ABSTRACT
The introduction of smelted and cast copper at the commencement of the Nagada II period enabled craftworkers to imitate the shapes of certain stone tools in copper, first mentioned by W.M. Flinders Petrie in 1917.1 Following on from Petrie’s suggestion, it is likely that several particular Predynastic stone implements were developed and transformed into five metallic tools. These were the flint endscraper2 (the copper chisel and the adze blade), the denticulated, or serrated, flint sickle blade and knife3 (the serrated copper woodcutting saw, but no Predynastic examples have been found), the flint knife4 (the copper knife) and the stone hand-axe,5 manufactured in flint and other hard stones, but sometimes hafted for use as an adze blade (the copper axe). See Figure 2.1 for replica copper adzes, a saw and an axe. Copper tool manufacturing technology shortened previous stone tool manufacturing times, once the infrastructure for making copper tools became fully established. Two stone tools, the hand-axe and the knife, retained their basic shapes and purposes after being cast and beaten in copper, although the copper axe-head, used by carpenters and boat builders (Figure 2.2),6 was now fitted with a long wooden handle to increase the force of a blow.
