Faience craftmanship in the Middle Kingdom: A market paradox: inexpensive materials for prestige goods (original) (raw)
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Beyond Prestige: A ritual production model for stone tool specialization in Naqada period Egypt
This dissertation looks at the organization and development of specialized production in 4th millennium BCE Egypt. At the outset of this period northeastern Africa was occupied by small-scale groups of pastoralists and early agriculturalists. By the close of the 4th millennium BC, the Nile Valley was one of the earliest instances of a society with centralized political organization, extensive labor division, and institutionalized inequalities.
Reviving the Past and Confronting the Present: Crafts in Syria and Egypt, c. 1875-1925
Mariam Rosser-Owen, ed., special issue of the Journal of Modern Crafts 13.1 , 2020
The article considers the ways in which traditional manual crafts in Egypt and Syria adapted to the challenges of the importation of mass-produced goods from Europe and changes in taste among local and foreign purchasers. While some crafts did not prosper in this environment, the evidence from surviving objects and primary sources indicates high levels of experimentation, including the creative use of new materials and technologies. The main part of the article presents a case study concerning four undated inlaid brass stands imitating a Mamluk original made for the sultan al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qalawun in 1327-28. This stand was first exhibited in 1881, and was reproduced in several publications prior to 1900. The study concentrates on the treatment of the inlaid epigraphy, establishing formal differences between the prototype and the copies, as well as pointing out significant divergences between the copies themselves. The latter part of the case study considers the dissemination of specific motifs from the stand of al-Nasir Muhammad onto other types of Mamluk revival metalwork, such as boxes
G. Miniaci, J. C. Moreno García, S. Quirke, A. Stauder, (eds.), The Arts of Making in Ancient Egypt: Voices, Images, Objects of Material Producers, 2000-1550 BC, Leyden, 2018
Lay-out & cover design: Sidestone Press Photograph cover: • Front cover: Wooden model AEIN 1633 © Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, courtesy of Tine Bagh • Lower right: Detail of a manson at work from the tomb of Sobeknakht at el-Kab, Egypt © Oxford University Elkab Expedition, courtesy of Vivian Davies • On the back: Hippotamus in faience AEIN 1588 © Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, courtesy of Tine Bagh ISBN 978-90-8890-523-0 (softcover) ISBN 978-90-8890-524-7 (hardcover) ISBN 978-90-8890-525-4 (PDF e-book)
book, 2017
In prehistoric Europe hierarchic societies arose and developed technological systems and processes in the production of objects related to everyday use, on the one hand, and items of religious and symbolic character emulating prestige and luxury, on the other, while both types of objects may not always be clearly distinguishable. This volume deals with questions of how artisans and other social groups, involved in these productive processes and social practices, reacted to and interacted with the demands connected with elites identities formation, affirmation reconfirmation practices. Innovations and the development of new technologies designed to satisfy the needs of ostentatious behaviour and achieving prestige are key issues of this volume. For example, how can we identify the consequences of such processes, how can we define the role(s) that the craftspeople played in such contexts, and are these always as clear-cut as usually portrayed? The book's common aim is to investigate the economic, socio-political, as well as the technological contexts and backgrounds of the make-up of material culture and technologies in these periods. We examine which role(s) artisans may have played in status and identity formation processes, in rituals and in symbolic performances, in other words, in each aspect of life and death of selected Chalcolithic, Bronze and Iron Age populations in Europe. Many aspects of the social interaction patterns between the different groups of people in those periods have not been adequately discussed and investigated, especially the artisans' important role(s). This volume aims to redress these imbalances by investigating how social groups interacted with each other, and how we may recognize such interactions in the material remains.
2007
The contributions to this volume are introduced via a critical review of terms and concepts used in craft production studies today. Recent detailed contextual and technological analyses of artifacts from all aspects of complex societies have revealed interesting patterns that are difficult to conceptualize using a purely economic framework. Furthermore, interest in practice theory, and sociocultural theory in general, has shifted some foci of archaeological investigation toward the social aspects of production and specialization. New data, methods, and theories require a rethinking of what is meant by specialized production, and this chapter represents an introduction to this endeavor.
Early Dynastic bifacial production and craft specialization: a view from Umm el-Qaab and Abu Rawash
In : B. Midant-Reynes, Y. Tristant et E. M Ryan (dir.), actes du colloque international "Origins 5. Origin of the State in Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt", Le Caire (13-18 avril 2014), Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta, Peeters-Leuven, p. 567-582, 2017
In Predynastic Egypt, bifacial productions are part of an evolutionary line which can be followed throughout the entire 4th millennium BC. Present since the Neolithic period in the Nile Valley and Fayum, they demonstrate the posterity of some local traditions related to flint bifacial shaping. From Badari and more clearly during Naqada I, the development of a high-tech investment production is, however, expressed in the hypertrophy of craft models developed in domestic or agricultural context. In this regard, flint seems increasingly sought: in the middle of the 4th millennium BC, the quantitative and qualitative “explosion” of value-added products in the funerary context (Naqada II ripple-flaked knives, forked-lances, etc.) reflects a higher “sensitivity” of typological corpus and a greater refinement of skills and knowledge. Echoes of the novelties introduced a few centuries earlier, Early Dynastic bifacial productions illustrate a radical “subversion” of technical and economic choices, but also of social forms and value systems attached to the stone tools. Through the example of lithic funerary viaticum of the royal tombs of Umm el-Qaab (Abydos), and from the elite necropolis of Abu Rawash, we will try to highlight the trends that are reflected in the technology of chipped-stone industries at the end of this process, in order to measure its socioeconomic inferences in terms of craft specialization, but also of production control.
Abstract The ancient Nubian site of Kerma was first excavated by George Reisner in the early 1900s, and the resulting finds and archaeological archive still hold much information that deserves further study. In particular, an analysis of the use of Egyptian and Egyptianizing material culture in the burials of the Classic Kerma period can further the understanding of interregional interactions between Nubia and Egypt. Rather than pointing to strong Egyptian cultural inuences on Kerman Nubians, this paper proposes that the Kerman kings and elites co-opted objects and motifs they encountered during military raids in Egyptian territory for their own purposes. The patterns in the use of the Egyptian winged sun disc motif provide a case study that demonstrates how exotic material culture was used in schemes of royal legitimation, and in turn, how the Nubian elite reacted through their own material creations. Keywords: Winged sun discs, Nubia, Kerma, Egypt, Second Intermediate Period, Interregional Interaction, hybridity, material culture Résumé L'ancien site nubien de Kerma a été fouillé par George Reisner dans les années 1900, et les découvertes et archives archéologiques qui en proviennent, contiennent encore beaucoup d'informations qui méritent une étude plus approfondie. En particulier, une analyse de l'utilisation de la culture matérielle égyptienne et égyptisante dans les sépultures de la période de Kerma Classique peut améliorer la compréhension des interactions interrégionales entre la Nubie et l'Égypte. Loin d'être une preuve de fortes inuences culturelles égyptiennes sur les Nubiens de Kerma, les rois de Kerma et les élites cooptaient des objets et des motifs qu'ils rencontraient au cours de leurs raids militaires sur le territoire égyptien. Les façons d'utiliser le motif égyptien du disque solaire ailé fournissent une étude de cas qui nous montre comment la culture matérielle exotique a été utilisée dans les systèmes de la légitimation royale, et en retour, comment l'élite nubienne a réagi à travers ses propres créations matérielles. Mots-clés : Kerma Classique, Nubie, Égypte, Deuxième Période Intermédiaire, interaction interrégionale, hybridité, culture matérielle, disque solaire ailé égyptien.
Historical consideration of Ancient Egyptian faience through a craftsman's point of view
Journal of the Ceramic Society of Japan, 2022
Ancient Egyptian faience is a sintered quartz, usually with a blue-green glassy surface. Although its manufacturing method has been lost for about two thousand years, some descendants remained in the modern world, giving a clue to reconstructing the ancient technology. We now know that there are three distinct methods of faience making: efflorescence, cementation, and application. However, the study of faience has been mainly from the scientist's point of view, not from the craftsman's. This paper deals with replicating the ancient Egyptian faience from the creator's viewpoint. The author proposes ways to manage the slumpy faience paste and improve its plasticity through experiments. Also, the experiments proved that the cementation method yields the best quality faience. The author also discovered that the surface glaze and bubbles differ in each method, and the difference can be observed by a low magnifying microscope. Such a handy means of examination will probably enlarge the possibility of examining valuable faience objects stored in museums. The outcome of the experiments tells that all three methods were present by the mid-Middle Kingdom Period, and the choice of a particular method might be based on the cost of manufacture.