Today is the International Day of Provenance Research! Recognized on the second Wednesday of April,

Today is the International Day of Provenance Research! Recognized on the second Wednesday of April, it gives us an opportunity to honor the ancient history of trade and innovation of artwork and objects alike.⁠⁠

Take this jar from the Predynastic Period (ca. 3300–3100 B.C.E.), for example. The inhabitants of the Green Sahara who settled in the Nile Valley began developing some distinct styles of pottery. The geometric shapes decorating this jar were popular among early Nubian potters.The fact that this typically Nubian jar was excavated in El Masaid, Egypt, located just north of modern Luxor, shows that Egyptians prized, imported, and imitated Nubian pottery.⁠⁠

If you didn’t manage to get tickets to tonight’s Curator Talk with curators Annissa Malvoisin and Yekaterina Barbash on Ancient Nubian and Egyptian Vessels, you can learn more about the history of artworks like this in “African Ancestors of Egypt and Nubia: From the Green Sahara to the Nile.” Now on view in the Egyptian Galleries.

Jar with Impressed and Incised Decoration, ca. 3300-3100 B.C.E. Clay, paste. Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 09.889.445. Creative Commons-BY