ABSTRACT

The variability of ancient stone vessel repertoires was first made apparent through the Egyptian collections of the Cairo Museum, which were published in a series of catalogues that included volumes dedicated to stone vases. These were primarily descriptive and display a rather Victorian approach to their material, seeking to compartmentalise them on the basis of visual attributes of form. The tendency to publish site reports over a number of years has meant that few publications have been able to present an overview of the significance of stone vessels at any given site. Palestinian stone vessels have been less widely researched, with only two significant synthetic studies available up to the present. Expensive or high-status items such as stone vessels may remain in circulation for a long time. A small number of stone vessels were used to carry inscriptions of a variety of types: dedicatory, funerary, or as a statement of contents, origin or ownership.