C-Ware – bottle with short narrow neck C-0014
By Droux, Xavier
, Tomb C2.
1908 : Egypt Exploration Fund excavation.Chicago, Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures Museum (ISAC), OIM E 8923.
Date : Naqada IA–IIB
General range of C-ware production
Material : Nile silt (Painted, incised)
Preservation : Fragmentary
Decoration preservation : Mostly faded
Preservation information :
Some sherds missing near the bottom, on the neck, and at the rim, so that the decoration is not fully preserved. The surface is heavily eroded in parts.
Decoration
The decoration was designed to be seen with the bottle held sideways instead of upright, which is a most uncommon occurrence among C-ware vessels.
Eleven animals are depicted in three vertical series that occupy the full height of the bottle. They all face upward (i.e., toward the right when seen horizontally) and have highly stylised silhouettes, which were incised into the surface before the paint was applied – another peculiar aspect of this vessel. One row consists of two ibexes represented with characteristically long, backward curving horns; they are chased by two dogs. The row below shows a single ibex, followed by two other hunting dogs. The four animals represented in the last series are more difficult to identify. The last three are most likely hippopotamuses, recognisable at their large and square muzzle. The first animal may also be a hippopotamus, but this is less likely: it seems to have a long tail and a narrower head; it is generally more similar to the dogs.
All the animals seem to have their bodies filled with oblique parallel lines except one of the ibexes, which is decorated with chevrons.
Dimensions (cm)
32.6
8.2
8.2
Additional information
Closed
Vi 25
Oi 100
flat base
Outside
Comments
The drawing published by Ayrton and Loat (1911) is lacking in detail, such as the short tails of the ibexes or the ears of the dogs. The drawing in Petrie (1921) is even more schematic.
References
1911
Pre-dynastic cemetery at El Mahasna. Egypt Exploration Fund 31. London
, 34–5, pl. XXVII, 12.1921
Corpus of prehistoric pottery and palettes. British School of Archaeology in Egypt & Egyptian Research Account 32, 23rd year, 1917. London
, pl. LXI, 96R.2009
Les peintures sur vases de Nagada I–Nagada II: nouvelle approche sémiologique de l'iconographie prédynastique. Egyptian Prehistory Monographs 6. Leuven
, cat. 159.2011
Before the pyramids: the origins of Egyptian civilization. Oriental Institute Museum Publications 33. Chicago
, 153-4, cat. 1.2012
Visual representation and state development in Egypt. Archéo-Nil 22
, 25–32, fig. 4b.2015
Riverine and desert animals in predynastic Upper Egypt: material culture and faunal remains. Dphil thesis, University of Oxford. Oxford
, cat. 1.62.2018
Hunting for power: an exceptional white cross-lined jar in the National Museum of Denmark. Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo 74
, 95.2020
Hippopotamus hunting in Predynastic Egypt: reassessing archaeozoological evidence. Achaeofauna 29
, 139, fig. 1.2021
Found in a cellar, but from Naqada? A new predynastic hunting scene on a C-ware fragment from the Garstang Museum of Archaeology, Liverpool, in: Claes, Wouter; De Meyer, Marleen; Eyckerman, Merel; Huyge, Derek † (eds), Remove the pyramid! Studies on the archaeology and history of predynastic and pharaonic Egypt in honour of Stan Hendrickx. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 305. Leuven
, 394, table 1.
