Egypt had, and still has, a harsh and unforgiving climate. The Nile Valley, an astonishingly thin strip of green, cuts through the otherwise endless desert, which stretches from the Red Sea on one side all the way across North Africa to the Atlantic Ocean on the other. This has not, however, always been the case; around six thousand years before present, the Sahara was much more like the Savannahs of South Africa, grasslands teeming with plant and animal life. The abrupt desertification of North Africa drove the grasslands fauna south, in search of water and flora to sustain them. And Egypt’s human population became confined to the Nile Valley, and to the oases. But while the number of large mammals in Egypt precipitously declined, Egypt remained on one of the primary routes for migratory birds, which exchange between Africa and Europe during the winter and summer. Birds were therefore abundant in Egypt; wading birds and waterfowl in the lush Nile Valley, birds of prey on the hunt for small mammals on the desert fringes, migratory birds resting as they progress towards their final destinations. And, surrounded by such rich avian life, the Egyptians had a fascinating relationship with birds. Like in many other cultures, birds were food. Tomb scenes depict peasant hunters using nets and traps to catch braces of birds, while the Egyptian elite are shown hunting birds for sport, with boomerangs and throwing-sticks in the form of snakes, with trained cats to pick up their kill. But for the Egyptians, birds were also gods. The falcon-headed (probably the peregrine falcon, Falco peregrinus) deities Ra and Horus were among the most powerful and frequently worshipped; the vulture (Neophron percnopterus) goddess Nekhbet was the protectress of Upper Egypt; and, most mysteriously, the bennu-bird, a composite creature akin to the European phoenix, which – according to the Heliopolitan creation myth – had a vital role in the genesis of the universe.

Birds appear in Egyptian art from the earliest times, and are a very frequent subject of Predynastic artists. Messengers between the heavens and the Earth, birds were considered symbolically important even from before the dawn of organised human societies. Indeed, the later Egyptian practice of depicting the transitory human spirit (ba) as a human-headed bird probably reflects earlier beliefs regarding the afterlife. The importance of birds is reflected in the number depicted on two of the Predynastic’s characteristic tomb-offerings: cosmetic palettes and vessels. This exceptional vessel reflects a trend towards aviform stone vases in the later Predynastic, reflecting the growing confidence of Egyptian lapidaries to experiment with various forms. Birds representing different categories – waterfowl (msyt), poultry (ht-a), and wildfowl (bwat) – were used in these imaginative vessels, each presumably having their own meaning. This vessel most likely depicts a common quail (Coturnix coturnix), which was commonly farmed for food, thanks to its ovoid head, long neck and conical pointed beak, as well as the long ovoid wings which hug its side. Numerous Egyptian bird-vessels of the period have lug-handles, but the artist in this case has opted for a more naturalistic form. From the elegantly formed back comes an upright neck and everted rim, providing an opening. The eyes are inlaid in calcite, which glows almost orange against the darker granite.

This vessel, like many others in the Predynastic funerary assemblage, were designed as durable representatives of pottery vessels, which could then be interred with the deceased in perpetuity in place of fragile ceramics. Indeed, pottery bird vessels are well-known from the Predynastic (e.g. an example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art 07.228.55). The purpose of these shaped vessels is unknown. It is usually imagined that they were intended to hold either cosmetics or food-offerings. It is possible that vessels designed to look like specific birds were designed to contain foodstuffs relating to those birds. More commonly, however, they are thought to imitate smaller cosmetics bottles, which were often made in elaborate shapes. Their size, in a tomb context, would ensure that offerings of such valuable cosmetics would be voluminous.

References: similar bird-shaped vessels can be found in Chicago (the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures Museum, formerly the Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago E10859 - a duck) and in London (British Museum EA35306).