Ancient Egyptian Inscribed Faience Objects

Ancient Egyptian Inscribed Faience Objects from the Benaki Museum in Athens, 1

Amanda-Alice Maravelia

Journal of Near Eastern Studies

, Vol. 61, No. 2. (Apr., 2002), pp. 81-109.

Stable URL:http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-2968%28200204%2961%3A2%3C81%3AAEIFOF%3E2.0.CO%3B2-K

Journal of Near Eastern Studies

is currently published by The University of Chicago Press.Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available athttp://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtainedprior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content inthe JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained athttp://www.jstor.org/journals/ucpress.html.Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printedpage of such transmission.JSTOR is an independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to and preserving a digital archive of scholarly journals. Formore information regarding JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.http://www.jstor.orgSat Apr 28 08:22:47 2007

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN INSCRIBED FAIENCE OBJECTS FROM THEBENAKI MUSEUMINATHENS,

1

*

AMANDA-ALICE MARAVELIA, Athens

FAreucrl

is the material' that was used to create numerous ancient Egyptian ob-jects, including beads, statuettes, amulets, and votive objects dating to the Predynastic andArchaic periods:' tiles dating to the Old Kingd~rn;~nimal figurines dating to the MiddleKingd~m;~owls, plates, and chalices with floral or faunal decoration dating to the NewKingd~m;~s well as a vast number of shabtis and amulets dating to the New Kingdom

*

I would like to thank Angelos Delivorrias, Direc-

'

P.

T.

Nicholson,

Egyptian Faience and Glass.

Shiretor of the Benaki Museum. whose perfectionism has Egyptology 19 (Princes Risborough. England. 1993).transformed the museum into a modern temple of liv-

-

A.

Kaczmarczyk and R. E. M. Hedges,

Ancient

ing archaeology, for having permitted and encouraged

Egyptian Faience: An Analytical Survey of Egyptian

my study and publication of the inscribed faience

Faience ,frot~rPre(1ynasric to Ronian Tit~res

Warmin-pieces presented in this article.

I

would also like to ster, England, 1983). Another excellent up-to-datethank the Co-Director, Irini Geroulanou. for her assis- book on this topic, which discusses many faiencetance. Thanks also go to those in charge of the Egyp- objects and recent research. is F. D. Friedman, ed.,tian collection, the archaeologists lrini Papageorgiou

Gifrs of the Nile: Ancient Egyptian Faience

(London.and Angeliki Ziva, for their generous assistance. In1998). For a simple introduction to the techniquesSeptember 2000, they provided me with a new set of and history of Egyptian faience. see Nicholson.photographs and line drawings as well as access to all "Faience:' in D. B. Redford, ed..

The O.rfor(l Encyclope-

the available facilities, so that

I

was able to reexamine

dia ofAncient Egypt,

3 vols. (New York. 2001). vol. 1.the objects discussed in this article.

I

am indebted to pp. 191-96.artist-painter Katerina Mavragani for her fineline

'

See texts in CD-ROM in D. van der Plas, ed.,drawings and tireless effort. I would also like to thank

Egyptian Treasures in Europe,

vol. 1.

1000

Highlights

Emily Teeter and Peter Dorman of the Oriental Insti- (Utrecht. 1999). For a collection of several types oftute of the University of Chicago for their valuable com- faience objects. see E. Riefenstahl,

Ancient Glass and

ments: last, but not least. 1 thank Christiana Morigi-

Glazes in the Brooklyn Museurr~

(Brooklyn. NewGovi, Director of the Museo Civico Archeologico di York, 1978). See also "Early Faience." in Friedman,Bologna. for her helpful information. I hope that this ed.,

Gifts of the Nile,

pp. 66-75. For Predynastic finds.small. until now relatively unknown but very interest- see Friedman, "Faience: The Brilliance of Eternity:' ining. collection will be studied further and published in Friedman, ed..

Gifts ofrhe Nile,

p. 20. n. 7.its entirety sometime in the near future.See again n. 3 above. For faience pieces in theRecently, the museum acquired several inscribed Cairo Museum, see F,

W.

von Bissing. "Nos. 3618-faience n~ft~pstatuettes,art of the Leotsakos exhibit 4000. 18001-18037. 18600. 18603: FayencegefaBe:'on permanent loan, which I will present in a forth- in

Catalogue ginirale des antiquitis igyptiennes du

coming article.

Musde du Caire

(Vienna. 1902). For a limestonePlease note that throughout this article I often use object dating to the Old Kingdom containing manythe Gardiner numbers to refer to specific hieroglyphs, faience plaques. see J.-P. Corteggiani,

12'~gyptedes

Offprint requests for this article can be sent di-

pharaons au Musee

du

Caire,

2d ed. (Paris, 1986),rectly to me by e-mail at:<nut-ntrt@otenet.gr>. pp. 34-35.See, for example, the classical. and most usual.types in M. Saleh and H. Sourouzian.

Caralogrie

08-

[JNES

61 no. 2 (2002)l

ciel: Mlisie Egyptien du Caire

(Cairo. 1987). nos. 82-

O

002 by The University of Chicago.84

(=

JE

'

See the catalogue by

B.

Fay.

Egyptian Museurrl

0022-29681200216 102-0001$10.00.

Berlin,

5th ed. (Berlin. 1992). pp. 28-31. nos. 15-16

8

1

and Late Period.' Faience was primarily valued for its latent symbolism, since it was re-garded as a manifestation of the color of the sky and light itself. a fact evident from itsancient Egyptian name,Qhnt, deriving from the stem

[!II?,'

meaning "to sparkle," "to bedazzling." The ancient Egyptians connected faience with the resurrection of the sun fromthe Netherworld and the bright light that followed, which was essential for the well-beingof a "justified" deceased person in the afterlife. The bright green color usually associatedwith this substance, although faience exists in many other colors as well, was connectedwith the regeneration of nature and had a clear Osirian connotation."' Moreover, becauseit looked like both lapis lazuli

(bsbd)

and turquoise

(r~zfi3t).

aience could be used as aperfect substitute for those more expensive materials, which the ancient Egyptians con-sidered divine in life on earth and after death."Faience is a ceramic material composed of crushed quartz, or quartz sand," containingsmall amounts of lime and plant ash or natron.I3 It is generally coated with a bright blueor green glaze of the soda-lime-silica type. The coloring agent, which was usually crushedcopper, gave faience its typical blue-green hue. Water was added to form a paste thatcould be modeled by hand or that could be pushed into a mold in order to produce the de-sired shape." Before the object was fired, it could be decorated with black paint or carvedwith floral or faunal patterns. Sometimes, inlays of another faience in a different colorwere added to create an esthetically more pleasing image." The object could be glazed by

IAMB 13.890.

AMB

10.250): pp. 60-63: nos. 31-32

(=

AMB 4562-63).For shabti\. see. for example, W.

M.

F. Petrie.

Shcihtis.

2d ed.

i

1935; Warminster. England, 1974).and

H.

D.

Schneider.

Sh(ihtis

(Leiden. 1977). A typicalshabti of Dynasty XXVI can be found in Friedman."Funerary Uset of Faience." in Friedtnan. ed..

Gips

of

the Nile,

p. 153. no. 152

i=

AIC 1942.637). For amu-let\ dating to varlou\ periods. see Petrie.

Arr~ulet~.

ded. (Wartninster. England. 1972): see also C. Andrews.

Ar?ruIets

of

Ancierit E,qypt

(London. 1993). Concerninga5sorted faience object5 preferred by women. Eee G. E.Markoe. "Aniulets:' in A.

K.

Capel and G. E. Markoe.eds..

Mistr~ss

of

the Ho~ise, istres\ of Hetrvpn: U/orrienit1 Aric.ierit Egypt

(New York and Lanhatn. Maryland.1996). For women's uses of faience objects. see Fried-man. "Wonien'5 U5e and Female-Related Themes:' inFriednian. ed..

Gifts of the Nile,

pp. 102-19."ee '.Fayence." in W. Helck and

U..

Westendorf.eds..

LesiA-oil der Ag~prologie,

vol. 2 (Wiesbaden.1977). cols. 138-42 (hereafter

d).

A. H. Gardiner.

E,qypritrri Grtrrr~trrcir:B~irig

iri

Inrroducriori to the Study of'Hieroglyphs.

3d ed.. rev.

i

1957: Oxford. 1988). p. 505.ration Internationale des Asociations d'~tudesClas-siques). vol.

1

(Athen5. 2001). pp. 527-38.

¶

11.7.

I

Regarding the various nuance5 of color in faience.see

J.

Yoyotte. "Faience." in G. Posener. S. Sauneron.

J.

Yoyotte.

Dic.tiorlrltrire de Itr cii,ilirtrtion c',eyptienrle

(Paris. 1992). p. 110.

I'

On quartz. see C. W. Chesterninn and K. Lowe.

Ncitiontrl Alrd~ihon ociph: Field Glricle to North Arrler-icnrr Rocks cirld Mirlprcils

(New York. 19981. pp. 502-3. pls. 153-56 and passim. See also Andrews.

ArlcierltE,qyptr~r~e\t,eIl~ry

(London. 1990). p. 50. A thoroughttudy of Egyptian minerals can be found in S. Au-frkre.

L2'urlil,err n~irlPrill diltrs l(i perl.\6e P,qjpri~nr7e.

vol.

I.

L'it{fluerlc.e dl1 d6ser.t et d~srrin6rciu.r sLir ItrrneritcilitP des trriciens

~ol..

L'intc5gril-g~~ripns,tiori des rr~irlirtru.~,es niPtciir.i er des "rr6.\:.\ors" dur7.5lil rnilrche de I'lrnii~ers et dtrris la vie divirle.

Insti-tut Franpis d'ArchCologie Orientale du Caire. Biblio-theque d'Ctude. vol. I05 (Cairo. 1991

1:

the symbolisn~and beaut) of faience are also discussed.

13

I.

Shaw and P.

T.

Nicholson.

"Faience."

in

Brit-ish iMli.\elorr Dictionciry of Arlcient Egypt

(London.1995). pp. 95-96 (hereafter

BMD).

I'

Ibid. See also Friedman. "Faience: The Bril-

ill E~ypri~~ri

o

R.

H. Wilkinson'5

Sytrrhol oncl MLI~I~

liance of Eternit):' in Friedtnan. ed..

Gifts of tire Nile,Art

(London. 1994)

IS

an excellent basis for this dis-cussion. For the tynibolisni of color. see pp. 103-25.For the importance of the color green and floral u.reathsin the satne context, see tny article "Sappho's Poetryand Ancient Egyptian Lo\e Poems:

A

Field of Coni-parati~e nterpretation.

I."

in D. Kalaniakis.

K.

Ma-natis. and P. Vlachos. eds..

Proceedin,qs

of

the XltlrIrlferr~~tiorl~~l of the

E

I. E. C.

(=