Water Bottle from Tutankhamun's Embalming Cache

Water Bottle from Tutankhamun's Embalming Cache

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This slender, elegant bottle, with its flaring rim in the form of an open papyrus umbel, was among the cache of objects discovered in a pit (KV 54) in the Valley of the Kings in 1907. The objects are associated with the funeral of Tutankhamun, whose tomb was discovered some fifteen years later about 200 feet away. The decoration around the neck imitates floral collars made of leaves, petals, flower buds, and berries that were worn by banquet guests and draped around vessels used at banquets. Several such collars (see 09.184.214) were also found in the cache. This bottle may have been used in the purification ritual at Tutankhamun's burial or to serve a spiced beverage at his funeral banquet. Other objects from Tutankhamun's funeral cache are displayed in gallery 122.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Water Bottle from Tutankhamun's Embalming CacheWater Bottle from Tutankhamun's Embalming CacheWater Bottle from Tutankhamun's Embalming CacheWater Bottle from Tutankhamun's Embalming CacheWater Bottle from Tutankhamun's Embalming Cache

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.