Documentation Exercise

Documentation Exercise

The Ancient Egyptians produced pottery in abundance from a very early period. It has now become a major source in the records of their civilisation and an insight into their society, culture and economy.

Pottery was necessary for many purposes such as storing and transporting goods, decoration and funerary applications. A large amount of pottery was made of ‘Nile Silt’ clay, found on the banks of the Nile River and canals which, when fired, is a red-brown colour1. In the deserts to the west and east of the Nile Valley another type of clay, Marl clay, is found2. This produced white/cream coloured pottery. Clay was generally moulded with hands for earlier works, but later it became common for it to be placed in or around a pre-made mould or on a potter’s wheel, and then fired in a kiln3

A major insight for archaeologists that pottery provides is in the context of funerals and social structure. Grave goods, usually everyday items not specifically made for burials4, were placed alongside the dead with a majority of it being pottery. The quantity and quality of the goods indicates the social standing of the deceased and the social stratification of a local population5. Kathryn Bard’s research at Armant shows that by Naqada I there is a distinct difference in social level by a large group of the population having small graves with few grave goods to a more exclusive group having a considerable amount more goods and larger graves6. On funerary pottery and other clay figurines could be paintings of early depictions of gods or rulers of local chiefdoms, suggesting that social stratification was becoming a more widely practised concept across the Egyptian regions7. As the Ancient Egyptians progressed, more exclusive social groups began to rise and this is shown in the increased number of larger, more decorated burials such as tombs and temples dedicated to the deceased.

Bibliography:

Anderson, W., 'Badarian Burials: Evidence of Social...