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

Red polished ware jar

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

Description

Predynastic Period, ca. 3850–2960 B.C. Pottery. 14 9/16 in. (37 cm). From: Cemetery B, Tomb B32, Abadiya, Northern Upper Egypt, Egypt. Excavation: EEF excavations 1898–99. Credit: Gift of Egypt Exploration Fund, 1899.

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 red polished ware jar with a rounded body and narrow neck, shown against a neutral studio background.

The object is a ceramic vessel photographed front-on. It has a bulbous, rounded body that tapers slightly toward a narrow neck and a simple, short mouth rim. The exterior surface is predominantly reddish, consistent with red polished ware, though the finish appears worn or dulled in places with patches of discoloration and surface abrasions. No decoration, painted motifs, or applied relief elements are clearly visible. The jar shows firing/age-related staining and wear; an overall matte-to-slightly burnished appearance is present rather than a pristine gloss. No hieroglyphic, Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text is visible on the vessel. No cartouches or royal inscriptions are present, and there are no identifiable deity iconographic elements.

daily life Predynastic Period (per catalogue; image itself does not provide enough for a tighter date) good
Materials pottery (ceramic vessel)

Connections

Found at Abadiya
Materials Pottery
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.