Stone Tool Production

In ancient Egypt, flint or chert was used for knapped stone tools from the Lower Palaeolithic down to the Pharaonic Period. The raw material was available in abundance on the desert surface, or it could be mined from the limestone formations along the Nile Valley. While the earliest lithic industries of Prehistoric Egypt resemble the stone tool assemblages from other parts of Africa, as well as Asia and Europe, the later Prehistoric stone industries in Egypt had very specific characteristics, producing some of the finest knapped stone tools ever manufactured in the ancient world. Throughout Egypt’s history, butchering tools, such as knives and scrapers, and harvesting tools in the form of sickle blades made of flint, underlined the importance of stone tools for the agrarian society of ancient Egypt

Hiw (Predynastic)

The Predynastic remains of the Hiw region (Diospolis Parva) are mainly from cemetery sites first excavated by W. M. Flinders Petrie at the end of the nineteenth century. They cover the material culture of most of the 4th millennium BCE. Although reportedly more than 1100 Predynastic tombs were excavated, the sites have remained some of the poorest published Predynastic cemeteries in Egypt

Hiw (Predynastic)

The Predynastic remains of the Hiw region (Diospolis Parva) are mainly from cemetery sites first excavated by W. M. Flinders Petrie at the end of the nineteenth century. They cover the material culture of most of the 4th millennium BCE. Although reportedly more than 1100 Predynastic tombs were excavated, the sites have remained some of the poorest published Predynastic cemeteries in Egypt

Stone Tool Production

In ancient Egypt, flint or chert was used for knapped stone tools from the Lower Palaeolithic down to the Pharaonic Period. The raw material was available in abundance on the desert surface, or it could be mined from the limestone formations along the Nile Valley. While the earliest lithic industries of Prehistoric Egypt resemble the stone tool assemblages from other parts of Africa, as well as Asia and Europe, the later Prehistoric stone industries in Egypt had very specific characteristics, producing some of the finest knapped stone tools ever manufactured in the ancient world. Throughout Egypt’s history, butchering tools, such as knives and scrapers, and harvesting tools in the form of sickle blades made of flint, underlined the importance of stone tools for the agrarian society of ancient Egypt