Social context of the Old Kingdom copper model tools

Abstract

Copper model tools were usually part of the elite burial equipment during the Old Kingdom in the Ancient Egypt. Definition of tool types is based on the semiotic triangle and a correct reading and interpretation of the artefacts is approached here. Model tools present in the burial equipment were tools for stone- and wood-working, these being materials of conspicuous consumption in the period. Tools are examined as symbols of the patron–craftsman relationship, where the ownership of the copper tools was the patron’s. Copper model tools were standardized and a connection between the size and amount of copper model tools and social status of the buried persons is explored. Persons with higher status had access to larger amounts of copper; however, the rules of the access were changing and access to copper was widening during the Old Kingdom.

Keywords:

• Old Kingdom
• copper model tools
• miniaturization
• standardization
• social status

Acknowledgements

Martin Odler would like to thank following institutions and colleagues for permission to study their collections of metal artefacts and permission to use the documentation in this article: the Roemer-Pelizaeus Museum in Hildesheim (R. Schulz, A. Spiekermann, D. Lindemann), the Ägyptisches Museum der Universität Leipzig (D. Raue), the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien (R. Hölzl), and the Náprstek Museum in Prague (E. Dittertová, P. Onderka). We would like to thank Emily Cole for the proof-reading of the English text and Markéta Kobierská, Valéria Uramová and Dana Chmelíková for help in preparation of the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Grant Agency of Charles University, under Grant no. 526112, and under the Grant Programme for the Development of Fields of Study at Charles University, No. P14 Archaeology of non-European regions, sub-programme Research of ancient Egyptian civilisation: Cultural and political adaptation of the North African civilisations in ancient history (5,000 BC –1,000 AD).

Notes on contributors

Martin Odler

Martin Odler is a PhD candidate at the Czech Institute of Egyptology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague. His research is aiming at a better understanding of the social context of copper in Ancient Egypt down to the end of Middle Kingdom. He has taken part in the mission of the Czech Institute of Egyptology at Abusir (Egypt) since 2009 and since 2011 also in the Sudan, at the Sixth Nile cataract.

Veronika Dulíková

Veronika Dulíková is currently a PhD candidate at the Czech Institute of Egyptology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague. She is interested in Old Kingdom history, archaeology, society and administration, and is an editor of the journal Prague Egyptological Studies. She has taken part in the mission of the Czech Institute of Egyptology at Abusir (Egypt) since 2010.