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© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University
Lug-Handled Jar Decorated with Ships, Water, Plants, and Water Birds
© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University
© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University
© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University
ClassificationsAncient Egyptian Art

Lug-Handled Jar Decorated with Ships, Water, Plants, and Water Birds

AAT Object Form/FunctionJars
AAT Object Form/FunctionVases
AAT Object Form/FunctionVase Paintings
Place FoundEgypt, Africa
CultureEgyptian
PeriodPredynastic, Nagada II
Date3500-3350 BCE
MediumClay, paint
Credit LineCollected by William A. Shelton, funded by John A. Manget
Dimensions7 5/16 x 5 1/2 in. (18.6 x 14 cm)
Object number1921.023
Label TextPottery is one of the most typical products of the Predynastic period. In Naqada I the most common decorated pottery was redware with white painted figures which tended to be geometric in form. This buffware vessel with lug handles is decorated with typical motifs found in the Naqada II period (ca. 3500 BC) when new developments in ceramic colors, forms, and decorative motifs become evident. This roughly oval container is complete with a base, rim, handles, and holes used to pass a cord through so that the vessel might be hung. The decoration on both sides consists primarily of a boat equipped with numerous oars and two cabins topped with standards of unknown significance. In addition, found in the space below the boats are three stylized ostriches or flamingos aligned in a row with fan-shaped plants on either side. The pot is no longer polished red as in the earlier style, but is a flat buff. The decoration is now in red paint, and where earlier styles tended to be geometric, this new style exhibits spirals and curves. Themes tend to be related to the Nile and nature, typically showing oared boats, ostriches and flamingos, antelopes and ibexes, various plant life, and female dancers or mourners. These scenes relate to early wall paintings in Egypt such as the "Painted Tomb of Hierakonopolis [sic]", dating to the middle of Naqada II. Although the exact meaning of the decoration is not known, it is certain that the decoration is not purely ornamental. It is most likely related to some sort of ritual, possibly representing funerary practices during the period.

Exhibition HistoryMCCM Permanent Collection Galleries, May 11, 1993 - Spring 2001
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 2001 - Present
Published ReferencesMichael C. Carlos Museum Handbook (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 1996), 18.
MCCM Newsletter, March - May 2008.
ProvenanceAcquired for Emory University Museum by William Shelton (1875-1959), ca. 1920.
Status
On view
Collections
  • Ancient Egyptian, Nubian, and Near Eastern Art