- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Small pottery vessel, painted with wavy lines. Two handles on either side with horizontal perforations.
- Date / Period
- Date made: Circa 3600-3350 BC Archaeological period: Ancient Egyptian Predynastic
- Date collected
- By 1901
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 1901
- Materials and processes
- Material Pottery, Material Pigment, Process Burnt, Process Painted, Process Perforated
- Dimensions
- Height: max 60 mm, Diameter: max 90 mm
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1901.29.71 Other numbers: A.119
- Research and responses
The grave (A 119) from which this object is from is not published in the excavation report. This type of pot is referred to as a 'D-ware' or 'Decorated-ware' vessel and dates to approximately Naqada [Nagada] IIC-IID (c.3600-3350 BC) [AS 15/08/2012].
- Associated publications
- Randall MacIver, D. and Mace, A. (1902) El Amrah and Abydos 1899-1901. London: Egypt Exploration Fund. [AS 07/06/2012] This object was featured in the Museum's audio guide produced during the DCF-funded 'What's Upstairs?' project, 2004–2006. [BR 'DCF 2004-2006 What's Upstairs?' 8/11/2005] This object features in the Museum's audio tour produced in 2010. Transcription as follows: "These pots all come from Africa. Some of them come from ancient archaeological sites in Egypt and Sudan. Others are more modern, and were collected in these same countries in the twentieth century. Look at the group of small vessels on the bottom of the case as well as a larger, rounded pot on the shelf above with dark red spiral designs. These all date to the pre-dynastic period over 5000 years ago, before Upper and Lower Egypt became a unified kingdom under the First Dynasty. The different styles and types of pottery unearthed by archaeologists in Egypt has been vital the dating of pre-dynastic Egypt. The English Egyptologist William Flinders Petrie developed a system called Sequence Dating, by which the approximate date of a pre-dynastic site could be determined by examining the handles on the pottery. Over time, handles on pre-dynastic pottery went from being practical to ornamental. The small, tubular, and perforated handles on these examples, and their geometric patterns, are typical of the later pre-dynastic period that preceded the unification of Egypt over 5000 years ago. In ancient Egypt much of the pottery produced was for funerary purposes – certain types of vessel were only made to be buried in tombs with the dead, and these examples were all excavated from cemeteries. There is in fact still an association between death and pottery in Africa today. When someone is married new pots are made, whereas when they die their pots are often smashed." (Written by Helen Hales) [HH 26/10/2010]
Search terms: Pottery, Vessel, Death, Religion, Bowl, Grave Good