id: 94084 accession number: 1914.639 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1914.639 updated: 2023-02-06 13:00:02.388000 Decorated Jar with Boat Scenes, c. 3300–3100 BC. Egypt, Middle Predynastic Period, Naqada IIc-d periods. Marl clay pottery; diameter: 28.2 cm (11 1/8 in.); diameter of mouth: 15.2 cm (6 in.); overall: 32 cm (12 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust 1914.639 title: Decorated Jar with Boat Scenes title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 3300–3100 BC creation date earliest: -3300 creation date latest: -3100 current location: 107 Egyptian creditline: Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust copyright: --- culture: Egypt, Middle Predynastic Period, Naqada IIc-d periods technique: marl clay pottery department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art collection: Egypt - Predynastic type: Vessels find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Diameter: 28.2 cm (11 1/8 in.); Diameter of mouth: 15.2 cm (6 in.); Overall: 32 cm (12 5/8 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Untitled Exhibition opening date: 1973-08-13T04:00:00 Untitled Exhibition. Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 13-November 9, 1973). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * CMA 1916, no. 97, p. 214, pl. 341; CMA 1982, no. 4 (entry by Arielle P. Kozloff) --- PROVENANCE Probably Upper Egypt. Purchased from Mohammed Mohasseb, Luxor, by Lucy Olcott Perkins through Henry W. Kent, 14 May 1913 date: footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: The decoration painted on this jar shows two multi-oared boats traveling through fertile riverbanks lined with trees and aloe bushes. Rows of triangles indicate the desert hills in the background. The Nile was Egypt’s primary means of transportation and communication, since river traffic was far more efficient than travel by land. The concept of boat travel permeated all aspects of Egyptian life and religion. The sun god Ra was believed to travel by boat across the heavens by day and through the underworld by night. Funerary texts describe the trip to the afterlife as a journey by boat, and scenes of boats figured prominently in tomb decoration. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Cleveland Museum of Art, and Martha L. Carter. Egyptian Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: The Museum, 1963. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 3 url: https://archive.org/details/EgyptianArt_80670/page/n5 Cleveland Museum of Art, and Jenifer Neils. The World of Ceramics: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Museum in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1982. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p 4, fig. 4 url: Finkenstaedt, Elizabeth. "Prehistoric Egyptian Pottery." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 3 (1988). page number: p. 88 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25160021 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. page number: Reproduced: p. 2 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1991/page/n18 Berman, Lawrence M., and Kenneth J. Bohač. Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999 page number: Reproduced: p. 109-110; Mentioned: p. 109-111 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1914.639/1914.639_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1914.639/1914.639_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1914.639/1914.639_full.tif