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 ORIENTALIA LOVANIENSIA
ANALECTA
————— 241 —————

PROCEEDINGS OF THE
TENTH INTERNATIONAL
CONGRESS OF EGYPTOLOGISTS

University of the Aegean, Rhodes

22-29 May 2008

Volume II

edited by

P. kousoulis and n. lazaridis

Peeters
Leuven – Paris – bristol, CT
2015

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
© 2015, Peeters Publishers & Department of Oriental Studies
Bondgenotenlaan 153, B-3000 Leuven/Louvain (Belgium)
All rights reserved, including the rights to translate or to
reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form.
ISBN 978-90-429-2550-2
D/2015/0602/76
94487_OLA_Kousoulis_Vol_2_VWK.indd 5
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I: ARCHAEOLOGY
J.R. Anderson and Salah eldin Mohamed Ahmed
Five Years of Excavations at Dangeil, Sudan: A New Amun Temple of
the Late Kushite Period. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
M.-P. Aubry, W.A. Berggren, C. Dupuis, E. Poorvin, H. Ghaly, D. Ward,
C. King, R. O’Brian Knox, Kh. Ouda and W. Fathy Hassan
TIGA: A Geoarchaeologic Project in the Theban Necropolis, West Bank,
Egypt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
B. Bader
A Late Middle Kingdom Settlement at Tell el-Dab‘a and its Potential . . . 45
G. Bąkowska
Meroitic Pottery from Napata. The Hellenistic Influence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
H. Barnard
The Study of Eastern Desert Ware. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
N. Billing and J.M. Rowland
Recently Discovered Blocks in the Central Delta Village of Kom el-Ahmar,
Minuf. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
J. Budka
The Asasif Revisited: New Results from the Austrian Concession . . . . . . 111
J. Budka
Festival Pottery of the New Kingdom: The Case of Elephantine. . . . . . . . 131
N. Castellano
Les nécropoles d’Oxyrhynchos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
R. Czerner
Architecture of the Temple of Tuthmosis III at Deir el-Bahari. Some
Remarks on the Hypostyle Hall: Study on Architectural Elements of the
Roof Structure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Z. De Kooning
Preliminary Report on the Ceramological Corpus of the Survey in al-Shaykh
Sa‘id South . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
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C. Fantaoutsaki
New Evidence on the Sanctuary of Isis in the Ancient City of Rhodes. . . 189
J.M. Galán
Excavations at the Courtyard of the Tomb of Djehuty (TT 11) . . . . . . . . . 207
Z. Hawass
The Egyptian Expedition in the Valley of the Kings Excavation Season 2,
2008-2009: Part 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
I. Incordino
Royal Monuments of the Third Dynasty: A Re-examination of the Archae-
ological Documents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
M. Jones
The Temple Palace of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu: An Archaeological
Approach to its Preservation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
A.A. Krol
“White Walls” of Memphis at Kom Tuman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
M.J. López-Grande and E. de Gregorio
Pottery Vases from a Deposit with Flower Bouquets Found at Dra Abu
el-Naga. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
M.H. Trindade Lopes and T.R. Pereira
The Palace of Apries (Memphis/Kôm Tumân): Brief Report of the Fifth
Campaign (April 2008). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
S.T. Basilico and S.A. Lupo
Function of Area II in Tell el-Ghaba, North Sinai, through its Pottery Evi-
dence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
M. Müller
Kalksteinpuzzle in Per-Ramses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
M. Mascort
L’Osireion d’Oxyrhynchos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
A. Niwiński
A Mysterious Tomb at Deir el-Bahari. Revelations of the Excavations of
the Polish-Egyptian Cliff Mission above the Temples of Hatshepsut and
Thutmosis III. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
M.C. Pérez Die
Ehnasya el Medina (Herakleopolis Magna). Excavations 2004-2007 at the
Necropolis of the First Intermediate Period / Early Middle Kingdom . . . . 393

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E. Pons Mellado
Saite Tomb n° 14 at the Archaeological Site of Oxyrhynchus (el Bahnasa).411
C. Price
East of Djoser: Preliminary Report of the Saqqara Geophysical Survey
Project, 2007 Season. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
R. Schiestl
Locating the Cemeteries of the Residential Elite of the Thirteenth Dynasty
at Dahshur. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
F. Schmitt
La semence des pierres: le dépôt de fondation dans l’Égypte ancienne. . . 443
N. Shirai, W. Wendrich and R. Cappers
An Archaeological Survey in the Northeastern Part of the Fayum. . . . . . . 459
Z.E. Szafrański
King Hatshepsut from the Deir el-Bahari Temple. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
P. Verlinden
“Tombs for the Tombless”: A Study of Children and Burial Space in the
Dakhla Oasis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
G. Vörös
Egyptian Temple Architecture in the Light of the Hungarian Excavations
in Egypt (1907-2007) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
A. Wodzińska
Tell er-Retaba: Ceramic Survey 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
S. Yoshimura and M. Baba
Recent Discoveries of Intact Tombs at Dahshur North: Burial Customs of
the Middle and New Kingdoms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545
C.S. Zerefos, S.N. Ambrazeys, H. Badawy and E. Xirotyri-Zerefou
Past and Present Geophysical Threats at the Great City of Alexandria . . . 557
C. Ziegler
Nouvelles découvertes à Saqqara. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569

PART II: ROYAL IDEOLOGY AND SOCIETY

S. Agapov
Soziale Strukturen und wirtschaftliche Aktivitäten in Gebelein zur Zeit der
4.-5. Dynastie (nach Angaben der Gebelein-Papyri). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583

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S. Allam
A Field for Interdisciplinary Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595
S. Caramello
Aramaic-Speaking People in Egypt: Religion and Ethnicity. . . . . . . . . . . . 605
J. Cashman
The Scribal Palette as an Elite Gift in New Kingdom Egypt . . . . . . . . . . . 615
G. Cavillier
From the Mediterranean Sea to the Nile: New Perspectives and Researches
on the Sherden in Egypt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631
G. Criscenzo-Laycock
The Nome: Naturally Occuring Local Unit, or Artificial Device of the
State? A Case Study of the Fourteenth Upper Egyptian Nome . . . . . . . . . 639
A.J. de Wit
Enemies of the State: Perceptions of “Otherness” and State Formation in
Egypt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649
H. Diaz Rivas
Widowhood in Ancient Egypt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 669
Sh. El-Menshawy
Aspects of the Office of Temple Gardener in Ancient Egypt (Reconsid-
eration of the Recently Published Stela TN. 20.3.25.3). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 679
A. El Shahaway
Les «individus» qui établissent l’ordre cosmique: un aspect de la dévolution
de prérogatives royales dans les tombes thébaines du Nouvel Empire. . . . 693
C.J. Eyre
Economy and Society in Pharaonic Egypt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707
M. Farouk
A Timeline of the Old Kingdom Officials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 727
M. Gathy
La peinture thébaine sous le règne d’Amenhotep II: étude d’une création
artistique comme reflet du contexte historique et socioculturel de l’époque.741
B. Hayden
Demotic “Marriage Documents” as Evidence for the Perception and Use
of Coinage among Egyptians in the Ptolemaic Period. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751
K.A. Kóthay
Duties and Composition of the Personnel of the Cults at Lahun. . . . . . . . . 763

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M. Lianou
The Foundations of Royal Military Power in Early Ptolemaic Egypt. . . . . 777
G. Menéndez
Foreigners in Deir el-Medina during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties.791
J. Moje
The Demotic Tomb Stelae from Dandara. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 805
M. Minas-Nerpel
Ptolemaic Queens in Egyptian Temple Reliefs: Intercultural Reflections of
Political Authority, or Religious Imperatives?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 809
M. Nuzzolo
Sun Temples and Pyramid Texts: The King’s Progress in the Evolution of
his Cult . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823
M. Orriols-Llonch
Semen Ingestion and Oral Sex in Ancient Egyptian Texts. . . . . . . . . . . . . 839
F. Payraudeau
La situation politique de Tanis sous la XXVème dynastie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 849
D. Stefanović
The hkrt-nswt on the Monuments of the Ꜣtw n tt hkꜢ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 861
D. Sweeney
Masculinity, Femininity and the Spirituality of Work at Deir el-Medîna. . 873
K. Szpakowska
Infancy in a Rural Community: A Case Study of Early Childhood at Lahun.885
A. von Lieven
Who was “King” (S)asychis? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 899
A.P. Zingarelli
Comments on the Egyptian Term whyt: Family or Quasi-Village?. . . . . . 909

PART III:  BELIEF SYSTEM AND RITUAL

B. Arquier
Décans nocturnes et décans diurnes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 923
J. Assmann
The “Structure” of Ancient Egyptian Religion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 935

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J.A. Belmonte, M. Shaltout and M. Fekri

Astronomy and Landscape in Ancient Egypt. Temple Alignments and Impli-
cations for Chronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 951
R. Bussmann
Changing Cultural Paradigms: From Tomb to Temple in the Eleventh
Dynasty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 971
E. Constas
Une lecture de la façade du tombeau de Petosiris. Les piliers d’ante:
approche sémiologique. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 987
D. Czerwik
The Afterlife Beliefs in the Sixth-Dynasty Private Inscriptions . . . . . . . . . 1003
M. Dolinska
The Bird at the Back of the Atef Crown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1017
K. Lahn Dumke
Some Reflections on the Function of a Particular Triad Constellation in
New Kingdom Religious Iconography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1041
Kh. Elgawady
Die Schranken in den ägyptischen Tempeln der griechisch-römischen Zeit.1053
A. el-Tayeb Sayed
Coffin Texts Spell 823 and the Rites of Passage: The Archaeological
Context of the Coffin of Mentuhotep. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1073
F. Feder
Egyptian Mortuary Liturgies in the Papyri of the Ptolemaic Period. . . . . . 1083
A. Gaber
Some Snake Deities from the Temple of Edfu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1093
K. Griffin
Links between the rekhyt and Doorways in Ancient Egypt. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1115
N. Guilhou
La constellation de la tortue: proposition d’identification. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1131
S. Tower Hollis
Hathor, Mistress of Byblos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1143
L.J. Kinney
The (w)nwn Funerary Dance in the Old Kingdom and its Relationship to
the Dance of the mww. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1153

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Y. Koenig
The Papyrus of the Seven Utterances of the Goddess Mehet Weret. . . . . . 1167
L. Díaz-Iglesias Llanos
The Role of Osiris in the Mythological Cycle Devised around Heracleopolis
Magna and its Territory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1173
R. Lucarelli
Ancient Egyptian Demons: The Evidence of the Magical and Funerary
Papyri of the New Kingdom and the Third Intermediate Period. . . . . . . . . 1187
L. Martzolff
L’adaptation d’un rituel sur les murs d’un temple à la période tardive:
l’exemple du rituel divin journalier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1195
A. Pries
Standard Rituals in Change – Patterns of Tradition from the Pyramid Texts
to Roman Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1211
G. Schreiber
Crocodile Gods on a Late Group of Hypocephali. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1225
J.M. Serrano
Nouvelles données concernant le rituel de l’Ouverture de la Bouche: la
tombe de Djehouty (TT 11) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1237
R. Sousa and T. Canhão
Some Notes on Sinuhe’s Flight: The Heart as a God’s Voice . . . . . . . . . . 1247
C. Wade
Sarcophagus Circle: The Goddesses in the Tomb. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1259
D.A. Warburton
The New Kingdom Solar Theology in Scandinavia? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1271
A. Wüthrich
Un exemple de l’évolution des concepts funéraires à la Troisième Période
Intermédiaire: le chapitre 166pleyte du Livre des Morts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1281

PART IV: LANGUAGE, LITERATURE AND EPIGRAPHY

E.M. Ciampini, F. Contardi and G. Rosati

Hathor Temple Project: The Epigraphic Survey at Philae (2006). . . . . . . . 1293
D. Cilli
Funny Signs, a New Perspective. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1307

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M. Dessoles et V. Euverte
Projet Rosette: une assistance informatique pour l’étudiant, l’épigraphiste
et le philologue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1317
C. Di Biase-Dyson
Two Characters in Search of an Ending: The Case of Apophis and Seqenenre.1323
B. Egedi
Greek Loanwords and Two Grammatical Features of Pre-Coptic Egyptian. 1333
J. Gee
Textual Criticism and Textual Corruption in Coffin Texts 131-142. . . . . . 1345
T. Gillen
Thematic Analysis and the Third Person Plural Suffix Pronoun in the
Medinet Habu Historical Inscriptions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1351
R. Jasnow
“From Alexandria to Rakotis”. Progress, Prospects and Problems in the
Study of Greco-Egyptian Literary Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1363
F. Kammerzell
Egyptian Verb Classifiers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1395
R. Landgráfová and H. Navrátilová
Texts from the Period of Crisis. A Database of the First Intermediate
Period and Middle Kingdom Biographical Texts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1417
E.-S. Lincke
The “Determinative” is Prescribed and Yet Chosen. A Systematic View
on Egyptian Classifiers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1425
M.Á. Molinero Polo
L’identification des Textes des Pyramides des tombes de Haroua (TT 37)
et de Pabasa (TT 279). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1435
L.D. Morenz
Kultursemiotik der Alphabetschrift. Ein mentalitätsgeschichtlicher Rekon-
struktionsversuch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1447
K. Muhlestein
Those Who Speak Rebellion: Refining our Understanding of the Words
Used to Describe “Rebellion” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1473
F. Naether
Magic in the Internet: Investigation by Genre in Trismegistos. . . . . . . . . . 1485

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J.R. Pérez-Accino
Who is the Sage Talking about? Neferty and the Egyptian Sense of History.1495
S. Polis and J. Winand
Structuring the Lexicon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1503
J. Winand, S. Polis and S. Rosmorduc
Ramses: An Annotated Corpus of Late Egyptian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1513
V. Ritter
La littérature sapientiale du Nouvel Empire. Un état de la question. . . . . . 1523
A. Roccati
Alien Speech: Some Remarks on the Language of the Kehek. . . . . . . . . . 1531
H. Satzinger
What Happened to the Voiced Consonants of Egyptian?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1537
I. Cordón Solà-Sagalés
Four Daughters of the King from the Second Dynasty: Epigraphic and
Iconographic Analysis of the Stelae of Hepetkhenmet, Satba, Shepsetipet (?)
and Sehefner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1547
J. Stauder-Porchet
Relations between Verbs and Simple Prepositions in Earlier Egyptian . . . 1559
U. Verhoeven
Literarische Graffiti in Grab N13.1 in Assiut/Mittelägypten. . . . . . . . . . . . 1569
K. Vértes
Ten Years’ Epigraphy in Theban Tomb 65. Documentation of the Late
Twentieth Dynasty Wall Paintings in the Tomb of Imiseba. . . . . . . . . . . . 1577

PART V: ART AND VITREOUS MATERIAL

K.E. Bandy
Scenes of Fish and Fishing in Middle Egypt: An Examination of Artistic
Continuity and Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1589
E. Bernhauer
Zyperns Hathorkapitelle aus altägyptischer Sicht . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1603
M. Casanova, G. Pierrat-Bonnefois, P. Quenet, V. Danrey and D. Lacambre
Lapis Lazuli in the Tôd Treasure: A New Investigation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1619

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S. Einaudi
Le Livre des Morts dans la cour de la tombe d’Haroua (TT 37): nouvelles
découvertes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1641
L. Evans
Animal Behaviour in Egyptian Art: A Brief Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1653
S. Grallert
Integrated Sets of Model Vessels in Late Period Burials from Lower Egypt.
A Preliminary Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1667
M.C. Guidotti
Essai de classification de la céramique d’Antinoopolis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1681
A. Milward Jones
Faience Bowls of the Late New Kingdom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1693
T. Kikuchi
The Decoration Program in the Burial Chamber of the Royal Tomb of
Amenophis III. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1709
É. Liptay
Panther-Head on the Cloak. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1719
N.C. McCreesh, A.P. Gize and A.R David
Pitch Black: The Black Coated Mummies, Coffins and Cartonnages from
Ancient Egypt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1731
S. Medeksza, R. Czerner and G. Bąkowska
Forms and Decoration of Graeco-Roman Houses from Marina el-Alamein.1739
P.T. Nicholson
Glass and Vitreous Materials at Tell el-Amarna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1759
M. Panagiotaki, M. Tite and Y. Maniatis
Egyptian Blue in Egypt and Beyond: The Aegean and the Near East. . . . 1769
G. Pieke
Principles of Decoration: Concept and Style in the Mastaba of Mereruka
at Saqqara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1791
C. Raedler
Potsherd Scrapers and their Function at the Workshops of the Residence
at Piramesse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1807
J. Revez
Déconstruction intellectuelle et restitution monumentale: le temple d’Amon-
Rê de Karnak comme laboratoire d’idées. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1819

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 table of contents XV

G. Robins
The Flying Pintail Duck. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1833
N. Staring
Contextualizing Old Kingdom Elite Tomb Decoration: Fixed Rules versus
Personal Choice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1839
I. Stünkel
Analysing CT-Scans of a Mummy: The Amulets of Nesmin. . . . . . . . . . . 1849
G.J. Tassie
“I’m Osiris, No I’m Osiris, No I’m Osiris”: Hairstyles and the Afterlife. 1873
A. Woods
Five Significant Features in Old Kingdom Spear-Fishing and Fowling
Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1897
G. Xekalaki
The Royal Children as Signs: Reading New Kingdom Princely Iconography.1911

PART VI: EGYPT AND THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD

A. Altman
Was Ugarit ever Subordinated to the Eighteenth Dynasty Pharaohs?. . . . . 1925
N.D. Ayers
Egyptian Imitation of Mycenaean Pottery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1935
K. Blouin
Mendès et les reines: reconsidération historique des mosaïques navales de
Thmouis (Alexandrie 21739 et 21736). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1951
P.A. Butz
Egyptian Stylistic Influence on Stoichedon and the Hekatompedon Inscrip-
tion at Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1961
L. Haguet
Ceci n’est pas l’Égypte: toponymes, monuments et mythes grecs en Égypte
dans la cartographie occidentale entre les XVIe et XVIIIe siècles. . . . . . . . 1975
A. Hassler
Mycenaean Pottery in Egypt Reconsidered: Old Contexts and New Results.1989
I. Hein
Cypriot and Aegean Features in New Kingdom Egypt: Cultural Elements
Interpreted from Archaeological Finds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1999

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 XVI table of contents

F. Höflmayer and A. Zdiarsky

Synchronising Egypt and the Aegean: A Radiocarbon-Based Approach. . 2015
S. Iskander
Merenptah and the Sea Peoples: A New Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2035
N. Lazaridis
A Description of the Project “Wisdom Sayings in Ancient Egyptian and
Greek Literature” and its Significance as a Comparative Study . . . . . . . . 2047
R. Müller-Wollermann
Ägypten in Iran. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2051
J. Phillips
Egyptian Amethyst in Mycenaean Greece. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2057
J.-L. Podvin
Lampes à décor isiaque du littoral égéen d’Asie mineure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2071
T. Pommerening
Milch einer Frau, die einen Knaben geboren hat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2083
O.A. Vasilyeva
“Lost Child” of Isis: Towards the Problem of the Interpretatio Graeca of
the Osirian Myth in Texts of Later Antique and Christian Authors. . . . . . 2097

PART VII: CULTURAL HERITAGE AND MUSEOLOGY

A. Amenta
The Vatican Mummy Project. A Preliminary Report on the Restoration of
the Mummy of Ny-Maat-Re (MV 25011.6.1). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2107
G. Andreu
News from the Louvre Museum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2119
M. Hanna and M. Betrò
Exploring 3D Mapping Applications for the Risk Assessment and Monitoring
of Mural Paintings in Theban Tomb 14. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2127
J.-L. Bovot
Le catalogue des chaouabtis du Louvre: réflexions sur une publication. . . 2137
V.I. Chrysikopoulos
À l’aube de l’égyptologie hellénique et de la constitution des collections
égyptiennes: des nouvelles découvertes sur Giovanni d’Anastasi et Tassos
Néroutsos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2147

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 table of contents XVII

E. David
A Louvre Museum Project: The Prosopographical Index of Monuments of
the Egyptian Department and its Publication. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2163
C. De Simone
A Memorandum of Understanding between Egypt and Sudan in the Field
of Cultural Heritage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2167
A. Dodson
The Egyptian Coffins in the Collection of Bristol’s City Museum and Art
Gallery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2171
K. Exell
Innovation and Reaction: A Discussion of the Proposed Re-display of the
Egyptian Galleries at the Manchester Museum (UK) in the Context of
Consultative Curatorial Practice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2187
M. Helmy
Hidden Histories Project at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. 2199
M. Trapani
Kha’s Funerary Equipment at the Egyptian Museum in Turin: Resumption
of the Archaeological Study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2217
W. Wendrich, J. Dieleman and E. Waraksa
Ideas Concerning a New Egyptological Knowledge Base: The UCLA
Encyclopedia of Egyptology (UEE). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2233

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 EGYPTIAN BLUE IN EGYPT AND BEYOND:
THE AEGEAN AND THE NEAR EAST1

Marina PANAGIOTAKI
(University of the Aegean)

Michael TITE
(Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art)

Yiannis MANIATIS
(NCSR ‘Demokritos’)

Abstract

Egyptian blue frit is one of the three so-called “vitreous materials” of antiquity, the
other two being faience and glass. It is coloured blue throughout and unlike faience is
without any glaze layer. It is a multicomponent material whose colour is due to the
presence of calcium-copper tetrasilicate crystals (CaCuSi4O10). It may have been first
manufactured in Egypt during the Old Kingdom (ca. 2613-2181 BC)2. Its existence in
Mesopotamia is almost contemporary3, while in the Aegean it appeared at the very end
of the third millennium BC or the beginning of the second4. It was more extensively

1
Marina Panagiotaki would like to express her sincere gratitude to the Greek Ministry of Culture, the
foreign schools in Greece and the authorities of the Greek Museums (especially the Heraklion Museum
and the National Museum in Athens) for permission to study and analyse Egyptian blue from their collec-
tions. The sample from the Artisan’s Quarter at Mycenae was given to Prof. M. Tite by Dr L. French and
we are all grateful to her. Marina Panagiotaki is also indebted to Prof. E. Oren, Director of Tel Sera expe-
dition, Ben-Gurion University, for granting her permission to analyze the Tel Sera Egyptian blue ingot.
She is also greatly indebted to the Institutions INSTAP and PSYCHA, for providing funds for the ana-
lytical work. She also thanks warmly her friends Drs Anna Michailidou, Lena Papazoglou-Manioudaki,
Kostas Paschalidis, Niki Drivaliari, Ossi Misch-Brandl, Baruch Brandl and Vasso Fotou, for their support
and help in her study of vitreous materials.
2
C. LILYQUIST and R.H. BRILL, Studies in Early Egyptian Glass (New York, 1995); also A. LUCAS and
J.R. HARRIS, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries, Histories and Mysteries of Man (London, 1962),
341-2.
3
P.R.S. MOOREY, Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and Industries, The Archaeological Evidence
(Winona Lake Indiana, 1999), 186-9.
4
M. PANAGIOTAKI, Y. MANIATIS, D. KAVOUSSANAKI, G. HATTON and M.S. TITE, ‘The Production Tech-
nology of Aegean Bronze Age Vitreous Materials’, in: J. BOURRIAU and J. PHILLIPS (eds.), Invention and
Innovation, The Social Context of Technological Change 2. Egypt, the Aegean and the Near East, 1650-
1150 BC (Oxford, 2004), 149-75; M. PANAGIOTAKI, ‘The technological development of Aegean vitreous
materials in the Bronze Age’, in: C. JACKSON and E. WAGER (eds.), Vitreous Materials in the Late Bronze
Age Aegean, Sheffield Studies in Aegean Archaeology 9 (Oxford, 2008), 34-63.
1770 M. PANAGIOTAKI, M. TITE AND Y. MANIATIS

used during the Late Bronze Age and it is one of the vitreous materials that survived
into the Graeco-Roman period.
There is no direct textual information on Egyptian blue in ancient written sources
in Egypt or the Near East, but the material referred to as artificial lapis lazuli (against
genuine or fine) might have been Egyptian blue5. The word ku-wa-no (PY TA 714) in
the Linear B tablets may have been the kyanos of Homer (Iliad, XI 24, 35; Odyssey,
XII 87) and hence again possibly Egyptian blue frit. Theophrastus (On Stones, VIII. 8,
55, 4th century BC) referred to kyanos as a natural and a manufactured kind, the latter
being Egyptian Blue, while Vitruvius (De Architectura VII 11, 1st century BC), recorded
the ingredients and the whole procedure followed to manufacture caeruleum, which
again was Egyptian Blue.
Egyptian blue was produced by firing a mixture of quartz, lime, a copper compound
and a small amount of alkali flux at about 900-1000ºC.6 The resulting frit consists of
calcium-copper tetrasilicate crystals and partially reacted quartz particles that, in the
unweathered state, are bonded together by glass phase. The colours vary from a dark
to a pale blue. The dark blue is associated with coarse-grained frit (i.e., larger calcium-
copper tetrasilicate crystals), such as typically results from the primary production
from raw materials, whereas the pale blue is associated with finer-grained frits which
result from grinding the coarse-grained frit, reforming the resulting powder into small
objects, and refiring to a lower temperature.
Vitruvius (De Architectura VII 11) referred to the raw material as made into balls,
placed in clay pots and fired in the kiln and such balls have been found in an excavation
at the Aegean island of Kos, dating to the 3rd century BC7. During the Bronze Age,
however, the raw material was made into round cakes often similar to the glass ingots
recovered from the Ulu Burun shipwreck8.
In this paper we shall try to trace the possible production centres of Egyptian blue
during the Bronze Age, by comparing the results of analytical work performed on
Egyptian blue (in the form of lumps or cakes as well as artefacts) from the Aegean
with those from Egypt and the Near East. We shall concentrate especially on the alkali
flux used in the production of Egyptian blue. A particular question is whether Egyptian

5
A.L. OPPENHEIM, R.H. BRILL, D. BARAG and A. VON SALDERN, Glass and Glassmaking in Ancient
Mesopotamia (London/Toronto, 1970), 13.
6
M.S. TITE, M. BIMSON and M.R. COWELL, ‘Technological examination of Egyptian blue’, in:
J.B. LAMBERT (ed.), Archaeological Chemistry III, American Chemical Society, Advances in Chemistry
Series No. 205 (Washington D.C., 1984), 215-42.
7
X. KANTHIA and K. KOUHELJ, ‘Ergastßrio paraskeußv xrwmátwn stjn arxaía agorá tjv
Kw. To Aiguptiakó mple’, Arxaiologiká Análekta ez AqjnÉn 20 (1987), 211-55.
8
G.F. BASS, ‘A bronze age shipwreck at Ulu Burun (Ka≥): 1984 Campaign’, American Journal of
Archaeology 90 (1986), 269-96; also ID., ‘Evidence of Trade from the Bronze Age Shipwrecks’, in:
N.H. GALE (ed.), Bronze Age Trade in Mediterranean (Jonsered, 1991), 69-82; and in: U. YALÇIN, C. PULAK
and R. SLOTTA (eds.), Schiff Uluburun: Welthandel vor 3000 Jahren (Bochum, 2005), figs 62-79.
 EGYPTIAN BLUE IN EGYPT AND BEYOND: THE AEGEAN AND THE NEAR EAST 1771

blue was produced in Egypt and/or the Near East from where it was imported into
Minoan Crete and the Mycenaean mainland as primary lumps or cakes for local use,
both as a pigment and for the production of small objects, or whether the frit was made
on Crete and the Greek mainland from locally available raw materials.
Analysis of Egyptian blue from Crete (dating from the 19th century BC onwards)
suggests that a mixed alkali flux (i.e. flux containing comparable amounts of both soda
and potash) was used in its manufacture whereas, in both Egypt and the Near East, a
soda rich flux was used9. Therefore, it seems probable that Egyptian blue was being
produced in Crete from locally available raw materials. Analysis of Egyptian blue from
the Mycenaean mainland (14th-11th century BC) indicates the use of a soda rich alkali.
However, the unusually coarse and open microstructure of Mycenaean Egyptian blue,
with considerable surviving unreacted copper, differs from frit produced in Egypt and
the Near East. Since soda rich alkali is available on the Greek mainland, it is probable
that Egyptian blue was produced on the Mycenaean mainland from locally available
raw materials. The Aegean thus may have produced Egyptian blue during the Bronze
Age as it did in later periods.

Introduction

Egyptian blue (fig. 1) is one of the three “vitreous materials” of antiquity, the other
two being faience and glass. They are all man-made, in fact, they are the first synthetic
substances to be produced with the help of fire. Egyptian blue can be easily distin-
guished from the other two materials as it is coloured blue throughout, unlike faience
which has a glaze layer (fig. 2), or glass, which contains no crystalline phases, and has
a special gloss and viscosity (fig. 3); however, weathered glass can be mistaken for
Egyptian blue when examined only macroscopically (fig. 4)10.
Egyptian blue, whose mineral name is cuprorivaite, is a multicomponent material,
the colour of which is due to the presence of calcium-copper tetrasilicate crystals
(CaCuSi4O10). It was used in antiquity to form various artefacts but it was also used as
a pigment – the first synthetic pigment to be produced. It was also the first synthetic
material from antiquity to be examined using scientific methods: it was recovered at
Pompeii, in 1814 AD, and was identified as such through analytical work performed
by F. Fouque11.

9
M.S. TITE, A. SHORTLAND, G.D. HATTON, Y. MANIATIS, D. KAVOUSSANAKI, M. PYRLI and M. PANA-
GIOTAKI, ‘The scientific examination of Aegean vitreous materials – problems and potential’, in: JACKSON,
and WAGER (eds.), Vitreous Materials, 105-25.
10
P.T. NICHOLSON and E. PELTENBURG, ‘Egyptian faience’, in: P.T. NICHOLSON and I. SHAW (eds.),
Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology (Cambridge, 2000), 177-8.
11
F. FOUQUE, ‘Sur le bleu égyptien ou vestorien’, Comptes rendus de l’Académie des sciences CVIII,
7 (1889), 325-7.
1772 M. PANAGIOTAKI, M. TITE AND Y. MANIATIS

Fig. 1. Egyptian blue beads from the palace of Knossos (19th century BC),
by the author.

Fig. 2. Faience: the white part is the core material, while the coloured, glossy part,
is the outer layer, the glaze (Courtesy of the National Museum in Athens).
 EGYPTIAN BLUE IN EGYPT AND BEYOND: THE AEGEAN AND THE NEAR EAST 1773

Fig. 3. Glass plaques from Mycenaean tombs

(Courtesy of the National Museum in Athens).

Egyptian blue may have been first manufactured in Egypt during the Old Kingdom
(ca. 2613-2181 BC)12, or in Mesopotamia, where it is also found at about the same
time13; in the Aegean it appeared at the very end of the third millennium BC or the
beginning of the second14. It was more extensively used during the Late Bronze Age
and it is one of the vitreous materials that survived into the Graeco-Roman period15.
During the Bronze Age it seems that Egypt and the Near East were the main produc-
tion centres of Egyptian blue. In this paper we shall try to trace possible Bronze Age
production centres of Egyptian blue outside Egypt and the Near East – mainly in the
Aegean – basing our arguments on the results of analytical work. Up to now, analyses

12
LILYQUIST and BRILL, Studies in Early Egyptian Glass; also LUCAS and HARRIS, Egyptian Materials,
341-2.
13
MOOREY, Mesopotamian Materials, 186-9.
14
PANAGIOTAKI, MANIATIS, KAVOUSSANAKI, HATTON and TITE, in: BOURRIAU and PHILLIPS (eds.), Inven-
tion and Innovation, 149-75; PANAGIOTAKI, in: JACKSON and WAGER (eds.), Vitreous Materials, 34-63.
15
Egyptian blue disappeared as a material between the 4th and the 9th century A.D., to reappear and be
used in paintings, see MOOREY, Mesopotamian Materials, 186, and L. LAZZARINI, ‘The discovery of Egyptian
blue in a Roman fresco of the Mediaeval Period (9th century A.D.)’, Studies in Conservation 27 (1982), 84-6.
1774 M. PANAGIOTAKI, M. TITE AND Y. MANIATIS

Fig. 4. Egyptian blue beads and a single one of glass

(Courtesy of Mrs A. Karetsou).

have been performed on Egyptian blue pigments present in Minoan and Mycenaean
paintings (see below). We are providing, for the first time, the results of analyses of
Egyptian blue ingot fragments, as well as of artefacts found in the Aegean. The ana-
lytical work on the Egyptian blue ingots is of particular significance as they must have
been used as the raw material for the production of both, artefacts as well as the pigment
used in the Aegean wall paintings. A particular question is whether Egyptian blue found
in the Aegean was imported from either Egypt or the Near East as primary lumps or
cakes for local use (both as a pigment and for the production of small objects), or
whether the frit was made in the Aegean from locally available raw materials. The sub-
ject becomes even more interesting with the recent work of A. Brysbaert16 who, on the
basis of analytical work, stated that the Egyptian blue present in the Aegean paintings
found at Tell el-Dab‘a in Egypt, may have come from the Aegean, together with the
painters.

Egyptian Blue in ancient written sources

There is no direct textual information on Egyptian blue in ancient written sources in Egypt
or the Near East of the Bronze Age. However, the Akkadian word kuru = “artificial”,
when it is used in relation to a stone, may refer to the imitation of that particular stone
and therefore one of the vitreous materials. For instance uqnu kuri = “lapis lazuli from

16
A. BRYSBAERT, ‘A technological approach to the painted plaster of Tell el-Dab‘a, Egypt: microscopy
and scientific analysis’, in: M. BIETAK, N. MARINATOS and C. PALIVOU (eds.), Taureador Scenes in Tell
El-Dab‘a (Avaris) and Knossos (Wien, 2007), 159.
 EGYPTIAN BLUE IN EGYPT AND BEYOND: THE AEGEAN AND THE NEAR EAST 1775

the kiln”, may mean glass or Egyptian blue as opposed to uqnu sadî = “lapis lazuli
from the mountain”17, which must have meant the real stone.
In the Aegean, the Mycenaean word ku-wa-no in the Linear B tablets (PY TA 714),
may mean Egyptian blue; the word, if derived from the Hittite word kuwanna, must
have been a Near Eastern loan word (as suggested by T.G. Palaima18), that was origi-
nally imported into the Aegean together with the material. The kyanos of Homer (Iliad,
XI 24, 35; Odyssey, XII 87), which must have derived from the Linear B ku-wa-no,
is suggestive of the blue colour of lapis lazuli (kuanó in modern Greek). However,
considering the number of the decorative inlays and artefacts made of kyanos, referred
to by Homer, and the rarity of the real lapis lazuli objects found in Bronze Age sites
in the Aegean, it is more likely that the kyanos decorative inlays and artefacts were of
either glass or Egyptian blue and not of lapis lazuli. This idea is further strengthened
by the fact that the decorative inlays in a stone frieze that had decorated the Bronze
Age palace at Tiryns, were made of glass19. Moreover, Theophrastus (On Stones, VIII.
8, 55, 4th century BC) referred to kyanos as a natural and a manufactured kind20: the
former being lapis lazuli and the latter Egyptian blue. Vitruvius (De Architectura VII
11, 1st century BC) recorded the ingredients and the whole procedure followed to
manufacture caeruleum, which again must have been Egyptian blue.

Use and distribution of Egyptian blue in the ancient world

Egyptian blue, as a fine powder, could be used as a pigment but also to form various
artefacts. Objects can be formed by mixing the powder with water to become soft and
malleable enough, to be pressed in a mould, like faience, or to be worked by hand to
form simpler objects; after drying, the artefacts are fired in a kiln, to remelt the glass
phase and bake hard.

17
OPPENHEIM, BRILL, BARAG and VON SALDERN, Glass and Glassmaking in Ancient Mesopotamia, 13.
18
T.G. PALAIMA, ‘Maritime matters in the Linear B tablets’, in: R. LAFFINEUR and L. BASCH (eds.),
Thalassa. L’Égée préhistorique et la mer. Actes de la troisième Rencontre égéenne internationale de l’Université
de Liège, Station de recherches sous-marines et océanographiques (StaReSO), Calvi, Corse (23-25 avril
1990), Aegaeum 7 (Liège, 1991), 278.
19
M. PANAGIOTAKI, L. PAPAZOGLOU-MANIOUDAKI, G. CHATZI-SPILIOPOULOU, E. ANDREOPOULOU-MAN-
GOU, Y. MANIATIS, M.S. TITE and A.J. SHORTLAND, ‘A glass workshop at the Mycenaean citadel of Tiryns
in Greece’, in: Annales du 16e Congrès de l’Association Internationale pour l’Histoire du Verre, London
2003 (Nottingham, 2005), 14-8.
20
“Just as there is a natural and artificial red ochre, so there is a native kyanos and a manufactured
kind such as the one from Egypt. There are three kinds of kyanos, the Egyptian, the Scythian and the
Cyprian. The Egyptian is the best for making pure pigments, the Scythian for those that are more dilute.
The Egyptian variety is manufactured, and those who write the history of the kings of Egypt state which
king it was who first fused kyanos in imitation of the natural kind; and they add that kyanos was sent as
tribute from Phoenicia and as gifts from other quarters, and some of it was natural and some had been
produced by fire”, after MOOREY, Mesopotamian Materials, 186.
1776 M. PANAGIOTAKI, M. TITE AND Y. MANIATIS

In Egypt, Egyptian blue was used to make simple objects (beads, scarabs, amulets)
from the Fourth Dynasty (2575-2465 BC) onwards; it was also used as a pigment from
the Fifth Dynasty (2465-2323 BC) to the Roman Period21. As a pigment it was applied
in the wall paintings22 but also to colour or enhance the beauty of other materials such
as wood23. Similarly, in the contemporary Near East small objects such as beads and
inlays24 were made out of it, but it was also used as a pigment25 or a decorative inlay
onto other materials, for instance ivory26.
In the Aegean it was first employed to form beads (end of 3rd millennium BC/begin-
ning of 2nd), found in tombs27 as well as in palace contexts (19th century BC onwards)28.
Later (18th-15th century BC)29, small objects such as pendants and even small vases
were made of it. Such items seem to have been concentrated mainly in central Crete,
where the existence of faience and later glass workshops has been suggested30.
A fine-grained Egyptian blue frit was extensively used as a pigment in frescoes: first
identified in Minoan Crete (in use from the 18th century BC onwards) and at Akrotiri
on Thera31, as well as many Late Bronze Age (16th-12th century BC) mainland palatial
sites and most importantly in the frescoes of Minoan workmanship at Tell el-Dab‘a

21
LUCAS and HARRIS, Egyptian Materials, 341-2; L. LEE and S. QUIRKE, ‘Painting materials’, in:
NICHOLSON and SHAW (eds.), Egyptian Materials and Technology, 109.
22
A. EL-GORESY, ‘Polychromatic wall painting decoration in monuments of Pharaonic Egypt: compo-
sitions, chronology and painting techniques’, in: S. SHERRATT (ed.), Proceedings of the First International
Symposium: the wall paintings of Thera (Petros M. Nomikos Conference Centre, Thera, Hellas, 30th August –
4th September 1997) (Athens, 2000), 49-70.
23
LUCAS and HARRIS, Egyptian Materials, 341-2; also, LEE and QUIRKE, in: NICHOLSON and SHAW (eds.),
Egyptian Materials and Technology, 109.
24
MOOREY, Mesopotamian Materials, 186-9, on p. 187; V. MATOÏAN and A. BOUQUILLON, ‘Le “bleu
égyptien” à Ras Shamra-Ougarit (Syrie)’, in: P. MATHIAE, A. ENRA, L. PEYRONEL and F. PINNOCK (eds.),
Proceedings of the First International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East (Rome, May
18th-23rd 1998), vol. II (Rome, 2000), 985.
25
A. BRYSBAERT, Technology and Social Agency in Bronze Age Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean
Painted Plaster, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Glasgow (2004).
26
An ivory duck found at Minet el-Beida was decorated with Egyptian blue, see MATOÏAN and
BOUQUILLON, in: MATHIAE, ENRA, PEYRONEL and PINNOCK (eds.), Proceedings II, 987.
27
PANAGIOTAKI, in: JACKSON and WAGER (eds.), Vitreous Materials, 34-63.
28
PANAGIOTAKI, MANIATIS, KAVOUSSANAKI, HATTON and TITE, in: BOURRIAU and PHILLIPS (eds.), Inven-
tion and Innovation, 149-75.
29
G. CADOGAN, ‘Some faience, blue frit and glass from fifteenth century Knossos’, in P.P. BETANCOURT
(ed.), Aegean Art and Archaeology in the Late Bronze Age, Temple University Aegean Symposium 1
(Philadelphia, 1976), 18-9.
30
M. PANAGIOTAKI, ‘Artisans in Egypt, the Near East and the Aegean in the second millennium BC:
the case of vitreous materials’, Creta Antica 9 (2008), 73-92.
31
M.A.S. CAMERON, R.E. JONES and S.E. PHILIPPAKIS, ‘Analyses of Fresco samples from Knossos’, British
School of Athens 72 (1977), 141, 158 and sample 17; also V. PERDIKATSIS, V. KILIKOGLOU, S. SOTIROPOULOU
and E. CHRYSSIKOPOULOU, ‘Physicochemical characterization of pigments from Theran wall paintings’, in:
S. SHERRATT (ed.), Proceedings of the First International Symposium: the Wall Paintings of Thera (Petros
M. Nomikos Conference Centre, Thera, Hellas, 30th August – 4th September 1997) (Athens, 2000), 103-18;
and BRYSBAERT, in: BIETAK, MARINATOS and PALIVOU (eds.), Taureador Scenes, 159.
 EGYPTIAN BLUE IN EGYPT AND BEYOND: THE AEGEAN AND THE NEAR EAST 1777

Fig. 5. The Gaming Board from the palace of Knossos with Egyptian blue
under rock crystal plaques (A.J. EVANS, The Palace of Minos at Knossos
vol. I (London, 1921), colour plate v).

(dated to the first half of the 15th century BC by the excavator Prof. M. Bietak32). It is
also important to note that the analytical work performed on Egyptian blue samples
from Knossos and Akrotiri pointed to the extensive use of Egyptian blue, but at the
same time to the use of the locally available amphibole, riebeckite. Riebeckite was

32
M. BIETAK, ‘Chapter I. Introduction, Context and Date of the Wall Paintings’, in: BIETAK, MARINA-
TOS and PALIVOU (eds.), Taureador Scenes, 27 and 39; also BRYSBAERT, in: BIETAK, MARINATOS and
PALIVOU (eds.), Taureador Scenes, 151.
1778 M. PANAGIOTAKI, M. TITE AND Y. MANIATIS

Fig. 6. Charging bull – Egyptian blue under rock crystal plaque

(EVANS, Palace of Minos, vol. I, colour plate xix).

applied on its own to produce a similar to Egyptian blue, but not as brilliant, dark blue,
or a grey blue. Alternatively, riebeckite was placed under Egyptian blue, perhaps in
an attempt to economize or to have a different shade of blue33. Egyptian blue was also
reported in combination with black pigment, placed over it or under it34, perhaps again
as a means of economy35.
Egyptian blue as a fine material has also been applied under colourless rock crystal,
to give colour to a composite piece of art, such as the gaming board (fig. 5)36 or
the charging bull (fig. 6)37, both from the Bronze Age palace of Knossos. The use of

33
CAMERON, JONES and PHILIPPAKIS, British School of Athens 72 (1977), 158; PERDIKATSIS, KILIKOGLOU,
SOTIROPOULOU and CHRYSSIKOPOULOU, in: SHERRATT (ed.), Proceedings, 103-18.
34
BRYSBAERT, in: BIETAK, MARINATOS and PALIVOU (eds.), Taureador Scenes, 159.
35
Egyptian blue was also used during later antiquity in combination with other materials such as calcite,
to create green or grey-blue or it was mixed with “black particles” to create blue-grey; see, for instance,
the Late Classical Greek paintings from the royal tombs at Vergina (the Hunting Scene on the façade of
Philip’s Tomb), Chr. SAATSOGLOU-PALIADELI, ‘Linear and Painterly: Colour and drawing in ancient Greek
painting’, in: M.A. TIVERIOS and D.S. TSIAFAKIS (eds.), Color in Ancient Greece, The Role of Color in
Ancient Greek Art and Architecture 700-31 B.C., Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and Lambrakis
Research Foundation (Thessaloniki, 2002), 102. The same applies to other Macedonian tombs, such as the
“Tomb of the Palmettes” at Lefkadia, see K. ROMIOPOULOU and H. BRECOULAKI, ‘Style and painting tech-
niques on the wall paintings of the ‘Tomb of the Palmettes’’, in: TIVERIOS and TSIAFAKIS (eds.), Color in
Ancient Greece, 112 and 114, where the artist used “diluted Egyptian blue to define the background of his
composition”.
36
A.J. EVANS, The Palace of Minos at Knossos, vol. I (London, 1921), 471-9, colour plate v.
37
Ibid., colour plate xix.
 EGYPTIAN BLUE IN EGYPT AND BEYOND: THE AEGEAN AND THE NEAR EAST 1779

Egyptian blue was thus extensive in the Aegean during the Bronze Age, but it was dur-
ing the Late Bronze Age (16th-12th century BC) that it became even more favoured: large
numbers of beads and inlays have been recovered from rich tombs all over the Aegean.

Egyptian Blue Manufacture

Ingredients and method of production

Egyptian blue frit was produced by firing a mixture of silica (quartz pebbles or quartz
sand), lime (limestone or sea shells), a copper compound (probably originally mala-
chite, and later scale resulting from the oxidation of copper metal or a copper alloy)
and a small amount of alkali flux (natron or plant ash), at about 900-1000ºC38. The
resulting frit consists of calcium-copper tetrasilicate crystals and partially reacted
quartz particles that are bonded together by a glass phase. If quartz pebbles are used,
lime has to be added separately, but if quartz sand is used it contains lime in the form
of crushed limestone or sea shell and so the separate addition of lime is not necessary.
Experimental laboratory replications were undertaken first by A.P. Laurie et al.39
and subsequently by W.T. Chase40, D. Ullrich41 and M.S. Tite et al.42.

Grain size and colour

The colour of Egyptian blue varies from dark blue to light blue43. The dark blue (fig. 3)
consists of coarse-grained crystals of calcium-copper tetrasilicate, such as typically
result from the primary production from raw materials, whereas the light blue consists
of finer crystals, such as result from grinding the coarse-grained frit to produce a fine
powder which is then remodeled to the required shape and re-fired.

38
TITE, BIMSON and COWELL, in: LAMBERT (ed.), Archaeological Chemistry III, 215-42.
39
A.P. LAURIE, W.F.P. MCCLINTOCK and F.D. Mile, ‘Egyptian blue’, Proceedings of the Royal Society
89 (1914), 418-29.
40
W.T. CHASE, ‘Egyptian blue as a pigment and ceramic material’, in: R.H. BRILL (ed.), Science and
archaeology (Cambridge MA, 1971), 80-90.
41
D. ULLRICH, ‘Egyptian blue and green frit: characterization, history and occurrence, synthesis’, in:
F. DELAMARE, T. HACKENS and B. HELLY (eds.), Datation-caractérisation des peintures pariétales et
murales (Ravello, 1987), 323-32.
42
TITE, BIMSON and COWELL, in: LAMBERT (ed.), Archaeological Chemistry, 215-42.
43
It is interesting to note that Theophrastus (On Stones, 55) referred to four different colours of kyanos:
“Those who grind colouring materials say that kyanos itself makes four colours; the first is formed of the
finest particles and is very pale, and the second consists of the largest ones and is very dark”, after MOO-
REY, Mesopotamian Materials, 186.
1780 M. PANAGIOTAKI, M. TITE AND Y. MANIATIS

Egyptian blue ingots

Egyptian blue, like glass44, was formed into ingots, which were distributed to various
workshops to be used as raw material. Not many complete Bronze Age ingots have
survived, but there are several that have preserved enough of their shape to allow their
reconstruction in terms of overall shape as well as size. Most have been recorded by
F. Weatherhead and A. Buckley45 who have distinguished five different shapes of
Egyptian blue ingots from Egypt: “large round flat cakes”, “large flat rectangular
cakes”, “bowl-shaped cakes”, “small sack-shaped pieces”46 and also the later in date
“spherical shapes”47. Their size varies but an almost complete one of the “large round
flat cake” type has a diameter of c. 19 cm48. An almost complete ingot was found in
the excavations of Tel Sera (12th century BC, fig. 7) in Israel, by Prof E. Oren49 and
it is of the type called by Weatherhead and Buckley50 “bowl-shaped cakes” which
were perhaps formed in a “flat-bottomed vessel”. The shape, size (D: 18.5, H: 7.7,
W: 1895 Kg), texture as well as the constituents (see Table 1, p. 1789) of the Tel Sera
ingot point to Egypt as the production centre, something that accords well with Tel
Sera being under Egyptian rule for at least three centuries, as pointed out by Prof.
Oren51. Another ingot was also located in Israel, at a working area at a Temple at
Beth Shean (13th century BC), together with “rejected pieces of misshapen and over-
fired refuse glass and faience”. The ingot is fragmentary but is described as “a flat
disk about 8 cm in diameter” when complete, and thus “comparable in size and shape
to contemporaneous examples from Egypt”52.

44
BASS, American Journal of Archaeology 90 (1991), 269-96; ID., in: GALE (ed.), Bronze Age Trade,
69-82; ID., in: YALÇIN, PULAK and SLOTTA (eds.) Schiff Uluburun, figs 62-79.
45
F. WEATHERHEAD and A. BUCKLEY, ‘Artists’ pigments from Amarna’, in: B.J. KEMP (ed.) Amarna
Reports V (London, 1989), 202-40.
46
The “sack-shaped pieces”, may simply be Egyptian blue that was originally finely ground powder
stored in a sack; if so, they should not be considered as ingots.
47
These are small, 3-4 cm in diameter and “may all be from the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods”,
WEATHERHEAD and BUCKLEY, in: KEMP (ed.) Amarna Reports V, 214.
48
Ibid., 210.
49
E.D. OREN, ‘Governors’ residences’ in Canaan under the New Kingdom; a case study of Egyptian
administration’, Journal of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities 15 (1985), 37-56; also
N. PORATH and S. ILANI, ‘Pigments derived from Minerals’, in: Ch. SOREK and E. AYALON (eds.), Colors
from Nature, Natural Colors in Ancient Times (Tel Aviv, 1993), 9ff., fig. II.4.
50
WEATHERHEAD and BUCKLEY, in: KEMP (ed.), Amarna Reports V, 210.
51
OREN, Journal of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities 15 (1985), 37-56.
52
P.E. MCGOVERN, ‘The ultimate attire: Jewelry from a Canaanite Temple at Beth Shan’, Expedition
32/1 (1990), 21; also A. DAVID, ‘Egyptian 20th Dynasty wall paintings’, in: N. PANITZ-COHEN and A. MAZAR
(eds.), Excavations at Tel Beth-Shean 1989-1996, Vol. III, The 13th century BCE strata in areas N and S,
(Jerusalem, 2009), 711.
 EGYPTIAN BLUE IN EGYPT AND BEYOND: THE AEGEAN AND THE NEAR EAST 1781

A complete ingot from Assur (Iraq), now in the Berlin Museum53 (12th century BC,
fig. 8), is different from all the Bronze Age ingots recorded from Egypt, as it is an
irregular sphere with one almost flat side (17.5 ≈ 15.4 ≈ 14.9 cm). It looks as if it was
formed by manipulation and not in a pot, taking its shape, like many others54. Another,
described as a “loaf of bread”55, found at Ras Shamra-Ougarit (14th century BC), may
be the spherical (half preserved) with somewhat pressed poles presented in figure 3-4,
in Caubet and Pierrat-Bonnefois56. It looks as if it was formed like the Assur ingot,
but it is much smaller in size (perhaps not more than 5 cm in height) and its shape as
preserved points to a more regular sphere; it was found together with 19 more ingot
fragments of indistinguishable shape.
In the Aegean, no complete ingot of the shapes recorded above have survived. The
fragments that have been identified up to now do not preserve even one portion of their
edge, to allow for speculation on their original shape or size57. They are usually small
fragments of mostly irregular shape or simply small lumps. One exception is a tiny
ingot-like round “lump”, between a sphere and a disc, of perhaps less than 2 cm
diameter (Inventory number: National Museum 1606) found at the palatial citadel of
Tiryns, together with glass working debris (dated to c. 13th century BC, fig. 9), that
must have originally come from a workshop58. Its surface looks smooth and carries
traces of manipulation, which, however, could be simply marks of weathering. If an
ingot, it recalls in size and shape the much later ingots of Egyptian blue described by
Vitruvius (De Architectura VII 11) “made into balls, placed in clay pots and fired in
the kiln” and the actual Egyptian blue ingots in the shape of small balls (of 2-4 cm
diameter) found in an excavation at the Aegean island of Kos (dated to the 3rd century
BC)59, as well as the later (of Ptolemaic and Roman period) spherical ingots identified
by Weatherhead and Buckley in Egypt60.

53
R.B. WEHGARTNER, ‘Werkstoffbrocken aus Ägyptisch Blau (entry 145-146)’, in: R. BUSZ and
P. GERCKE (eds.), Türkis und Azur, Quarzkeramik im Orient und Okzident (Kassel, 1999), 338 (Inventory
number VA Ass 4820).
54
If so, the ingredients may have been mixed with water and manipulated to form the required shape
and then baked.
55
MATOÏAN and BOUQUILLON, in: MATTHIAE, ENEA, PEYRONEL and PINNOCK (eds.), Proceedings, 987;
and A. BOUQUILLON and V. MATOÏAN, ‘Les emplois du ‘bleu égyptien’ à Ougarit’, in: A. BOUQUILLON,
A. CAUBET, A. KACZMARCZYK and V. MATOÏAN (eds.), Faïences et matières vitreuses de l’Orient ancien.
Étude physico-chimique et catalogue des œuvres du département des Antiquités orientales (Paris, 2007),
39-40.
56
A. CAUBET and G. PIERRAT-BONNEFOIS, Faïences de l’Antiquité (Paris, 2005).
57
Ingot fragments from Mycenae do preserve parts of an edge but need further investigation before
anything positive can be said on their original shape.
58
PANAGIOTAKI, PAPAZOGLOU-MANIOUDAKI, CHATZI-SPILIOPOULOU, ANDREOPOULOU-MANGOU, MANIATIS,
TITE and SHORTLAND, in: Annales du 16e Congrès de l’Association Internationale pour l’histoire du Verre,
14-8.
59
KANTHIA and KOUHELJ, Arxaiologiká Análekta ez AqjnÉn 20 (1987), 227, figs 11-2.
60
WEATHERHEAD and BUCKLEY, in: KEMP (ed.), Amarna Reports V, 210.
1782 M. PANAGIOTAKI, M. TITE AND Y. MANIATIS

Fig. 7. Egyptian blue ingot from Tel Sera in Israel

(Courtesy of Prof. E. Oren).

Fig. 8. Egyptian blue ingot from Assur

(Courtesy of the Berlin, SMPK Vorderasiatisches Museum).

Fig. 9. Possible Egyptian blue ingot

(Courtesy of the National Museum in Athens).
 EGYPTIAN BLUE IN EGYPT AND BEYOND: THE AEGEAN AND THE NEAR EAST 1783

Where were these ingots produced? There is no question that the ones recorded by
Weatherhead and Buckley were produced in Egypt. The shape as well as the texture
and constituents of the ingot from Tell Sera also point to Egypt as the country of ori-
gin and so may be the ingot from Beth Shean.
The one from Assur may have been produced there and if so, the fact that its shape
and size are completely different from the Egyptian ones, may suggest that each
region produced ingots typical (in shape and size) of that particular region. The Ras
Shamra-Ougarit ingot in the form of a sphere, that recalls the Assur ingot in shape,
could strengthen the above view. A. Bouquillon and V. Matoïan61, on the basis of
their analytical work, not on the spherical ingot but on fragments from others, cannot
give a positive answer as to the origin of the ingots. However, they suggest that the
objects of Egyptian blue in the Egyptian style, found at Ras Shamra-Ougarit, were
probably made in Egypt, since the proportion of the elements present in them are
comparable to Egyptian blue made in Egypt – these Egyptian style artefacts were
therefore imported from Egypt62. Moreover, these objects differ in composition from
the cylinder seals of Egyptian blue found at the same site and which are considered
to be products of the Near East. Conversely, the absence of tin from these objects
suggests the use of malachite or scale from oxidized copper metal as the source
of the copper, whereas in Egypt, scale from oxidized bronze was normally used in
this period (14th century BC). Although no workshop of vitreous materials has been
identified at Ras Shamra-Ougarit, its existence is almost certain, since a group of
Egyptian blue objects with a very high quartz content described by Bouquillon and
Matoäan63 as “faience” coloured by Egyptian blue, is unique to Ras Shamra-Ougarit,
and thus they may be the products of a local workshop. Therefore, despite the absence
of an actual workshop at Ras Shamra-Ougarit, there is some evidence of a local
(‘Near Eastern’) production centre, which could have produced Egyptian blue, includ-
ing also the above discussed spherical ingot.
The ingot-like lump from Tiryns, if an ingot, is different from both the Egyptian and
the Near Eastern ones; could this suggest that it was made in the Aegean, which was
producing ingots different in shape from those produced in Egypt and the Near East?
This is only a question that cannot be answered at present.

61
BOUQUILLON and MATOÄAN, in: BOUQUILLON, CAUBET, KACZMARCZYK and MATOÏAN (eds.), Faïences
et matières vitreuses de l’Orient ancien, 39-40.
62
Ibid., 40.
63
Ibid.; also MATOÏAN and BOUQUILLON, in: MATHIAE, ENRA, PEYRONEL and PINNOCK (eds.), Proceedings,
991-3.
1784 M. PANAGIOTAKI, M. TITE AND Y. MANIATIS

Analytical work on Egyptian blue found in the Aegean and in Israel

The primary objectives of the analytical work presented in this paper were to trace
Bronze Age production centres of Egyptian blue outside Egypt, and in particular to
answer the question as to whether Egyptian blue was an import to the Aegean from
Egypt or/and the Near East, whether it was produced in the Aegean or whether the
artists of the Aegean could have used both imported material as well as their own as
was suggested recently for glass64.
The limitations of this analytical work are that only a few samples have been ana-
lysed up to now and that most of the samples analysed are weathered. As a result they
have lost their glass phase to varying degrees.

Samples and experimental procedures

Egyptian blue samples from the Aegean

The eleven samples of Egyptian blue from the Aegean that have been analysed were
taken from seven ingot fragments and four beads (Table 1). All the ingots come from
Late Bronze Age contexts, while the beads range from the 19th century BC to the very
end of the Late Bronze Age (13th-12th century BC).
The Egyptian blue samples were embedded in resin and examined in polished cross-
section under the optical microscope and in analytical Scanning Electron Microscopes
(SEM) using the backscatter detector mode. The compositions of Egyptian blue crystals,
the interparticle glass phase and other phases present in the samples were determined
by spot analyses using Energy Dispersive Spectrometers (EDS) attached to the SEMs.
The bulk compositions of Egyptian blue samples were similarly determined by analyzing
areas approximately 0.3 ≈ 0.3 mm. The instruments were typically run at 25 kV and
the resulting analytical totals were automatically normalized to 100%.

Results of the Aegean material

A general observation is that the Egyptian blue crystals and partially reacted quartz
particles tend to be larger in the ingots than in the beads (i.e. typically up to about
150 mm in the ingots as compared to up to about 50 mm in the beads). Macroscopically,
the ingots look coarser and less compact than the beads.

64
TITE, SHORTLAND, HATTON, MANIATIS, KAVOUSSANAKI, PYRLI and PANAGIOTAKI, in: JACKSON and
WAGER (eds.), Vitreous Materials, 105-25; A. EL-GORESY, ‘Polychromatic wall painting decoration in
monuments of Pharaonic Egypt: compositions, chronology and painting techniques’, in: SHERRATT (ed.),
Proceedings Thera, 49-70.
 EGYPTIAN BLUE IN EGYPT AND BEYOND: THE AEGEAN AND THE NEAR EAST 1785

The rounded appearance of the partially reacted quartz particles suggests the use of
quartz sand; this interpretation is reinforced by the presence of more than 1% of alu-
mina (in the samples where the glass phase is well preserved: Knossos KF 31 and
Mycenae Artisan’s Quarter) and by the correlation between alumina and iron oxide
content. Thus, quartz sand rather than crushed quartz pebbles was used in all samples,
as was also the case for Egyptian blue produced in both Egypt and the Near East65.
The lime, which is a major component of Egyptian blue (together with quartz and
copper), could have been an impurity present in the sand or it could have been added
separately in the form of sea shell or crushed limestone.
In the bead from Minoan Crete dating to 19th century BC in which glass phase sur-
vives (KF 31), the alkali used was richer in potash (7.3% K2O) than soda (4.7% Na2O)
(Table 1), which is consistent with the use of ash from Salsola kali plants locally
available on the Cretan coast. This use of a distinctive, locally available potash-richer
alkali suggests that the Egyptian blue analysed may have been made in Crete66.
In contrast, in the ingot from Mycenae dating to the mid 13th century BC in which
glass phase survives (Artisan’s Quarter), the alkali used was richer in soda (7.0%
Na2O) than potash (1.9% K2O). This composition suggests the use of ash from Salsola
soda plants rather than from Salsola kali, which is consistent with the Egyptian blue
having been produced in Egypt. However, the Mycenaean material analysed differs
from the Egyptian in that, by Egyptian standards, it has an unusually coarse and open
microstructure with considerable surviving unreacted copper. It may have been there-
fore produced in Greece. This idea could be strengthened by the possible ‘ingot’ of
Egyptian blue67 found at the Bronze Age palatial citadel at Tiryns, which is completely
different from all other contemporary ingots from Egypt and the Near East – could this
difference point to an Aegean production centre?
The absence of detectable amounts of tin oxide in the 19th century BC Egyptian blue
bead (KF 31) from Minoan Knossos (Table 1) suggests the use of scale from copper
metal or a pure copper ore (malachite), whereas the presence of up to 0.4 tin oxide in
some 17th-13th century BC Egyptian blue from other sites of Minoan Crete suggests
that bronze scale was sometimes used. Similarly, the presence of 0.5% or more tin oxide

65
G.D. HATTON, A.J. SHORTLAND and M. TITE, ‘The production technology of Egyptian blue and green
frits from second millennium BC Egypt and Mesopotamia’, Journal of Archaeological Science 35 (2008),
1591-604.
66
TITE, SHORTLAND, HATTON, MANIATIS, KAVOUSSANAKI, PYRLI and PANAGIOTAKI, in: JACKSON and
WAGER (eds.), Vitreous Materials, 105-25; also PANAGIOTAKI, MANIATIS, KAVOUSSANAKI, HATTON, TITE,
in: BOURRIAU and PHILLIPS (eds.), Invention and Innovation, 149-75; and PANAGIOTAKI, in: JACKSON and
WAGER (eds.), Vitreous Materials, 34-63.
67
The ingot has not been analysed but it will be in the near future; on the glass workshop associated
with the possible Egyptian blue ingot, see PANAGIOTAKI, PAPAZOGLOU-MANIOUDAKI, CHATZI-SPILIOPOULOU,
ANDREOPOULOU-MANGOU, MANIATIS, TITE and SHORTLAND, in: Annales du 16e Congrès de l’Association
Internationale pour l’histoire du Verre, 14-8.
1786 M. PANAGIOTAKI, M. TITE AND Y. MANIATIS

in the ingots from Mycenae (13th century BC) suggests the more consistent use of bronze
scale.

Discussion

The detection of tin oxide in Egyptian blue ingots and beads from Minoan Crete and
Mycenaean Greece is consistent with the results of previous analyses in that tin has
also been traced in Egyptian blue used as pigment in paintings all over the Aegean
(Knossos, Akrotiri, Mycenae, Thebes, Orchomenos, Phylakopi)68. However, S. Filip-
pakis et al.69 have observed that arsenic was also present in many Egyptian blue pig-
ments found in the Aegean, with the arsenic content normally being greater than the
tin content in pigments from Knossos, Akrotiri and Pylos, and the tin content normally
being greater than the arsenic content in pigments from Mycenae and Tiryns.
A. Brysbaert70 has also noted the presence of arsenic in Egyptian blue pigment from
Mycenae and Gla. Thus, it appears that scale from both arsenical copper and bronze
were used in the production of Egyptian blue pigments used in the Aegean.
In the context of Egypt, A. El Goresy71 has obtained information on the source of
the copper used in the production of Egyptian blue pigments by the analyses of pig-
ments collected from well dated tombs and temples spanning the period from the Old
Kingdom through to the Roman period. On the basis of the presence of arsenic and tin
rich phases, he has concluded that scale from arsenical copper provided the source of
the copper used in the production of the Egyptian blue pigments from the Fifth Dynasty
(c. 2494-2345 BC) through to the reign of Thutmosis III (1479-1425 BC) in the
18th Dynasty, when scale from bronze started to be used, initially together with scale
from arsenical copper.
Analysis of the Egyptian blue pigment from the paintings at Tell el-Dab‘a provided
evidence for the use of scale from both arsenical copper and bronze72. Brysbaert argued
that this early use of bronze scale means that the pigment must have been brought to
Egypt from elsewhere and that, since bronze scale was already being used in the

68
CAMERON, JONES and PHILIPPAKIS, British School of Athens 72 (1977), 121-84, especially 158; also
PERDIKATSIS, KILIKOGLOU, SOTIROPOULOU and CHRYSSIKOPOULOU, in: SHERRATT (ed.), Proceedings Thera,
103-18; and BRYSBAERT, in: BIETAK, MARINATOS and PALIVOU (eds.), Taureador Scenes, 151-62, especially
159; also A. DADRAU, ‘La peinture murale minoenne, I. La palette du peintre égéen et égyptien à l’âge du
bronze. Nouvelles données analytiques’, Bulletin de la Correspondance hellénique 123.1 (1999), 1-41.
69
S.E. FILIPPAKIS, B. PERDIKATSIS and S. PARADELLIS, ‘An Analysis of Blue Pigments from the Greek
Bronze Age’, Studies in Conservation 21 (1976), 143-53.
70
BRYSBAERT, Technology and Social Agency; and BRYSBAERT, in: BIETAK, MARINATOS and PALIVOU
(eds.), Taureador Scenes, 159.
71
EL-GORESY, in: SHERRATT (ed.), Proceedings Thera, 49-70.
72
BRYSBAERT, in: BIETAK, MARINATOS and PALIVOU (eds.), Taureador Scenes, 159.
 EGYPTIAN BLUE IN EGYPT AND BEYOND: THE AEGEAN AND THE NEAR EAST 1787

production of Egyptian blue “at Akrotiri earlier than the start of the 18th Dynasty73 and
it was used at Knossos as early as MM II74”, the Aegean was the source. Thus, it was
further argued that the Egyptian blue pigment was probably brought to Tell el-Dab‘a
by “the people who eventually also applied it, the painters”, who had come from the
Aegean.

Results of the Israel material75

The Egyptian blue sample from Israel comes from an almost complete ingot found at
Tel Sera and dated to the 12th century BC. The sample was treated in the laboratory in
the same way the Aegean samples were (see above). It consists of interconnected
clusters of Egyptian blue crystals (up to about 50 mm in length) and partially reacted
quartz particles (up to about 500 mm in length) bonded together by a glass phase.
On the basis of replication experiments, the size of the Egyptian blue crystals suggests
that, in spite of the survival of quartz particles up to about 500 mm in length, the major-
ity of the quartz was fine grained (i.e. less than about 100 mm)76. Assuming that there
has been complete reaction to produce the maximum possible amount of Egyptian blue
crystals, it is estimated from the bulk composition that there is an excess of some 30%
silica and some 5% lime.
The presence of feldspar and titanomagnetite particles, together with the fact that
the surviving large quartz particles are rounded rather than angular, suggests that
quartz sand, rather than crushed quartz pebbles, was the source of the silica, and it is
probable that the sand was also the source of the lime. The presence of a significant
amount of tin oxide (bulk SnO2/CuO ratio = 0.11) indicates that scale from a bronze
containing approximately 10% tin was the source of the copper.
In spite of the glass phase having been partially weathered, areas of unweathered
soda-rich glass with an average Na2O/K2O ratio equal to 11.9 (and corresponding aver-
age Na2O/MgO ratio equal to 10.7) were detected. Although the Na2O/K2O ratios for
soda-rich plant ashes are normally less than 10, the higher values observed in the frit
glass phase can be explained by the fact that, in the production of glass, potash is
preferentially taken up in the salt melt and as a result is depleted with respect to soda in
the glass melt77. Therefore, in spite of these comparatively high Na2O/K2O ratios, the

73
LEE and QUIRKE, in: NICHOLSON and SHAW (eds.), Egyptian Materials and Technology, 110-1.
74
CAMERON, JONES and PHILIPPAKIS, British School of Athens 72 (1977), 158.
75
Marina Panagiotaki is deeply grateful to Prof. E. Oren, Director of Tel Sera Expedition, Ben-Gurion
University, for granting permission to analyse the Tel Sera Egyptian blue ingot.
76
HATTON, SHORTLAND and TITE, Journal of Archaeological Science 35 (2008), 1591-604.
77
Th. REHREN, ‘A review of factors affecting the composition of early Egyptian glasses and faience:
alkali and alkali earth oxides’, Journal of Archaeological Science 35 (2008), 1345-54; also S. TANIMOTO
1788 M. PANAGIOTAKI, M. TITE AND Y. MANIATIS

source of the alkali was most probably a soda-rich plant ash and not natural evaporite,
natron, for which Na2O/K2O ratios should be in excess of at least 20.

Discussion

In terms of its microstructure and the raw materials used in its production (i.e. quartz
sand, scale from tin bronze, soda-rich plant ash), the Egyptian blue frit sample from
Israel is consistent with it having been produced in Egypt, or perhaps produced in
Israel using an Egyptian “recipe”. Because of the use of tin bronze scale as the source
of copper, production in Mesopotamia is less likely since Egyptian blue frit from
Mesopotamia only rarely contains significant amounts of tin, scale from copper metal
or copper ore normally being the source of the copper in this region.

Conclusions

Because of variations in the detection limits for the different methods of analysis used,
together with uncertainties regarding the precise dates for the samples analysed, the
presence or absence of arsenic and tin do not, at present, provide entirely reliable
criteria for distinguishing between the different production centres for Egyptian blue,
as already pointed out by Brysbaert. However, the use of Salsola kali in the production
of the 19th century BC bead from Knossos, and the distinctive microstructures of the
later Mycenaean ingots (13th century BC), provide strong evidence for local production
of Egyptian blue in the Aegean.
The interpretation that, on the basis of the analytical data, the Egyptian blue pigment
used at Tell el-Dab‘a was imported into Egypt from the Aegean, can be justified, if
the Tell el-Dab‘a paintings do not pre-date the reign of Thutmosis III (1479-1425 BC),
when Egyptian blue was being produced in Egypt itself, using bronze scale as the
source of the copper. Also, there is the fact that Egyptian blue pigment made using
scale from arsenical copper, which would have been available in Egypt prior to the
reign of Thutmosis III, was also being used at Tell el-Dab‘a. However, since the ico-
nography and technique of the Tell el-Dab‘a paintings strongly suggest that they were
painted by artists from the Aegean, it seems entirely reasonable that these artists would
have brought their pigments with them.

and Th. REHREN, ‘Interactions between silicate and salt melts in LBA glass-making’, Journal of Archaeo-
logical Science 35 (2008), 2566-73.
 Table 1. Bulk and glass phase analyses of Egyptian blue frits from the Aegean and Israel (analyses normalised to 100%)

Sample Object type SiO2 CuO CaO Na2O K2O MgO Al2O3 FeO SnO2 CaO / SnO2 / Excess Excess Excess
CuO CuO SiO2 CaO CuO
Bulk analyses (EDS)
Minoan (MM – 19th century BC)
Knossos KF 31* Bead 62,9 12,3 13,3 1,8 3,3 1,0 2,2 3,2 bd 1,1 29,0 5,3
Minoan (MM-LM – c. 1700-1300 BC)
Mesara 1 Ingot 69,2 15,2 11,7 1,2 0,1 1,1 0,6 0,5 0,3 0,8 0,02 24,5 1,1
Mesara 2 Ingot 74,0 12,1 8,5 1,9 0,1 1,3 1,0 0,9 0,3 0,7 0,02 39,9 0,0
Ag Triada 2 Ingot 66,8 13,7 15,5 1,9 0,3 1,0 0,3 0,6 bd 1,1 26,7 6,2
Tylissos Bead 65,5 15,7 12,9 1,9 0,3 0,9 1,2 1,5 bd 0,8 19,3 2,0
Gournia 4 Bead 74,0 10,6 9,5 2,5 0,4 0,6 1,2 0,9 0,3 0,9 0,03 45,1 2,2
Mavro Spilio 4 Bead 68,4 13,3 14,3 1,5 0,1 0,5 0,2 1,2 0,4 1,1 0,03 29,4 5,2
Mycenaean (LH – mid 13th century BC)
Mycenae-Columns Ingot 74,7 13,2 9,0 1,4 0,1 0,6 0,1 0,3 0,6 0,7 0,05 37,1 0,4
Mycenae-Citadel Ingot 74,5 11,7 8,9 1,9 0,4 0,6 1,0 0,5 0,5 0,8 0,04 41,3 0,7
Mycenae-Sample 7 Ingot 73,5 13,7 8,9 1,4 0,2 1,3 0,2 0,4 0,5 0,7 0,04 36,6 1,0
Mycenae-Artisan Qu* Ingot 67,5 13,6 11,1 2,2 0,6 1,2 1,6 1,1 1,1 0,8 0,08 28,7 1,7

Israel (12th century BC)

Tel Sera* Ingot 69,4 12,3 12,1 1,0 0,7 1,0 1,3 0,7 1,4 1,0 0,12 32,5 3,4

Sample Object type SiO2 CuO CaO Na2O K2O MgO Al2O3 FeO SnO2 As2O5 Na2O/ Na2O / MgO
K2O
Glass phase analyses
Knossos KF 31 Bead (WDS) 65,46 9,32 4,15 4,71 7,32 1,04 3,91 4,03 bd 0,06 0,6 4,5
Mycenae-Artisan Qu Ingot (WDS) 72,20 7,53 1,98 7,00 1,90 1,71 4,32 1,28 2,08 na 3,8 4,1
EGYPTIAN BLUE IN EGYPT AND BEYOND: THE AEGEAN AND THE NEAR EAST

Tel Sera Ingot (EDS) 62,1 13,7 5,0 11,1 0,9 1,0 3,0 1,8 1,3 na 11,9 10,7

Data from Tite et al. (2008), except for Israel sample which are previously unpublished
MM: Middle Minoan – LM: Late Minoan – LH: Late Helladic – bd: below detection – na: not analysed
1789

* See lower part of the table for analyses of glass phase