An Egyptian Alabaster Model Libation (nemset) Jar, Old Kingdom, ca. 2775 – 2650 BCE Coins and gold spacer beads

and gold spacer beads

beaked nose

Sydney NSW

Restrung and presented on custom mount constructed to museum standards

standing on three tapered legs

An Egyptian Alabaster Model Libation (nemset) Jar, Old Kingdom, ca. 2775 – 2650 BCE Coins and gold spacer beadsSmall model vessels, solid or with only token cavities, first appear in tombs during the early Old Kingdom. They were placed in the subterranean burial apartments to provide symbolic sustenance for the afterlife. Carved from a single piece of banded alabaster, this small model container is of a type known as a nemset jar, well attested as a libation vessel used in funerary and temple rituals for nearly three thousand years. The cylindrical form, with