Lapis lazuli was one of the rarest materials in the ancient world, prized by Pharaohs and commoners alike, imbued with magical qualities. The blue of the stone itself was a rare colour, not often paralleled in nature in that part of the world, and not easily replicated artificially. It is notable, for example, that in the Iliad, the earliest extant work of European literature, and one of the earliest Mediterranean epics, the sky is referred to as bronze (chalkeion, Homer Iliad 17.425), not blue. In antiquity, lapis lazuli was only known from one mine, at Sar-e-Sang in northern Afghanistan. The route was dangerous and arduous; it is mined in the Kokcha Valley, from nearly-sheer cliff faces of jagged rocks, sometimes as little as 200 metres wide. When Lieutenant John Wood of the British Army ventured to the lapis mines, trying to find the source of the River Oxus, he reported back to his superiors that ‘if you do not wish to die, avoid the Valley of Kokcha’. It is no wonder, then, that lapis lazuli was highly prized by the ancients. The fact that it shows up in Predynastic Egypt at all is nothing short of a miracle, needing to travel some 4,000 miles to its final destination. It is testimony to the long-range trading routes of the ancient world, stretching across the Fertile Crescent – the arc of land in which civilisation began in the Near East – from Egypt to the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, a little known people (also called the Oxus Civilisation) which inhabited the north of Afghanistan.

Lapis lazuli is famed for its blue colour, but actually comes in a range from greenish-grey to blue, depending both on the relative proportions of the three major minerals – lazurite (blue), sodalite (baby blue), pyrite (gold) and calcite (white) – that make it up, as well as the amount of sulphur in the lazurite. Exquisitely carved, this lapis lazuli vessel falls into a rare typology of predynastic vessels which can best be described as ‘collared torpedo vases’. This combines important features of two vessel-types, collared jars, where the shoulder abruptly halts against a vertical neck which provides a choke-point or collar arresting the upward flow of the shape, and the torpedo-vessels, which have a bullet-shaped body, terminating in a single point (either rounded or sharp), which (for larger vessels) would have enabled the user to hold them upright by driving the point into the sand and part-burying the vessel. Smaller vessels like this – most likely a cosmetic jar – were probably held in small wooden or metal ring stands, not unlike the modern stand in which it was photographed, or else hung by a string which was tied around the neck and held in tension against the everted rim. The quality of the workmanship is exceptionally high, reflecting the rarity of lapis in Egypt: even a relatively low-quality lapis, largely grey in tone, was carved with exquisite precision. The stone is nonetheless beautiful, however, and the delightful contrast between the mid-tones of grey, baby blue flecks, deep blue crystalline conglomerations, and the ochre of the sulphurous matrix, make this an attractive piece.

Stone vessels were perhaps the archetypical Predynastic finds. If later beliefs can be used as an analogy, then it can be presumed that Predynastic Egyptians – like their Dynastic counterparts – believed that two aspets of the soul (akh) – the ka (the ‘double’, ‘shadow’, or vital essence) and, to a lesser extent, the ba (the personality) – required food and drink in order to survive. These were provided both in the form of goods buried with the deceased, but also in offerings made daily to the spirits of the deceased. Later, these offerings were made in a chapel associated with the tomb, a publicly accessible part of the tomb infrastructure. But in the Predynastic, offerings were probably made in the open air, near the burial itself. Given that most burials occurred in simple pits, with no superstructure, there was no way of guaranteeing the survival of the goods buried with the deceased. Stone vessels were the answer to this problem: whereas the pottery vessels of everyday life were easily broken, stone vessels were durable enough to sustain the ka in perpetuity. While most of these stone vessels were associated with the physical sustenance of the ka, it should be noted that the Egyptians did not believe in mere survival. For the Egyptians, life was – at least in part – about pleasure (htpw), which was considered a gift from the gods. Obsessed with sensory enjoyment, the Egyptians esteemed scent (khnm), appearance, flavour, touch and comfort. As a result a great many of the vessels interred with Predynastic Egyptians were designed to contain perfumes, oils, unguents and cosmetics. In many cases, these vessels were dramatically oversized, reflecting the desire of the individual to enjoy abundance in the afterlife. Even if the vessel was empty, as was often the case, the mere presence of the appropriate container could ensure that the ka was well provided-for.

References: this vessel corresponds to Petrie’s type 533 (Petrie, W. M. F. (1937) The Funeral Furniture of Egypt, with Stone and Metal Vases. London.).