The ancient Egyptians were skilled artisans, pottery and ceramics was one of the fields that they excelled. Pottery was initially practiced for functional reasons rather that the decorative reasons although the decorations in some of the vases is quite remarkable. The oldest pottery technic involved hollowing clay into a lump and leaving it in the sun to dry. The Egyptians started to make pottery before they built the pyramid which is evident from to the presence of characters and images in the older hieglyphic writing which resembles earthen made vessels. From 3000BC pottery was decorated by images depicting boats, humans and animal’s pottery making production in Egypt was a very significant industry producing different household’s goods that were used to hold both solids and liquids. People started to make pottery vases very early in time in order to keep their farm products such as wheat to go moldy or get wet. They used different methods to decorate and improve the look of their pottery, some of these techniques are:
- Exposing the vessel to smoke to give it a black coloring
- Washing the vessel in a mixture of red pigmented ochre
- Painting, tucking or incising decorations.
- Gleazing of steatite
The Egyptians made two different kind of pottery:
- The coarse, gritty compound easily crumbled but always covered by strong enamel.
- The soft ordinary made pottery
During this period, the Egyptians were using Nile clay (Red brown after firing) commonly known as the Nile clay silt ware, used for the common utilitarian purposes and marl clay which was usually polished to have a lustrous look and commonly used for decorative purposes. The ancient pottery was between earthen ware and porcelain therefore it had the ability to resist high temperature and possessed a fine grain covered with a fine grain of copper oxides. The pottery developed to become an expression of religion and revered symbols. There were three methods that the ancient Egyptians used to shape their poetry, it includes hand shaping, shaping on a wheel and hand-shaping pottery finished on a turning device. It is during old kingdom do we find the invention of the potter’s wheel; there are ceramic figures and vessels which were a part of the ancient Egyptian which were carried during funerary rituals and during various ceremony processions.
Enameled pottery and ceramics in Egypt
Enameling was invented by the Egyptians at a very early date; they used steatite (soap stone) to enamel vases since steatite can with stand great heat without cracking. Many vessels enameled during these times have retained their original color three thousand years after they were decorated.
Faience Vessel with procession of four bulls and lotus flowers (Brooklyn Museum)
Various enameled vessels and sculptures are a great admiration to the people all over the world showing a great quality of expertise by those who made them. Most of these ancient objects were preserved in special conditions such as in tombs therefore they were not exposed to harsh desert conditions which may have tarnished or destroyed them.
The study of Egyptians ceramics, pottery and artifacts has been very crucial in the study of early regional trade and development in Egypt and among other different countries such as the Middle East, china and other African countries. Various ceramics and pottery represents an important record to the analysis of various archaic times and technology.
Work cited
Scamuzzi, Ernesto. Egyptian Art in the Egyptian Museum of Turin: Paintings, Sculpture,
Furniture, Textiles, Ceramics, Papyri. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1965. Print.
