Ceramic Pottery in Ancient Egypt - more than just a pot

Pottery production and the use of pottery could be regarded as an expensive item involving several the process for producing pottery in ancient times. Today we have the luxury of machines which reduces costs but everything in the ancient world was produced by hand.

First the clay has to be collected from the Nile, there are two types of clay in Egypt 1) the common red clay found throughout Egypt and the fine white Marl clay, only used for elites; again this is a hazardous venture avoiding crocodiles and Hippopotami.

Second the clay is sieved to remove all the stones and grit in the clay making it smooth, then the potter can begin his task of producing an item, in this case a pot..

The method used in Egypt was Coil ceramics, rolling clay in long sausage type lengths, joining them together, when building the item and smoothing off the outside.

Then the pot or item has to be glazed or decorated. The fourth process is the firing, which relies on the cost of the fuel plus the luck of the kiln not to collapse during the firing.

Pottery used on a daily basis would be for the few in Egypt and of course for the provisioning of tombs for the afterlife, several models (smaller in size) of pottery articles were produced to act as replicas for the more expensive actual pots allowing the poorer classes the opportunity to provision burial places for the afterlife.

Fast turning tables were used in a small town in Lower Egypt for a brief period of time. It is thought that that the reason why this method was abandoned is that the potters were foreign in origin and demand could not support this new technology.

So what use is this information when visiting a museum and viewing Egyptian ceramics ?

Clay types indicates social status, is it made out of the fine Marl clay, was it found in Upper or Lower Egypt indicating additional transport costs. The production method can be observed by looking inside the pot, to see the coils. How was it decorated or not, think of all the dyes used for colouring all adding to the cost.

Hopefully you will find this information useful