The bifacial blade is knapped from a creamy beige-hued flint with darker brown banding, with a straight edge along one edge, the opposite edge curved. A chip to one corner,...
The bifacial blade is knapped from a creamy beige-hued flint with darker brown banding, with a straight edge along one edge, the opposite edge curved. A chip to one corner, the other corner knapped to a point. An old sticker is attached on one side dated 7/8/62 with a reference to 'see Abydos plate 19'.
Bradley Collection, Worcester, before 1962 English private collection, Gloucester, acquired in 1962, thence by descent
Literature
Such flint blades were a crucial part of agriculture in ancient Egypt. Grain was a staple of the economy, as bread and beer made from grain were consumed daily. They also formed the foundation of eternal sustenance, as funerary offerings. For a similar example from Lisht dated to the Middle Kingdom, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, see acc. no. 34.1.177; see acc. no. 16.2.17 for a predynastic example: W.C. Hayes, 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, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1978, p. 24, fig. 16.