Pottery vase with crinkled rim

Egyptian, about 1850-1800 BC
From Lahun, Egypt

An Egyptian copy of Minoan Kamares ware

When Flinders Petrie excavated the large Middle Kingdom (about 2040-1750 BC) town site of Lahun, at the entrance to the Fayum in Egypt, he discovered fragments of imported Minoan pottery. He also discovered vases, made in Egypt, that imitated these imports. This example, with its crinkled rim and impressed decoration, resembles Minoan Kamares pottery. The stamped patterns are also painted in a way that appear to evoke Minoan originals.

These copies suggest that a significant quantity of Kamares ware was imported, and perhaps over some time. There is evidence of contact between Crete and Egypt from around the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age (about 2000 BC), and it may therefore have been relatively substantial in the nineteenth century BC.

J.L. Fitton, M. Hughes and S. Quirke, 'Northerners at Lahun: neutron activation analysis of Minoan and related pottery in the British Museum' in Lahun studies (London, 1999), pp. 112-40