Magical Water Jar of Sithathoryunet with Lid

Magical Water Jar of Sithathoryunet with Lid

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This highly sculptural image of a vessel resembles the much smaller metal ewers with spouts that Egyptians used—together with matching basins—for washing their hands before meals and pouring libations for deities and the dead. The utilitarian form has been enlarged and transferred into stone in order to assure an eternal water supply for the dead princess. The incised text reads, in translation: "Princess Sithathoryunet, accept these your cool waters from the earth, which beget everything living and all things, for they are what this earth gives—(this earth) that begets everything living and from which everything comes. May you (Sithathoryunet) live through them and be restored through them. May you live and be restored through this air that is from it. It shall beget you and you shall emerge alive through everything you might desire. May they be to your good."

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Magical Water Jar of Sithathoryunet with LidMagical Water Jar of Sithathoryunet with LidMagical Water Jar of Sithathoryunet with LidMagical Water Jar of Sithathoryunet with LidMagical Water Jar of Sithathoryunet with Lid

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.