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It is interesting to note that the ancient Egyptians
were crafting
stone vessels long before they were creating
statues in stone. This
observation is reinforced by the fact that the
ancient Egyptian
hieroglyphic word for “stone sculptor” employs
the tool used by
these early craftsmen for the fashioning of stone
vessels as its
ideogram.
Such vessels are usually found in tombs, but
their purpose is to
assure the permanence of the ka, or spirit, of the
deceased eternally
in the Hereafter because such permanence is
linked to stone, one of
the most enduring of materials used by the
ancient Egyptians. It is
for this reason that pyramid chambers of
pharaohs of the period
contain so many examples of stone vessels. The
excavations of the
Step Pyramid of Pharaoh Djoser at Saqqara
yielded almost 40,000
stone objects, most of which were vessels.
- (LO.1202)
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