Ointment Jar

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A number of foundation deposit of the Deir el-Bahri temple contained a number of ointment jars most with remains of the original content (plant or animal fat and fragrances). The presence of such items made sure that the sacred images of the temple could be eternally anointed as prescribed in the daily temple ritual. The text on this jar reads: "Daughter of Re, Hatshepsut, she has made it as an offering for her father Amun at the time of the stretching of the cord over Djeser-djeseru-Amun, that she may be made to live." Djeser-djeseru-Amun was the name of her temple at Deir el-Bahri.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art