Situla

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Situlae are vessels for libations.The type to which this one belongs is encircled with a particular arrangement of gods and scenes, and is frequently found, often with its loop handle still affixed. Examples are mostly rather small. Some examples with provenance (see 1976.63.3) seem to have been temple dedications. Unless there is excavation information, the objects cannot be closely dated but seem to relate to iconography popular from the Saite into early Roman periods. The scenes seen at the rim and in the central field on this object recur with minor variations on almost all situlae of this type. In the top register the sun-god in his day-bark is adored by baboons, while his night-bark is drawn by jackals. In the wider middle field the deceased is seen behind an offering table with a large lotus worshiping a number of deities led by the ithyphallic Amen-Re, who is followed by here by Horus, Isis and Nephthys, Ptah, Sakhmet and the Nefertum fetish. Raised tabs have hieroglyphs - scarcely readable here - identifying the gods. A band below this scene is inscribed with an offering formula and a dedicator's name Khonsu-m-?.A lotus calyx enfolds the bottom of the vessel.

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