Museum Pieces - "New Year's" bottle

Medium:

Faience (glazed composition)

Type:

Faience, Vessel

Origin:

Egypt

Topic:

new year, Late Period (664 - 332 B.C.E.), Egypt

Credit Line:

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Date:

664-332 B.C.E.

Period:

Late Period

Accession Number:

F1907.11

Data Source:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Flasks of this type are known as "New Year" gifts because of the inscriptions they often bear, which invoke the gods of the city of Memphis to give the owner all life and health, and a happy New Year. Almost invariably made of a fine light blue or pale green glazed faience, the flasks are usually decorated with garlands around the neck and have an ape of the god Thoth, recorder of time, seated on each side of the neck.

Sources: 

http://www.asia.si.edu/collections/edan/object.cfm?q=fsg_F1907.11

http://www.asia.si.edu/collections/singleObject.cfm?ObjectNumber=F1907.11

Museum Pieces - Faience throwstick of Akhenaten

Photocredit: The British Museum

Faience throwstick of Akhenaten

From Tell el-Amarna, Egypt
18th Dynasty, around 1330 BC

Length: 39.000 cm (max.)
Width: 4.370 cm (max.)
Thickness: 1.760 cm (max.)

EA 34213

To ensure the king's regeneration

Wooden examples of throwsticks that were meant to be used have been found in the burials of Amenhotep II and Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings, while model ones made of faience are known for most of the New Kingdom (1550-1070 BC) kings until the early Twentieth Dynasty (about 1186-1069 BC).

While the wooden examples might actually have been used for hunting game birds, the faience ones could not be thrown without being broken. So what was their purpose? As is often the case in ancient Egypt, the explanation lies in the symbolism of rebirth and new life. Scenes of hunting game birds with throwsticks are common in New Kingdom private tombs. The Egyptian words for 'throwstick' and 'beget' (procreate) are very similar. Scenes of hunting game birds may therefore be an allusion to the creation of new life. The shiny and brilliant nature of faience suggests an association with the sun-god, Re; the blue-green colour is also associated with rebirth and new life.

This model, placed in the burial of Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV, 1352-1336 BC), would thus be a ritual object designed to ensure the king's regeneration after death.

F.D. Friedman (ed.), Gifts of the Nile: ancient Egy (London, Thames and Hudson, 1998)

Source: http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/aes/f/faience_throwstick_of_akhenate.aspx

Museum Pieces - Faience glaze bowl

Photocredit: Rijksmuseum van Oudheden Leiden

FAIENCE GLAZE BOWL

Beautiful faience drinking bowl depicting a female musician in an erotic theme. The female courtesan, only wearing a headband, waistband and some jewelery, is playing a duckheaded lute. She bears a tattoo of Bes on her thigh, and the overall image is riddled with sex symbolism: from the plants surrounding her, to the figural duck on the lute, to the lotus and perfume cone on her head, to the Bes tattoo itself. The little playful monkey behind her is trying to take her waistband.

1400 - 1300 BC (18th - 19th Dynasty)

Inventorynr.: AD 14
Faience bowl
4,5 x 14 cm


More about faience

‘Egyptian Faience’ is a glazed non-clay ceramic material. Whilst, as the name indicates its wide spread in Egypt, it was also found and manufactured in the rest of the Near East and the Mediterranean. Egyptian faience should not be confused with the earthenware of the Faenze region of Italy, now more commonly known as ‘majolica’.

To the ancient Egyptians, faience was known as "tjehnet" which meant brilliant or dazzling and it was thought to shine with light as the symbol of life, rebirth and immortality. This man made material was probably intended to resemble precious stones like turquoise and lapis lazuli.

Faience objects were very common in ancient Egypt from the Predynastic times until the late Arab period in the fourteenth century AD. Faience was used to produce a wide range of artefacts from beads and small objects to vessels, tiles and architectural elements.

Production of faience in ancient Egypt

Faience technology evolved after complex experimentations during the early dynasties, from applying glaze on carved steatite figures to the exploration and manipulation of quartz paste. The early faience was shaped using stone working methods to make beads, amulets and small objects. Efflorescence as a self glazing method was adopted in addition to the older method of application.

During the Middle Kingdom period, the cementation method of glazing was developed and used; the forming techniques remained simple such as modelling and moulding on a form or core. The faience production flourished in the New Kingdom when a greater diversity of shapes and techniques were introduced that probably derived from the advance of glass technology. These techniques helped improve the faience body by mixing it with frit and powdered glass and this improvement, coupled with the introduction of new designs and ideas, led to enhanced material, colours and shapes. Many of the finest faience objects were produced in this period.

Faience manufacture appears to have declined in quality during the Third Intermediate Period, with a return to the traditional methods and the loss of much of the technical knowledge. The Late Period witnessed a revival in faience production, and a new range of excellent objects and glazing appeared. The Greco-Roman Period shows evidence of close relations between faience production and pottery manufacture which includes throwing faience vessels on the wheel and applying glaze as slurry. The faience link to pottery in the Roman period probably caused a shift towards glazed pottery production and gradually led to the decline of faience.


Sources:

http://www.rmo.nl/collectie/-topstukken-
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/faience/history.htm

Museum Pieces - Hathor's Sistrum

(Photocredit: Medelhavsmuseet)

Inventory number
MME 1995:004
Object
Sculpture; Sistrum
Country - Origin
Egypt
Material
Faience; Pottery
Description
Part of a model of a sistrum, a rattle instrument that was connected with the goddess Hathor whose face adorns the handle.
Condition
Broken off at neck. Only upper part preserved.
Dimensions
H. 16.5 cm, W. 7.3 cm, D. 3.2 cm


Hathor's Sistrum

by Jimmy Dunn

Perhaps one of the main cult objects associated with Hathor was the sistrum, a musical rattle. Its name is derived from the Greek, seiein, meaning "to shake".

(Photocredit: Medelhavsmuseet)

The sound of the sistrum is metallic, produced by a number of metal disks or squares, strung onto a set of transverse bars, set horizontally into a frame of varying design. Its sound was thought to echo that of a stem of papyrus being shaken. However, the acoustic effects were frequently extremely limited. The sistrum was suitable for beating a rhythmical accompaniment in open-air processions. Apuleius, the Roman philosopher, described a procession in honor of Isis, in The Golden Ass, where the rhythmic pattern was three beats followed by a pause on the fourth. The sound of the instrument seems to have been regarded as protective and also symbolic of divine blessing and the concept of rebirth. In addition to the symbolic significance of its sound, the shape and decoration of the sistrum relate it to the divine.

Two forms of this ceremonial instrument may be distinguished, the oldest of which is probably the naos sistrum (ancient Egyptian ss, ssst). While Hathor's head was often depicted on the handles of sistrum, an early travertine sistrum inscribed with the name of the 6th Dynasty ruler, Teti, takes the form of a papyrus topped by a naos, which is itself surmounted by a falcon and cobra, thus forming a rebus of the name Hathor (i.e. hwt Hor). Thus, the sistrum known as the naos sistrum dates back to at least the Old Kingdom. It was usually surmounted by twin heads of Hathor upon which a small shrine or naos-shaped box was set. A vulture may crown the naos, and the handle may be covered with the incised plumage of the bird. Rods were passed through the sides of this naos to form the rattle. Carved or affixed spirals framing the sides of the naos represented the horns of the cow-eared goddess. Note that this earliest form of sistrum was often made of faience.

Museum Pieces - Figure of Monkey Seated on Ovoid Base

Photocredit: Brooklyn Museum

Figure of Monkey Seated on Ovoid Base

Throughout Egyptian history, monkeys were enjoyed for their playful, whimsical behavior. This blue faience example holds a ball or piece of fruit; in antiquity, it wore a metal earring, indicating that it represented a household pet. Because they had to be imported over great distances at considerable expense, the possession of monkeys indicated the owner's wealth and social status.

Medium: Faience, glazed
Reportedly From: El Amarna, Egypt
Dates: ca. 1352-1336 B.C.E.
Dynasty: late XVIII Dynasty
Period: New Kingdom
Dimensions: 2 1/8 x 1 1/8 x 1 9/16 in. (5.4 x 2.8 x 4 cm)  (show scale)
Museum Location: This item is on view in Egypt Reborn: Art for Eternity, Amarna Period, Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Gallery, 3rd Floor
Accession Number: 48.181
Credit Line: Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
Rights Statement: Creative Commons-BY
Caption: Figure of Monkey Seated on Ovoid Base, ca. 1352-1336 B.C.E. Faience, glazed, 2 1/8 x 1 1/8 x 1 9/16 in. (5.4 x 2.8 x 4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 48.181. Creative Commons-BY
Catalogue Description: Blue glazed figure of monkey seated on ovoid base. Body in the round, head at right angles to shoulders, ears pierced, hands extended grasping unidentified object supported by one foot and resting on base. Condition: Intact. Glaze slightly worn on front of body.

Source: http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/3524/Figure_of_Monkey_Seated_on_Ovoid_Base

Talisman of Ancient Googly-Eyed God Discovered

by Owen Jarus
By

A newly identified googly-eyed artifact may have been used by the ancient Egyptians to magically protect children and pregnant mothers from evil forces.

CREDIT: Photo courtesy Egypt Centre/Swansea University

Made of faience, a delicate material that contains silica, the pale-green talisman of sorts dates to sometime in the first millennium B.C. It showsthe dwarf god Bes with his tongue sticking out, eyes googly, wearing a crown of feathers. A hole at the top of the face was likely used to suspend it like a bell, while a second hole, used to hold the bell clapper, was apparently drilled into it in antiquity.

Carolyn Graves-Brown, a curator at the Egypt Centre, discovered the artifact in the collection of Woking College, the equivalent of a high school for juniors and seniors. The college has more than 50 little-studied Egyptian artifacts, which were recently lent to the Egypt Centre at Swansea University where they are being studied and documented.

Graves-Brown told LiveScience in an interview that at first she didn't know what the object was. It wasn't until she learned of a similar artifact in the British Museum that she was able to determine that it is a faience Bes bell, one of a very few known to exist.