Breaking the Dsr.T Vessels : An Ancient Egyptian Fragmentation Rite

In ancient Egyptian thought, the funerary procedure played a key role in the transition to the afterlife.

As early as the Old Kingdom (c. 2700-2200 BCE), the Pyramid Texts and representations and inscriptions in private tombs show a highly developed funerary ritual with a large number of individual rites intended to ensure a safe transition to the realm of the dead and a pleasant afterlife for the deceased.

One of these is the so-called ‘breaking the dšr.t-vessels’ (Egyptian sḏ dšr.wt), a rite that involved the intentional damaging of a certain type of ceramic vessel.

The aim of this study is to gain a better understanding of the rite through a re-evaluation of the primary sources and previous research and to provide the first study devoted entirely to the rite.

While the rite of ‘breaking the dšr.t-vessels’ has been associated with several different archaeological contexts and primary sources, this monograph argues that a careful distinction needs to be made between the evidence identified as such.

This study aims to demonstrate that there is a significant discrepancy between textual, iconographic, and archaeological sources which calls into question the identification of a large number of sources as sḏ dšr.wt contexts.

A number of different ritual and non-ritual practices in ancient Egypt involve the deliberate fragmentation of pottery, each of which should be addressed in context.