The Egypt Centre has several small faience vessels made of faience. Unfortunately, we don't have any complete examples of this type, but I can show you a neck part and body so you can see how a whole one would look.
This type of vessel was popular during the 26th Dynasty, during the reigns of Apries and Amasis (c.550BC).
So many things about this type of vessel suggest that it is to do with rebirth and revival, and there is specific evidence that it was associated with the revivification of the New Year. But guess what, as with many ancient items we can still only take a guess as to what it was specifically used for.
Hints of rebirth/revival
Some of these vessels are found in graves. While not everything found in graves if ancient Egypt is to do with rebirth and revival after death, a lot was. For example: grapes and wine suggesting revival are associated with tombs; scarab beetles associated with the daily renewal of the sun; images of the daily renewal of the sun; etc. are all associated with tombs.
Secondly, the overall shape of the body bit is a squashed circle, reminiscent of the sun coming up above the horizon. Notice that the ancients did not depict the sun here as a proper circle, but rather a squashed circle.
There are baboons each side of the neck of the vessel. The baboons could represent Thoth and the New Year myth of The Return of the Distant One. Briefly the myth tells of Sekhmet being sent out to kill mankind, of her being persuaded to come back to Egypt in peace by Thoth who could take the form of a baboon, and the ensuing drunken celebrations. At philae, dwarves and baboons are shown paired in celebrations for The Return of the Distant One. Baboons are also said the call and 'dance' in the morning as though welcoming the newly risen sun.
There are depictions of lotus flowers (water lilies) on the vessel. The sweet smell of the lotus was said to revive. The water lily also sinks down beneath the water and then rises up to greet the sun in the morning. It was said that in the beginning a water lily rose from the waters of chaos. When it opened up it gave birth to sun god Re who rose into the sky.
And a Happy New Year?
The big clue is that the sides of the vessel spell out in hieroglyphs wpt nfr rnpt (a good/beautiful/ new year.
Moreover, there are three lines symbolising water after the New Year message. For the ancient Egyptians the Nile was linked to the turning of the year.
New Year was heavily associated with the annual flooding of the Nile. And the annual flooding of the Nile was also bound up with the first sighting of the star, Sodep after its disappearance for around 70 days. The Egyptians believed the Nile to be the efflux (humours of the body) of Osiris, and the earth was fertilised by the flood, as Isis was her husband Osiris. The Nile's annual life-bringing flood was therefore seen as the union of Isis and Osiris, when they conceived their sun, Horus.
According to a text from Edfu (Edfu IV.3, 1-8), the New Year celebrations seemed quite fun:
There are all kinds of bread in loaves as numerous as grains of sand. Oxen abound like locusts. The smell of roast fowl, gazelle, or, oryx and ibex reach the sky. Wine flows freely through the town like the Nile bursting forth from the Two Caverns. Myrrh scattered on the brazier with incense can be smelled a mile away. The city is bestrewed with faience, glittering with natron and garlanded with flowers and fresh herbs. Its youths are drunk, its citizens glad, and its young maidens are beautiful to behold, rejoicing is all around it and festivity is in all its quarters. There is no sleep to be had there until dawn.
So what did the ancient Egyptians do with them?
We don't really know, but the fact that these are small vessels might suggest that they were used for holding samples of the new Nile water. In their size and shape these faience vessels are similar to later pilgrim vessels which later contained water from holy sites. Of course, a similarity in shape doesn't necessarily mean a similarity in use.
The New Year for the ancient Egyptians wasn't of course 1st January. Rather the Nile flooded annually around the 19th of July. Celebrations, continued over a series of days. So I may be late in wishing you a Happy New Year, but let celebration continue as it did for the ancients!
Further Reading
Blanquet, C-H, 1992, ‘Typologie de la bouteille de nouvel an’ in Cl. Obsomer, A-L. Oosthoek (ed) Amosiades Melanges offerts au professeur Claude Vanderslyen par ses anciens etudiant, Louvain-la-Neuve, 49-54.
Yamani, S. 2002, New Year’s bottles from Tell Marqula (Dakhla Oasis). Bulletin De L’Instit Français D’Archeologie Orientale, 102, 425-436.
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