Egyptian Faience

Scholars and excavators once applied the designation “faience” to a class of glazed material found in Egypt because it had a superficial resemblance to the glazed pottery made in the Italian region of Faenza. As is true with a number of early designations for Egyptian materials, objects, and types, faience has become a traditional term even though it is incorrect. It is better to differentiate it from the European pottery by referring to it as “Egyptian faience.” It is not ceramic, if the definition of ceramic is restricted to material made from clay. The word “ceramic,” after all, is derived from the Greek word keramos, which means “potter’s clay.” There is no clay in Egyptian faience except rather late in history, when some objects were made with an admixture of clay to the faience material.

Egyptian faience is a material composed of crushed or powdered quartzite (silica) with the addition of an alkali in the form of plant ash or natron, a naturally occurring soda (sodium sesquicarbonate) found in the deserts of Egypt, particularly in the Wadi Natrun, to the west of the Nile in the north. The ash or soda acts as a flux that makes it possible for the heated silica to fuse and become glassy by reducing the melting point of the silica. In addition to the two main constitutions, silica and alkali, a small amount of lime or other minerals, particularly copper compounds, were added to provide color. In experiments attempting to produce faience in modern times it has been estimated that faience fused at temperatures between 800 and 1,000 degrees centigrade, well within the limits possible with the ancient kilns.

Predynastic Period – Circa 5300–3000 BCE

Areas of North Africa along the south coast of the Mediterranean Sea began to become attractive for settlement after the end of the last Ice Age (around 10,000 BCE), especially where there was an available supply of fresh water. The Nile River and the small but fertile areas around its banks were particularly appealing to the peoples who were just beginning to emerge from a nomadic lifestyle and starting to seek hospitable locations in which to settle. From 10,000 to about 5000 BCE there is little preserved evidence of advancement in lifestyles from those of the Late Paleolithic (Old Stone Age). The evidence for these first dwellers in the Nile valley consists mainly of stone tools of types recognized in other parts of the world during the prehistoric period, primarily implements developed for chopping, pounding, and scraping. There is only some scattered evidence of art as it is known in other areas of the prehistoric world. There is a small number of examples of images and designs scratched on the rock outcroppings in desert areas, but there are also petroglyphs preserved in the Nile valley itself.

The beginnings of more advanced cultural directions can be documented by physical evidence during the period between roughly 5000 and 4500 BCE. This is the start of an age that Egyptologists term the Predynastic Period, literally the time before the recorded dynasties (groups of hereditary rulers). The approximately fifteen hundred years (4500 to around 3000 BCE) that make up the last phase of the Predynastic Period were a time of rapid change and development. The practices of agriculture, including the cultivation of emmer wheat, barley, and flax, and the domestication of animals, especially sheep, goats, and pigs, became central to life as villages and towns expanded and were organized to accommodate larger groups of people who chose to live together for mutual aid and protection. The rapid advancement in agriculture implies that the early dwellers also began to design and use more complex tools in the process.

1. As for the grain basket which you made, it is of coarse coiling....

2. Have another made which is of fine material.

3. From a letter

Basketry

Examples of basketry have been discovered from the Neolithic Period, including fragments of rush matting and the basket linings of grain storage bins. These prove that the processes of employing plant fibers to produce useful objects date back to the very beginnings of settlement on the banks of the Nile. There is also ample proof to show that baskets continued to be used throughout Egyptian history. The bulk of the evidence comes from the material that has been preserved in the dry atmosphere of tombs as a part of the religious beliefs that the spirit of the deceased should be provided for with material comforts in the next life. There are also numerous depictions of baskets in tomb paintings as they were used in agricultural activity and as containers for the offerings for the spirit of the deceased.

One of the most important uses of basketry and baskets in ancient Egypt was the safe storage of household and personal objects. Since the typical furnishings did not include wooden units that were particularly designed for storage (other than boxes), baskets served an important purpose for almost all classes. Unfortunately the physical conditions of preservation since antiquity were not always ideal. Basketry made from plant parts and fibers cannot withstand the ravages of insects or any exposure to humidity. As a consequence we know less about the use of baskets and other objects made with basketry techniques than objects made of other materials.

The study of ancient Egypt and ancient Egyptian culture has most often concentrated on the language, history, religion, and prominent monuments. Certainly attention has been paid to the activities of the Egyptians and the objects and processes that made them possible, but not to the same degree. With some rare exceptions archaeologists and historians did not always treat the ordinary tools and utensils with the consideration they deserved. To properly understand the material world in which the Egyptians lived and worked, the emphasis has to be redirected to a certain extent to remedy this. Still, there are bits and pieces of information embedded in histories and narratives that bear reexamination.

It is only natural that those things that made the ancient Egyptians seem different or unusual should command the most attention – pyramids and mummies being the most familiar examples. From the Greek and Roman authors and travelers to the present day, the emphasis, when examining and discussing Egypt, has been to a great extent on the spectacular, the unusual, and the mysterious. Herodotus, writing in the fifth century BCE, went to lengths to describe the country, its geography, and its history as he understood it. He also concerned himself with Egyptian religion and the gods and how they related to the customs and beliefs of the Greeks, but when he came to a discussion of activities and customs, he stressed differences, in part to emphasize some similarities.

The problems related to personal hygiene in ancient Egypt were not greatly different than in any other ancient or modern developing civilization. It is ironic that the problems were only made more complex and difficult to solve by the side effects of the two important physical realities that made life possible. These were the incessant heat of the sun and the abundant waters of the river Nile. While the constant sunshine was a great benefit, for it provided heat and light and was incidentally a source of vitamin D, it dried or burned the skin and also encouraged the breeding of insects that could transmit disease. The Nile was not only directly responsible for the fertility of the land, as well as providing the most important source of water for drinking and bathing, it also functioned as an all-too-handy waste removal system. The unintentional result of the two “assets” was a continued cycle of disease transmission.

When the prehistoric hunter-gatherers lived a nomadic life and constantly moved from place to place, they regularly abandoned temporary sites that were no longer habitable. In the process they left behind accumulated human and animal waste and garbage that was alive with vermin, parasites, and the consequent disease-breeding potential that they represent. When people began to establish permanent settlements and villages in the Nile valley, this regular process of cleansing by relocation by and large came to an end. Life in settlements brought with it conditions that encouraged the transmission of disease and the proliferation of parasites. For most of the population during the span of Egyptian history permanent housing usually meant conditions of constant crowding, poor ventilation, and little or no sanitary facilities as we know them today.