Fragment of a quiver (?)

Period:: Middle Kingdom

Dynasty:: Dynasty 11

Date:: ca. 2124–1981 B.C.

Geography:: From Egypt, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Khokha, Tomb MMA 830, MMA excavations, 1911–12

Medium:: Leather (cattle hide), dye (red madder)

Dimensions:: H. 11 cm (4 5/16 in); W. 13 cm (5 1/8 in.)

Credit Line:: Rogers Fund, 1928

Accession Number:: 28.3.5

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 109

This fragment was probably part of a decorative border that was attached around the top of a quiver or spear case. The craftsman who made it sewed together wide strips of red and green dyed leather, then wove narrow strips of red, green, yellow, and black through slits in the surface to form the decorative pattern.

Museum excavations, 1911-1912. Acquired by the Museum in the division of finds, 1912. Brought to New York and accessioned, 1928.

Hayes, William C. 1953. Scepter of Egypt I: A Background for the Study of the Egyptian Antiquities in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Part I: From the Earliest Times to the End of the Middle Kingdom. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Timelines
Egypt, 8000–2000 B.C.

Cochineal Red: The Art History of a Color
[adapted from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 67, no. 3 (Winter, 2010)]
"Life Along the Nile: Three Egyptians of Ancient Thebes": The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 60, no. 1 (Summer, 2002)

Department

Egyptian Art (27,372)

Object Type / Material

Geographic Location