La Vaisselle En Pierre Des Reines de Pepy Ier

In the cemetery of the family of King Pepy I of the 6th Dynasty (c. 2330-2280), the French-Swiss archaelogical Mission of Saqqara (MafS) has uncovered eight pyramidal complexes of queens from the end of the Old Kingdom. This publication presents a study and a catalog of some of the material delivered by these tombs, including stone vessels - usually fragmentary and sometimes inscribed, such as that of the queen mother Ankhnespepy II -, series of models - dummy vases with symbolic function -, containers for food offerings, as well as other items of funeral equipment. The stones encountered are mainly calcite (or travertine, or Egyptian alabaster), gneiss, greywacke, limestone. A wide variety of shapes appears, including large inscribed jars, refined cups, shapes well attested in the 6th dynasty and vases much older than the 6th dynasty. The models reveal a permanence of the shapes compared to those of the previous periods, and it is in the material of the queens of Pepy I that the cases of food offerings of real size, some in calcite, appear for the first time in a royal equipment.