Glass in ancient Egypt
The manufacture of glass in ancient Egypt first appeared in the New Kingdom around 1500 BC. Chr. On. In ancient Egypt, colored glass was a very diverse material that was used primarily for jewelry , for everyday objects and in composition e.g. B. was used as a relief insert .
history
Arbitrarily made glass appears for the first time in ancient Egypt around 1500 BC. Chr. On. How exactly the technology came into the country is unclear. It was probably imported from northern Syria and Palestine as part of the expansion policy of the New Kingdom . In the 10th century BC Glass production was replaced by glassy faience and lived in the 4th century BC. BC in the company of the millefiori technique .
composition
For the production of ancient Egyptian glass, 60% silicon , 10% calcium , which was obtained from powdered desert sand with a high lime content , and 20% alkaline salt , which served as a flux , were used. For the coloring, metal oxides or clays were added, some of which were already included as impurities in the sand. Blue, green and red coloring was achieved with the addition of copper compounds . Manganese was used for amethyst-colored glass . A relatively rare yellowing were obtained with a lead - antimony compound .
The most important thing was the type of bond and how the components were related to each other. The typical opacity of Egyptian glasses was caused by impurities and tin oxide . Transparent, uncolored glass, which due to the iron oxide content in the sand, usually has a yellowish-green hue, is very rare .
Manufacturing and processing
Melting process
We are only informed about glass production from archaeological finds at former processing sites . According to this, the ingredients were fried in pans at around 500 to 700 ° C until the particles stuck together on the surface and glass bile separated. For the actual glass is melted the frit then at about 1100 ° C in smaller pots . By staying longer at higher temperatures, the carbon dioxide bubbles rose to the surface and impurities settled on the bottom.
Shape and ornament
Since there was only a short time interval between the liquid and solid state of the Egyptian glass, the processing had to be done very quickly. Subtle details were worked out after cooling by grinding , chiselling and drilling .
For relief inlays and figures with a flat back, half-forms were used, as they were also used in the manufacture of faience. Flat backs could be refined in such a way that round sculptures were created. For the production of small sculptures , the lost wax process was used or cut from the block. When making cloisonné works, glass reliefs or plates are cut into the appropriate shape and embedded in plaster of the same color .
The Egyptians also understood the production of core-shaped glass vessels. To do this, you first formed a core of clay and sand and turned it in viscous molten glass or wrapped it with a thick, heated glass thread until a coat was formed. After cooling, the sand core was scraped out so that only the wall of the vessel remained. Various decorations, mostly made of colored glass threads, could be attached to the vessel. Edges and feet were worked out with pliers , handles were attached separately. Patterns that were inlaid with colored glass or enamelled on, appear seldom and are not limited to vessels, just like engravings , which were mostly hieroglyphic or gold ribbon applications .
There are some known vessels which are composed of different colored, fused together and later ground glass lumps. This mosaic work can be seen as the forerunner of the millefiorit technique, in which elongated glass rods are broken up into many picture plates and melted together to form a picture.
Objects
Glass was used as a material in a wide variety of ways, especially for jewelry. Beads, pendants , bracelets , earrings , rings , pectorals and amulets were made . There are also frequent figures and symbols of gods such as scarabs and animal figures or ushabtis . With composite figures, heads and hands are occasionally formed from glass. Small sculptures, game stones , vessels , eye inlays and relief inlays for jewelry and furniture can also be found made of glass . In the case of composite temple reliefs, body parts and hieroglyphics in particular are made of glass. Less common are head restraints , writing instruments , Mandragorenfrüchte , mummy-shaped model coffins and sphinxes .
workshops
Well-known manufacturing centers can be found at the time of Amenhotep III. and Akhenaten in Malqata and Tell el-Amarna . During the 19th and 20th dynasties , workshops in Lisht and Menschijeh are known. The archaeological remains are crucible remains, charcoal , color ingredients, frit, glass slag , raw glass lumps, glass samples, strips, tubes and quantities of broken glass.
literature
- Birgit Schlick-Nolte: The glass vessels in ancient Egypt (= Munich Egyptological Studies (MÄS) . Volume 14 ). Hessling, Berlin 1968.
- Birgit Schlick-Nolte: Glass . In: Wolfgang Helck (Ed.): Lexicon of Egyptology . tape II . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1977, ISBN 3-447-01876-3 , p. 613-617 .
- Paul T. Nicholson : Egyptian Faience and Glass (= Shire Egyptology . Volume 18 ). Shire Publications, Buckinghamshire 1993, ISBN 0-7478-0195-9 .
- Paul T. Nicholson: Glass. In: Kathryn A. Bard (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-18589-0 , pp. 357-58.
- Paul T. Nicholson, Julian Henderson: Glass . In: Paul T. Nicholson, Ian Shaw (Eds.): Ancient Egyptian materials and technology . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2000, ISBN 0-521-45257-0 , pp. 195-226 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Schlick-Nolte: Lexikon der Ägyptologie II. P. 614–615.
- ↑ a b c d Schlick-Nolte: Lexikon der Ägyptologie II. P. 615.
- ↑ Axel von Saldern : Antique glass . In: Handbook of Archeology . tape 7 . CH Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 978-3-406-51994-9 , pp. 8 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ Schlick-Nolte: Lexikon der Ägyptologie II. P. 615–616.
- ↑ a b c Schlick-Nolte: Lexikon der Ägyptologie II. P. 616.