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Black-Topped Beaker
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Red polished vessels with black rims (known as black-topped red ware or B-ware) were the most common funerary pottery during the early Predynastic Period. The characteristic blackening of the rim was probably achieved by burying the mouth of the pot in the ashes of the kiln. The iron in the exposed part would then fire red while the covered area turned black.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineBlack-Topped Beaker, 4500–3000 BCE. Egypt, Predynastic (5000–2950 BCE), Naqada I–IIb (3900–3300 BCE). Nile silt pottery; diameter: 12 cm (4 3/4 in.); overall: 14 cm (5 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust, 1920.2005
