The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of January 25, 2021

Squat Jar with Lug Handles

2950-2573 BC

Egypt, Early Dynastic Period, Dynasties 1-3

Pegmatitic hornblende diorite

Diameter: 21.1 cm (8 5/16 in.); Diameter of mouth: 8.3 cm (3 1/4 in.); Overall: 13 cm (5 1/8 in.); Diameter of mouth without rim: 8.3 cm (3 1/4 in.)

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust 1914.648

Location

107 Egyptian

Description

A single tomb might contain hundreds of stone vessels replicating the shapes of pottery vessels used in everyday life. The most popular material for stone vessels was white or banded travertine (Egyptian alabaster), found close to the Nile, but prospectors and quarrymen often traveled far in search of the desired materials. The hard stone hornblende diorite, notable for its mottled texture, was quarried in the desert along the route to the Red Sea.

Provenance
Purchased in Egypt by Lucy Olcott Perkins through Henry W. Kent
Citations
Berman, Lawrence M., and Kenneth J. Bohač. Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999 Reproduced: p. 83, color p. 43; Mentioned: p. 83
Exhibition history

CMA 1916, no. 55, p. 210, pl. 339; CMA 1991

Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991).

Source URL: https://cmaweb23-bbn-2.clevelandart.org/art/1914.648