AN EGYPTIAN PREDYNASTIC BLACK-TOP JAR

Predynastic Period, Naqada I-II, circa 4000-3200 B.C. A beautifully formed pottery jar from the pre-dynastic period of Egyptian history. This vessel is smooth to the touch, with a dark red burnished finish and black burnish which continues over the rim and just inside. This decorative vessel has a bulbous shaped body which elegantly expands towards the rim and tapers toward a narrower, flat base. This is a characteristic example of functional tableware. Its bulbous symmetrical body and slightly thickened, tool-marked rim combined with squat proportions make it easy to fit in two hands. These forms of vessels are commonly referred to as ‘black topped vessels’, or B-ware, as determined by famous British Egyptian Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie. “Black-topped” vessels derived from the early Naqada I (ca 4000 B.C.), a culture which inhabited ancient Egypt during its predynastic period before the time of iconic Pharaohs as we know them. The Naqada were first described by famed archaeologist William Flinders Petrie; however, relatively little is known about them except that they were situated in the site of El-Amra in central Egypt, west of the Nile River. These vessels were formed using Nile silts, deriving from the deposits of the Nile Valley, rich in silica and iron, which when fired created a wonderful reddish or brown colour in an oxidising atmosphere. The exterior was painted with a thin red coloured iron-oxide liquid that was either polished or burnished with a smooth object such as a stone or wooden implement. This as done following the pottery being dried but after it was fired which created this beautiful rich red burnished smooth exterior. Dorothea Arnold - Janine Bourriau (eds.), An Introduction to Ancient Egyptian Pottery (Mainz am Rhein, Philipp von Zabern, 1993), p. 33-36; Janine D. Bourriau - Paul Nicholson - Pamela J. Rose, “Pottery” in Paul T. Nicholson - Ian Shaw (eds.), Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2000), p. 121-147, for the black-topped red ware esp. 125, 128; Stan Hendrickx - Renée Friedman - Fabienne Loyens, “Experimental archaeology concerning black-topped pottery from ancient Egypt and the Sudan”, Cahiers de la Céramique Égyptienne, 6 (Le Caire, 2000), p. 171-187; K. Sowada, "Late Predynastic Egyptian Black-topped Ware. A study in Ceramic Specialisation and Chronology", in C.C. Sorrel - A.J. Ruys (eds.), Proceedings of the International Ceramic Conference: AUSTCERAM 94, 25-27 July 1994, Sydney, Australia (Sydney, Australasian Ceramic Society, 1994), p. 34-39; K. Sowada, "Black-topped Ware in Archaic Contexts", in C. Eyre (ed.), Seventh International Congress of Egyptologists, Cambridge 3-9 September 1995, Additional Abstracts (Cambridge, 1995), p. 19.Size: L:58mm / W:142mm ; 170gProvenance: From the collection of a London gentleman; formerly acquired in early 2000s; previously in 1970s UK collection.