>>9753517

(Please read from the start)

5 – The next sculpted item is a knife handle. It’s called Gebel el-Arak Knife.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gebel_el-Arak_Knife

“The Gebel el-Arak Knife is an ivory and flint knife dating from the Naqada II d period of Egyptian prehistory, starting circa 3450 BC, showing Mesopotamian influence. The knife was purchased in 1914 in Cairo by Georges Aaron Bénédite for the Louvre, where it is now on display in the Sully wing, room 20.[3] At the time of its purchase, the knife handle was alleged by the seller to have been found at the site of Gebel el-Arak, but it is today believed to come from Abydos.”

“Purchase

The Gebel el-Arak knife was bought for the Louvre by the philologist and Egyptologist Georges Aaron Bénédite in February 1914 from a private antique dealer, M. Nahman, in Cairo.[1] Bénédite immediately recognised the artefact's extraordinary state of preservation as well as its archaic date. On 16 March 1914, he wrote to Charles Boreux, then head of the département des Antiquités égyptiennes of the Louvre, about the item the unsuspecting dealer had offered him. It was:

[…] an archaic flint knife with an ivory handle of the greatest beauty. This is the masterpiece of predynastic sculpture […] executed with remarkable finesse and elegance. This is a work of great detail […] and the interest of what is represented extends even beyond the artistic value of the artefact. On one side is a hunting scene; on the other a scene of war or a raid. At the top of the hunting scene […] the hunter wears a large Chaldean garment: he head is covered by a hat like that of our Gudea […] and he grasps two lions standing against him. You can judge the importance of this asiatic representation […] we will own one of the most important prehistoric monuments, if not more. It is, in definitive, in tangible and summary form, the first chapter of the history of Egypt.

At the time of purchase, its blade and handle were separated, as the seller did not realise that they fitted together.[10] Boreux later proposed that the knife be restored, and that the blade and handle be joined together. This was done in March 1933 by Léon André, who worked mainly on consolidating the ensemble, and conserving the ivory handle.[11] The most recent restoration of the knife was undertaken in 1997 by Agnès Cascio and Juliette Lévy.

Origin

At the time of its purchase by Bénédite, the knife handle was said by the dealer to have been found at the site of Gebel el-Arak ( ), a plateau near the village of Nag Hammadi, 40 kilometres (25 mi) south of Abydos. However, the knife's true provenance is indicated by Bénédite in his letter to Boreux. He wrote:

[…] the seller did not suspect that the flint [blade] belonged with the handle and presented it to me as witness of the recent finds from Abydos.

That the knife did indeed originate from Abydos is supported by the otherwise total absence of archaeological finds from Gebel el-Arak, while intensive excavations by Émile Amélineau, Flinders Petrie, Édouard Naville and Thomas Eric Peet were taking place at this time at the Umm el-Qa'ab, the necropolis of predynastic and early dynastic rulers in Abydos.”

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>>9766038

(Please read from the start)

“Description

Blade

The blade of the knife is made of homogenous finely grained yellowish flint, a type of Egyptian flint called chert. Flint is widely available in Egypt, from Cairo to Esna, but the blades of ceremonial flint knives were exclusively made of caramel colored chert, perhaps because this colour resembles that of metal.”

>> More details about the production of the blade are available to anons if they are interested in reading about it.

“The blade of the Gebel el-Arak knife as well as of other ripple-flake knives of the same period are considered the high point of the silex tool making techniques.[1][14] Specialists of the Predynastic period of Egypt, such as Béatrix Midant-Reynes, argue that the quality and amount of work required for the creation of the blade goes beyond what is required for a functional knife. Thus the purpose and value of the knife would be artistic, the blade being a demonstration of technical skills aiming at the beauty of the result.[15] This hypothesis is strengthened by a detailed use-wear analysis of the blade which demonstrates that the knife has never been used.

The blade weights 92.3 grams, its precise dimensions are as follows:

Total length: 18.8 centimetres (7.4 in)

Width of the blade at its center: 5.7 centimetres (2.2 in)

Thickness of the blade at its center: 0.6 centimetres (0.24 in)

Length of blade inside the handle: 2.8 centimetres (1.1 in)

Width of the blade inside the handle: 3.7 centimetres (1.5 in)

Handle

The handle is made of the ivory of an elephant tusk, and not from a hippopotamus canine tooth as was first thought.[1][17][18] The handle was carved along the axis of the tusk, as evidenced by a dark spot located above the head of the "Master of Animals", which is the tip of pulp cavity of the tusk.[1] Once extracted from the tusk, the handle was polished on both sides and hollowed out to receive the blade. The thickness of the handle around the tang of the blade varies from 2 to 3 millimetres (0.12 in), which explains that the ivory is cracked there, with some pieces lost. At the bottom of the handle, the edge was beveled, and probably received a crimp of precious metal that would have reinforced the assemblage of the handle with the blade. At the time of the purchase, Bénédite reported that he could see traces of gold leaf on the bottom of the handle, but this is now gone.[1] The assemblage supports the hypothesis that the knife was not functional: the tang of the blade is too short and the handle too thin for the knife to have been practical.

The handle is richly carved in low relief with a scene of a battle on the side that would have faced a right-handed user and with mythological themes on the other side. This side has a knob in its centre through which a strap could be passed. As for the blade, a use-wear analysis of the knob demonstrated that it has never been used. The carvings were executed on the polished surface of the tusk with a silex microburin from top to bottom, one register after the other. The artisan first carved the main figures and then carved the places where the figures meet, such as the arms of the combatants. The depth of the carvings does not exceed 2 millimetres (0.079 in).

The precise dimensions of the handle are as follows:

Total length: 9.5 centimetres (3.7 in)

Width of the basis: 4.2 centimetres (1.7 in)

Average thickness: 1.2 centimetres (0.47 in)

Length of the knob: 2.0 centimetres (0.79 in)

Width of the knob: 1.3 centimetres (0.51 in)

Thickness of the knob: 1.0 centimetre (0.39 in)

• Page 138 –

Potus and those working behind the scenes are Titans.

J'espère qu'un jour vous serez appréciés à votre juste valeur.

“Those who know cannot sleep”.