The ancient Egyptians created beautiful artefacts in a material that is known today as faience, but which the ancient Egyptians called ‘brilliant’. They modelled or moulded a non-clay ceramic of quartz or silica combined with lime and natron or plant ash. Once fired, the result was a hard material combining the characteristics of pottery and glass. These were glazed a variety of colours, but usually a wonderful turquoise-blue that has come to be closely associated with ancient Egypt. In this lecture Lucia explores how the ancient Egyptians produced faience objects and the range of object types.
The ancient Egyptians began making glass in the Eighteenth Dynasty (c1450 BC) following the introduction of the technique from Syria - a result of the great warrior pharaoh Thutmose III’s military campaigns in that part of the ancient world. The Egyptians were soon masterful at producing a range of object types in coloured glass. In this lecture Lucia explores how the ancient Egyptians produced glass objects and the wonderful range of object types, including vessels, inlay, beads, amulets, figures and even headrests.
Lucia is an Egyptologist who has worked in museums and on excavations in Egypt, but these days mostly lectures. She is a former Honorary Research Associate at University College London’s Institute of Archaeology, and Lecturer in Egyptology at several UK universities. She works at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology in London, and leads tours to Egypt. She is the former Director of the Bloomsbury Summer School at UCL, Chair of the Friends of the Petrie Museum, and Trustee of the Egypt Exploration Society. Her publications include Egypt: gods, myths and religion.