Egyptian faience treatment of ceramics begins by the 2nd millennium BCE. This artisan technique creates a lighter, more porous ceramic or molded glass.
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Glaze colors range from translucent earth brown tones to green, aqua and brilliant blue. Deep blue faience resembles the color of desirable gemstone lapis lazuli.
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The beautiful work above is a statuette of Egyptian Goddess Taweret, patron of women, pregnancy, childbirth and protector of young children. Images of Taweret appear on children's feeding cups and other household objects from c. 2055 BCE.
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Goddess guardians of pregnancy, childbirth, infants and nursing mothers are prominent cross-culturally. They include the Greek Goddess Eileithyia, the Kotharat of Ugarit, and Asherah of the Levant.
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Faience is made using a process of sintering quartz to coat the base material with vitreous glaze. The sintering technique applies high heat to ground quartz. The quartz coalesces into a solid or porous mass.
The high heat causes quartz to vitrify or become like glass. It can also stimulate a color change. Quartz can dramatically change color with heat, as seen in the stone ametrine.
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Temperatures have to be hotter than 1,000 °C (1,830 °F). The ceramic treatment creates a bright luster of various colors most often in transparent blue or green isotropic glass.
In Ancient Egypt the process and effect are known as tjehenet. Modern archeological terms include sintered quartz, glazed frit and glazed composition.
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"Egyptian faience" distinguishes from faience, the tin-glazed pottery from Faenza in north Italy. Faenza is a busy center of production in the late Middle Ages.
Deep blue faience resembles lapis lazuli, the first is a glass product often with a depth of several glazes, the second a brilliant blue stone. Lapis is a compound of lazurite, pyrite (fool's gold) and calcite.
Faience can be confused with the color Egyptian Blue. A light smoky shade, Egyptian blue is considered the world's first synthetic color. It's also used in blue glazes and tints.
Egyptian faience is exported and traded widely in the ancient world, and made locally in some regions. It's found as an item of trade in Mesopotamia, around the Mediterranean and in northern Europe including Scotland.
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The Greek / Northern connection is established in the Bronze Age with the creation of trading routes for Baltic amber. The Amber Roads connect from the coasts of the Baltic or North Sea.
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They travel to Mediterranean hotspots such as the Mycenaean coast, Levant, Crete and the Cyclades. Routes lead to the ancient near East and Egypt. By the middle Bronze Age trade networks include the Tin Roads and Steppe Routes. The Silk Roads come later, c. 2nd century BCE.
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The term Egyptian faience is falling out of favor, with museums and archaeologists using the term "glazed composition" instead. The British Museum clarifies:
"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 colorless but natural impurities give them a brown or greyish tint. Colorants can also be added to give it an artificial color."
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"It can be modelled by hand, thrown or molded, 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."
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"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."
The faience pieces below from Egypt show the enemies of Egypt at the time of Ramesses III (1182-1151 BCE). From left to right: two Nubians; a Philistine, an Amorite, a Syrian and a Hittite. Multi colored techniques are created with layers of glaze. Despite some age damage the given characteristics of the enemies are clear.
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Of all the color glazes and combinations none are so striking as the brilliant blue and turquoise tones, either as a translucent glaze or vitreous creation. Blue amulets and statues are traded, sold and included in burial chambers.
Clear blues reflect the intense colors of sea, rivers and sky, while glazing gives a feeling of depth and refracts light for a mystic glow. Blue faience is sometimes used as a substitute for turquoise or lapis lazuli.
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Egyptian faience is more porous than glass. It can be cast in molds for small vessels, jewelry and ornaments.
Faience is remarkable in that it contains major components of glass (silica, lime) but no clay until later periods. Despite this, Egyptian faience is often included in the class of ancient pottery. It's closer to pottery styles than to ancient Egyptian glass.
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From an ancient tomb to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the above piece (informally known as William) shows off skilled techniques and expressive artistry. Lotus flowers were painted on William's body before application of the glaze.
In ancient Egypt the hippopotamus relates to life, regeneration, and rebirth. The element Water has similar qualities. Hippos are also at the top of the world's most dangerous animals lists.
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The Pharaoh Menes, legendary first king of a unified Egypt, (c. 2925 BCE) is killed by a hippo after a reign of 62 years. The ancient Egyptians revere the power of these animals, and observe how mother hippos fiercely guard their young.
Depictions of hippos, such as statuettes, seals, artifacts and amulets can grant the qualities of animals to the owners of the talismans. Trade in god statuettes is lucrative. Some deities such as Bes are adopted by other cultures.
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Bes originally comes from the Land of Punt, south of Egypt, and is adopted by the Egyptians. A pygmy god with protective powers, he may also be depicted in doorway reliefs.
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