Egyptian Pottery

Egypt made pottery before the building of the Pyramids. This is evident from the presence in older
hieroglyphic writing of characters which are pictures of earthen vessels. Pictures of pottery vessels
and small pieces of pottery have been found in tombs of the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Dynasties,
contemporary with and after the building of the Great Pyramid (about 2350 B.C.).

The art of covering pottery with enamel was invented by the Egyptians. They applied it to stone as
and pottery.

Because steatite (or soapstone) is easily worked, and bears heat without cracking. That is why
Egyptians carved small pieces-vases, amulets, images of deities, of animals and other objects--and
covered them with green, blue, and occasionally red, yellow, and white enamel, which became
brilliantly enduring when baked. Enameled steatite is found from very early periods. One in the
Trumbull-Prime collection obtained at Thebes in the shapeof a small cylinder bearing the cartouche of
king, Amunmhe III., of the Twelfth Dynasty, the Moeris of history, whose date is placed at about 2000
B.C. The enamel is pale-green, almost white, except in the engraved lines, where it shows more color,
due to being thicker.

In the Louvre collection, a cylinder of this material bears the name of Shafra, a king of the Fourth
Dynasty, builder of the second pyramid; and in the British Museum there are three(3) which have the
names of kings and of a queen of the Twelfth Dynasty. The manufacture of this material continued till
the Ptolemies era.

Artwork of Egyptian Pottery

The highest art was displayed in the smallest artifacts, where images of deities were moulded in style or
carved from steatite, and enameled with blue or green.

Enamelled pottery was also used for inlaying purposes in ornamental work. Small tiles, two inches by
one, were used in the Pyramid of Sakkara. there are numerous specimens of pottery covered with a rich
dark-green enamel.

In an area called Tel-el Yahoudeh there are remains of a temple, built of crude brick, and the walls were
once covered with tiles bearing on them the hieroglyphic inscriptions, with illustrations, of the deeds of
Remeses III., about 1200 B.C. The legends on these were impressed in blue tiles and inlaid with colored
glass. Other has yellow grounds, with impressed legends inlaid in color, others have relief figures of
prisoners captured by the king having their dresses and hair inlaid in color.

Examples of Egyptian Pottery

Egyptian pottery and enamels of all periods involves figures, amulets, scarabaei, and small objects in
steatite and pottery, with various forms and decorations of vases, bottles, some having a small neck, and
two small strong handles for a string to pass through, etc.
The Egyptians possessed tin and bronze and this led to their knowledge of metal oxides in various ways,
and this is clearly noticed in the colors employed in decorating there pottery. At the period of the
Exodus the Jews were directed to purify the gold, silver, brass, iron, tin, and lead taken from Egypt.

The glaze sometimes used was evidently not stanniferous, neither does it show the presence of lead. It
was siliceous, and the color was intermingled with the glaze. Small objects are found in which the color
seems to have been mixed with the clay, and unbaked beads of soft clay, colored deep-green, have been
found in Egypt. The green and blue colors were probably obtained from copper; the red, from iron; the
yellow from silver; the purple from manganese or gold; the white from tin.

Lamps were found, probably of Roman time, covered with a hard green glaze as well as of red and buff-
colored pottery, from the fourth century of the Christian era and later. Christian inscriptions, designs,
and symbols on these lamps are frequent. A toad was a common form of the top of a lamp, names of
saints, crosses, the labarum, religious sentences, are frequent ornaments as well.

Types of Pottery

The Egyptians made two kinds of pottery the ordinary soft pottery; the other is coarse, gritty compound,
loose in its character and lacking cohesion, sandy, easily crumbled, very white, but always covered with
a strong glaze or enamel. This material was chiefly used for small objects, seldom for vases. Cups and
bowls were formed of it, on which figures were painted in color generally in black, and also lotus-flowers
along with other Egyptian emblematic designs. These pictures were usually in outline, rude in execution.
The beauty of the enamel on these objects has been the envy of potters in modern times. The blue has
never been surpassed nor been equaled. Objects three thousand years old retain the splendor of their
original color; and this leads to knowing that the variety of the shades of blue found on them is not the
result of time, but the original intent of the makers. These shades vary from the most intense bleu and
pure turquoise to pale-blue tints almost white. The color is usually remarkably uniform on the object.
Several of the rare colors of old Chinese porcelain are thus found in ancient Egyptian enamels. The same
enamel was occasionally applied to soft pottery.

Egypt produced several varieties of unglazed pottery. The most common was the ordinary red, cream-
colored, and yellow, sometimes in the later periods, under the Greeks and Romans, polished so as to
appear like lustrous pottery. Another variety of pottery found in Egypt has a creamy-white surface
resembling pipe-clay, where the paste is very hard , compact, and the surface is well polished with an
enamel appearance not perfectly white.

It is not certain that Egypt ever burned brick as sun-dried brick were used for the construction of houses
and walls, and to the present day thousands of these bricks retains their form and position, and even the
stamps of the kings in whose reigns were dealt with in the same method. It is supposed by some
authorities that the burned brick which are occasionally found are the results of accidental fire. Others
suppose that bricks were baked when intended for use in wet places. For ordinary purposes, the
Egyptian brick were more masses of sun-dried Nile mud, molded usually of a large size, sometimes 20
inches long sometimes strengthened by a mixture of straw.

The forms of Egyptian pottery were numerous. Vases were made chiefly for use, and not for ornament.
The amphora, in Egypt as in all ancient countries the most common and most useful vase, was made in
all sizes, from the three-inch oil or perfume holder to the immense jar of three or four feet in height, for
holding water, wine, oil, or grain. The pithos (Greek word) which is a tub, cask, or vase of pottery, was
made in Egypt. It was the household cellar, in which meats and provisions were stored. This was
sometimes six feet in diameter, always made of coarse unglazed pottery.

Uses of Egyptian Pottery

The ancient Egyptians used pottery for burial purposes, to contain those interior parts of the body which
were removed before embalming. Four vases, which were sometimes deposited with the mummified
body, contained the stomach, the lungs, the liver, and the smaller intestines.

These were generally made of stone, but sometimes of pottery. Besides these, large numbers of smaller
objects in enameled pottery were deposited with the dead. The most common were those now called
Osirian figures, usually representing mummies. These are of various sizes. Many so closely resemble
each other in work, and in the hieroglyphic legends painted or impressed on them, that it seems
probable they were objects kept in stock by the potters for sale to purchasers for funeral purposes. They
are found both unglazed and enameled, in red pottery and in the hard, gritty pottery before described.
Those which represent the person as in life with a long robe are rare and are believed to be the more
ancient. It was also common to build into the walls on the interior of tombs cones of pottery, six to ten
inches in length, the bases standing out, on which were engraved or impressed, before baking, legends
relating to the dead occupants of the tomb. These cones have been found in great numbers, and much
important information has been derived from the inscriptions on them, which usually contain the name
of the deceased, his titles, the offices which he held, and expressions appropriate to funeral purposes.
These were formerly supposed to be stamps for seals. The practice of burning the dead which the
Greeks introduced led to the use of pottery for the ashes of the dead.

A great number of tombs in a very extensive cemetery situated to the eastward of Alexandria were
excavated in the early years, now covered by the modern growth of that city and many vases and lamps
of Egyptian pottery of the Greek and Roman periods were found.