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FAIENCE
faience falcon
Some of the most beautiful objects from ancient Egypt are made of a kind of ceramics called faience. Paul Nicholson of the University of Wales wrote: “Faience has been described as “the first high-tech ceramic”, which aptly describes its artificial nature. Unlike conventional, clay-based ceramics, the raw material of faience is a mixture of silica (quartz), alkali (soda), and lime reacted together during firing to make a new medium, quite different in nature to its constituents. The Egyptians referred to the material as THnt (tjehenet) “that which is brilliant, scintillating, or dazzling,” in view of its reflective qualities, which they associated with the shiny surfaces of semiprecious stones. [Source: Paul Nicholson, University of Wales, Cardiff, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2009, escholarship.org ]
Faience derives its modern name from its bright colors, which reminded early travelers to Egypt of “Fayence,” a colorful tin-glazed pottery that they knew from late medieval times and that took its name from the town of Faenza in northern Italy (confusingly, this pottery is itself now usually called majolica). The color most associated with the material is blue or blue-green and was probably produced in imitation of semiprecious stones such as turquoise and green feldspar, as well as lapis lazuli. The Egyptian name for the material was THnt (tjehenet), meaning “brilliant” or “dazzling” in reference to its brilliant shine, like that of the stones it was imitating.
“Traditional craftsmen did not work to the kinds of precise formulas now employed in industrial manufacturing. As a result, variations in faience composition are to be expected and numerous faience recipes are known. Vandiver states that a fairly typical bulk composition is: Silica (SiO2) 92 – 99 percent, Lime (CaO) 1 – 5 percent, “Soda” (Na2O) 0 – 5 percent To this mixture may be added small quantities of copper oxide (CuO), magnesium oxide (MgO), and potassium oxide (K2O), along with quantities of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) and traces of other elements. It should be noted that the form in which these substances (which show as oxides in analyses) were added is not known with certainty. The silica makes up the body of the material. However, unlike the components of glass manufacture, the soda and lime are not present in sufficient quantity to melt the silica completely at the production temperatures; rather, they serve to react with the silica to form a small amount of glass that binds the silica grains.”
Faience in Ancient Egypt
There are no known images that show how faience was made. The oldest faience objects date close of the Old Kingdom; they are beads from the nets and collarettes, which were worn as ornaments, both by the living and the dead. Of the time of the Middle Kingdom, in addition to similar ornaments, we have a small vase bearing the name of King Senusret I. By the time of the New Kingdom there are also various kinds of beads, small amulets, and many other objects of this same material, such as bowls, tiles, funerary statuettes, dolls, caricatures, etc., and even small statues. Some of the most stunning faience pieces include the funerary statuette of the high priest Ptahmose at Giza, in which we see pastes of various fusibility sharply and clearly side by side; a dwarf figures of gods at now at the Berlin Museum. [Source: Adolph Erman, “Life in Ancient Egypt”, 1894]
Paul Nicholson of the University of Wales wrote: ““The origin of faience is probably to be sought in the Egyptian desire for semiprecious stones, not least those with the reflective blue color of the sky. It may have been the wish to replicate these that led to the glazing of steatite (soapstone, which hardens to become enstatite on firing) and quartz. The glazing of these stones developed as early as Predynastic times, when a soda-lime-silicate glaze was applied over the carved stones. Peltenburg has made the point that faience glazing was an essentially “cold working” technology, unlike glass, which was “hot worked.” By this is meant that the faience worker prepared his object and glazing materials cold, the firing of the object being done at a later stage. This technique also applies to the glazing of stone and indicates a clear link between craftsmen in semiprecious stones and glazing in the earliest phase of the production of glazed materials. [Source: Paul Nicholson, University of Wales, Cardiff, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2009, escholarship.org ]
Blue faience saucer and stand, New Kingdom (1400–1325 BC)
“It is not clear how the transition from objects carved from stone to objects made from what is essentially a reconstituted and modified stone (comprising crushed quartz or sand and alkali) was made, but it happened during the Predynastic Period and was already well established by Early Dynastic times. It may have been driven by the desire to achieve more detailed “carvings” than could readily be produced from solid quartz and yet preserve a greater brilliance than normally found on glazed steatite. The steps in this discovery are not known, but the result is essentially a reconstituted stone to which the name “Egyptian faience” has been given. It is worth noting that Egyptian faience, more frequently referred to simply as “faience,” is not exclusive to Egypt but is well known elsewhere in the Near East and the Aegean, and is found in smaller quantities in Europe where it was produced, and probably developed, independently.
"As with all ancient materials the resources necessary for faience production had to be sourced from within the landscape. In the case of faience these materials would comprise silica (quartz, either in the form of pebbles, which could be crushed, or quartz sand) and an alkali (soda in the form of natron from the Wadi Natrun or other lesser sources, or from the ash of burnt plants). To these would be added lime (intentionally or not), either naturally present in the sand or from crushed or calcined (heated) limestone. Color was normally achieved by the addition of metal compounds, most notably copper.
Egyptian Blue — The World’s Oldest Artificial Pigment — and Its Applications
Nikhil Swaminathan wrote in Archaeology magazine: Egyptian blue is known as the world’s oldest artificial pigment, first used more than 4,500 years ago, found on wall paintings at Luxor and sculptures recovered from the Parthenon. The hue comes from a compound called calcium copper tetrasilicate. Over the past decade, museum conservators and archaeologists have taken advantage of its properties to spot the presence of Egyptian blue on antiquities: When red light is shone on the pigment, it reflects infrared light, which can be detected via night-vision goggles or cameras. [Source:Nikhil Swaminathan, Archaeology magazine, May-June 2013]
In 2013 Chemists at the University of Georgia (UGA) announced that had determined that the luminescent quality of calcium copper tetrasilicate is retained even when the compound is reduced to what are termed “nanosheets,” a thousand times thinner than a human hair. “Even if you have a single layer, the thinnest possible, you still get the effect,” explains UGA’s Tina Salguero. At that scale, she believes, you can start thinking about modern applications. Salguero says that Egyptian blue’s primary molecule could be incorporated into a dye to improve medical imaging, since the infrared radiation it would reflect can pass through human tissue. The pigment’s luminescent quality could also be effective for developing new types of security ink, typically used to secure currencies and other official documents from forgery. Further, the possibilities for a second act for the long-out-of-use coloring extend to devices such as light-emitting diodes and optical fibers, both of which transmit signals using the relatively long wavelength of infrared light.
Egyptian blue
In 2016, researchers announced that they had unexpectedly found evidence of Egyptian blue in sections of paintings from Egypt’s Roman era that lack even a hint of visible blue coloring. These areas include swaths of gray background, a white tunic and mantle, and an under-drawing outlining a face. The paintings are part of a collection of mummy portraits and panel fragments housed at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, and are thought to date to the second century A. D. [Source: Daniel Weiss, Archaeology magazine, January-February 2016]
“Using an array of technologies, including near-infrared luminescence and X-ray diffraction, the researchers were able to detect Egyptian blue. The pigment may have been used to subtly modulate colors or add a shiny quality. It is also possible that Egyptian blue, used at least as early as 3100 B.C., was no longer a scarce commodity by the Roman era. “We have perceived it as a pigment that was rare and expensive,” says Jane Williams, a conservator at the Hearst Museum, “but maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it was just part of what was available in the mix. ”
William the Hippo
William the Hippo refers to a cerulean statuette of a hippopotamus molded in faience The artifact is decorated with drawings of lotus flowers, which grow in marshes and symbolize regeneration and rebirth. Found inside a shaft associated with a tomb chapel in Meir, an ancient Egyptian cemetery located outside the city of Asyut, it has been dated to 1961 to 1878 B.C. [Source: Jennifer Nalewicki, Live Science, July 5, 2024
The William the Hippo statuette measures about 20 centimeters by 11 centimeters (8 inches by 5 inches). Now found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it is one of many examples of hippo sculptures crafted by ancient Egyptians. When it was discovered, three of its legs were missing and were likely broken on purpose to prevent it from doing harm in the afterlife, according to The Met. In 1931, the artifact was dubbed "William" after the British humor magazine Punch ran a cartoon about the hippo.
In Pharonic times, the Nile was home to hippos as well as crocodiles. Hippos were considered pests because they ruined crops. Robert Partridge of the BBC wrote: “The hippopotamus was a danger to boats on the river Nile, and to people working on or near the river banks. These animals were represented by the goddess Tauret, and offerings were made to her in the hope of placating her. She was also a goddess of fertility, represented as a pregnant hippopotamus. Many models of hippopotami were made of blue Egyptian faience, their bodies decorated with representations of the river plants that grew where the animals lived. [Source: Robert Partridge, BBC, February 17, 2011]
Forming Ancient Egyptian Faience Objects
Paul Nicholson of the University of Wales wrote: “In order to form an object a faience paste first had to be produced. This would involve the collection and crushing of quartz pebbles, probably using pounders and quernstones, or the collection of quartz sand. The sand itself would normally have required some crushing or grinding to render it into a flour-like powder to which crushed natron (or plant ash) and lime would be added. These ingredients too would need processing. The lime might come from crushed limestone, or from limestone that had been calcined and then reduced to powder (it might also be naturally present among the quartz sand and so be crushed and added unintentionally with the sand itself). Where plant ash soda was used the coarse material from the ashing of the plants would have to be picked or sieved out before crushing the remainder. The materials would then be mixed together in approximately the ratio presented above. The paste produced was thixotropic—that is, subject to changes in viscosity that would make it difficult to shape and prone to losing detail. [Source: Paul Nicholson, University of Wales, Cardiff, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2009, escholarship.org ]
William the Hippo
“A wide range of techniques was used for the shaping of the faience body material. An object might be roughly modeled in the soft paste, allowed to dry and then abraded to its final shape using sharp tools. This abrasion technique seems to have been widely used to make the small animal figures popular in Early Dynastic times. Where numerous identical pieces were required—for example, inlays for furniture or buildings, or amulets—then molding could be used. A pad of clay was impressed with the shape of the desired object, using an existing object or a metal or wooden former, or perhaps by carving out the clay to the desired shape. The mold was then fired and could subsequently be used to produce multiple copies of the object in faience paste. Since the object was not fired in the mold but rather tipped out of it to dry, the mold could be used many times in quick succession. Eventually the mold, which was porous, would itself soak up some of the paste materials; when efflorescent pastes were being used, the mold would eventually gain an effloresced surface and become useless. At this point it seems that the mold would be discarded and a new one made. It is likely that the glazed tiles used in the Step Pyramid complex of Djoser were made by molding and may thus serve as an early example of mass production. These tiles are believed to have been glazed using the efflorescence process (described below under Glazing), which was typical of the Old Kingdom.
“Because the faience paste is thixotropic, even molded pieces are rarely truly identical, since the material often loses detail, such as impressed hieroglyphs, as it dries. Molded pieces may therefore require some re- touching, essentially re-carving of detail, after they are removed from the mold. This has been a source of difficulty in modern replication experiments. It is worth noting, however, that modern experimenters necessarily start their work with no experience of faience production and so lack the years of expertise of the ancient practitioners. As a result, some of the difficulties inherent in the process are more obvious than they would have been in ancient times.
Large and Middle-Size Ancient Egyptian Faience Objects
Paul Nicholson of the University of Wales wrote: “Larger items, such as vessels, might be formed around a core of straw or other plant materials (as with some of the “hedgehog” figures from the Middle Kingdom), or modeled or molded in sections that were joined together (such as some of the chalices of the New Kingdom and later). There is debate about whether the potter’s wheel was used to make vessels, although Vandiver believes that it was employed from the New Kingdom onwards. In her study, Vandiver found no evidence for clay being added to the body of the vessel to increase its plasticity, but has subsequently stated that 5 - 25 percent clay was added, and that 10 percent is sufficient to facilitate throwing. Wheel throwing has been argued for the Ptolemaic and Roman periods in particular, when clay may have been included in the faience body, but there has been no agreement about whether the wheel was actually used. [Source: Paul Nicholson, University of Wales, Cardiff, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2009, escholarship.org ]
underside of a faience hippo
While faience was mostly used for the production of small items, it was also sometimes used in the production of larger pieces. One of the largest of these is a scepter inscribed for Amenhotep II found by Petrie at Naqada in 1894. The piece measures 2.158 meters in length, but is made by joining shorter sections together with faience paste. Also made for Amenhotep II is a large sphinx, 250 mm long and 140 mm high, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art . The same collection includes a faience lion holding a captive chief of Kush. Its height (0.70 m) and bulk make it among the largest pieces known. The site of Qantir has yielded a great deal of evidence for faience production and some particularly fine pieces.
“These large pieces are well known because they are exceptional in scale. However, there is an extensive size-range of objects between these and the smallest faience items, such as rings, beads, and amulets. Perhaps most common in this middle category are tiles. From Amarna and other New Kingdom sites we have many tiles probably intended for inlaying (e.g., into furniture or as decorative architectural elements). Some of these are the elaborate polychrome tiles — yet to be satisfactorily replicated — representing naturalistic subjects from the Amarna Period, as well as tiles representing the “Nine Bows” from Ramesside times. Other tiles are polychrome by virtue of deliberate and obvious inlay; these include the well-known “daisy tiles,” in which white and yellow flowers are set into circular voids in the green background, good examples of which are to be found in the Metropolitan and Petrie museums.
“A less obvious form of “tile” is the hieroglyph inlay, or sculptured piece. These can be quite large and represent individual hieroglyphic signs, or parts of the human body (hands and heads, for example), which would be used to make up composite figures for inlay into walls or furniture. A number of such pieces have survived from the vitreous- materials workshop recently excavated at Amarna.”
Glazing and Coloring Ancient Egyptian Faience
The coloring of the faience changed with the fashion of the time; as a rule, however, the two colors blue and green in various grades predominated at all periods. The reason why these two colors were preferred above all others is apparent — the blue and green objets d'art were supposed to look as if they were made of the most costly materials known to the Egyptians — lapis-lazuli and malachite. These favorite stones were imitated in various ways in Egypt, in blue and green pastes and coloring matters. [Source: Adolph Erman, “Life in Ancient Egypt”, 1894]
Paul Nicholson of the University of Wales wrote: “There are three known methods of faience production. However, as Vandiver has pointed out, the tendency of scholars to concentrate on the glazing method has sometimes obscured our view of change in the faience production process. ...It should be borne in mind that glazing techniques might sometimes be combined and individual objects might thus exhibit a confusing mixture of methods. For example, because faience paste is thixotropic and often loses detail (such as impressed hieroglyphs) as it dries, faience workers were sometimes able to restore definition by abrasion, thereby removing part of the effloresced surface. Such surface damage could be retouched using a thin solution of the efflorescent body material, i.e., a solution of the body material that contains the glazing constituents. Accordingly brush marks or secondary efflorescence layers might be introduced. [Source: Paul Nicholson, University of Wales, Cardiff, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2009, escholarship.org ]
“The earliest faience is invariably blue or green, exhibiting the full range of shades between these two colors. The coloring material was usually copper. From the New Kingdom onward, however, the color palette was extended, probably following the introduction of glass into Egypt. Kühne believed that ground glass might have been added to the faience body, thereby increasing the range of colors as well as increasing the strength of the material. Vandiver later took the same view.
“More recent work by Shortland, particularly on the material called by Lucas “Variant D,” has shown that the composition does not match that of glass, and that its addition is therefore unlikely. It is possible that the glassy phase may result from the addition of colored frit to the faience mixture. (Frit is a mixture of the ingredients of glass that have been incompletely reacted together; it is a material in its own right and can be used as a pigment or for making objects.) It is certainly true, however, that glass may have been used as an ingredient in applied glazes, especially for yellows and lime greens. Other colors were produced using transition metals such as red iron oxide. Cobalt could be used for dark blues. Whatever the main glaze color, black manganese was commonly used to add detail, such as the hieroglyphs and decorative patterns frequently seen on otherwise plain objects.”
Glazing Methods for Ancient Egyptian Faience
faience broad collar from Amarna
Paul Nicholson of the University of Wales wrote: “The the three basic glazing methods used in ancient Egypt are: 1) Application, 2) Efflorescence and 3) Cementation.. Application “is the method by which Petrie assumed all faience was made. He derived most of his information for this view from the examination of surface material at Memphis and, later, from actual excavation there. His reconstruction of the process was aided by what he knew of the manufacture of glazed ceramics in his own time. In the application method an object made of faience body material is coated with a slurry or a powdered glaze, usually before firing. This coating material contains (or is itself) the colorant, which might be copper or Egyptian blue. It is allowed to dry on the object, and once the object is fired, the coating becomes fused to give a shiny glaze. The overall coating also serves to strengthen the object and, in the case of containers intended for liquids, to make it waterproof. [Source: Paul Nicholson, University of Wales, Cardiff, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2009, escholarship.org ]
“The application method of glazing was particularly common in Ptolemaic and Roman times. At the Roman-Period site of Kom Helul at Memphis, Petrie found the remains of cylindrical containers known as “saggars,” in which stacks of vessels were placed during firing. The vessels were placed one inside the other, separated by small cones of clay (each cone’s point rested on the inside of the vessel beneath, while the cone’s broad end was attached to the stand ring of the vessel). After firing, the stack of vessels would be removed from the saggar by breaking away the cones. The cone-point would leave only a pin-prick mark in the glaze, while the breaking away of the broad end of the cone would leave a scar on the vessel’s stand ring, where it would not normally be visible. The saggars themselves became glazed over time and it is common to find examples whose interior is coated in, for example, dark blue glaze, but whose underside is light blue. This is a consequence of the fact that the saggars were stacked one above the other, as a result of which the underside of a saggar would reflect the glaze color of the saggar beneath it, while the saggar’s interior walls bore the color of the vessels stacked inside.
“The marks left on the glazed objects by the cones are a clear indication that glazing was carried out by application, as are brush marks, drips and runs of glaze, and occasional finger marks left on the objects as the glaze slurry dried. If too much glaze was used, or the firing was at too high a temperature, or for too long a time, glaze sometimes became too liquid and so pooled in the bottom of vessels, leaving a thick layer. It can be very difficult for the archaeologist to determine glazing methods—even where it is possible to examine a cross section, as in a sherd, and the problem is compounded when examining complete objects, although application leaves the clearest macroscopically detectable indications. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) is the most reliable method for determining glazing technique and, in the case of application glazing, shows, in the cross section, a clear layer of glaze upon the faience body.
“Efflorescence. This seems to have been the most common method of producing a glaze during the Pharaonic Period and is especially prevalent from at least the New Kingdom onward. In this method the materials of the faience body (paste) are mixed with the coloring material (frequently copper). The mix is prepared wet and can thus be shaped into an object, often by being pressed into a mold. As the object dries, an effloresced “scum” layer develops on the surface of the object.
“After firing in the kiln, this effloresced coating forms the colored glaze. Because the ingredients are mixed throughout the body material, rather than simply added to the surface of an already-made object, the heating causes them to fuse together and create a substantial glassy phase. (It will be recalled that faience is essentially the same as glass in its composition, and so contains materials that develop a glassy phase.) The alkali acts as a flux in faience pastes, allowing the silica to fuse at lower temperatures than would otherwise be possible. The greater amount of fluxing materials in effloresced paste—as compared to that in the other two methods of glazing faience pastes—helps to create interparticle glass (rather than interstitial glass: see Vandiver 1998: 124), which helps to bind the silica together and so produce a stronger object. By this method it became possible to produce finger rings of sufficient strength to be worn. Vandiver states: “Faience bodies are the complex process of glassmaking stopped in the middle as described by a narrow range of variables. Glazes on faience bodies are the glass forming reactions carried to completion.”
The efflorescence technique is well attested at Amarna (where there are molds covered in effloresced paste), but was not recognised by Petrie, who thought that all faience was made using application. The technique was not generally noted until the 1960s, when Kühne produced a paper on this “self-glazing” technique. Since no glaze is actually added to the finished object, there are no brush marks or finger marks present from this technique, nor are there usually stand marks from kiln furniture (such as cones). However, some pieces do seem to have stood on undulating surfaces in the kiln; as a result, some marks may be found even on effloresced pieces. A clearer indication of the technique is that the glaze will be thinnest on those parts of the object where air was least able to circulate during drying. This is usually the underside, where the piece was set to dry on a board or other surface where the air could not easily circulate to produce an effloresced surface. As a result, the glaze on the underside of an inlay or vessel is often very poor and erratic; since it would not normally have been seen, it was likely unimportant to the makers. When examined under a SEM, it is obvious that there is a great deal of interparticle glass between the silica grains and that this extends to the surface, where it forms the glaze. Although this glassy phase is usually most extensive at the surface, it is present throughout.
“Cementation. This method of glazing only became known to archaeologists in the 1960s, when Wulff, Wulff, and Koch (1968) discovered it being practiced in the (contemporary) town of Qom in Iran, the site after which it takes its alternative name, the “Qom Technique.” In this method the silica making up the faience body material, along with alkali, is shaped to produce the object. Once dry, the object is placed in a container tightly packed with a powdered mixture—the glazing material—comprising lime, ash, silica, charcoal, and a colorant. A range of mixtures of these ingredients has been shown to yield a glaze. Once again this is a soda-lime-silica glaze, but its method of transfer to the object is markedly different in that it glazes by reaction with the object’s silica core, rather than by being directly applied to it. After the object has been buried in the glazing powder, the container is then placed in the kiln and fired. During the firing process there is a reaction between the surface of the object and the powder around it, whereby the object becomes glazed. Interestingly, the glazing powder not in direct contact with the silica does not become fused into a glaze, but remains as powder and can be crumbled away from the object after firing.
“Faience objects glazed by cementation have, of course, no brush marks, drip marks, or stand marks, and the technique is therefore extremely difficult to determine with confidence on a fragmentary hand specimen. Under a SEM the glaze can be seen to penetrate a little way into the silica body, which is otherwise unaffected, in marked contrast to the thick layer of what is essentially pure glaze on applied pieces, or the interparticle glass of effloresced examples.The cementation technique is thought to have occurred in Egypt from at least as early as the Middle Kingdom but is not well attested, perhaps because relatively few pieces have been scientifically examined and because it is difficult to detect with certainty.”
Firing Ancient Egyptian Faience
recreating a faience kiln
Paul Nicholson of the University of Wales wrote: “It has generally been assumed that faience was fired at temperatures of 800 – 1000°C. This is likely to be true for many pieces, whether they were prepared in a kiln or fired in the open. Unlike unglazed pottery, faience pieces tend to stick together if they come into contact with each other during firing. This can leave pieces adhered to one another in such a way that they are difficult to separate. As a result, it has usually been assumed that they were fired on trays or in saggar vessels. It is known that saggars were used in the Roman production at Memphis, and it is possible that they were also employed in the firing of some New Kingdom material. The cylindrical vessels believed to have been used for the production of glass ingots at Amarna may also have been used as small saggars for the firing of faience objects. However, the faience objects could not be set directly upon the ceramic surface during firing or they would also stick to that. It is likely that lime or possibly quartz pebbles were used as a separating layer. [Source: Paul Nicholson, University of Wales, Cardiff, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2009, escholarship.org ]
“It may be that scholars are sometimes overly focused on the scale and temperature of faience production; indeed the work of Eccleston has shown that it would be possible to manufacture faience in a simple bread-oven. Although he fired at temperatures of 800 – 900°C it is possible that a longer firing at a lower temperature might have yielded similar results, and we should be aware that small-scale production in particular might require the minimum use of materials. Although much more research needs to be done on the firing temperatures of faience, Vandiver has made some progress in this direction, noting that specimens fired at higher temperatures generally have smooth glaze, rounded bubbles, and greater penetration of glaze into the body.
“Firing structures for faience are not well known. The surviving evidence is summarized in Nicholson and Peltenburg. A series of pits, some lined with broken bricks, at Abydos, dating from the mid-Old Kingdom into the Middle Kingdom, forms the earliest known evidence for purpose-built firing structures. These pits may have operated at temperatures below those normally quoted, but this remains speculative.
“For the Middle Kingdom there is production evidence from Kerma in Nubia and from Lisht, although there is uncertainty as to whether a structure found at Lisht is a Middle Kingdom kiln or a later (intrusive) silo. Evidence for kilns is better for the New Kingdom and several possible candidates are known from Amarna site O45.1. However, it must be stressed that these latter could simply be pottery kilns. It is quite possible that faience firings took place in these, or indeed in the structures identified as possible glass kilns, since several craft- working facilities are located in close proximity. The best evidence comes from the massive Roman- Period furnaces excavated by Petrie at Memphis. These seem to have been square or rectangular in form, unlike the smaller ovoid kilns of the New Kingdom, and would have held large quantities of material in saggars. Based on inclusions in the slaggy waste material, Petrie stated that they were fired using straw; this evidence is currently being reviewed. The scale of these kilns or furnaces is such that they may have been fired at high temperatures for prolonged periods, but we should be cautious in applying existing evidence to earlier periods and to smaller scales of production.”
Faience Kilns
faience monkey
Paul Nicholson of the University of Wales wrote: “Faience kilns are sometimes referred to as furnaces by archaeologists, because it is assumed that they operated at very high temperatures, and also perhaps because in Roman times they could be very large. In fact the temperatures necessary for firing faience were usually well within the temperature range of terracotta firing (maximum 1000°C).[Source: Paul Nicholson, University of Wales, Cardiff, UK, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2010, escholarship.org ]
“Pharaonic faience was fired in numerous ways—many of them akin to the methods used to produce pottery. At Abydos, for example, there is evidence for the open firing of faience during the Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period, as well as for a possible kiln or firing structure . There is also a possible kiln from Lisht, where a faience- making area was identified.
“Much more evidence for faience production is available for the New Kingdom, not least from el-Amarna; however, there is some uncertainty about the kilns themselves. Nicholson has identified possible faience kilns at el-Amarna site O45.1, but these are of the same design as pottery kilns and their attribution to faience remains tentative. Since they occur at a locality where faience as well as pottery is known to have been made, and since both faience and pottery kilns would have operated within the same temperature ranges, they cannot definitely be ascribed to the faience-making operation. It would not be surprising to find that pottery and faience were sometimes fired in the same kilns, albeit not at the same time, since different temperatures might have been required and/or because saggars might have been needed for the faience. The excavators at el-Amarna also found large updraft kilns at O45.1, which they believe were used for firing glass. These structures, too, could have served for faience production, fired to a lower temperature than that required for the reacting together and subsequent melting of glass.
“At least some of the faience may well have been fired in saggars (see above) during the New Kingdom and later, and these are very well attested from the Roman Period at the site of Kom Helul, Memphis. Here Petrie recorded very substantial rectangular kilns, sunk up to c. 5 meters into the ground. These are currently being reinvestigated.
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons except glass making Saudi Aramco and Pinterest and the map, Science magazine
Text Sources: UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, escholarship.org ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Egypt sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Tour Egypt, Minnesota State University, Mankato, ethanholman.com; Mark Millmore, discoveringegypt.com discoveringegypt.com; Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Discover magazine, Times of London, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, BBC, Encyclopædia Britannica, Time, Newsweek, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “History of Warfare” by John Keegan (Vintage Books); “History of Art” by H.W. Janson Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.), Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.
Last updated August 2024