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

Decorated ware jar with lug handles

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

Description

Jar, Decorated ware. Predynastic, Naqada II, ca. 3650–3300 B.C. Pottery, paint. 5 7/8 in. (15 cm). From: Fort Cemetery (Hk 27), Tomb 40, Hierakonpolis (Nekhen), Southern Upper Egypt, Egypt. Excavation: MMA excavations, 1934–35. Credit: Rogers Fund, 1936.

AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano

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

A decorated Predynastic pottery jar with lug handles and painted geometric bands on its exterior.

The image shows a ceramic jar standing upright with two projecting lug handles attached to opposite sides of the neck/body area, each supported by vertical stems that connect near the base. The vessel surface is covered with maroon/brown painted designs on a light buff clay ground. Prominent elements include two tall vertical bands separated by a central plain area, filled with repeated wavy and zigzag (chevron-like) motifs, as well as horizontal rows of small wavy lines. The shoulder and rim show additional narrow bands of painted patterns. No legible hieroglyphic inscriptions, cartouches, or alphabets (Greek/Coptic/Arabic) are visible; the decoration appears purely geometric/painted rather than textual. No specific deities or royal names are depicted or identifiable from the visible ornamentation.

decorative Predynastic, Naqada II (as catalogued) good
Materials potterypaint

Connections

Materials PaintPottery
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.