AN EGYPTIAN ALABASTER JAR OLD KINGDOM, 5TH DYNASTY, REIGN OF DJEDKARA, 2414-2375 B.C.

拍品描述

AN EGYPTIAN ALABASTER JAR, OLD KINGDOM, 5TH DYNASTY, REIGN OF DJEDKARA, 2414-2375 B.C. Of elongated cylindrical form, the body rising from a softly rounded base through gently tapered sides to a pair of small opposed lug handles set at the shoulder, the neck above plain and short, terminating in a wide everted disc rim with a narrow circular mouth. The stone is worked from a banded calcite, the natural striations running diagonally across the body in warm honey, cream and pale amber tones, the surface smoothed and lightly polished to bring out the translucency of the material. Minor encrustation remains within the mouth and around the lugs, and the rim retains a deeper ochre patina from long burial. The form belongs to the class of small stone unguent and oil jars produced in considerable numbers during the Old Kingdom for both funerary and household use. The pierced lugs at the shoulder permitted the vessel to be suspended or sealed with a cord-bound stopper, securing the precious contents of scented oils, fats or resins against evaporation and contamination. The wide disc rim is characteristic of 5th Dynasty production and provided a flat sealing surface for a linen or clay cover. Egyptian alabaster, more correctly travertine or calcite, was quarried principally at Hatnub in Middle Egypt, a site under direct royal control from the Early Dynastic period onward. The stone was prized for its translucency, its capacity to take a high polish, and its association with purity and ritual cleanliness. Vessels of this material were considered appropriate for the storage of the seven sacred oils used in temple ritual and in the opening of the mouth ceremony, and they appear consistently in royal and elite burial assemblages of the 5th and 6th Dynasties. The reign of Djedkara Isesi, the penultimate ruler of the 5th Dynasty, saw a continuation of the refined stoneworking traditions established under his predecessors, with calcite vessels of this simple lugged form recovered in quantity from the mortuary complexes at Saqqara and Abusir. This jar exemplifies the restrained vocabulary of Old Kingdom stone vessel production, where the meaning of the object lies in the quality of the material and the precision of the turning rather than in applied decoration. The choice of banded calcite, with its natural figure exposed across the surface, is itself the ornament, and the form survives as a characteristic product of the 5th Dynasty workshops that supplied the funerary economy of the Memphite necropolis. Height: 13cm

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