometimes said that the reason why so many stone vessels are found in graves, particularly in the Early Dynastic Period, is because stone is an eternal material. It is therefore particularly suitable for burials. The vessels do not seem to have had an ‘everyday’ purpose. A number are not properly drilled out suggesting that they are only symbolic.

Red breccia is found at several sites on the west bank of the Nile. It’s use seems to have declined from the 4^th Dynasty. It is only used occasionally in later periods. For the manufacture of stone vessels see Stocks 2013.

We do not know where in Egypt this object came from. Sir Henry Wellcome purchased it at auction in 1906 from the collection of Robert de Rustafjaell.

If you are interested in other stone vessels in the Egypt Centre, and even a podcast about ancient Egyptian stoneworking,  click here.

Further Reading

Aston, B. G. 1994. Ancient Egyptian Stone Vessels. Studien zur Archäologie und Geschichte Altägyptens 5. Heidelberg

el-Khouli, A. Egyptian Stone Vessels. Predynastic Period to Dynasty III. Typology and Analysis, Mainz am Rhein, 1978 (3 vols.)

Stocks, D.A. 2013. Experiments in Egyptian Archaeology: Stoneworking Technology in Ancient Egypt