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

ClassificationsAncient Egyptian Art

Vase with Boat and Mourning Figure

AAT Object Form/FunctionVases

AAT Object Form/FunctionVase Painting

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 TextPredynastic graves contained objects used in everyday life as well as objects produced specifically for burial. Pottery vessels with specific decoration, such as this example, seem to have been produced exclusively as tomb offerings. The design on this jar represents the boat that carried the body across the Nile to a cemetery, along with a figure with arms raised in an attitude of mourning.
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.

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

Status

Not on view

Collections