Fish-Tail Knife (pesesh-kef)Predynastic-Early Dynastic Period (3600-2649 BCE)

On view:

Geffen Galleries

Title: Fish-Tail Knife (pesesh-kef)
Place Made: Egypt
Date Made: Predynastic-Early Dynastic Period (3600-2649 BCE)
Medium: Flint
Dimensions: 6 3/4 × 2 1/4 × 1/8 in. (17.15 × 5.72 × 0.32 cm)
Credit Line: Shinji Shumeikai Acquisition Fund
Accession Number: AC1998.94.1
Classification: Tools and Equipment
Collecting Area: Egyptian Art
Curatorial Notes: Ripple-flaked and sharpened stone blades may have been used in Predynastic Egypt to cut the umbilical cord of an infant and then served as funerary equipment in burials to equip an individual for rebirth in the afterlife. A similar form, known as a pesesh-kef, was used throughout later periods as a tool in the Opening of the Mouth ritual to animate a mummy, that is, to bring it to a state of symbolically breathing and receiving sustenance.
Provenance: Robert de Rustafjaell (1859–1943), London and New York, possibly sold in 1915 at (sale, New York, Anderson Galleries, 29 November–1 December, 1915). Robert Alistair McAlpine (1942–2014), Baron of West Green, England, Australia, Paris, Venice and Southern Italy. [Frederick Schultz Ancient Art, New York, sold 1998 to]; LACMA.

On view:

Geffen Galleries

Title: Fish-Tail Knife (pesesh-kef)
Place Made: Egypt
Date Made: Predynastic-Early Dynastic Period (3600-2649 BCE)
Medium: Flint
Dimensions: 6 3/4 × 2 1/4 × 1/8 in. (17.15 × 5.72 × 0.32 cm)
Credit Line: Shinji Shumeikai Acquisition Fund
Accession Number: AC1998.94.1
Classification: Tools and Equipment
Collecting Area: Egyptian Art
Curatorial Notes: Ripple-flaked and sharpened stone blades may have been used in Predynastic Egypt to cut the umbilical cord of an infant and then served as funerary equipment in burials to equip an individual for rebirth in the afterlife. A similar form, known as a pesesh-kef, was used throughout later periods as a tool in the Opening of the Mouth ritual to animate a mummy, that is, to bring it to a state of symbolically breathing and receiving sustenance.
Provenance: Robert de Rustafjaell (1859–1943), London and New York, possibly sold in 1915 at (sale, New York, Anderson Galleries, 29 November–1 December, 1915). Robert Alistair McAlpine (1942–2014), Baron of West Green, England, Australia, Paris, Venice and Southern Italy. [Frederick Schultz Ancient Art, New York, sold 1998 to]; LACMA.