Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access) · jewelry

Ointment Jar

Source of record: Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access) — catalogued by the holding institution. View the original record →

Description

Travertine (Egyptian alabaster)

AI image analysis claude-haiku-4-5

Machine-generated from the object's image on May 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.

A simple ointment jar with flared rim and pedestal base, carved from translucent stone in a classic New Kingdom form.

This elegant vessel is crafted from fine travertine (Egyptian alabaster) in a refined, minimalist style characteristic of New Kingdom luxury items. The jar exhibits the canonical ointment jar form with a wide, flared rim and a pedestal base, creating a balance between functional capacity and aesthetic proportion. The stone is worked smooth with a subtle warm cream tone, showing excellent translucency in places. The interior of the vessel remains deep and undecorated, while the exterior surfaces are polished to a soft luster. No figural decoration or inscriptions are visible, indicating that the form itself—elegant in its geometric simplicity—served as the primary aesthetic statement.

daily life New Kingdom excellent
Materials travertine (egyptian alabaster)

Connections

Found at Asasif

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116252158 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 16.10.423 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 543971 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
About this record's data
  • From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access).
  • AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
  • Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
  • Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.