Storage Vessel with Simple Incised Decoration, ca. 1539–1425 B.C.E. Clay, 19 15/16 x Diam. 8 9/16 in. (50.6 x 21.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 07.447.444. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.07.447.444_NegL1012_19_print_bw.jpg)
Storage Vessel with Simple Incised Decoration, ca. 1539–1425 B.C.E. Clay, 19 15/16 x Diam. 8 9/16 in. (50.6 x 21.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 07.447.444. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.07.447.444_erg456.jpg)
Storage Vessel with Simple Incised Decoration
Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art
On View: Egyptian Orientation Gallery, 3rd Floor
Pottery Manufacture
Available materials, construction technique, and even social status all played a role in the manufacture of pottery.
Most ancient Egyptian towns had at least one skilled potter who served the entire community. Palaces, estates, and temples employed dozens of craftsmen to fashion luxury and ritual wares.
Potters used two principal materials: alluvial silt (soil deposited by the floodwaters of the Nile) and soft desert shale called marl. Silt contains iron oxides and fires red; marl, rich in calcium carbonate, fires to a buff color. To make both clays more workable, potters added straw, crushed stone, or pulverized pottery.
Potters constructed vessels by hand or on a wheel. Hand building involved shaping the clay manually and with simple tools. To create vessels on a wheel, artisans rotated the clay rapidly on a low, flat turntable and let centrifugal force pull it into shape. Spiral marks, evident on several examples in this case, indicate wheel manufacture.
Available materials, construction technique, and even social status all played a role in the manufacture of pottery.
Most ancient Egyptian towns had at least one skilled potter who served the entire community. Palaces, estates, and temples employed dozens of craftsmen to fashion luxury and ritual wares.
Potters used two principal materials: alluvial silt (soil deposited by the floodwaters of the Nile) and soft desert shale called marl. Silt contains iron oxides and fires red; marl, rich in calcium carbonate, fires to a buff color. To make both clays more workable, potters added straw, crushed stone, or pulverized pottery.
Potters constructed vessels by hand or on a wheel. Hand building involved shaping the clay manually and with simple tools. To create vessels on a wheel, artisans rotated the clay rapidly on a low, flat turntable and let centrifugal force pull it into shape. Spiral marks, evident on several examples in this case, indicate wheel manufacture.
MEDIUM
Clay
DATES
ca. 1539–1425 B.C.E.
DYNASTY
Dynasty 18
PERIOD
New Kingdom
DIMENSIONS
19 15/16 x Diam. 8 9/16 in. (50.6 x 21.7 cm) (show scale)
COLLECTIONS
Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
07.447.444
CREDIT LINE
Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
PROVENANCE
Kelabieh, Egypt (Kelabsheh, Ramessid); 1907, excavated by Henri de Morgan of Francescas, France and New York, NY for the Brooklyn Museum.
Provenance FAQ
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION
Large gourd-shaped jar of pinkish pottery. Slender graceful shape, with bluntly pointed bottom, ovoid body with deep waist, very slightly spreading neck, its beginning marked by a four-coiled spiral incised line; torus-lip, well offset. Rather wide straight mouth.
Condition: A crack runs from rim down to waist, through a rather large hole in center. Slight chips on rim.
EXHIBITIONS
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is on view in Egyptian Orientation Gallery, 3rd Floor
CAPTION
Storage Vessel with Simple Incised Decoration, ca. 1539–1425 B.C.E. Clay, 19 15/16 x Diam. 8 9/16 in. (50.6 x 21.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 07.447.444. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.07.447.444_NegL1012_19_print_bw.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, CUR.07.447.444_NegL1012_19_print_bw.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2013
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RIGHTS STATEMENT
Creative Commons-BY
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