The Practice of Repairing Vessels in Ancient Egypt: Methods of Repair

Near Eastern Archaeology Vol. 79, No. 4, Decemberarticle, “The Practice of Repairing Vessels in Ancient Egypt: Methods of Repair and Anthropological Implications,” by Julia Hsieh (Yale).

Before mass production, the practice of repairing ceramic and stone vessels, as well as other household items, was widely practiced, from antiquity into the last century. This article provides a brief overview of the methods of repair and highlights some of the anthropological implications of the practice, namely, what information might we extract regarding the individual, the settlement, or even the societal group as a whole, when we unearth an assemblage that includes repaired vessels?