Fragement from a jar with a label identifying contents as honey

Fragement from a jar with a label identifying contents as honey

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

These pottery fragments are from the shoulder of a large storage jar. The two well preserved lines of text are in hieratic script, the cursive form of ancient Egyptian writing which was always written from right to left. At the beginning of the second line is a sign representing a bee. This sign was used to write the word "honey" and identifies the contents of the jar. Besides its use as a sweetener, honey was valued for its therapeutic effect when applied to wounds. Prescriptions for the use of honey are found in ancient medical texts written on papyrus.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Fragement from a jar with a label identifying contents as honeyFragement from a jar with a label identifying contents as honeyFragement from a jar with a label identifying contents as honeyFragement from a jar with a label identifying contents as honeyFragement from a jar with a label identifying contents as honey

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.