or a round piece of clay. Th e technique was to hold the anvil
inside the vessel and beat the outside with the paddle. Coil-
built pottery is made by laying rolled lengths of clay, formed
into rings, on top of each other. Th e sides could be smoothed
out with a paddle and anvil. Th e best-known coil-built pot-
tery from ancient Egypt is the black-topped red ware from the
Predynastic Period. A molded vessel is created by pressing
clay into a hollow mold or by pressing it over a form, which
was the most common method for creating molded pottery in
ancient Egypt. It was used to create bread molds employed to
bake specially formed loaves. Molds were also used to create
lids for canopic jars (jars that held the entrails of mummies)
and certain New Kingdom (1550–1070 b.c.e.) pottery forms,
including popular vessels depicting the god Bes, protector of
women in childbirth.
Pottery could be produced on a turning wheel, which
was a rotating stand that gave easier access to all sides of the
vessel placed on it. It was turned by hand and probably could
not achieve suffi cient speed to throw a vessel. Th rown vessels
were created on a stand either with a fl ywheel that was turned
with a baton or a kick wheel that the potter kicked. Th e rate
of speed it achieved allowed the potter to build up a vessel’s
walls purely by hand, which made for a more regular shape.
Th rowing was the predominant method used in vessel forma-
tion in ancient Egypt, although several techniques were oft en
used on a single vessel.
Aft er a vessel was formed, it had to dry. When it had
turned to a so-called leather-hard, or semidry, state, various
decorations could be applied. When the vessel had dried com-
pletely and aft er any decoration had been applied, it was fi red.
As there is little evidence for open fi ring in ancient Egypt, it
can be assumed that kiln fi ring was the predominant method
used by ancient potters, especially since a number of kilns are
known. Updraft kilns, with a lower chamber for fuel and an
upper chamber with a chimney-like feature for stacking ves-
sels, could produce a high, constant temperature, reducing
the risk of incomplete fi rings. When stacked upside down on
a vented fl oor above the heat source, the vessels would bake
simultaneously from inside and outside. Th ese kilns could
reach temperatures of 1650 to 1830 degrees Fahrenheit; 1110
degrees was suffi cient for fi ring Nile silt vessels, but 1290 de-
grees was needed for marl vessels.
How pottery was used is oft en very diffi cult to deter-
mine. Labels listing contents, scientifi c analysis of residues
left inside vessels, and charring or other visible post-fi ring
processes help determine their function. Pottery can gener-
ally be divided into two classes, domestic and nondomestic.
Domestic vessels were used in the preparation and consump-
tion of food. Th ey were generally made of coarse-tempered
clays and bore little or no decoration. Nondomestic vessels,
oft en used for funerary, ritual, or decorative purposes, were
frequently made of fi ner textured clays and were more likely
to be decorated.
Several types of decoration were used on ceramics in an-
cient Egypt, oft en more than one on a single vessel. Burnishing
(rubbing smooth) and applying slips (thin clay used for coat-
ings) were common techniques for domestic and nondomes-
tic vessels; dry vessels were treated in these ways before fi ring.Painted pottery group of cattle, from el-Amra, Egypt, about 3500 b.c.e. (© Th e Trustees of the British Museum)
ceramics and pottery: Egypt 177