Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art · vessel

Decorated Jug

Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art, acc. 37.13E. Public domain (CC0). Copy archived by egyptianinscriptions.org with attribution; original at the holding institution.

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Accession: 37.13E
Find spot: Lower Egypt, Egypt approx. site location
Period: Late Minoan IB Period
Date: ca. 1575–1500 B.C.E.
Date range: 1575 BCE – 1500 BCE
Materials: ['Clay', 'pigment']
Height: 22.0 cm
Width: 24.5 cm
Repository: Brooklyn Museum
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Cite & export

Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art, Decorated Jug (37.13E). Egyptian Inscriptions Database. https://egyptianinscriptions.org/object/29049

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Description

Object Label: One of the world’s most famous works of Minoan pottery, this vessel shows five mollusks called nautili floating above the sea floor. The sinuous, undulating lines of the water plants and nautili tentacles clearly demonstrate the Minoans’ love of bold, sweeping designs. For the Egyptians, Minoan painting must have provided an exotic contrast to their own balanced, ordered designs. Catalogue description: Cultures Greek, Minoan Caption: Greek; Minoan. Decorated Jug, ca. 1575–1500 B.C.E.. Clay, pigment, 8 11/16 x Diam. 9 5/8 in. (22 x 24.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.13E. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

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 small decorated ceramic jug with a rounded body, curved handle, and painted animal/hunting-like motif in dark blue/black on a lighter background.

The image shows a hand-held, bellied jug (or pitcher) with a short spout on the left and a strap-like handle on the right. The surface is covered by decorative painted bands and scrollwork in dark pigment (blue/black) over a pale/yellowish ground. Central decoration includes a human or animal figure silhouette and surrounding stylized waves/spirals and border motifs; a secondary band appears around the neck and shoulder. No legible hieroglyphs or alphabetic text are visible on the vessel. No cartouches or royal names are present. The visible manufacturing material appears to be fired clay with applied painted pigment.

decorative unclear (catalogue states Late Minoan IB; the depicted style is painted pottery but the exact period cannot be confirmed from this image alone) good

Materials Claypigment (painted decoration)

Connections

Found at Lower Egypt

Materials Clay Pigment

Cross-references (2)

BKM-Accession 37.13E tier-2
BKM-Object 3931 tier-2

About this record's data

From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art.
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.