Fragmentary Lotiform Chalice

This chalice, reconstructed from three fragments, takes the form of the blue lotus, which opens its petals to the sun each morning and thus became a symbol of creation and rebirth. A number of such chalices are known from the Third Intermediate Period; they are typically decorated in relief with scenes evoking the birth of the king as a child of the sun god (see 26.7.971 for a complete example).

Here, the rim is decorated with a distinctive block border above an incised hieroglyphic inscription. A fragment of this chalice in the Myers Museum (Eton 1608-2010) preserves the first half of the cartouche of a king who could be either Smendes (Dynasty 21) or Sheshonq I (Dynasty 22), while MMA 30.8.154 preserves part of a formulaic text.

As reconstructed, the primary band of decoration, executed in raised relief, depicts a series of figures of the child god Horus (of which only the drawn-up knees of one figure are preserved) seated on a Nymphaea caerulea lotus (blue water lily) blossom. Each figure would have been flanked by pairs of winged cobras wearing red or white crowns and wound around papyrus stalks(?). In the background, ducks tend to their nests, balanced atop papyrus umbels in a marshy landscape. A band of zigzags representing water separates the main scene from the lotus, palmette, and papyrus umbel ornament that would have adorned the bowl, stem, and base.

Based on its similarity in decoration and quality to The Met’s fragments, Geoffrey Tait (1963) suggested that a fragment in the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology(UC14557), found at Lahun, belongs to this vessel; the Petrie Museum in turn associates this fragment with several others (UC14558–60, 16080, 16082).