Gebel Manzal el-Seyl is a quarry site in Egypt's eastern desert, where stone for vessels was mined during the first few dynasties of the Old Kingdom. The site is located along the top of a linear ridge about 75 kilometers northwest of the Red Sea city of Hurghada. Scattered along the ridge are 39 quarrying pits, with about 200 pit excavations, all linked by numerous footpaths worn into the hillside. Stone tools used to quarry the rock and left at the mine include large and small mauls, some notched to accommodate a wooden haft.
Stone vessels were a common funerary item in the Late Predynastic through the Old Kingdom, and most of the time, they were carved from alabaster gypsum, quarried from mines such as Umm el-Sawan. But during the First through Third Dynasty, such objects were also made of a tuffaceous limestone, a light bluish green to gray or dark green with a grainy to smooth texture, often misidentified as volcanic ash, schist or slate. That was mined at Gebel Manzal el-Seyl.
Scattered through the large quarry pits are hundreds of roughly-shaped vessel blanks, for cylindrical vessels, bowls and shallow dishes. Some of the vessels are inscribed with 'maker's marks' which are consistent with an early Dynastic age but not necessarily diagnostic. The mine is interpreted as First to Third Dynasties because that is the time period when tuffaceous limestone was used for funerary stone vessels.
Sources
See the Predynastic Egypt Timeline.
The Eastern Desert website by Andie Byrnes includes a section on geology, and is well worth a visit.
Harrell, James A., V. M. Brown, and Masoud S. Masoud 2000 An Early Dynastic Quarry for Stone Vessels at Gebel Manzal el-Seyl, Eastern Desert. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 86:33-42.
This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. Any mistakes are the responsibility of Kris Hirst.
