Art Institute of Chicago (Egyptian) · vessel
Kohl Container in the Shape of a Palm Column
Description
This small container was designed to hold kohl, a cosmetic eye paint made of ground galena or malachite. Ancient Egyptian men and women wore kohl for its aesthetic appeal but also to dampen the harsh sunlight of North Africa and possibly even for medicinal purposes. The columns shaped like palm trees common in ancient Egyptian architecture inspired the elegant form of this glass vessel. Containers like this luxurious example were buried with their owners for continued use in the afterlife.
Cross-references (1)
- ARTIC-id 43353 tier-2
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Art Institute of Chicago (Egyptian).
- 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.