DESCRIPTION: | Carved from a single block white marble with grey veins, comprising in arch-shaped form, pierced at the center with craving arabesque interlacing on each side on the panel.Footnotes: The marble jar-stand, locally referred to as a kilga, functioned as a water purifier, and was frequently used during the Fatimid period (909-1171). The stands were designed to support a large terracotta pot placed above which contained the unpurified water. As terracotta has a porous body, the water would drip down from the base of the pot which acted as a natural water filtration system (Knauer, p. 69). The smoothly worn interior of the jar-stand also indicates that water once filled the basin. The clean water would then be collected directly from the kilga. A similar kilga is in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, (Accession Number 20.176). They often depict a seated figure holding a cup in addition to similar fluted decoration on the feet. |
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