Egyptian Pottery

The mass ceramic material discovered by the Russian Archaeological Mission of the IOS RAS during 22 years of research in the eastern part of the ancient Egyptian Giza Necropolis belongs to a significant chronological interval from the reign of the Dynasty IV (26th–25th centuries B.C.) till the 19th century A.D. It is an indicator of the chronological multilayeredness of Giza, allowing to recreate a phased picture of the life of this archaeological site – from specific functional features of the ancient cemetery through periods of robberies and creation of secondary burials to the use of tombs as dwellings by Christian and Islamic population of Egypt. The full history of the formation and existence of the eastern part of Giza Necropolis is thus about 4.5 thousand years.

Archaeological exploration of Old Kingdom cemeteries provides us with a considerable amount of vessels containing inside traces or, in some cases, even thick layers of white substance, whether mortar, plaster or gypsum, coming from diverse contexts. While these vessels are undoubtedly part of what can be dubbed as repurposed and secondarily reused pottery, they should not be simply overlooked or ignored, as they often provide indirect evidence of rituals or activities closely connected to performing rituals. Their presence in the burial chambers, shafts and cultic areas can often signify either sealing or purifying rites that were executed during the burial or in the course of later ritual activities.

The Austrian archaeological team led by Manfred Bietak that excavated the palatial district at Avaris (Tell el-Dab‘a) has produced some significant results for illuminating Lower Egypt’s history of the 2nd millennium BC. While Bietak’s subsequent publications related to the New Kingdom primarily have focused on the exquisite Minoan wall paintings and the site’s association with Peru-nefer, much less attention has centered on the timing of the mid-18th-Dynasty abandonment that Bietak says occurred “after Amenhotep II,” and was followed by an occupational gap. Did the abandonment occur during the reign of Amenhotep II, at the end of his reign, or during the reign of Thutmose IV? The present work seeks to bring together all of the relevant data—from the archaeological evidence at the site, the epigraphical record, and corroborative evidence from Theban tomb paintings—in an attempt to determine more precisely the timing of the site's mid-18th-Dynasty abandonment.

The so-called tomb of Duapthah (AS 68a) was the first of a series of four rock-cut tombs, uncovered during the spring of 2012 in the complex of Princess Sheretnebty, who was most likely the daughter of King Nyuserre. This tomb is situated at the southwest corner of her open pillared court, with the entrance accessible directly from the court. The name of the main owner is preserved on two fragments of a lintel that was originally situated above the entrance. The tomb consisted of a simple, slightly irregular chapel that had two shafts sunk into its floor. The fill of the chapel consisted not only of Fifth Dynasty pottery but also late Sixth Dynasty ceramics that most likely evidences subsequent ritual activities or the robbing of the tomb. In this paper, ceramic finds uncovered in the funerary contexts of the tomb of Duaptah are discussed, especially the remains of the original tomb good deposited in the burial chambers and the remnants of possible shaft deposits in both burial shafts.

Thomas, R. I. 2018: Ptolemaic, Roman and Byzantine pottery. in A. Villing, M. Bergeron, G.Bourogiannis, A. Johnston, F. Leclère, A. Masson and R. Thomas,  Naukratis: Greeks in Egypt.  The British Museum, Online Research Catalogue.

Pottery is by far the most common artefact group found at Naukratis, and the Ptolemaic to Byzantine pottery spans over 10 centuries of the settlement’s history, from 331 BC until around AD 650. For this reason it is of particular importance for our understanding of the changing communities living at and visiting Naukratis over this long and dynamic period. Even though the assemblage known to us today is a heterogeneous selection made by successive excavators with different sampling strategies, careful assessment of the abundant evidence enables us to investigate the three key questions often asked of such assemblages: date, origin and function. The chapter surveys the large and varied assemblage so as to provide the reader with a good understanding of these broad questions, whilst also investigating, where possible, the complex and nuanced role of pottery in the expression of identities within the cosmopolitan communities of Naukratis.

Surveys led to the discovery of several late Early Dynastic – early Old Kingdom campsites around the Maghāra Abū ʿAzīz calcite alabaster quarry in Middle Egypt. An overview of a selection of pottery types is presented and compared with pottery from nearby contemporary sites.

The primary aim of this case study is to offer a discussion of select archaeological contexts from the region of the Memphite necropolis that contained copper tools or their models. The selection is based on several main factors – primarily, the presence of both copper implements and chronologically relevant ceramic vessels from the same contexts. Thus, the primary focus is on the tombs of higher officials and members of the elite from Giza, Saqqara, Abusir and Meidum, presenting preliminary outline of development of burial customs concerning the pottery for the whole period of the Old Kingdom. The analysis shows that the study of ancient Egyptian pottery and its chronological development is a complex matter that cannot be easily summarized and simplified into a clear formula. There was no production of standardized ceramics during the Old Kingdom and even such close sites as Saqqara and Abusir may exhibit different types in the same period of time, attesting to the fact that unlike the copper tools and their models, most of the pottery was produced at a very local level and besides the technological experience of the given pottery shop, personal preferences of specific potters may have played a role in the creation of less common vessels.

In 2010, a previously seldom documented find was made in the course of excavations undertaken by the German Archaeological Institute Cairo in the necropolis of Dra‘ Abu el-Naga in Western Thebes. Several lumps of dried Nile mud were uncovered that were densely interspersed with germinated cereal grains. The, in total, three examples were found in the forecourt of a saff tomb dating to the Second Intermediate Period together with ritual vessels, parts of plants and layers of ash.

This paper concentrates on the interpretation of the ceramic finds from Shaft 1 of tomb AS 68c and its burial chamber, which belonged most probably to the unnamed husband of Princess Sheretnebty. These finds are extraordinary not only because of their quantity but also due to the archaeological context in which they were found, namely an at least partially intact floor layer in the burial chamber and possible depositional layers in the burial shaft. The first part of this paper analyses the general qualities of the ceramic assemblage from each context and concentrates on typological observations and dating specifications. The last section is devoted to a discussion of the possible evidence of the depositional and post-depositional processes that occurred in this area with an outline of the theories connected to each context.

The excavations of PETRIE and QUIBELL, respectively in Naqada and Ballas, at the end of the 19th century led to the discovery of thousands of tombs, and vast amounts of pottery from the early Predynastic period to the early Old Kingdom. These pots were then used by PETRIE to develop his system of sequence dating.
Problematic is that both PETRIE and QUIBELL used an identical tomb number system for approximately the first 900 graves, and during the later division of finds, objects from a tomb in one site ended up being assigned to a grave with an identical tomb number from the other site.
BAUMGARTEL tracked down many of these objects, and tried to identify the finds from Naqada tombs, thus creating her Naqada tomb catalogue supplement, clearly stating that nothing of Ballas is included in it, because she considered the Ballas tombs too poorly documented. Later on, PAYNE also made a list of further corrections and additions to this Naqada tomb catalogue.
A close examination of the edited tomb catalogue indicates that certain pots from Ballas were, nevertheless, still wrongfully assigned to Naqada tombs. This is most apparent with early Old Kingdom pottery forms, whereby these were incorrectly given a Predynastic date. As said before, mistakes were made during the division of finds, and these entered museum and institute records, which were consequently taken over by BAUMGARTEL. Had she consulted the Ballas notebooks, she would have recognized that these pots did not derive from a Predynastic Naqada tomb, but from the early Old Kingdom Ballas tomb with the identical tomb number. As a result, the appearance date of certain pottery types is wrongfully determined. The recent discovery of pottery slips, made by PETRIE, of Naqada and Ballas tombs, provide further proof of the mix-up.
Furthermore, comparing the Ballas notebooks with tomb drawings and associated pottery types in the end publication, revealed a number of additional errors, which again have led to dating problems.
In the presentation an overview of the issues raised above will be given, so that museum and other records can be adjusted, and that certain “Naqada” pots can be reassigned to the site where they were originally found, i.e. Ballas.

Bibliography
W. M. F. PETRIE and J. E. QUIBELL, Naqada and Ballas (London, 1896)
E. J. BAUMGARTEL, Petrie's Naqada excavation: a supplement (London, 1970)
J. C. PAYNE, 'Appendix to Naqada excavations supplement', JEA 73 (1987), 181-189.

Since its discovery by Battiscombe Gunn, it is believed that Saqqara's Ostrakon is able to improve our understanding of how Egyptians designed curved elements, but the geometric significance of the hieratic values is still uncertain. Indeed, in order to obtain an indisputable result, the distance between the vertical ordinates is required, and this distance is not explicitly indicated on the limestone artefact.
But since there were no algebraic formulas at the time of the Pharaohs, a simple grid-based procedure was developed such as those used by the Egyptians to reproduce the scale drawings, to try to decipher the geometric meaning of the curve drawn on the find.
To conclude, this simple process permits to understand that the five hieratic values of the Saqqara Ostrakon describe a segmental arch whose span and rise correspond to the architectural proportions of several Egyptian tombs and arches, and that the numerical sequence of the artefact could be considered the most "ancient" mathematical formula of the circle.

Since its discovery by Battiscombe Gunn, it is believed that Saqqara's Ostrakon is able to improve our understanding of how Egyptians designed curved elements, but the geometric significance of the hieratic values is still uncertain. Indeed, in order to obtain an indisputable result, the distance between the vertical ordinates is required, and this distance is not explicitly indicated on the limestone artefact.
But since there were no algebraic formulas at the time of the Pharaohs, a simple grid-based procedure was developed such as those used by the Egyptians to reproduce the scale drawings, to try to decipher the geometric meaning of the curve drawn on the find.
To conclude, this simple process permits to understand that the five hieratic values of the Saqqara Ostrakon describe a segmental arch whose span and rise correspond to the architectural proportions of several Egyptian tombs and arches, and that the numerical sequence of the artefact could be considered the most "ancient" mathematical formula of the circle.

ABSTRACT-The boat depictions that adorn pre-dynastic Gerzean, Naqada II, D-ware pottery  vases are often described as ‘sickle boats.’ This familarity barely hides the deep problem of their unrealistic portrayal. A recognition of the practicality and importance of these fourth millennium BC ships to the founding of Egypt and its extensive Mediterranean trade will only be brought into focus by deciphering these distorted images and in the process of inspection, other clues will be found as to the prowess of these early navigators.
Compelling evidence to support a novel view of how these boats should be seen comes from peculiarities noted by documentors of ship petroglyphs north of Aswan, which the authors have stylistically dated to a similar era  to the Gerzean pots. In proposing a solution this paper complements ‘The prehistoric navigation compass and seaworthy ships of the fifth to second millennium BC’ (Hill 2014) and will prepare the ground for papers about the  founding of  the Copper Age in Britain and Ireland in the third millennium BC and The Clodgy Moor Boat Slate whose prehistoric creator has directed this floruit of documents.

In the past the settlement pattern of middle Holocene Egypt was based on the presence or absence of material correlates including structures, stone tools, pottery, and domesticated plants and animals. Together these formed the traits of a Neolithic package that were thought to spread from southwest Asia to Egypt during the middle Holocene. Modern research now shows that the traits attributed to the Neolithic package did not develop uniformly over time and space, so the package concept is less useful. Contemporary approaches focus on processes such as mobility, occupation duration, and use-of-place to draw inferences about settlement pattern. These are measured through analysis of material culture such as stone artefacts and the placement of features on a landscape. However, more examples are required that use material culture types that are abundant and preserve well, such as pottery. Past research has focused on the analysis of a small proportion of pottery assemblages, typically whole vessels and decorated sherds, both used to form typologies and identify cultural groupings. Similarities in decorative styles or vessel forms are used to infer movement between different cultural groups. However, these culture-historical interpretations mean that large volumes of un-diagnostic sherds are often disregarded. This research uses non-destructive methods, such as x-ray fluorescence (XRF) and fragmentation ratios, to analyse all artefacts in pottery assemblages to understand the impact of the previously noted processes. XRF analysis is used to identify the geochemical signatures of the materials used in pottery manufacture. This analysis enables the identification of pottery that is not likely made locally and so provides a proxy for movement. The differential fragmentation of pottery is used in estimates of how many vessels the sherds in an assemblage represent and so provides a means for assessing occupation duration. Pottery from several places in Egypt that date to the middle Holocene are compared. Results suggest movement between locations beyond what was previously inferred based on culture-historical interpretations. These results are interpreted in the wider North African context.

"The main point is that when one takes into account what we know about ancient Egyptian mathematics (based primarily on the Rhind Papyrus) and what we know about the system of measuring lengths in terms of "cubits," "palms," and "fingers" , everything involves  the number 7 and its multiple.

Decorative and applied art is born in the interaction of traditions and the constant search for new forms. The enormous potential of the knowledge gained over the past decades in the study of objects from archaeological excavations, ethnographic observations of the results often remain out of sight of contemporary artists. On the other hand, many scientific reconstructions remain speculative, and discoveries are unclaimed. Synthesis of theoretical and practical knowledge will allow to solve this problem. Conference aim is interaction of science and practice, the study of decorative and applied arts in archeology, ethnography, art history and the synthesis of traditions and innovations in contemporary art In the key topic of the theme "From Crafts to Art", it is planned to hold annual conferences within the framework of the cycle: — ceramics and glass; — textiles and other fabrics; — metalwork; — arts and crafts: traditions and innovations 2018 meeting topic is " CERAMICS: TECHNOLOGY, DECOR, STYLE " The following questions will be under discussion: — technology and technique of manufacturing and ornamentation of pottery; — interaction of technology, decor and form in ceramic products; — figurative and abstract shapes in pottery. A common theme for all conferences: — synthesis of technology and forms in various kinds of arts and crafts We invite practitioners, theoreticians, teachers, graduate students and undergraduates to participate in the conference. Proceedings of the conference will be issued in electronic and printed form.