Burnished black-topped redware pottery bowls were characteristic of ancient Nubia from circa 2400 B.C. until the Egyptian conquest around 1550 B.C. A large number of them were excavated by the Harvard University-Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition for the Archeological Survey of Nubian the early 20th century. For a related example from these excavations, see accession number 19.1582 in the MFA.