Vase in the form of a bird

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The body of this pottery vase of Nile clay is in the form of a bird. The bird’s head and the tail have been broken off and it stands on four small feet. The body of the vessel is covered all over with a red coating and decorated with notches on the rim and wide bands of white paint which stretch horizontally across the widest part of the vessel. The birdlike aspect of the pot is further emphasized by two birds molded in clay and applied on each side of the neck . Vases in the shape of animals were popular in Egypt at all periods beginning in the Predynastic, both in pottery and stone. Forms that appear whimsical to us had a deeper symbolic meaning for the ancient Egyptians. Similar bird vases were found in the First Intermediate Period tombs at Beni Hasan.

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