Egyptian Faience

This chapter, written for Zeev Herzog’s publication of his Iron IIA-B excavations at Tel Beersheva, describes four Egyptian faience amulets, the rim of a vessel made of Egyptian blue, five Egyptian and locally-made Egyptian-style ceramic vessels, and a large sherd engraved with the name of the goddess Nephthys. Egyptian, and subsequently Nubian, interests in Judah in the late eighth century BCE may have led to a modest increase in trade between Egypt and Judah.

Ptolemaic and Roman faience vessels emerged from a long Egyptian tradition and their presence at Naukratis reflects the continued popularity of faience vessels within Egyptian society until the beginning of the 3rd century AD. However, the introduction of Greek technology as well as new forms and fashions mean that the variety of faience vessel forms is significantly different from what came before. The assemblage can be broadly separated into four productions: 3rd and 2nd century BC bi- or multi-chrome faience with mould-made relief and incised detail; 2nd to 1st century BC undecorated mono- or bi-chrome vessels; rare Ptolemaic faience plastic vases; and plain turquoise 1st and 2nd century AD table wares. There is also evidence for production during the 3rd or 2nd century BC in the form of moulds. Collectively the assemblage not only adds to our knowledge of the range of table wares used at Naukratis, but also sheds light on the ritual practices of the Greek elite and the ruler cult of Arsinoe II in the 3rd century BC. Faience vessels associated with the New Year and inundation festivals show remarkable continuity with the preceding periods at Naukratis.

Es handelt sich um die publizierte Version des Vortrages, den der Autor auf Einladung von Dr. Βασίλης Χρυσικόπουλος, Präsident der Ελληνική Εταιρεία Μελέτης Αρχαίας Αιγύπτου, am 29.6.2012 Im National Museum von Athen gehalten hat. Die mündliche Version im Originalton mit fast allen Fotos sowie eine Zusammenfassung s.
http://www.blod.gr/lectures/Pages/viewlecture.aspx?LectureID=485#

This paper deals with the meanings of faience in Egypt during the Old Kingdom. First, the analysis presents its most ancient uses and the terms employed for describing this material. The study continues with the main uses of that material and the semantics which were given to it, focusing on its qualities and properties in relation with the archaeological, iconic and textual evidence. It has been found that Egyptian faience had a very broad and rich group of meanings related to the notions of celestial light, especially that of the sun at dawn, the divinity and the ability for regeneration.

Excavations in the area of tomb MMA 1152 at Sheikh Abd el-Gurna, conducted since 2003, have uncovered a substantial set of faience objects coming from burials made there during the later Pharaonic Period, before the tomb became a hermitage for Coptic monks. Analysis of the material points to several episodes of reuse of the original Middle Kingdom structure in the Third Intermediate Period and the Late Period.

A number of experiments has been conducted to replicate ancient Egyptian faience for past decades, but none succeeded in making 3D shape that 'stands' upright. This failure was due to selection of ingredients. The author tested a number of ingredients together with binding agents that meet the composition of ancient Egyptian faience, and finally could reproduce a faience bowl that 'stands'.

The hundreds of faience shabtis in an individual Late Period burial demanded a significant production effort within a workshop. Petrie’s discovery of thousands of molds for small faience objects in Amarna (1891-92) and Memphis (1908-13) led scholars such as Alfred Lucas (1962) and Hans Schneider (1977) to conclude that the majority of faience shabtis were mold-made and then manually detailed as needed. Beyond this, little information remains regarding the exact production methods. Using stylistic analyses and numerous measurements made during my two-year study of the 305 shabtis from the burial assemblage for a wealthy woman named Meretites (380 to 250 BC.; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art), I determined more precisely how they were manufactured. Within a single atelier, four separate teams of craftsmen each produced a distinct stylistic group of shabtis from start to finish. Besides employing different molds, each team completed the desired detailing of the baskets, hands, and tools, an...

Il contributo presenta il terzo rapporto di lavoro del progetto di ricerca „Materiali di tipo egizio nella Sicilia greca e d’influsso greco durante l’Età del Ferro (VIII-VI sec. a.C.)”. Nelle prime campagne di lavoro (marzo e luglio 1997) furono esaminati innanzitutto gli Aegyptiaca custoditi nel Museo P. Orsi a Siracusa: fra l’altro vasetti in faïence provenienti dalla Necropoli del Fusco a Siracusa, scarabei in faïence rinvenuti in tombe della medesima necropoli così come quelli in steatite reperiti nelle tombe indigene della seconda metà dell’VIII sec. a. C. situate presso Villasmundo. Inoltre furono studiati, nel 1997, vasetti in faïence e scarabei scavati nella città e nelle tombe di Megara Hyblaea. Il terzo rapporto qui presente aggiunge materiale di tipo egizio ritrovato a Gela e dintorni: oggetti in faïence appartenenti alla produzione greco-arcaica orientale (figg. 1, 3), amuleti egizi in forma d’una chiocciola cauri (fig. 5) e della dea Iside (fig. 7) così come lo scarabeo egizio in steatite (fig. nel testo n. 2).  Inoltre il lettore apprende l’amuleto in forma di lepre (fig. 9) d’una fabbricazione incerta e gli scarabei della produzione egea (figg. 10-11) provenienti da Butera, ubicata nelle vicinanze di Gela; questi ultimi sono del VII sec. a.C. Le ricerche recenti si concentrarono innanzitutto sugli Aegyptiaca rintracciati nei siti indigeni dell’entroterra: qui spiccano gli scarabei e scaraboidi della manifattura di Naukratis (attorno 600 e della prima metà del VI sec. a. C.) delle figg. 12-14 (Mendolito, S. Mauro di Caltagirone, Monte Iato).

The complex nature of the interactions between Egypt and its Nubian neighbors is reflected in the most telling way in the material culture of both cultures developed, in particular within the medium of what is known as “Egyptian faience,” a sintered-quartz, non-clay ceramic.  Analysis has revealed that the material from the site of Kerma, the center of a Bronze Age Nubian civilization, evidences both  importation of Egyptian faience and local production of the material.  Further investigation of both the composition and context of the faience has revealed a distinct and dramatic difference in the substance indicating Nubian re-engineering of the material that references the politic dynamic that developed between the two cultures.

Among the very rich material from the archaic deposits of the three sanctuaries of Athena in Camiros, Lindos and Ialysos, as well as different rhodian necropolis, a particular set of faience vases and figurines can be distinguished from other Aegyptiaca of Egyptian type (scarabs, amulets ...). We explain here why the cultural and artistic context that led to the development of this production is, in our opinion, strongly linked to the Egyptian deltaic middle ground of the end of the Third Intermediate Period and the beginning of the Saite period. Finally, this study proposes to show the interest of linking the context of development of this iconography with the archaeological context of these objects (in particular funerary), taking into account what we known of their use.

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The faience of the New Kingdom period is frequently decorated with an expanded palette of red, black, and yellow. This polychrome decoration was often accomplished by inlaying one color of paste into another. The aesthetic success of these inlay techniques reveals a fundamental understanding of the materials' characteristics before, during, and after firing, and knowledge of how to manipulate these characteristics. The goal of this research is to more fully understand ancient Egyptian faience inlay techniques by characterizing the properties of a set of standard reproductions. As the most aesthetically successful reproductions were obtained using pre-fired components, a series of experiments was performed to quantify changes in glaze color, glaze gloss, and depth of glaze penetration upon refiring. Data was gathered from replicated samples and cross-sections using SEM, UV-VIS spectrophotometry, colorimetry, and optical microscopy. Visual comparisons were made between cross-sections of replicated inlays and examples of broken ancient Egyptian faience inlays.

In this paper we review a saite New Year Flask housed at  the Museo Arqueológico Nacional (Madrid). It was purchased in 1879 by the Museum from an Italian collector, monsignore Pietro Taggiasco who -most probably- had adquired this item from dealers in Etruscan and Roman antiquities.
Estudiamos en este trabajo una cantimplora saíta depositada en el Museo Arqueológico Nacional (Madrid) procedente de la compra realizada por el Museo al coleccionista italiano monseñor Pietro Taggiasco en 1879 quien -casi con toda certeza- la había adquirido a tratantes de antigüedades etruscas y romanas.

If you know me -either in real life or just through my activities online -you'll be aware (possibly to the point of exasperation) that I'm obsessed with archaeology. You'll probably also know that my main area of interest is Irish archaeology, especially prehistory, the Early Christian period, and post-Medieval gravestones -it's just how I am! What fewer of you may know is that I'm also pretty obsessed with Egypt and Egyptology! What almost no one knows is that my family and I are the curators of a small collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts. I say curators, rather than owners, as we believe that we can never truly own such items -we are merely their custodians for the next generation.

ABSTRACT: This report summarizes the findings of the summer 2000 excavation season at Tell Tebilla (Ancient Ro-nefer) in the northeast Delta, Egypt (fig. 1), including the results of Dr. Pavlish's coring across the site.  The coring at Tebilla revealed an apparent 1 meter gap in occupation, presumably reflecting a period when the Mendesian branch of the Nile shifted away from the site, perhaps during the early Middle Kingdom through New Kingdom (i.e., paralleling the gap in pottery observed at the site to-date).  The initial excavations focused upon the southern edge of the mound, finding late Third Intermediate Period to Late Period mastaba tombs (fig. 2), burials, and artifacts (figs. 3-5).  Some of the bodies yielded traces of bitumen coating.  The artifacts included a wide range of local pottery forms, imported pottery containers, and a locally made Judean-type juglet (fig. 5); of special note, the small finds included part of a faience flask with a bull(?) (perhaps an Apis bull, paralleling later finds from this site), a shawabti/shabti fragment, terra cotta figurines, amulets, and jewellery.  One of the mastaba structures appears to have been added beside an earlier one, with its foundation trench partly cutting the earlier building.  A series of later, probable Roman period graves were placed in the uppermost surviving stratum in this area.  A preliminary assessment of one body suggested the presence of leprosy.

The article deals with the finds of Egyptian faience in the settlements on the northern boundary of the nomadic world. These items are among the findings associated with the Sarmatian female subculture. It is not excluded that the Egyptian faience fell on the settlements with the Sarmatian women, who were married for men of the forest zone settled tribes. Such marriages were to strengthen the tributary relations between nomads and sedentary population around them.

Foundation deposit items in the Brooklyn Museum thought to come from the Amenhotep II temple northeast of the Giza sphinx are the focus of this study.  Most items name Harmakhis, but six of the twelve faience bricks name Hauron. The authenticity of the latter has been questioned by Jacobus van Dijk (Online Egyptological Bibliography 28289, 28290) but evidence and discussion is presented here to support their ancient date.

JSSEAssue published 1997

Between the eight and the sixth century BCE, the western Mediterranean was fervent with activities, as traders coming from the eastern part of the sea started sailing those waters. Trading routes and cities were then frequented by people of different ethnicities that came into contact with one another. These relationships were quite heterogeneous: different groups could cooperate

The paper provides a brief summary of origins and making techniques of Egyptian faience. Finds from Bohemia dated to the Roman Period, i. e. beads and a pendant, are presented, including their find circumstances. The artefacts are put into two classification systems and some of their formal characteristics and chronological occurrence are discussed. The issues of provenance and use are mentioned as well.

The excavations in the ancient city of Akhetaten at Tell El-Amarna in Egypt produced countless artefacts and fragments of brightly coloured material, known in Egyptology as ‘faience’, in addition to thousands of terracotta moulds for their production. These moulds provide direct evidence for technologies of mechanical reproduction in visual arts of the Late Bronze Age. The experimental recreation of moulds, as well as faience objects created from them, offers a significant advance in understanding perhaps the most crucial issue in faience production: the archetype behind the prototype. Despite the huge number of surviving moulds and faience products, there is no archaeological evidence that shows which material was used for the ‘master’ — the archetype required for the making of a mould. This article discusses faience production and its potential for reconsidering the specific trajectories of archetype to prototype and the distribution of the prototype.

ABSTRACT: A review of the multi-authored, final publication of the Late Bronze Age to early Iron Age Egyptian garrison at Beth Shan (in northern Palestine; Canaan), including a fort tower, some Egyptian and Egyptian-type residences, temple(s), architecture, statuary, stelae, votive offerings, pottery, and other artifacts, including both East Mediterranean imports and local pottery and artifacts.  This review was carried out whilst I was incorporating Beth Shan into my Ph.D. research and thereby reflects a fairly thorough read and usage of this invaluable two volume set (the Beth Shan volumes are crucial for studying Egyptian New Kingdom imperialism, the empire in Syria-Palestine, and other aspects of Late Bronze Age to Iron Age I Canaan;  naturally, the earlier volumes, Iron Age levels, and later excavations at and publications on Beth Shan are also indispensable).

The production methods for ancient Egyptian faience were investigated by Tite et al. in the 1980s using microprobe analysis of the composition of the glass phases and imaging of the microstructure in polished sections using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). These studies were based on original Egyptian faience objects and laboratory reproductions of faience beads made using three different production methods: (i) direct application of a glazing mixture; (ii) efflorescence glazing; and (iii) cementation glazing. The microstructures of the same laboratory samples were reexamined using optical coherence tomography (OCT). OCT is a fast, non-invasive subsurface 3D imaging technique based on the Michelson interferometer. The non-invasive nature of OCT and its speed of acquisition made it possible to image the subsurface microstructure of large volumes of objects to yield an overview of the microstructure associated with each specific production technique. The virtual cross-sections produced by OCT are somewhat limited by the penetration depth, which is affected by the high absorption coefficient of the material. Nevertheless, both the surface glaze layer and the glaze-core interaction layer were well imaged and it was found that the OCT virtual cross-sections corresponded well with SEM images of polished sections of faience samples. However, the OCT virtual cross-sections showed that the subsurface microstructure of many of the samples was highly inhomogeneous and that the study of a limited number of polished sections may not yield representative results. This paper examines to what extent OCT can assist the investigation of the production techniques of ancient Egyptian faience.

In November 2019, the author had a chance to examine one of the jewelry (SR6009, CG53018) of Khnumit from Dahshur as a part of a joint program between Egyptian and Japanese research on ancient craft technology . In this article, the author would like to focus on a medallion  of Khnumit with a cow representation (SR6009-5).
The majority of Khumit’s jewelry indicates that they were perhaps brought into Egypt from outside. The cow's depiction of a medallion also indicates that it was likely a foreign manufacture.
Both textual and epigraphic evidence during the 12th to 13th dynasties show that there seems to have been active trade between Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean coastal areas through Byblos, a city strongly influenced by Middle Kingdom Egypt. A stylistic analysis on the rosette and eight-pointed stars tells that their motifs came from Mesopotamia and spread throughout the eastern Mediterranean as attributes of goddess Ishtar (Astarte) by the Middle Bronze Age. On the other hand, the circular geometric pattern enclosed in eight-pointed star gold ornament indicates the Cretan origin. The combination of rosette, eight-pointed stars, and circular geometric patterns scarcely occur in Mesopotamia or Crete, but in the Levant. The author thus speculates the Khnumit’s ornament with a cow's representation depicts a goddess Hathor-Astarte, a major goddess of Byblos. The origin of the particular medallion might be Byblos.
There is yet another problem to clarify. Closer look of the cow’s medallion revealed that there were two layers, the upper layer being vitreous, and the lower layer being unidentified. A scientific analysis with a portable XRF was performed and revealed that the vitreous surface was made of almost pure silica. Thus the surface layer was most probably made of pure quartz. On the other hand, the material of the bottom layer with a representation of a cow was unidentified. A microscopic study was conducted, and the medallion was compared with other Middle Kingdom faience, a modern replicated faience and a New Kingdom glass. The overall appearance of Khnumit’s cow medallion resembled that of faience. The author, therefore, concludes that the most potential underlying material of the medallion is faience.
In sum, the study on Khnumit’s jewelry (SR6009-5) reveals that Byblos was a possible manufacturing place, and the cow’s medallion was made of a quartz layer on top of the colored faience layer.

This contribution will be an overview of the faïence and glass materials found by the archaeologists of University of Salento in the Graeco-Roman site of Soknopaiou Nesos, today known as Dime es-Seba.
Since 2004, the intensive field surveys and stratigraphic excavations in the temple area have brought to light a considerable quantity of different classes of glass and faïence objects dated to the Hellenistic and Roman periods. However, only the recent stratigraphic excavations and the study of these materials, in association with the different types of pottery found on the site, allow to date all the objects analyzed between the 1st and the 3rd century CE.
The analysis of glass and faïence finds was able to identify several types of objects, like jewellery, amulets and vessels, and permit to study the different techniques applied in the production of these artefacts.
Finally, these classes of objects have been compared to those found in Dime between the end of 1931 and the beginning of 1932 by the archaeologists of University of Michigan. This comparison allows to point out the different use cases of the faïence and glass materials both in a religious and domestic contexts.