This small model adze was part of one of the many foundation deposit
placed beneath the walls of New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period chapels
near the site of the Ancient Temple to Osiris at Abydos, in an area now called
Kom es Sultan. It is quite distinct from previous adzes in this series - i.e. 902.6.40-44, which are Eighteenth Dynasty, and appears to date from the Twenty-second Dynasty. A royal name may have been inscribed on it, but the writing is now indistinct. Foundation deposits seem to have been intended to symbolically
strengthen and protect a building. They often contain the heads of sacrificed
animals, pottery, and miniatures of the bricks and tools used in construction.
Foundation deposits can identify the builder, and can enable archaeologists
to trace the lines and corners of forgotten walls.
A great many foundation deposits were excavated by Flinders
Petrie at Abydos between 1900 and 1902, so many, in fact, that he did
not photograph each one. Thus, while we can be sure that the ROM’s foundation
deposit tools were from Abydos, and most from the area of the Eighteenth Dynasty
chapels, we do not always know which tools were in which deposit. Some, such as this one, appear to have come from later constructions. Some of the deposits
detailed by Petrie had seven or eight model tools, while others, such as
deposit #95, are described only as containing “many very small copper
models of chisels scattered over the tops of the pottery.”
While the tools are very small, it’s worthwhile to remember
that copper was a valuable commodity, and that each tool required being cast
and then finished by hand. Petrie found many fragments of finely carved
relief from the chapels which would have been cut and finished with
full sized versions of the tools found in the deposits.
