IFAO

The paper is devoted to the origin of alabaster-calcite discovered in large quantities in the subterranean galleries of Saqqara Djoser’s pyramid, as well as to the subsequent problems. Thus, thanks to the inscriptions mentioned on the items worked in this material, as well as the titles and onomastics, it is possible to recount, from the First Dynasty onwards, a history of the production of this mineral which apparently takes place at this time in the area of the Oriental desert under the supervision of the Oryx’s nome. Being standard products of high cost, these containers were stored as sed-fest gifts meant for the sovereigns of the First Dynasty, certainly the Horus Adjib and Qaa, two kings whose names are incised or written in ink.

This tradition of alabaster containers production, under the responsability of the Oryx nomarchs, and the supervision of priests of Khnum – Egyptian god of the manufactured products – in charge of liturgical material before they would be sent to Memphis, survives until Djoser, under the reign of who a contemporary document bearing the name of -Imhotep recalls the title «hard stone vessel sculptor». Probably fed by the experience acquired with technicians of stone working, and also because he was in charge of such a work, Imhotep (tradition will keep the name of Djoser), according to the XVIIIth Dynasty texts of Djoser’s complex to which echoes Manetho, becomes at the beginning of the IIIrd Dynasty the initiator of stone layers building and systematic working of different quarries.