Predynastic

MacGregor Man Statuette

MacGregor Man Statuette

This polished black basalt figure of a man wearing a hood and penis sheath was once in the collection of the Rev William MacGregor, and is said to have been found in the region of Naqada. Standing man, arms by sides with hands open, palms in, legs together.  Details of eyes, eyebrows, and mouth clearly...

Double Jar in the shape of human breasts

Jar in the shape of human breasts

Polished red ware double pottery jar in the shape of human breasts: handmade, with a turned rim. There is a dark red slip on the exterior and inside the rim, and it is burnished vertically. The jar is of an unusual shape with two lobes dependent on a single neck. Death was believed to be...

The Battlefield Palette

The Battlefield Palette

The Battlefield Palette is decorated on both faces with scenes in low relief. On one face, two long-necked gazelles (gerenuk) are browsing on a central date-palm. Behind the head of one animal (on the Oxford fragment) is a bird with a hooked beak, possibly a form of guinea-fowl. The lower half of a palette of...

Naqada Jar with Painted Decoration

Naqada Jar with Painted Decoration

This Naqada jar is an artifact from Predynastic Period, the earliest period in Egyptian history. The pot was created during what is known as the Naqada II period (3500-3200 BC), long before the pyramids were built. This pot was probably made without use of a pottery wheel. The potter most likely pressed the damp clay...

Model Ship with Figurine in a Fetal Position

Model Ship with Figurine in a Fetal Position

Belief in a physical afterlife endured for thousands of years. An early example from prehistoric Egypt, is a ceramic model of a boat with a man in a fetal position, sailing to the afterlife where he will be reborn. Predynastic Period, Naqada III, ca. 3500-3100 BC. Pottery, from Asyut. Now in the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden,...

Two Dog Palette

Two Dog Palette

The both sides of the two dog palette are carved in low relief with scenes depicting the frenzy o an animal hunt. The imagery includes real animals, such as the pair of Cape hunting dogs that frame the top (from which the palette takes its name). They are shown alongside mythical creatures, including felines with...

Bowl with crocodiles

This flared bowl with crocodiles and a flattened rim is typical of the pottery production of the early Predynastic Period. Generally characterized by the red coloring of the surfaces, decoration consists of geometric motifs or stylized plants or animals rendered by means of rapid brushstrokes in white paint. On the outside of this particular vessel,...

Neolithic Clay Head

Merimde clay head

This clay head found in one of the most recent levels of the settlement at Merimde Beni Salama, a village in the Western Delta is enigmatic. This is one of the earliest known representations of a human head in Egypt. The perfectly oval face has features in the form of depressions of various shapes and...

The Gerzeh Palette. Egyptian Museum, Cairo. JE 43103

The Gerzeh Palette

A group of five stars depicted on the Gerzeh Palette or Hathor palette dating back to Naqada II Period. This unusual schist palette was part of a Predynastic funerary assemblage which also contained ordinary vessels. It has an oval shape that widens slightly towards the top and it is pierced so that it could be...