© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University

ClassificationsAncient Egyptian Art

Lug-Handled Jar

Place CreatedEgypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodPredynastic, Nagada II

Date3500-3350 BCE

MediumCeramic, pigment

Credit LineCollected by William A. Shelton, funded by John A. Manget

Dimensions6 5/16 x 7 15/16 in. (16 x 20.2 cm)

Object number1921.021

Label TextAbydos was an important cemetery even in the Prehistoric Period, with thousands of graves located in the broad desert stretches at the foot of the western cliffs bordering the Nile. Among the objects found in them were vases such as these, decorated in red ochre with ritual scenes. Images of boats figure prominently in the design and they may have represented the funeral barges that transported the deceased to the cemetery. Boats and the voyage to Abydos would become prominent themes in the decorated tombs of the Dynastic Period as well.
Exhibition HistoryA Preview of the Collections, Schatten Gallery, February 15 - April 4, 1982
MCCM Permanent Collection Galleries, May 11, 1993 - February 1999
Life and Death in the Pyramid Age: The Emory Old Kingdom Mummy, Michael C. Carlos Museum, September 10 - December 11, 2011
Published ReferencesEmory University Museum of Art and Archaeology, A Preview of the Collections (Atlanta: The Museum, 1982), 8.
Peter Lacovara and Betsy Teasley Trope, The Realm of Osiris (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum 2001), 26.

Terms

ProvenanceAcquired for Emory University Museum by William Shelton (1875-1959), ca. 1920.

Status

Not on view

Collections