skip to content

Curious Objects : Predynastic Egyptian drinking vessels

Curious Objects

<p style='text-align: justify;'>These pots are the oldest objects in the Library. They were given by Flinders Petrie to Sir Herbert Thompson in 1895, who donated them with his collection of ostraca (fragments of pottery with writing on them). Petrie is credited with developing a chronology of Ancient Egypt using everyday objects, and his painstaking recording of pottery styles established a new methodology for determining the chronology of an archaeological site. These distinctive black-topped vessels are one of several types cited by him in his new standard of sequence dating. Petrie also had an interest in eugenics and sent skeletal remains back to London for biometrical research. A label inside the complete pot describes it as a product of a ‘new race’ of foreign invaders into Predynastic Egypt, a theory which he later revised.</p>


Want to know more?

Under the 'More' menu you can find , and information about sharing this image.

No Contents List Available
No Metadata Available

Share

If you want to share this page with others you can send them a link to this individual page:
Alternatively please share this page on social media

You can also embed the viewer into your own website or blog using the code below: