Created during the time of the Hebrew patriarchs, just prior to Moses, this elegant two-handled vessel might have held a drink offering, or perhaps served as a pouring vessel, or decanter for water or wine. Its pedestal base gives way to a generously bulging ridged equator. The lip of the vessel casts a fairly broad shadow over the wide neck, below which are perched two handles that sprout from the sides of a fairly wide neck. Its sides are adorned with a geometric pattern of stacked and inverted triangular shapes, faintly visible. As we hold it in our hands today, admiring its simple beauty, we are aware of the touch of other hands long ago. Who might have held it when it was new? Were the dreams and emotions that guided their lives so very different from our own? The vessel's graceful unadorned shape appeals as much to the contemporary eye as it did to the culture that created it. Such artifacts, ordinary enough in their own age, connect us in an intimate way with the world of the past. In its presence, we cross the bridge of time and set the imagination on a journey of discovery. - (SP.269)

Antiquities
Ancient Near East