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Bowl with Alternate Impressed and Red-polished Panels

Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

On View: Egyptian Orientation Gallery, 3rd Floor

Egyptologists are not certain whether this bowl from an Upper Egyptian grave was made by a Nubian or an Egyptian. The zigzag patterns created by the use of rocker stamps and the alternation of polished and impressed panels reflect Nubian traditions of pottery decoration. Perhaps it was an Egyptian reproduction of the Nubian style.

CULTURE Nubian
MEDIUM Clay
  • Place Excavated: El Ma'mariya, Egypt
  • DATES ca. 3500-3300 B.C.E.
    PERIOD Predynastic Period, Naqada II Period
    DIMENSIONS 3 1/2 x 7 9/16 in. (8.9 x 19.2 cm) mount (m2 - overall): 3 3/4 × 7 1/2 × 7 1/2 in. (9.5 × 19.1 × 19.1 cm)  (show scale)
    ACCESSION NUMBER 07.447.404
    CREDIT LINE Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
    CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Deep conical bowl of red-polished brown clay. Small, flattened base with rounded edge. Sides very gently curving, almost straight. Plain rim. Bottom inside marked around central low hump. Decorated inside and outside with panels apparently produced by scraping the surface with a comb. Inside, six such panels, in the shape of wind-mill wings, radiate regularly from base to rim. Outside, they are irregularly dispersed in irregular shapes (pattern possibly derived from basketry or leather-vessel), with a border-band along rim and a broad band around base. Rocker-stamped. Condition: Broken into four parts and mended, with a triangular segment near base missing, and the joints chipped and gaping. Polish inside rubbed.
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in Egyptian Orientation Gallery, 3rd Floor
    CAPTION Nubian. Bowl with Alternate Impressed and Red-polished Panels, ca. 3500-3300 B.C.E. Clay, 3 1/2 x 7 9/16 in. (8.9 x 19.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 07.447.404. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 07.447.404_PS11.jpg)
    IMAGE overall, 07.447.404_PS11.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2022
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