| Artefact ID | 1770 |
| TM ID | - |
| Findspot (DEChriM ID) | 15 (al-Baǧawāt) | Class | Garment/adornment/accessories |
| Material | Glass |
| Description | Blue glass cameo representing a fish in water. Dimensions: 0.8 x 1.1 x 0.3 cm. The object was likely soldered originally in a ring's bezel setting. |
| Selection criteria | Christian symbols/gestures/isopsephy |
| Date from | 300 |
| Date to | 399 |
| Dating criteria | The use or occupation dates of the most likely candidate for the provenance of the object: the al-Baǧawāt cemetery. |
| Absolute/relative date | Relative date |
| Archaeological context | Unknown. Investigations carried out by the author of this page in the Kharga archives at the Department of Medieval Art of the Metropolitan Museum of Art show that the records associated with this object do not mention its provenance. The cameo was gifted to the museum by Helen Miller Gould Shepard, New York-based philantropist and vice president of the American Bible Society, in 1910. During its first two seasons in the Kharga Oasis (season 1: February 21 to early May 1908; season 2: July 1909), the MMA led excavations at al-Baǧawāt and ʿAyn al-Ṭurba. Given the nature of the object, it is more likely that it was found in one of the numerous burial chambers of the mausolea or the over 700 pit graves excavated at al-Baǧawāt only in the 1908 field season. However, if the information provided on the MMA's page of this obeject is accurate ("Chauncey Murch, Luxor, Egypt (d. 1907); Mrs. Chauncey Murch(1907–10); Helen Miller Gould, New York (until 1910)"), then its provenance cannot be Kharga Oasis, where the MMA initiated excavations only in 1908. |
| Accession number | New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 10.130.2658. |
ARTEFACT IDENTIFIERS
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