Author Description

The book is a result of research project financed by the National Science Center (Poland) entitled "The comparative analyzes of Early Bronze Age Egyptian and Southern Levantine copper tools including the influences from the Arabian Peninsula and Mesopotamia region." In recent years, the wide application of laboratory methods in provenance research popularized the study of the origin of raw materials used in the production of tools in the Near East. Unfortunately, the current law on the protection of monuments effectively prevents the development of this type of studies in Egypt. Despite the progress of field and laboratory work, archaeologists still struggle with the problems of chronological and even functional interpretation of the first Egyptian copper products, especially tools and weapons. In the presented analysis, Marcin Czarnowicz (Jagiellonian University) adopts a typologically oriented approach, taking into account a broad comparative perspective, aimed at studying the relations with the Levant. This region, including the Sinai Peninsula, was the main supplier of copper for predynastic Egypt. The book presents the typological development of the early forms of copper products against the background of the changing economic relations between the two regions in the 4th millennium BC.