Smoothed and Retouched Knife Blade

ca. 3200 BCE-3000 BCE

Originally equipped with a handle of ivory or bone, this blade embodies the peak of flint-working in a context of technological competition at the time that bronze appeared in Egypt. Asserting established values which the symbolic power of the chieftain bears as the upholder and transmitter of tradition, it was fashioned with particular care. In order to obtain such aesthetic quality, fine flakes of flint were regularly removed after the polishing of the blade. Its plano-convex shape presages the fish forms that were later employed.

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