Jug Decorated with Dolphins and Birds

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

No exact parallel to this magnificent vessel has yet been found anywhere. The presence of dolphins and the freedom with which all the animals move around the vessel body have suggested influences from the Aegean to some scholars. The general shape and double handle, however, are Levantine, and a possible source location for the clay has been identified in southern Canaan, while the technique of decoration is similar to, but not the same as, the one used on the "Tell el-Jahudiyeh" pottery. Three dolphins move around the foot of the jug, with three large birds (possibly geese) above each of them; a smaller bird is tucked below the handle. Is this perhaps an image of the Levantine coast, with dolphins in the water and migratory geese coming to rest on the beach? A Dynasty 13 date is suggested by other objects found in the same tomb shaft.

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