Elephantine Island, Aswan, Egypt

Turquoise Faience Pilgrim Flask from Elephantine Island, Aswan

2088

New Kingdom to Late Period, c. 1550–332 BCE

A turquoise faience pilgrim flask from Elephantine Island, Aswan, Egypt, dating to the New Kingdom or Late Period (c. 1550–332 BCE), now in the Aswan Museum. The vessel is lentoid in form — a flattened lens-shaped body with a narrow vertical neck and a flaring lotus-style rim — with small loop suspension handles at the shoulder. The body is entirely surfaced in brilliant copper-rich turquoise glaze fired over a sintered quartz core. The upper shoulder area just below the neck bears a painted wesekh collar of concentric semicircular bands filled with alternating lines, dots, and a radiant fringe of teardrop-shaped lotus petals pointing downward, applied in dark manganese paint over the turquoise ground. The glassy, micro-porous texture of the faience glaze pools slightly in the recessed painted lines, giving the collar elements a subtle physical depth. Under directional light, the luminous curvature of the turquoise body contrasts with the linear darkness of the painted collar pattern, producing a gentle chiaroscuro that animates the rounded surface.