Glass Working, Use and Discard

UCLA UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology Title Glass Working, Use and Discard Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2w17t0cw Journal UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, 1(1) Author Nicholson, Paul Publication Date 2011-06-04 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California GLASSWORKING, USE AND DISCARD الزجاج، استخدامه والتخلص منه Paul T. Nicholson EDITORS WILLEKE WENDRICH Editor-in-Chief Area Editor Material Culture University of California, Los Angeles JACCO DIELEMAN Editor University of California, Los Angeles ELIZABETH FROOD Editor University of Oxford JOHN BAINES Senior Editorial Consultant University of Oxford Short Citation: Nicholson, 2011, Glassworking, Use and Discard. UEE. Full Citation: Nicholson, Paul T., 2011, Glassworking, Use and Discard. In Willeke Wendrich (ed.), UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, Los Angeles. http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz00289zd5 1081 Version 1, June 2011 http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz00289zd5 GLASSWORKING, USE AND DISCARD الزجاج، استخدامه والتخلص منه Paul T. Nicholson Glasbearbeitung, Gebrauch und Entsorgung Verre, utilisation et écart Glass in ancient Egypt appeared in the New Kingdom. It was a novel and highly prized material, which quickly found favor with the elite. The first known glass sculpture in the round depicted the Egyptian ruler Amenhotep II. The purposes for which glass was used overlap with those traditionally known for objects made in faience, and both materials can be regarded as artificial versions of semiprecious stones, notably turquoise, lapis lazuli, and green feldspar. The techniques by which glass was worked in the Pharaonic period fall into two broad groups—the forming of vessels around a friable core, which was subsequently removed, and the casting of glass in molds to make solid objects. The vessels produced by core forming were almost invariably small, a matter of a few centimeters in height, and were mainly used for precious substances such as unguents. Cast items included sculpture as well as inlays and small amulets. ظھر الزجاج في مصر القديمة في عصر الدولة الحديثة، حيث كان مادة جديدة وثمينة للغاية، والتي سرعان ما وجدت رواجاً لدى الطبقة العليا. أول المنحوتات الزجاجية المعروفة تصور الملك أمنحتب الثاني. كما استخدم الزجاج مثلما استخدم الفيانس ويمكن اعتبار كﻻ المادتين صناعة تقليد لﻷحجار شبه الكريمة خاصةً الفيروز والﻻزورد والفلسبار اﻷخضر، وتنقسم التقنيات المستخدمة في صناعة الزجاج المصري إلى مجموعتين :تشكيل اﻷواني حول نواة قابلة للتفتيت والتي يتم إزالتھا فيما بعد، والصب في قوالب من الزجاج لصناعة القطع الصلبة ، وكانت اﻷواني التي تصنع باستخدام النواة عادةً ما تكون صغيرة إلى ٍحد ما – طولھا بضعة سنتيمترات – والتي استخدمت بشكل أساسى للمواد الثمينة مثل المراھم ، كما شملت القطع المصنعة عن طريق الصب المنحوتات والتمائم الصغيرة. lthough there are reports of faience are the same (silica, lime, and soda), it examples of glass dating before is not surprising to find some blurring of the A the New Kingdom, most of these groups when particular heating conditions are unconfirmed or uncertain (Beck 1934; occur. Lucas 1962), and one must distinguish As a new material in Egypt, glass of the between glass, which was intentionally New Kingdom seems to have enjoyed a produced, and that arrived at “accidentally.” relatively high status. Indeed, some of the To this latter category should be assigned earliest pieces we know about bear the names small objects of glass, which were actually of Hatshepsut (clear colorless name beads; see intended as faience but which have lost their Reeves 1986) and of Thutmose III (vessels; silica core and so become glass (Nicholson see Nicholson 2006); it seems to have been 2007). Since the basic ingredients of glass and Glassworking, Use and Discard, Nicholson, UEE 2011 1 regarded as a material suitable for royal gifts, necessarily obvious in macroscopic such as shabtis. Apparently glass sculpture in examination. the round is an Egyptian innovation (Cooney The earliest glass in Egypt was probably 1960). It is commonly suggested that glass imported from elsewhere in the Near East might have been a royal monopoly during the (see Oppenheim 1973), and since much of New Kingdom. However, this is an that production was for polychrome vessels, it oversimplification, and Barry Kemp (pers. is unlikely that it was recycled. Similarly, the comm. 2006) has pointed out that we know of very earliest local production in Egypt would no such concept nor of sumptuary laws for have used freshly produced glass, though we Egypt at this time. Nonetheless, it does should not rule out limited recycling of single appear that the actual making of raw glass color glass, particularly since this was a might have been under state control at least precious raw material. By the time the beakers until the end of the 18th Dynasty (Nicholson of Neskhons (wife of Pinedjem II) of the 21st 2007). That individuals of lower status Dynasty were produced, it is possible that gradually gained increasing access to glass recycled glass, albeit of a new natron-based should not be surprising. As the material composition, may have been in use. However, became more common, it was used for a although the Neskhons pieces lack the quality greater range of items and spread beyond the of earlier vessels, analysis of their composition upper echelons of society. has not suggested recycling (Schlick-Nolte and The treatment of glass must be divided into Werthmann 2003). two parts: the making of glass from its raw materials (Nicholson 2007; Rehren and Pusch Glassworking Practice 2007) and its working from already processed While glass itself was a new material in Egypt glass. Only the latter, along with the use and and as such seems to have enjoyed a high discard of glass, is covered here. status, it was not used in the creation of The introduction of glass blowing in the innovative forms. Glass seems rather to have first century BCE and the incorporation of been regarded as an extension of faience and, Egypt into the economy of the Roman state perhaps by implication, of semiprecious radically altered the production, distribution, stones such as turquoise, lapis lazuli, and and status of glass and is not considered here. green feldspar. The connection between these materials is probably through color and Raw Glass brilliance. Faience was regarded as a substitute for semiprecious stones, not necessarily Processed glass may be in the form of ingots, inferior to them but of a different and newly made from the raw materials (or artificial material. All carried connotations of possibly from recycled materials), or in the the heavens and the brilliance of the skies. form of scrap glass, known as cullet. Our Since the body color of much of the earliest present knowledge of early Egyptian glass glass is also blue, it seems to have been does not usually allow us to differentiate glass regarded as yet another representation of this made from new materials from that made heavenly blue brilliance. That such was the from cullet. However, because vessel glass case is probably reflected in the term was frequently polychrome, it would be “Menkheperura (i.e. Thutmose III) lapis difficult to recycle, unless vessels and other lazuli” (Schlick-Nolte and Lierke 2002: 20) for products were first separated by color (such as a material believed to be glass, given in the some inlays, beads, etc.). A glass ingot from Annals of Thutmose III at Karnak and sharing Amarna, now in the collection of the the color of the semiprecious stone. Liverpool University Museum (Nicholson 2007: 24), may be the result of It is possible that the association with remelting/recycling of glass, but this is by no precious stones might have led to the means certain—recycled glass is not production of vessels in shapes that were Glassworking, Use and Discard, Nicholson, UEE 2011 2 already produced in faience, itself imitating pieces seem to belong to the phase in which forms known in stone. In other words, glass was coming into Egypt perhaps in the artificial stones such as faience and glass were form of ingots from the Near East, or was used to make traditional stone vessel shapes. first being made locally at a time when its However, these shapes are not ones normally properties were still not fully understood. found in turquoise, lapis, or feldspar, but Thus we have an artificial, high-tech material more commonly in travertine/calcite being treated as though it were stone. This (Egyptian “alabaster”) or hard stones, and one combination of working practices and the must consider why this should be. embedding of a new craft into an old established one is an area that requires further A possible answer may be found in the research. history of these materials. Once faience started to be developed, one of the means by which it could be shaped was by abrasion, Glassworking Techniques: Cold Working essentially “carving” from a block of material, However the earliest raw glass arrived in albeit often a partly shaped block. From small Egypt, be it as ingots or as locally made glass, vessels, the kind of things which lapidaries the earliest stages in its manufacture into (gemstone cutters) may have produced in objects require heat at some stage. semiprecious stone, to larger vessels is a In order to make useful objects, raw glass relatively small step. These larger faience would have been reheated and cast, probably imitations of stone were being made in the into blocks with the approximate shape of the typical blue color, so it would be logical for desired object. The glass would then have glass vessels, also usually in blue base glass, to been annealed, an essential process in follow this tradition. glassworking involving the slow cooling of the Further support for the idea that glass glass object, be it glass block or glass vessel.

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