Feeding Cup

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This little cup of faience was not found in a tomb, but was nestled together with the figure of a crocodile (07.227.19) in a small basket deposited by itself in the ground among the tombs to the west of the pyramid of Amenemhat I at Lisht North. The person who made this deposit could have lived in one of the houses that had been built over the tombs in the cemetery on the south and west of the pyramid. The shape of the cup permits milk to be fed to a baby. The cup is appropriately decorated with the beneficial deities and demons otherwise found on so-called "magic wands," thought to have served for the magical protection of infants (see 86.1.91). On this cup appear a walking lion, an upright standing lion, a long-necked mythical animal, a snake, and a turtle.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art