Predynastic Bowl with Painted Animals

Culture: Egyptian

Period: Naqada I periode, 3900-3500 B.C.

Material: Terracotta

Dimensions: 11.6 cm high; 21.6 cm in diameter

Price: Sold

Ref: 1472

Provenance: German collection 1980s. Thence with Roswitha Eberwein in Göttingen, Germany and in the Galerie Günter Puhze in Freiburg, Germany. Published in a calendar by Galerie Puhze. Last in the French collection J. C. Timmermans, acquired from the gallery Harmakhis prior to 2000. With a handwritten confirmation of the provenance.

Condition: Some areas with encrustation, but the bowl is intact.

Description: Hand formed, large Egyptian bowl of reddish Nile clay with a flattened base and red-brown painting. The wall is semi-circular, the rim slightly turned inwards. Below the rim a finely encircling groove. On each side of the corpus five painted, stylized animals to the right. The animals are depicted in geometric form. The legs stand at a right angle from the body, the neck is stretched out diagonally to the top right, and the head again at a right angle. Above and between the animal groups wavy bands, which stand for the fertile Nile water.