Egyptian faience
Egyptian faience is a sintered-quartz
It is not
Egyptian faience is considerably more porous than glass proper. It can be cast in molds to create small vessels, jewelry and decorative objects.
Egyptian faience was very widely used for small objects, from beads to small statues, and is found in both elite and popular contexts. It was the most common material for
Scope of the term
It is called "Egyptian faience" to distinguish it from faience, the tin-glazed pottery whose name came from Faenza in northern Italy,[7] a center of maiolica (one type of faience) production in the late Middle Ages. Egyptian faience was both exported widely in the ancient world and made locally in many places, and is found in Mesopotamia, around the Mediterranean and in northern Europe as far away as Scotland. The term is used for the material wherever it was made and modern scientific analyses are often the only way of establishing the provenance of simple objects such as the very common beads.[7][8]
The term is therefore unsatisfactory in several respects, although clear in an Ancient Egyptian context, and is increasingly rejected in museum and archaeological usage. The British Museum now calls this material "glazed composition", with the following note in their online collection database:
The term is used for objects with a body made of finely powdered quartz grains fused together with small amounts of alkali and/or lime through partial heating. The bodies are usually colourless but natural impurities give them a brown or greyish tint. Colourants can also be added to give it an artificial colour. It can be modelled by hand, thrown or moulded, and hardens with firing. This material is used in the context of Islamic ceramics where it is described as stonepaste (or fritware). Glazed composition is related to glass, but glass is formed by completely fusing the ingredients in a liquid melted at high temperature. This material is also popularly called faience in the contexts of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Near East. However, this is a misnomer as these objects have no relationship to the glazed pottery vessels made in Faenza, from which the faience term derives. Other authors use the terms sintered quartz, glazed frit, frit, composition, Egyptian Blue, paste or (in the 19th century) even porcelain, although the last two terms are very inappropriate as they also describe imitation gems and a type of ceramic. Frit is technically a flux.[2]
Glazes
From the inception of faience in the archaeological record of
Relationship with Egyptian copper industry
The discovery of faience glazing has tentatively been associated with the copper industry: bronze scale and corrosion products of leaded copper objects are found in the manufacture of faience pigments.[12] However, although the likelihood of glazed quartz pebbles developing accidentally in traces in copper smelting furnaces from the copper and wood ash is high, the regions in which these processes originate do not coincide.[13]
Relationship with Egyptian glass industry
Although it appears that no glass was intentionally produced in Egypt before the Eighteenth Dynasty (as the establishment of glass manufacture is generally attributed to the reign of Thutmose III), it is likely that faience, frit and glass were all made in close proximity or in the same workshop complex, since developments in one industry are reflected in others.[10] Such close relationship is reflected in the prominent similarity of the formulations of faience glaze and contemporary glass compositions.[12] Despite the differences in the pyrotechnology of glass and faience, faience being worked cold, archaeological evidence suggests that New Kingdom glass and faience production was undertaken in the same workshops.[7]
Production
Typical composition and access to raw materials
Faience has been defined as the first high technology ceramic, to emphasize its status as an artificial medium, rendering it effectively a precious stone.
Faience working technology
Typical faience mixture is
Body binding technology
A number of possible binding agents, amongst
Body working technology
Three methods have been hypothesized to shape the body of faience objects: modeling, moulding and abrasion, the last being used in conjunction with the first two.[7] Modeling, scraping and grinding are the techniques most widely used in earlier times, as represented in the material qualities of Predynastic and Protodynastic faience objects.[10] Predynastic bead manufacture is essentially a cold technology, more akin to stone working than glass: a general form of faience is modeled, possibly free formed by hand, then holes are drilled to create beads.[10] In the Middle Kingdom, the techniques employed are molding and forming on a core, sometimes in conjunction with intermediate layers between the glaze and the body.[14] Marbleized faience, resulting from the working of different colored faience bodies together, so as to produce a uniform adherent body, also appears in this period.[12][14] Towards the end of the Middle Kingdom, incising, inlaying and resisting techniques appear: these were bound to become progressively popular towards the New Kingdom.[14] In the New Kingdom, beads, amulets and finger rings are produced by a combination of modeling and molding techniques.[14] In this period, sculptural detail is created using inlays of different colored faience or by scraping the body to reveal the white intermediate layer in relief.[14] Moulding was first applied to faience manufacture in the Middle Kingdom by forming a model of an object, or employing a finished faience piece, impressing it in wet clay, and later by firing the clay to create a durable mold.[10][19] The faience paste could then be pressed into the mold, and following drying, be re-worked through surface abrasion before firing.[10] Moulds could facilitate mass production of faience objects such as amulets rings and inlays, as evidenced by the several thousand of small open face, earth-ware clay molds excavated at Tell el Amarna.[13] The level of standardisation that use of moulds produced varied, with a compositional and morphological study of faience ushabtis suggested that mass-production is an oversimplification of a complex process that may more accurately described as batch-processing.[20]
Wheel throwing, possibly occurring from the New Kingdom onwards, is certainly established by the Greco-Roman period, when large amounts of clay seem to have been added to the faience body.[10] Because of the limited plasticity of faience, rendering throwing extremely difficult, a progressive increase of clay in the faience bodies culminating in the quartz, clay and glass frit bodies of Islamic times, is observed in the archaeological record.[14][21]
Polychrome pieces were usually made by inlaying different colours of paste.[24]
Glazing technology
The technology of glazing a siliceous body with a soda lime silica glaze employs various methods discovered over time: namely application, efflorescence and cementation glazing.
Application glazing
In the application method, formerly assumed to be the only one used for faience glazing; silica, lime and alkalis are ground in the raw state to a small particle size, thus mixed in water to form a slurry which is then applied to the quartz core.[10][13][17] Partial fritting of the slurry favors the first stages of vitrification, which in turn lowers the final firing temperature. The slurry can be then applied to the body, through brushing or dipping, to create a fine, powdery coating.[14] Upon firing, the water from the melting glaze partially diffuses in the sand body, sintering the quartz particles and thus creating some solid bridges in the body.[14]
Efflorescence glazing
In the self-glazing process of efflorescence, the glazing materials, in the form of water-soluble alkali salts, are mixed with the raw crushed quartz of the core of the object.[15][16][25] As the water in the body evaporates, the salts migrate to the surface of the object to recrystallize, creating a thin surface, which glazes upon firing.[14]
Cementation glazing
Cementation glazing, a technique discovered in the Middle Kingdom, is also a self-glazing technique.[10] The possibility of the existence of cementation glazing, also known as 'Qom technique', followed the observation of this method being used in the city of Qom in Iran in the 1960s.[26] In this method the artifact, while buried in a glazing powder with a high flux content, is heated inside a vessel, causing the fusion of the object with the cement. During firing, the flux migrates to the quartz and combines with it to form a glassy coating.[26]
Alternative techniques
A vapour glaze reaction similar to salt glazing, as an alternative glazing process, has been suggested. In this process, the vaporization or dissociation of salts leads to vapour transport through the enveloping powder to the quartz body where a glaze is formed.[27]
Recognition of glazing techniques
Although glaze compositions vary regionally and chronologically, depending on the formation of the body and the glazing process employed, objects produced with different glazing techniques do not exhibit immediate diagnostic chemical variations in their compositions.[12][28] The recognition of the various glazing techniques, through microscopic observations of the degree of sintering and the vitreous phase of quartz body, is also ambiguous. For instance, objects with applied glazes and those which may have been glazed by efflorescence have overlapping characteristic features.[12][29] The following proposed criteria are subject to variation caused by increases in flux concentration, firing temperatures and time at peak temperatures.[14]
Recognition of application glazing- Macroscopically, applied glazes vary in thickness through the body, displaying thicker glazes on bases.[29] The traces of kiln supports, as well as the characteristic tendency to run and drip leading to pooling, may indicate the orientation of the object during firing.[14] In high magnification observations, the interface boundary of body and glaze appears well defined.[14] The absence of interstitial glass in the core is characteristic of application glazing: however, the possibility of adding glazing mixture to the quartz sand body, as well as the use of pre-melted glazes in the later periods, can predictably increase the degree of sintering of the core[22][29]
Recognition of cementation- Objects glazed through cementation display a thin even glaze all over the body, with no drying or firing marks, and portray a fairly friable and soft body[25][29] Microscopically, the concentration of copper characteristically decreases from the surface: the interaction layer is thin and well defined and the interstitial glass is absent with exception to the vicinity of the boundary layer.[14][29]
Recognition of efflorescence glazing- Pieces glazed by efflorescence may show traces of stand marks: the glaze appears thick and prone to cracking, thinning toward the edge of the piece and in concave areas.[29] In high magnification the interstitial glass is extensive; the unreacted salts which have not reached the surface fuse of the body accumulate in the core, creating bridges between the quartz particles.[29]
Typologies
An extensive literature has accumulated in attempt to explain the processing of Egyptian faience and develop an adequate typology that encompasses both technological choices and chemical variations of faience bodies.[10][17][29][30] Body color, density and luster provided the basis of the first typology developed for faience: seven variants were proposed by Lucas and Harris and still permit the archaeologist to distinguish faience objects during field sorting.[17]
Classification of body variants
Most of the seven variants introduced by Lucas fail to recognize the glazing technology utilized or to suggest the stylistic and technological choices embedded in the manufacture of a faience object. However, variant A describes a technologically unique product and as such is still applicable: it has a finely ground underglaze consisting of quartz particles in a glass matrix, often revealed by incisions or depressions cut into the overlying glaze.[12][22] Glassy faience, variant E, displays no distinct outer layer from the interior, thus it has been suggested that the term 'faience' is a misnomer and the alternative name 'imperfect glass' has been advised.[12] Regarding variant F specimens, Lucas suggests the use of lead glazes, however it appears that lead glazing was never practiced in Ancient Egypt.[12][29]
Workshop evidence
The excavations led by Petrie at Tell-Amarna and Naucratis have reported finding workshop evidence.[13] Nicholson explains, however, that while a square furnace-like structure at Amarna may be related to faience production, Petrie did not encounter any actual faience kilns at the site.[31] Lucas documented a large number of molds at the palace area of Amenhotep III at Qantir, from 19th to 20th Dynasties, and at the palace area of Naucratis, also described in different sources as a scarab maker's and faience factory.[13][17] However, seeing there is a lack of carefully documented archaeological evidence as to the nature of faience factory sites, direct information about the glazing process does not exist.
Although recent excavations at the archaeological sites of Abydos and Amarna have supplemented our knowledge of the ancient production of faience gained from the earlier excavated sites of Lisht, Memphis and Naukratis, the differentiation of glass furnaces from faience kilns still remains problematic.[10] Replication experiments, using modern kilns and replica faience pastes, indicate that faience is fired in the range of 800–1000°C[32][33]
Current use
A number of ceramists are experimenting with Egyptian faience,
Gallery
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Floral inlay on tile fragment
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ca. 1539-1070 BC, 33.578, Brooklyn Museum. Inlaid faience tile with rebus, "All the people of the world adoring". Probably from a palace of Ramesses II or III. Height: 11.5 cm.
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Hippo, ca. 1938-1539 BC, Brooklyn Museum. Length: 10.8 cm, Dynasty XII
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Shawabti Basket, ca. 1400-1390 BC, 59.33,shabti, inscribed with the name of the "Great Royal Wife Ti'a", Queen of Amenhotep II.
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Senet gameboard, with counters and sliding drawer to contain them, ca. 1390-1353 BC, Brooklyn Museum. Blue faience with ornament and markings in black. Inscribed with Horus name of King Amenhotep III.
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A faience vase fabricated in part from natron, dating to the New Kingdom of Egypt (c. 1450–1350 BC).
Notes
- ISBN 978-0-500-20396-5.
- ^ a b c d "glazed composition". The British Museum. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
- ^ a b Grose, David Frederick (1999). The Toledo Museum of Art, Early Ancient Glass: Core-Formed, Rod-Formed, and Cast Vessels and Objects from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Roman Empire, 1600 BC to AD 50. Manchester: Hudson Hills Press. p. 29.
- ISBN 978-1-107-27638-3.
- ^ Louvre: Hippopotamus figurine, Department of Egyptian Antiquities: From the late prehistoric period to the late Middle Kingdom (circa 3800 - 1710 BC)
- ^ "Sceptre | V&A Search the Collections". Collections.vam.ac.uk. 2013-11-04. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Nicholson, P.T. and Peltenburg, E. (2000). Egyptian faience. In Nicholson, P.T. and Shaw, I. (eds.) Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 177-194.
- S2CID 130436039.
- ^ Grose, David Frederick (1999). The Toledo Museum of Art, Early Ancient Glass: Core-Formed, Rod-Formed, and Cast Vessels and Objects from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Roman Empire, 1600 BC to AD 50. Manchester: Hudson Hills Press. p. 45.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Nicholson 1998. Nicholson, P.T.1993. Egyptian faience and glass. Aylesbury: Shire- Egyptology.137–142.
- ^ Friedman, F.D. (ed.). 1998. Gifts of the Nile-ancient Egyptian faience. London: Thames and Hudson. 177-194.137–142.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Kaczamrcyz, A. and Hedges. R.E.M. 1983. Ancient Egyptian Faience. Warminster: Aris and Phillips.137–142.
- ^ a b c d e Petrie, W. M. F.1909. Memphis I, London: British School of Archeology in Egypt.137–142.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Vandiver, P.B.F.1983. Egyptian faience technology, Appendix A. In: A. Kaczmarczyk and R.E.M. Hedges, Editors, Ancient Egyptian Faience, Warminster: Aris and Phillips, A1–A14
- ^ a b Kiefer, C. and Allibert, A. 2007. Pharanoic Blue Ceramics: the Process of Self-glazing. Archeology 24, 107–117
- ^ a b Noble, J. V. 1969. The technique of Egyptian faience. American Journal of Archaeology 73, 435–439
- ^ a b c d e f Lucas, A.; Harris, J. R. (1962). Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries. London: Edward Arnold. pp. 435–439.
- ^ Kühne, K. 1974 "Frühgeschichtliche Werkstoffe auf Silikatischer Basis", Das Altertum 20, 67–80
- ^ Notes on the manufacture and use of faience rings at Amarna. In: Kemp, B.J. Amarna Reports V. London: Egypt Exploration Society. 160-168, 160–168
- S2CID 224873688.
- ^ Kiefer, C. 1968 Les céramiques blues, pharanoiques et leur procédé révolutionnaire d'emaillage. Industrie Céramique. May, 395–402
- ^ a b c Shortland, A.J. and Tite M.S. 2005. A technological study of Ptolemaic – early roman faience from Memphis, Egypt Archaeometry 47/1, 31–46 31–46
- ISBN 0870994131, 9780870994135, google books
- .
- ^ a b Binns. 1932. An experiment in Egyptian blue glaze. Journal of the American Ceramic Society 31–46
- ^ a b Wulff, H. E.; Wulff, H. S.; Koch, L. (1968). "Egyptian faience - a possible survival in Iran". Archeology. 21: 98–107.
- ^ Williamson, R.S.1942. The Saqqara Graph. Nature 150, 607–607
- ^ Tite, M.S., Freestone I.C. and Bimson. M. 1983. Egyptian faience: an investigation of the methods of production, Archaeometry 25, 17–27
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Tite, M.S. and Bimson, M. 1986. Faience: an investigation of the microstructures associated with the different methods of glazing, Archaeometry 28, 69–78
- ^ Brill, R.H. 1999. Chemical Analyses of Early Glasses: Volume 1 (tables) and Volume 2 (catalogue), Corning, NY: Corning Museum of Glass., 69–78
- ^ Nicholson, Egyptian Faience and Glass, 30.
- ^ Verges, F.B. 1992. Bleus Egyptiennes. Paris: Louvain. 69–78
- ^ Stocks, D.A.1997. Derivation of ancient Egyptian faience core and glaze materials. Antiquity 71/271, 179–182
- ^ Thornton, Tim. "Egyptian Faience". Retrieved 21 October 2012.
- ^ a b Hoskins, Stephen. "Can Egyptian Paste Techniques (Faience) Be Used For 3D Printed, Solid Free-form Fabrication of Ceramics?". Archived from the original on 2 November 2017. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
Further reading
- Binns. 1932. An experiment in Egyptian blue glaze. Journal of the American Ceramic Society.
- "BM": "glazed composition", British Museum term note
- Boyce, A. 1989. Notes on the manufacture and use of faience rings at Amarna. In: Kemp, B.J. Amarna Reports V. London: Egypt Exploration Society. 160–168.
- Brill, R.H. 1999. Chemical Analyses of Early Glasses: Volume 1 (tables) and Volume 2 (catalogue), Corning, NY: Corning Museum of Glass,
- Clark, Robin JH, and Peter J. Gibbs. 1997. "Non‐Destructive In Situ Study of Ancient Egyptian Faience by Raman Microscopy." ‘’Journal of Raman Spectroscopy ‘’ 28 (2–3): 99–103.
- Dayton, J.E. Minerals, Metals, Glazing and Man. Edinburgh: Harrap Publishers. 1978.
- Friedman, F.D. (ed.). 1998. Gifts of the Nile-ancient Egyptian faience. London: Thames and Hudson.
- Henderson, Julian, Robert Morkot, E. J. Peltenburg, Stephen Quirke, Margaret Serpico, John Tait, and Raymond White. 2000. ‘’Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology.’’ Cambridge University Press.
- Lucas, A. and Harris, J. R., 1962, Ancient Egyptian materials and industries. London: Edward Arnold.
- Kaczmarczyk, A. and Hedges. R.E.M. 1983. Ancient Egyptian Faience. Warminster: Aris and Phillips.
- Kiefer, C. and Allibert, A. 2007. Pharanoic Blue Ceramics: the Process of Self-glazing. Archaeology 24, 107-117.
- Kiefer, C. 1968. Les céramiques blues, pharanoiques et leur procédé révolutionnaire d'emaillage. Industrie Céramique. May 395-402.
- Kühne, K. 1974 "Frühgeschichtliche Werkstoffe auf Silikatischer Basis", Das Altertum 20, 67-80
- Nicholson, P.T.1993. Egyptian faience and glass. Aylesbury: Shire- Egyptology.
- Nicholson, P.T. and Peltenburg, E. 2000. Egyptian faience. In: Nicholson, P.T. and Shaw, I. Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 177–194.
- Noble, J. V. 1969. The technique of Egyptian faience. American Journal of Archaeology 73, 435–439.
- Rehren, Th. 2008. "A review of factors affecting the composition of early Egyptian glasses and faience: alkali and alkali earth oxides." ‘’Journal of Archaeological Science’’ 35 (5): 1345–54.
- Shortland, A.J. and Tite M.S. 2005. A technological study of Ptolemaic – early roman faience from Memphis, Egypt Archaeometry 47/1, 31–46.
- Stone, J. F. S. and Thomas, L. C. 1956. The Use and Distribution of Faience in the Ancient East and Prehistoric Europe, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, London 22, 37–84.
- Stocks, D.A.1997. Derivation of ancient Egyptian faience core and glaze materials. Antiquity 71/271, 179–182.
- Petrie, W. M. F.1909. Memphis I, London: British School of Archeology in Egypt.
- Tite, M.S. and Bimson, M. 1986. Faience: an investigation of the microstructures associated with the different methods of glazing, Archaeometry 28, 69–78.
- Tite, M.S., Freestone I.C. and Bimson. M. 1983. Egyptian faience: an investigation of the methods of production, Archaeometry 25, 17–27.
- Vandiver P.B. 1983. Egyptian faience technology, Appendix A. In: A. Kaczmarczyk and R.E.M. Hedges, Editors, Ancient Egyptian Faience, Warminster: Aris and Phillips, A1–A144.
- Vandiver, P. and Kingery, W.D. 1987. Egyptian Faience: the first high-tech ceramic. In Kingery, W.D. ed., Ceramics and Civilisation 3, Columbus OH: American Ceramic Society, 19–34.
- Verges, F.B. 1992. Bleus Egyptiennes. Paris: Louvain
- Wulff, H. E., Wulff, H. S. and Koch, L., 1968. Egyptian faience - a possible survival in Iran. Archeology 21, 98–107. www.qomtechnique.com
- Williamson, R.S.1942. The Saqqara Graph. Nature 150, 607-607.
- Whitford, Michelle F.; Wyatt-Spratt, Simon; Gore, Damian B.; Johnsson, Mattias T.; Power, Ronika K.; Rampe, Michael; Richards, Candace; Withford, Michael J. (2020-10-01). "Assessing the standardisation of Egyptian shabti manufacture via morphology and elemental analyses". Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. 33: 102541. S2CID224873688.