28. Pitcher with Ram-Headed Spout

This pitcher was carefully shaped into a basket-like form by hand. The spout, shaped separately into a ram’s head with curved horns, reflects the animal’s deep cultural resonance in Kerman culture. It was associated with the sun, cosmic renewal, strength, fertility and status, as evidenced by ram sacrifices (sometimes with ostrich-feathered sun disks between their horns) and silver ram-horn headdresses found in tombs. The link between the Egyptian god Amun and the ram seems to have been forged in Nubia. Other animals invested with ideological meaning in Kerman culture included cattle, lions, hippopotami, giraffes and hyenas, which appear as motifs on elaborately inlaid beds placed in the tombs. This vessel was found in tomb K 325, a compartment in the southeast part of tumulus K III. It contained a royal family member on a bed, along with two further burials and a sacrificed ram found nearby. Kerma-style pottery (for example, beakers, basins, and bowls) and accessories (such as ear-studs, ivory flies, and beads), as well as Egyptian artifacts were placed with the dead.