MARSHA HILL: My name is Marsha Hill. I'm a curator in the Egyptian art department. The decorated relief chalices that you see here on the table in front of you, the very bright blue one and the faded one next to it, are what we call faience relief chalices and are characteristic of the Third Intermediate Period, which is 1070-664 B.C. They show a wide variety of relief scenes that are all, in one way or the other, part of a cycle of myths, legends, and stories connected with a birth of a god in the marshes. And that god is identified with the king.

In fact, a little broken plaque at the bottom of the table, in front of the chalices, shows you the central scene in this whole cycle. You see a goddess nursing an infant against a background of papyrus. The Egyptians associated all of these beautiful little faience objects with the Egyptian midsummer New Years, which was just before the waters of the inundation receded. And the new growth could begin and new birth.

MIKE NORRIS: To hear more about the imagery on these chalices, press play.