Abstract
Stone vessels were a common element of the burial equipment from the Predynastic period onwards. Their chaîne opératoire has been reconstructed mainly on the Pre- and Early Dynastic pieces that are usually made of harder types of stone.
However, the Old Kingdom stone vessels, made either of limestone or travertine, bear clear marks of various tools, and their production does not necessarily follow the steps reconstructed and presented by D. Stocks (2003).
The present paper shall focus on the material itself, i.e. the stone vessels. Selected assemblages of canopic jars and model stone vessels have been studied, especially from the Old Kingdom Abusir cemeteries, in order to document different tool marks.
They define the inventory of tools that had been used in the process of their production in the Old Kingdom workshops. The vessels have been worked with copper chisels, tube borers and crescent-shaped flint borers, as well as with drilling and rubbing stones.
The results show, that it is necessary to revise the concept of the Old Kingdom copper model tools. The tool marks imply use of rather small chisels, which were close in shape and size to the so called "model" chisels.