Hes Vase from the Burial of Amenemhat

Hes Vase from the Burial of Amenemhat

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The burial of a scribe named Amenemhat was found in the family tomb of established by his father, Neferkhawet. Inside Amenemhat's coffin were two ceremonial hes-vases, one on either side of the mummy's legs near the knees. The mouth of each vase had been closed with a wad of fine linen cloth. The jars appear to have held a dark liquid that had stained the inside and permeated the cloth stoppers which were blackened and disintegrating. Neferkhawet's tomb was excavated by the Museum's Egyptian Expedition in 1935 and in the division of finds at the end of the excavation season, one of the hes-vases went to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and this one came to New York.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Hes Vase from the Burial of AmenemhatHes Vase from the Burial of AmenemhatHes Vase from the Burial of AmenemhatHes Vase from the Burial of AmenemhatHes Vase from the Burial of Amenemhat

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.