Vase

The oldest inhabitants of the true Nile Valley were the farmers of the Naqada culture, named after a small village in Upper Egypt. During the first phase of this prehistoric culture, production focused on high, slender vases with fairly straight sides. The walls are strikingly thin and polished to a shine. The raw material was dark grey river clay that changed colour, to brown or red, when fired. The vase displayed here, with its rounded shape, narrowing to the bottom, is characteristic of the second phase of this culture, known as Nagada II. The vase has a characteristic black neck, a result achieved by placing it upside-down in the hot ashes in the final stage of the firing process.