Bucranium

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

When archaeologists first uncovered a group of shallow, circular graves at the site of Abydos in Upper Egypt, they designated the owners as the "pan-grave" people. The burials were accompanied by pottery of Nubian type and weapons of Egyptian manufacture. It is now generally accepted that these graves, found throughout Upper Egypt and Lower Nubia, are evidence of the nomadic Medjayu people, documented in Egyptian texts as fierce warriors who served in the Egyptian army and desert police force from the late Old Kingdom. One of the most distinctive aspects of pan-grave burials are the painted skulls of various horned animals that are found above the graves or in nearby pits. The horns and skull of this example have been decorated with large blocks and bands of red and black, and white dots have been applied to the red areas. For photographs of other examples, see 16.2.33, 16.2.35

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