Gerzean Peseskhef knife

A Gerzean Peseshkef Knife (M1320). A large y-shaped peseshkef knife blade made from brown flint with areas of light brown. The single larger ‘point’ is more roughly knapped along the edge than the rest and was used as a tang for mounting the blade in a handle. The cutting edge of the blade is the concave curve between the two smaller points with minute micro-debitage along the edge. Repaired fracture with small loss to one side. The peseshkef blade became a stylized ritual object during the dynastic period and was used as an implement in the opening of the mouth ceremony at funerals. The predynastic examples would have been very functional for severing something round, for example an umbilical cord, although their original intent is unknown. Nagada III (Gerzean). L 21 cm. Provenance: L. Bjuggren coll., purchased 1960s, reputedly from Cairo dealer. This lot is part of a large private collection of Egyptian antiquities at auction at Lauritz.com Roskilde until 29-31 March 2016. and read .