Advanced Search 
Necked jar with painted crosses and remains of contents
Coptic
Byzantine (Coptic)
about 4th–6th century A.D.
Findspot: Nubia, Egypt, Allaqi, Cemetery 112, Grave 16
Medium/Technique
Pottery
Dimensions
Overall: 31.5 x 4.5 cm (12 3/8 x 1 3/4 in.)
Credit Line
Archaeological Survey of Nubia
Accession Number19.3593
ClassificationsVessels
DescriptionThis jar was discovered in a grave, along with five other pieces of pottery in a cemetery that is thought to date to the 4th-6th century. Its cross decorations suggest a Christian burial, however, perhaps for an early convert to the faith in Nubia. The jar was found in an area where there may have existed a monastic hermitage. Abandoning society and becoming a hermit monk in the Egyptian desert was a way for a Christian to demonstrate his unstinting faith. Jars such as this one may have held wine, grain, or some other organic matter.
This jar is fashioned of an orangish clay fabric and treated with a white slip. The body is globular with slighty shoulders and a pronounced curve in the lower body into a subtlely rounded base. The neck is highly constricted. The rim is broken off and missing. The upper body is decorated with a band of brown-black painted line design just below the neck (two lines with a zigzag line between) below which are crossed lines with perpendicular lines at their ends. Contents found in the jar consist of a loosely consolidated lumps of black, earthy, organic matrix, possibly with some botanical matter.
Necked jar with painted crosses
Cemetery 112, Grave 16, el-Allaqi, X-Group, 4th-6th century
This jar is fashioned of an orangish clay fabric and treated with a white slip. The body is globular with slighty shoulders and a pronounced curve in the lower body into a subtlely rounded base. The neck is highly constricted. The rim is broken off and missing. The upper body is decorated with a band of brown-black painted line design just below the neck (two lines with a zigzag line between) below which are crossed lines with perpendicular lines at their ends. Contents found in the jar consist of a loosely consolidated lumps of black, earthy, organic matrix, possibly with some botanical matter.
Necked jar with painted crosses
Cemetery 112, Grave 16, el-Allaqi, X-Group, 4th-6th century
ProvenanceFrom Wadi Alaqi (ASN112/16). 1911. Excavated by Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition for the Archaeological Survey of Nubia; assigned to the MFA in the division of finds by the Egyptian government.
(Accession Date: August 4, 2006)
(Accession Date: August 4, 2006)