The find was attributed to the civilization of ancient Egypt. If I understand correctly, the artifact dates back to 625 BC, and it is made of black basalt. Archaeologists speculate that the artifact was a bowl.
The rim depicts the ancient Egyptian goddess Hathor. It should be noted right away that the quality of the Hathor image is at times different from the quality of the original artifact. What does this tell us?
And this suggests that the cup was created at the same time with some possibilities, and the image of Hathor was applied at another time and with other possibilities. Judging by the quality of the application of the subsequent image, the difference in technological capabilities is visible.
There is a high probability of the creation of an artifact by one civilization and the subsequent discovery and reuse by another, namely the Egyptians. But this is not the main mystery of this "bowl".
How was such a basalt masterpiece created with primitive technologies? There is not a single trace of chipping with primitive tools on it, but how was it processed then? This is the main question.
I also had a question about the correctness of the interpretation of the original purpose of the artifact. Who in their right mind would make cookware out of black basalt?
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Even in our time, creating such a "bowl" will be a difficult task, let alone 2,700 years ago (its official date).
And of course the image of the goddess Hathor looks comical on such an artifact. Just imagine, someone has been creating this bowl for several years in an unknown way, and the master has applied such a clumsy image.
Throughout Egypt, only a few such artifacts have been found and they all raise many questions about both the method of manufacture and their true purpose.
It is also very difficult to search for information on them, because museums try to prohibit photography of such things, especially in Egypt.