The heyday of ancient Egyptian stone vessel production was the time between the late Naqada Period and the end of the Old Kingdom, when they produced large amounts of stone vessels and experimented with many different kinds of rock: glasses like volcanic obsidian imported from Turkey, gem stones such as carnelian, lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, and amethyst, rock and quartz crystal, hard rock such as granite, chert, basalt or diorite and soft stone like limestone. Most of these materials were to a large extent abandoned [6] after the end of the Old Kingdom, but limestone and Egyptian alabaster (travertine or calcite) remained popular throughout the pharaonic era
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