- Pottery, painted "Milk Vase", 18th Dynasty,
from Sawama (tomb no. 91) excavated by Wainwright and Whittemore
for the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1914
- Early 18th Dynasty potters produced vessels
with applied clay in the shape of a woman's head, arms, and breasts.
The Ebers Medical Papyrus, a list of remedies and prescriptions composed
in the first years of the dynasty, describes the curative powers of
breast milk from a woman who has given birth to a male child. According
to the papyrus, a person in pain should store this milk in a jar until
cream appears and then apply this cream to "all the sick places." A
"milk vase" such as the example here may have contained this magic
liquid.
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