Cleveland Museum of Art

White Cross-Lined Bowl with Turtle and Sun

Date

c. 4000–3400 BCE

Medium

Nile silt pottery

Culture

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

Department

Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Red polished vessels with white painted decoration (known as white cross-lined ware or C-ware) represent Egypt’s oldest known tradition in painted pottery. The decoration on this bowl, painted after firing, features the sun on the side and a turtle on the bottom of the vessel. The turtle was considered the enemy of the Egyptian sun god Ra because it preferred the murky river bottom to the sunlight. This bowl was built by hand from coils, then smoothed and burnished.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.