This tiny chisel was part of a foundation deposit placed beneath the walls of a chapel built by Thutmosis III near the site of the Ancient Temple to Osiris at Abydos, in an area now called Kom es Sultan.  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 in 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 chapel, we do not always know which tools were in which deposit. 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 New Kingdom chapel which would have been cut and finished with full sized versions of the tools found in the deposits.