Wavy-Handled Jar

Place of OriginEgypt, excavated at Abydos (Umm el-Qa'ab)

DatePredynastic Period, Naqada IID, about 3300 BCE

Dimensions9 1/2 × 5 3/4 in. (24.1 × 14.6 cm)

Mediumearthenware

ClassificationCeramics

Credit LineGift of the Egypt Exploration Fund

Object number

1915.75

Not on View

DescriptionThis vessel is a wheel-finished tall ovoid jar with a flattened base and a rolled rim. The body is constructed from a dense, pale-buff marl clay. Two integral ledge handles with scalloped "wavy" profiles are applied to the shoulder of the vessel, approximately one-third of the way down the body.

Label TextBefore the pharaohs ruled a united Egypt, potters along the Nile created elegant, functional vessels like this one. Known as a "wavy-handled" jar, its shape mimics pottery imported from the Levant (modern Palestine/Israel), which contained valuable oils or wine. Egyptian artisans copied the form using local desert clay, transforming the functional handles into the decorative, scalloped ledges you see here. Over centuries of production, these handles would eventually shrink into mere painted wavy lines. This specific jar was discovered in a grave (no. 17) at the Cemetery U at Abydos, one of Egypt’s earliest sacred royal sites, likely holding provisions for the afterlife.Published ReferencesLuckner, Kurt T., "The Art of Egypt, Part 1," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, new series, vol. 14, no. 1, Spring 1971, p. 6, repr. fig. 5.

Comparative ReferencesSee also Raphael, Max, Prehistoric Pottery and Civilization in Egypt, New York, Pantheon Books, The Bollingen Series VIII, 1947, pl. XI, no. 11.

cf. Hayes, William C., The Scepter of Egypt, New York, Harper and Bros. with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1953, p. 22, fig. 13.