Faience bowl with pool and lotus
motifs
From Egypt
Early 18th
Dynasty, around 1450 BC
A symbol of hope for a new
life
Fragments of bowls such as this have been found
in temples and, less frequently, in tombs. In a tomb context, most
have been found in non-royal and female tombs. To the ancient
Egyptians, the image of a pool with lotus flowers was symbolic of
rebirth and new life; when placed in tombs, the bowls can be
interpreted as expressing a wish for their owners to be regenerated
in the Afterlife.
Other
examples of similar bowls display motifs relating to the goddess
Hathor,
and it is thought that these bowls would have been
votive
offerings to
her.
It is unclear whether
these bowls originally contained anything, although one example has
been identified as possibly containing a milky substance. Very
probably they served a variety of functions, ranging from symbolic
to the actual presentation of food and drink.
F.D. Friedman (ed.), Gifts of the Nile: ancient Egy (London, Thames and Hudson, 1998)
G. Pinch, Votive Offerings to Hathor (Oxford, Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, 1993)