Vases pré- et protodynastiques égyptiens en pierre : réflexions sur l'étude des contextes d'utilisation et d'échange.

International audienceStone vessels, especially made of alabaster and basalt, seem to have been the preferred materials of ancient predynastic Egyptians for their funerary assemblages. New data have emerged during the last twenty years regarding materials, quarries and aspects of vessel fabrication and typology. The continuity of certain types of stone vessels found in the Nile Valley as well as in the Near East raises the question of dicovery contexts and that of contacts between the Egyptian Delta and the Near East. In addition, the paper touches on some aspects regarding the value supposedly attributed to stone vessels. Through comparisons with other similar products discovered in the Near East, the study of archaeological contexts and symbolic value given to such vessels, may draw attention to possible exchanges of materials and artefacts and the possible role of these objects for the understanding of social hierarchies in this part of the Ancient Near East during the Bronze Age (c. 3500-3000 BC.