<em>Blue-Painted Storage Jar</em>, ca. 1353–1329 B.C.E. Clay, pigment, 26 9/16 × Diam. 17 1/8 in. (67.4 × 43.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield, Theodora Wilbour, and Victor Wilbour honoring the wishes of their mother, Charlotte Beebe Wilbour, as a memorial to their father, Charles Edwin Wilbour, 16.244. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.16.244_erg456.jpg)

Blue-Painted Storage Jar, ca. 1353–1329 B.C.E. Clay, pigment, 26 9/16 × Diam. 17 1/8 in. (67.4 × 43.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield, Theodora Wilbour, and Victor Wilbour honoring the wishes of their mother, Charlotte Beebe Wilbour, as a memorial to their father, Charles Edwin Wilbour, 16.244. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.16.244_erg456.jpg)

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Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

How would this have been stored so it didn't tip over?

These vessels were placed either in holes in the mud floor of a house or in pot stands of clay or wood. Occasionally representations of these vessels show them simply leaning against a convenient wall.

How did these vessels with pointed bottoms stay upright in ancient Egypt?

We get that question often. Vessels like this one may have stood in specially designed racks with openings to hold those pointed bottoms. They also may have been placed in holes dug into earth floors, or simply have been leaned against walls.

You'll notice the color blue on many objects in this gallery. For the ancient Egyptians, blue symbolized water, necessary for all forms of life, and especially crucial in a desert climate!

What would they store in this jar?

Based on its shape, this storage jar would have been used to store grain.

How does this stand up?

That's a very common question! The ancient Egyptians had pot stands for their rounded bottom vessels.

The vessels could also be nestled into the sand or sockets in the floor or simply leaned against a wall.

Cool! Thanks!

Tell me about this.

Vessels like this would have been placed in holes in the ground or on pot stands made of clay or wood in order to keep them upright!

This light blue represented water, and so life, for the ancient Egyptians. You can imagine that, particularly in a desert climate, water would be a crucial symbol of life!

The decoration on this pot os based on a broad collar-style necklace ancient Egyptians would wear called a wesekh. The design of the necklace as based on one made of flowers which symbolized rebirth.

Blue-Painted Storage Jar

Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

Blue painted decoration on large vessels became fashionable during the reign of Amenhotep III (circa 1390–1352 B.C.E.). The blue pigment was likely produced with cobalt, a mineral originating in the western oasis, located about 150 miles from the Nile Valley and accessible to the Egyptians since the Old Kingdom.

MEDIUM Clay, pigment

Place Made: Tell el-Amarna, Egypt

DATES ca. 1353–1329 B.C.E.

DYNASTY Dynasty 18

PERIOD New Kingdom, Amarna Period

DIMENSIONS 26 9/16 × Diam. 17 1/8 in. (67.4 × 43.5 cm) (show scale)

COLLECTIONS Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 16.244

CREDIT LINE Gift of Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield, Theodora Wilbour, and Victor Wilbour honoring the wishes of their mother, Charlotte Beebe Wilbour, as a memorial to their father, Charles Edwin Wilbour

CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Large red pottery storage jar. Biconical body, cylindrical neck. Upper half of body decorated with four registers of conventionalized floral motifs in blue and red with black outlines. Blue band around neck. Condition: Poor. Rim entirely missing. Body cracked. Painted decorations on one side of body entirely missing.

EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view

CAPTION Blue-Painted Storage Jar, ca. 1353–1329 B.C.E. Clay, pigment, 26 9/16 × Diam. 17 1/8 in. (67.4 × 43.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield, Theodora Wilbour, and Victor Wilbour honoring the wishes of their mother, Charlotte Beebe Wilbour, as a memorial to their father, Charles Edwin Wilbour, 16.244. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.16.244_erg456.jpg)

IMAGE overall, CUR.16.244_erg456.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 9/5/2007

"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.

RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY

You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.

RECORD COMPLETENESS

Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.

Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

How would this have been stored so it didn't tip over?

How did these vessels with pointed bottoms stay upright in ancient Egypt?

You'll notice the color blue on many objects in this gallery. For the ancient Egyptians, blue symbolized water, necessary for all forms of life, and especially crucial in a desert climate!

What would they store in this jar?

Based on its shape, this storage jar would have been used to store grain.

How does this stand up?

That's a very common question! The ancient Egyptians had pot stands for their rounded bottom vessels.

The vessels could also be nestled into the sand or sockets in the floor or simply leaned against a wall.

Cool! Thanks!

Tell me about this.

Vessels like this would have been placed in holes in the ground or on pot stands made of clay or wood in order to keep them upright!

This light blue represented water, and so life, for the ancient Egyptians. You can imagine that, particularly in a desert climate, water would be a crucial symbol of life!

The decoration on this pot os based on a broad collar-style necklace ancient Egyptians would wear called a wesekh. The design of the necklace as based on one made of flowers which symbolized rebirth.

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Blue-Painted Storage Jar

Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

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Blue-Painted Storage Jar

Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

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