Tomb TT 1, Deir el-Medina, Western Thebes, Egypt

Miniature Painted Jar with Floral Collar from the Tomb of Sennedjem at Deir el-Medina

2086

New Kingdom, Ramesside Period, 19th–20th Dynasty, c. 1295–1070 BCE

A miniature painted terracotta jar from the tomb of Sennedjem (TT 1) at Deir el-Medina, Western Thebes, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, produced during the Ramesside Period (c. 1295–1070 BCE). The vessel is a miniature replica of a large two-handled storage jar, with a globular body, a tall neck, and two small shoulder handles. The neck bears alternating horizontal stripes of black, red, and blue-green. The shoulder is dominated by a grand wesekh-style floral collar — a semicircular, multi-tiered arrangement of concentric arcs filled with rhythmic petal strokes in alternating red, white, blue, and green — centered on a pendant upright lotus blossom. The polychrome painting on a white slip ground is executed with the fine-brush precision characteristic of Deir el-Medina craftsmen, whose professional skill was applied to their own funerary objects with the same care given to royal commissions.