AN EGYPTIAN POTTERY JAR PREDYNASTIC PERIOD, NAQADA II, CIRCA 3400-3300 B.C.

拍品描述

AN EGYPTIAN POTTERY JAR, PREDYNASTIC PERIOD, NAQADA II, CIRCA 3400-3300 B.C. Of squat globular form, the rounded body rising to a short neck and flat, outward-projecting rim, flanked at the shoulder by small pierced lug handles of tubular form. The buff-coloured surface retains substantial traces of red-painted decoration, the design now fragmentary but legible in passages along the body, where rows of spiral motifs and what appear to be schematic figural or vegetal elements are visible. Old breaks have been re-joined, and the surface bears extensive calcareous and earthen deposits consistent with long burial. The painted decoration belongs to the repertoire of Naqada II "Decorated Ware" (the D-ware of Petrie's classification), in which red ochre designs are applied to a pale marl ground. The surviving motifs (the spirals, the repeated curvilinear strokes arranged in horizontal registers) belong to the visual vocabulary of this class, which encompasses spirals, boats with cabins and standards, flamingos, ibexes, hills, and stylised human figures, generally read as referring to riverine processions and the funerary landscape of the Nile valley. The pierced lugs at the shoulder are characteristic of the type and would have permitted the vessel to be suspended by cord. The medium itself carries significance. D-ware was produced from marl clay sourced from the desert wadis rather than from Nile alluvium, fired to a pale buff and painted before firing with iron-rich pigment that turned a deep purplish-red in the kiln. This was not a domestic fabric. Decorated Ware vessels are found almost exclusively in funerary contexts, deposited as grave goods in the cemeteries of Upper Egypt at sites including Naqada, Abadiya, Hu, and Abydos. Their distribution defines one of the most important horizons of late prehistoric Egyptian material culture, the moment at which the artistic and ritual vocabulary that would underpin the early dynastic state was being assembled. This jar exemplifies the Naqada II Decorated Ware tradition in its modest scale and intact form, preserving the suspension lugs and a legible passage of the painted programme. As a class, these vessels mark one of the earliest sustained painted-ceramic traditions in the Nile valley and stand at the threshold of pharaonic visual culture. Width: 16cm Height: 10.5cm

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