The aim of the project GAČR no. 23-04989S is to scrutinize all types of burial containers  from the Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period (stone, wood, reed and pottery)  from localities all over Egypt. The data corpus of all available finds, collected in the  freely accessible database, will serve as a basis for establishing an overall typology that  is noticeably missing. Roughly, the studied corpus comprises 300 wooden conins, 250  stone sarcophagi, 30 reed conins and 60 ceramic conins. The main analytical part lies  in tracing the development of the containers and in the reconstruction of the entire  process from the origin of a particular burial container to its use and possible reuse. The  intention is to trace the whole scale of activities including material acquisition, its  transport, methods of manufacture, applied decorative techniques as well as the final  burial installation. The social, ritual and economic implications that encompass the  production (e.g. religious significance of dinerent materials, questions of specialised  workshops or foreign trade with precious materials) will also be addressed. The project  will investigate three main research questions: 

1. Burial container production: The processes that are related to the container  manufacture will be evaluated, assessing each individual material separately.  The following issues will be addressed: acquisition of raw material, craftsmen,  the question of specialised workshops and a domestic production, decorative  patterns and their regional diversity.
2. Socio-economic implications of container production: The role of the social  status of the container owners in the choice of material will be examined.  Subsequently, the question of the extent of social dynamics and the economic  power regarding the acquisition of materials from distant regions (e.g. cedar  wood from Libanon) will be studied. Equally important is the phenomenon of a  potential king’s influence in this process. On selected material, the distribution  patterns of the burial containers will be investigated within particular  households in the central and provincial necropoleis. 
3. Religious aspects: The third research field will investigate not only the influence  of religious notions on the choice of particular materials, the question how and  with what delay religious changes were reflected in contemporaneous evidence  (e.g. the evolution of solar notions or the emergence of Osiris cult); their impact  on the application of the decorative motifs, selected colour spectrum and  onering formulae, but also the evolution of the prophylactic processes used on  the containers.

In the project, Gersande will concentrate on the wood analysis, technological aspects  and prophylactic aspects of wooden conins. 

The project is supported by the Czech Science Foundation, No. 23-04989S 

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