Users Of Egyptian Pottery
The ancient Egyptians used pottery for burial
purposes, to contain those interior parts of the
body which were removed before embalming. Four
vases, which were sometimes deposited with the
mummied body, contained the stomach, the heart and
lungs, the liver, and the smaller intestines.
These were generally made of stone, but sometimes
of pottery. Examples are in the Abbott collection
in New York. Besides these, large numbers of
smaller objects in enamelled pottery were
deposited with the dead. The most common were
those now called Osirian figures, usually
representing mummies. These are of various sizes.
Many so closely resemble each other in work, and
in the hieroglyphic legends painted or impressed
on them, that it seems probable they were objects
kept in stock by the potters for sale to
purchasers for funeral purposes. They are found
both unglazed and enamelled, in red pottery and in
the hard, gritty pottery before described. Those
which represent the person with a long robe, as in
life, are more rare, and are believed to be the
more ancient. It was also common to build into the
walls on the interior of tombs cones of pottery,
six to ten inches in length, the bases standing
out, on which were engraved or impressed, before
baking, legends relating to the dead occupants of
the tomb. These cones have been found in great
numbers, and much important information has been
derived from the inscriptions on them, which
usually contain the name of the deceased, his
titles, the offices which he held, and expressions
appropriate to funeral purposes. These were
formerly supposed to be stamps for seals. The
practice of burning the dead which the Greeks
introduced led to the use of pottery for the ashes
of the dead. In the year 1855 we examined a great
number of tombs in a very extensive cemetery then
lying to the eastward of Alexandria, now covered
by the modern growth of that city, and found many
vases and lamps of Egyptian pottery of the Greek
and Roman periods. One tomb alone contained over a
hundred vases in a decayed condition, all of
common red pottery, unglazed, without decoration,
except now and then a few lines of black on the
red clay. A vase, taken from one of these tombs
(III. 14), will serve as an illustration of the
later Greek style in Egypt. This vase we found
sunk in a square cavity, only large enough to hold
it, in the rock floor of a tomb. It was closed by
a disk, cemented in the orifice, and contained
bones and ashes.
top
Introduction
| History of Egyptian Pottery |
Early Egyptian Pottery |
Types of Pottery | Artwork of Egyptian Pottery |
Users Of Egyptian Pottery | Examples Of Egyptian Pottery
<
about this site > |