EgypToolWear: Metalwork Wear Analysis of Ancient Egyptian Tools

埃及石器是一个开创性的分析，从晚期铜石器时代和青铜时代的埃及（公元前3500 - 1070年）的金属工艺工具的功能和用途。这是有史以来第一个使用金属制品磨损分析（以下简称MWA）的项目，以精确了解铜合金工具在早期埃及是如何使用的，用于什么工艺，以及与什么身体姿势和参与。该研究以多学科方法为基础，结合MWA（低和高倍率）和(a)对书面和图像来源（在此背景下丰富且通常详细）的关键重新评估；(b)金相分析；(c)实验考古学。将研究大约170种不同时期、出处、形状和假定用途的铜合金工具，为研究提供急需的时间和地理深度。该项目非常重要，因为它采用了一种创新的分析和实验方法来回答迄今为止仅通过文本和图像研究来解决的问题。新的方法将推翻关于埃及金属工具的根深蒂固的误解，例如，工具制造和使用的保守特征和缺乏进化。此外，该项目的重要性在于它是MWA在埃及青铜器上的第一次大规模应用。因此，它将重振一个相当传统的学术领域，并为早期埃及金属开辟新的研究途径。由于计划中的MWA培训和参与倡议（包括在埃及本身），该链将在项目结束后独立发展。这将改变埃及学学科和研究员的游戏规则，他们将通过该行动获得新的分析和解释技能，从而提高其职业前景。反过来，他将把他关于前王朝和王朝埃及的专业知识转移到纽卡斯尔，在那里，古埃及考古学既没有研究，也没有有意义的教学。

EgypToolWear is a groundbreaking analysis of the function and uses of metal craft tools from late Chalcolithic and Bronze Age Egypt (c.3500 - 1070 BC). This is the first ever project to deploy Metalwork Wear Analysis (henceforth MWA) to precisely understand how copper-alloy tools were used in early Egypt, for what crafts, and with what bodily gestures and engagements. The research is grounded in a multidisciplinary approach combining MWA (both low- and high-magnification) with (a) a critical reassessment of written and iconographic sources (which are abundant and often detailed in this context); (b) metallurgical analysis; and (c) experimental archaeology. A corpus of c.170 copper-alloy tools of various periods, provenances, shapes, and presumed uses will be researched, giving much-needed temporal and geographical depth to the research. The project is important in that it deploys an innovative analytical and experimental approach to answer questions that have hitherto only been address by textual and iconographic studies. The new approach will overturn deep-seated misconceptions concerning Egyptian metal tools, e.g., the conservative character and lack of evolution in tool making and using. Furthermore, the project's importance lies in its being the very first large application of MWA to Egyptian bronzes. As such, it will reinvigorate a rather traditional field of scholarship and open new research avenues into early Egyptian metals. This strand will develop independently after the project's end thanks to planned MWA training and engagement initiatives (including in Egypt itself). This is a game-changer for the discipline of Egyptology and for the Fellow, who through the Action will acquire new analytical and interpretative skills enhancing his career prospects. In turn, he will transfer his specialist knowledge of predynastic and dynastic Egypt to Newcastle, where the archaeology of ancient Egypt is neither researched nor meaningfully taught.