© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University. Photo by Michael McKelvey.

ClassificationsAncient Nubian Art

C-Group Bowl

AAT Object Techniquepainting (image-making)

AAT Object Form/Functionbowls (vessels)

CultureLower Nubian

PeriodC Group III

Date1630-1540 BCE

MediumLimestone

Credit LineMohamed Farid Khamis/Oriental Weavers Fund

Dimensions4 1/4 x 3 1/2 in. (10.8 x 8.9 cm)

Object number2004.007.001

Label TextThe C-Group culture of Lower Nubia was contemporary with the Egyptian Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period. This bowl is characteristic of C-Group ceramics, decorated with motifs incised on the surface and highlighted with pigment. Low-fired, black-incised pottery has a long tradition in Africa, but perhaps no other culture so refined the technique as the Nubian C-Group. Their vessels are decorated with complex, geometric patterns, often in imitation of beadwork, etched into the surface of the clay and filled with white or sometimes colored pigments. This hemispherical bowl is typical of the later C-Group, which occupied Lower Nubia and was contemporary with the Second Intermediate Period and early New Kingdom in Egypt and the Classic Kerma Civilization to the south.
Exhibition HistoryFrom Pharaohs to Emperors: New Egyptian and Classical Antiquities at Emory, Michael C. Carlos Museum, January 14 - April 2, 2006
Lost Kingdoms of the Nile: Nubian Treasures from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Michael C. Carlos Museum, February 9 - August 31, 2008
MCCM Permanent Collection Gallery, June 27, 2013 - Present
Published ReferencesChristie's New York, Antiquities (Thursday, December 11, 2003), 16, number 6.
Peter Lacovara and Jasper Gaunt, "From Pharaohs to Emperors: Egyptian, Near Eastern & Classical Antiquities at Emory," Minerva (January/February 2006): 9-16.

ProvenanceWith A La Reine Margot, Paris, France, 1995. Purchased by MCCM from Christie's New York, December 11, 2003, lot 6.

Status

On view

Collections