The objects here reflect the importance of water in all aspects of life, including food and drink, storage, bathing, and transportation.
All of these objects are from Egypt, where the main source of freshwater is the Nile River. The Nile is 6,650 kilometers long and floods yearly, providing necessary hydration for agriculture. Human life thus depends on the Nile and on the animals and plants it sustains. The river shaped the ancient Egyptian view of the cosmos, where the world was believed to have emerged as a mound of land rising from the boundless primordial waters of the universe. In certain Islamic texts, the Nile—along with the Ceyhan, Amu Darya, and Euphrates Rivers—is said to flow from Paradise.
Boats were an important form of transportation in the ancient Middle East. Where water systems connected cities and empires, travel by sea or river was often faster and cheaper than travel by land. The hulls of merchant ships were filled with trade goods, facilitating the exchange of products, people, and ideas.
Browse Objects
Above left: Women filling water jugs in Giza, Egypt. Photographer and date unknown (KM 1961.7.651)
Above right: This photo shows fish for sale on the streets of Istanbul (ancient Byzantium/Constantinople). Even today, seafood is a popular Istanbul street food—especially mussels served steamed, stuffed, or deep-fried. Photo: George R. Swain, June 14, 1924 (KM neg. no. KS 270.04)
