Small Stone Vessels

The stone vessels recovered from Cemeteries N 2000 and N 2500 continue the chronological progression of vessels from Cemeteries N 500–900 that represents development from the Second Dynasty to the Sixth Dynasty, with a stylistic break at the beginning of the Fifth Dynasty (Reisner 1932, 36–75). For the most part, the vessels from Cemeteries N 2000 and N 2500 overlap with the Fifth Dynasty examples from the earlier cemeteries and display forms attested through the Sixth Dynasty and into the early First Intermediate Period (Reisner 1932, 56–70; Aston 1994, 84–85, 135–141). Vessel shapes and sizes otherwise unattested from Cemeteries N 500–900 were uncovered in Cemeteries N 2000 and N 2500, which necessitated the addition of subcategories to Reisner’s original typology (1932, 36–75) and suggests either that the burials from which they came were later than those in Cemeteries N 500–900, possessing more burials of the Sixth Dynasty and early First Intermediate Period, or that they are the products of different workshops with, perhaps, different styles, than the assemblages from the cemeteries published by Reisner. Given the other similarities in the vessels from the earlier cemeteries, the former is more likely than the latter. A later date is also suggested by the number of burials with stone vessels, a practice that decreased through time, as is evident in the number of vessels recovered from burials of Dynasties 2–3 compared to the number from Dynasty 4 burials (Reisner 1932, 55); for Cemeteries N 2000 and N 2500, only eight tombs contained stone vessels, seven in N 2000 and one in N 2500. The graves with stone vessels were of tomb types vi a–d, the Dynasty 5–6 types comprised of open pit tombs usually covered with stone slabs, but with various levels of wall finishing (Reisner 1932, 24–30, and Chapter 12 in this volume). As with many durable goods, stone vessels are useful for dating, but represent a class of artifacts that could be handed down and are thus less securely diagnostic than ceramics (Slater 1974, 232–233), though, with the exception of footed cylindrical jars, their forms generally are related to those of contemporary ceramic and metal vessels (Reisner 1932, 68–70). Indeed, vessel forms across materials for the late Old Kingdom can be so similar that Reisner classified four