POTTERY IN
ANCIENT EGYPT
Pottery was an essential material for everyday life for the ancient Egyptian family. Their ancestors had been using it since they settled near the Nile at the dawn of the ancient civilization. Today, pottery vessels are the main artifacts archaeologists use to study ancient Egypt. These clay objects help us understand ancient settlement sites and the lives of the people who lived there.
EXCAVATING POTTERY
Pottery vessels of all shapes and sizes are found in and around ancient Egyptian houses, cooking spaces, storage spaces, and possible eating spaces. Each vessel, or even a fragment, tells a story of its time.
The shape of the vessel can help archaeologists understand how it was used. The vessels are made from clay, and the clay can also tell archeologists where it was created and what the environment was like during that period.
During the Old Kingdom, bread was baked in flower pot-shaped vessels.
HOW WAS POTTERY USED?
Ancient Egyptians stored their crops and prepared grains for grinding and cooking in their pottery vessels. They also ate and drank out of clay bowls. They even used some of these bowls to make oil lamps to light up the dark rooms of the homes in the evenings.
Pottery vessels were useful objects, but they were also artistic objects. Each time period created its own unique drawings and decorations for pottery vessels. These decorations often included images of plants, animals, and birds from the Egyptian scenery.
Because papyrus was expensive, ancient Egyptians often wrote on shards of pottery instead. These shards are called “ostraca."
POTTERY WORKSHOPS
In ancient Egypt, pottery vessels were mainly made from Nile clay and mixed with other materials. From Neolithic times until the 5th Dynasty, Egyptians only used their hands to form clay objects. This changed during the Old Kingdom with the invention of the pottery wheel.
Archaeologists have found images of the wheel on the walls of ancient Egyptian temples. They have also uncovered a wheel inside a pottery workshop that is over 4,000 years old! Even today, the pottery wheel is used by Egyptian potters.
In ancient Egypt, Ptah was the god of craftsmen and builders. Craftsmen included carpenters, metal-workers, sculptors, and potters.
Pottery from the ancient world tells us about the daily lives of the people who lived there. Each vessel, or even a fragment, is another important piece of ancient Egypt’s story.