Egyptian Blue - Archaeological Evidence

Archaeological Evidence

Amarna: In the excavations at Amarna, Lisht and Malkata at the beginning of the twentieth century, Petrie uncovered two types of vessels that he suggested were used in antiquity to make Egyptian blue: bowl-shaped pans and cylindrical vessels/saggers. In recent excavations at Amarna by Barry Kemp (1989), very small numbers of these “fritting” pans were uncovered, although various remaining pieces of Egyptian blue ‘cake’ were found, which allowed the identification of five different categories of Egyptian blue forms and the vessels associated with them: large round flat cakes, large flat rectangular cakes, bowl-shaped cakes, small sack-shaped pieces and spherical shapes. No tin was found present in the samples analyzed, which the authors suggest is an indication that there was possible use of scrap copper instead of bronze.

Qantir: In the 1930s Mahmud Hamza excavated a number of objects related to the production of Egyptian blue at Qantir, such as Egyptian blue cakes and fragments in various stages of production providing evidence that Egyptian blue was actually produced at the site of Qantir. Recent excavations at the same site, uncovered a large copper-based industry, with several associated crafts, namely bronze-casting, red-glass making, faience production and Egyptian blue. Ceramic crucibles with adhering remains of Egyptian blue were found in the excavations, suggesting again that it had been manufactured on site. It is also possible that these Egyptian blue ‘cakes’ were later exported to other areas around the country to be worked as there was a scarcity of finished Egyptian blue products on site. For example, Egyptian blue cakes were found at Zawiyet Umm el-Rakham, a Ramesside fort near the Libyan coast, indicating that cakes were in fact traded, and worked at and reshaped away from their primary production site.