Egyptian Banded Calcite Ovoid Jar, Disc Rim

Egypt, Late Dynastic to Ptolemaic Period. Egypt, Late Dynastic to Ptolemaic Period, ca. 664–30 BCE. Ovoid jar rising from a narrow, flat base to a full shoulder, drawing in to a short neck and heavy disc rim. The calcite is banded in green-white and cream, translucent where the wall thins at the shoulder. The rim is finished as a broad, flat collar, suited to receiving a linen or plaster seal, as such unguent jars typically were. Parallel abrasion marks remain visible from the final polishing strokes, and the interior retains the characteristic drilled hollow with irregular wall thickness. The stone commonly called "Egyptian alabaster" is in fact a banded calcite (travertine), quarried since the Old Kingdom from sites such as Hatnub in Middle Egypt. Its natural translucency and marbled banding made it the material of choice for containers meant to hold fragrant oils, whose costliness demanded a vessel of equal prestige. Unguent jars accompanied the living to the toilette table and the dead to the tomb, where sealed reserves of perfumed fat and oil were thought to sustain the body and please the senses of the deceased across eternity. Item # 204243

Estimate:£358.8

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