Cleveland Museum of Art

Black-Topped Beaker

Date

4500–3000 BCE

Medium

Nile silt pottery

Culture

Egypt, Predynastic (5000–2950 BCE), Naqada I–IIb (3900–3300 BCE)

Department

Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Red polished vessels with black rims (known as black-topped red ware or B-ware) were the most common funerary pottery during the early Predynastic Period. The characteristic blackening of the rim was probably achieved by burying the mouth of the pot in the ashes of the kiln. The iron in the exposed part would then fire red while the covered area turned black.

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