Flint bangles such as this one are mainly found in burials. The deceased often wore multiple bangles together, on one or both forearms. These items were in use for a relatively short time, only during the Early Dynastic period, and most examples date specifically to the First Dynasty. They were made through a combination of flaking and grinding. Flint bangles were extremely difficult to produce and demonstrate the exceptionally high degree of expertise achieved by Egypt’s flint knappers. They also show that Ancient Egyptians used flint for personal adornment and display, not just to make implements needed for utilitarian and subsistence purposes.
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Dimensions:Diam. 6.2 × W. 0.3 × H. 0.5 cm, Wt. 4.5g (2 7/16 × 1/8 × 3/16 in., 0.159oz.)
Credit Line:Gift of Egypt Exploration Fund, 1902
Accession Number:02.4.78
Discussion of the group:
This flint bangle fragment is one of four in The Met’s collection (02.4.77-02.4.80) which come from Tomb M14 in Kom es-Sultan, Abydos. The tomb occupant wore seven flint bangles on the left arm and one on the right arm (Petrie 1902:16). The bangles are all of very similar size, with interior diameters ranging from 5.5-5.8 cm, heights of .47-.5cm, and widths from .26-.36, a variation of just 1 mm. These similar dimensions and color suggest that the bangles may have been selected as a group for their similar size and color.
There were at least two production sites for flint bangles, Wadi el-Sheikh (Köhler et al. 2017) and Wadi Sannur (Briois and Midant-Reynes 2014, 2015), both of which are places where flint mining took place. Unfinished pieces, including disk-shaped preforms, and flaked but unpolished bangle fragments have been found at these sites, and provide indications of the production process. Thin flat nodules or large flakes were selected as the blanks, then flaked into even flat disks through soft or hard hammer direct percussion. Next, a hole was started in the center of the piece by small pecking or chipping, as can be seen on some remaining fragments. Drilling was possibly used in combination with the chipping, but so far, there is no direct evidence for it. This stage of hollowing was clearly the most skillful and riskiest part of the process as many all of the disk fragments broke at this point, sheering through the center. Once the hole was made, it was widened by flaking perpendicular to the face of the disk. Afterwards the flaked bangles must have been transported to the Nile valley and Delta, where most of the finished products are found. A small number of flaked bangle fragments and very few polished fragments have been found in Nile valley settlement sites indicating that the time-consuming polishing stage probably took place in the settlements rather than at the flint mining sites (Kabacinski 2003; Katthagen 1985; Schmidt 1987, 1989, 1992; Pawlik 2006; Quibell & Petrie 1900). The majority of bangles come from cemetery contexts (Klasens 1958; Köhler 2004; William M. Flinders Petrie 1901b, 1901a, 1902, 1907, 1913; Petrie & Brunton 1924; Reisner 1908; Saad 1947).
The degree of polishing varies from barely polished, where practically all flake scars are still visible, to completely polished, where all flake scars were obliterated. This variability indicates that there was not one prevailing "look" desired for these items. However, polished flint bangles are much more numerous than simply flaked ones, so it is likely that most were intended to be polished to some degree.
Polished bangles are found almost entirely in cemetery contexts, which suggests that these items were produced especially for the afterlife since polished fragments would be more frequent in settlements if these fragile items were worn during life. Often the deceased wore multiple bangles together, just as the deceased in this tomb, who wore seven on one arm and one on the other. In Tarkhan tomb 149, the tomb occupant wore four on each arm (Petrie 1913: 11, 22, Pl. 3), and the owner of Hiw Tomb U 354 wore six on one arm (Petrie 1901a: 36, Pl. 7). Like the variability in polishing, there was some flexibility in how flint bangles could be used to adorn the body.
These bangles show that flinknapping skill and creativity was alive and well in the Early Dynastic period, with a production process that stretched across the country, applied to making beautiful, delicate and technologically intricate jewelry that could transform the body of the deceased in the afterlife.
Discussion of the individual piece:
This bangle was made through a combination of flaking and grinding. Very few scars are still visible on the interior of the bangle, and they were initiated from both faces of the preform. The flake scars on the exterior have been almost entirely obliterated by grinding, but small depressions are still visible in some areas. The cross section is D-shaped, but the interior is slightly convex due to grinding from both faces. The raw material is an opaque light grayish brown (10YR 6/2) with no discernable structures. The interior diameter ranges from 5.54 to 5.57 cm. The bangle has been repaired.
Elizabeth Hart, J. Clawson Mills Research Fellow, 2018
References
Briois, François, and Beatrix Midant-Reynes 2014. "Sur Les Traces de Georg August Schweinfurth. Les Sites d’exploitation Du Silex d’époque Pharaonique Dans Le Massif Du Galâlâ Nord (Désert Oriental)." In Bulletin de l’Institut Français d’archéologie Orientale 114, pp. 73–98.
——— 2015. "Wadi Sannur. In: Rapport d’activité 2014-2015." In Bulletin de l’Institut Français d’archéologie Orientale 115 (Supplement), pp. 49–55.
Kabacinski, Jacek 2003. "Lithic industry at Tell el-Farkha (Eastern Delta)." In Cultural Markers in the Later Prehistory of Northeastern Africa and Recent Research, edited by L. Krzyżaniak, K. Kroeper, and M. Kobusiewicz. Studies in African Archaeology 8. Poznań: Poznań Archaeological Museum, pp. 201-212.
Katthagen, Beate 1985. Die Silexartefacte Aus Elephantine. Ein Beitrag Zur Steinindustrie Des Alten Reiches in Ägypten. M.A. Thesis. Tübingen: University of Tübingen.
Klasens, Adolf 1958. "The Excavations of the Leiden Museum of Antiquities at Abu-Roash: Report of the Second Season 1958. Part I." In Oudheidkundige Mededelingen Uit Het Rijksmuseum van Oudheden 39, pp. 32–55.
Köhler, E. Christiana 2004. The Cairo Museum Collection of Artefacts from Zaki Saad’s Excavations at Helwan. Museum of Antiquities Maurice Kelly Lecture 8. Armidale: Museum of Antiquities (University of New England).
Köhler, E. Christiana, Elizabeth Hart, and Michael Klaunzer 2017. "Wadi El-Sheikh: A New Archaeological Investigation of Ancient Egyptian Chert Mines." In PLoS ONE 12 (2), pp. 1-38.
Pawlik, Alfred 2006 "The Lithic Industry of the Pharaonic Site Kom Al-Ahmar in Middle Egypt and Its Relationship to the Flint Mines of the Wadi Al-Sheikh." In Stone Age Mining-Age, edited by G. Körlin, and G. Weisgerber. Veröffentlichungen Aus Dem Deutschen Bergbau-Museum 148. Bochum: Deutsches Bergbau-Museum, pp. 193–209.
Petrie, William M. Flinders. 1901a. Diospolis Parva: The Cemeteries of Abadigeh and Hu. 1898-1899. Egypt Exploration Fund 20. London: Egypt Exploration Fund.
——— 1901b. The Royal Tombs of the Earliest Dynasties. Part II. Egypt Exploration Fund 21. London: Egypt Exploration Fund.
——— 1902. Abydos. I. Egypt Exploration Fund 22. London: Egypt Exploration Fund.
——— 1907. Gizeh and Rifeh. Publications of the Egyptian Research Account and British School of Archaeology in Egypt 13. London: B. Quaritch.
——— 1913. Tarkhan I and Memphis V. Publications of the Egyptian Research Account and British School of Archaeology in Egypt 23. London: B. Quaritch.
Petrie, William M. Flinders, and Guy Brunton 1924. Sedment. I. Publications of the Egyptian Research Account and British School of Archaeology in Egypt 34. London: British School of Archaeology in Egypt.
Pitt Rivers, Augustus Henry Lane-Fox 1882. "On the Discovery of Chert Implements in Stratified Gravel in the Nile Valley Near Thebes." In The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 11, pp. 382–400.
Quibell, James Edward, and William M. Flinders Petrie 1900. Hierakonpolis I. Egyptian Research Account 4. London: B. Quaritch.
Reisner, George Andrew 1908. The Early Dynastic Cemeteries of Naga-Ed-Dêr. Part I. University of California Publications. Egyptian Archaeology. 2. Leipzig: Hinrichs.
Saad, Zaki Yusef. 1947. Royal Excavations at Saqqara and Helwan (1941-1945). Annales Du Service Des Antiquités de l’Égypte, Suppl. Cahier 3. Le Caire: Service des antiquités.
Schmidt, Klaus. 1987. "Die Lithischen Kleinfunde." In Tell El-Fara’in - Buto, 2. Bericht., edited by T. von der Way. In Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo 43, pp. 250–55.
——— 1989. "Die Lithischen Kleinfunde." In Tell El-Fara’in - Buto, 4. Bericht., edited by T. von der Way. In Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo 45, pp. 300–307.
——— 1992a. "Tell el-Fara'in/Buto and el-Tell el-Iswid (South): The Lithic Industries from the Chalcolithic to the Early Old Kingdom." In The Nile Delta in Transition: 4th.-3rd. Millennium B.C. : Proceedings of the Seminar Held in Cairo, 21.-24. October 1990, at the Netherlands Institute of Archaeology and Arabic Studies, edited by E. C. M. van den Brink. Tel Aviv, Israel: E.C.M. van den Brink, pp. 31–41.
——— 1992b. "Tell Ibrahim Awad: Preliminary Report on the Lithic Industries." In The Nile Delta in Transition: 4th.-3rd. Millennium B.C. : Proceedings of the Seminar Held in Cairo, 21.-24. October 1990, at the Netherlands Institute of Archaeology and Arabic Studies, edited by E. C. M. van den Brink. Tel Aviv, Israel: E.C.M. van den Brink, pp. 79–96.
Egypt Exploration Fund excavations. Acquired by the EEF in the division of finds. Acquired by the Museum through subscription to the EEF, 1902.
Petrie, William Matthew Flinders, Sir 1902. Abydos, 1. Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund, 22. London: Offices of the Egypt Exploration Fund, p. 16; pl. 48.
Hayes, William C. 1953. Scepter of Egypt I: A Background for the Study of the Egyptian Antiquities in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: From the Earliest Times to the End of the Middle Kingdom. Cambridge, Mass.: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 46.
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