Egyptian Blue - Connections With Other Vitreous Material and With Metals

Connections With Other Vitreous Material and With Metals

Egyptian blue is closely related to the other vitreous materials produced by the ancient Egyptians, namely glass and Egyptian faience, and it is possible that the Egyptians themselves did not employ separate terms to distinguish the three products from one another. Although it is easier to distinguish between faience and Egyptian blue, due to the distinct core of faience objects and their separate glaze layers, it is sometimes difficult to differentiate glass from Egyptian blue due to the very fine texture that Egyptian blue could occasionally have. This is especially true during the New Kingdom as Egyptian blue became more refined and glassy and continued as such into the Greco-Roman period. Since Egyptian blue, like faience, is a much older technology than glass, which only begins during the reign of Thutmose III (1479–1425 BC), there are no doubt changes in the manufacture of Egyptian blue that were associated with the introduction of the glass industry.

Analysis of the source of copper used in the manufacture of Egyptian blue indicates a relationship with the contemporaneous metal industry. Whereas in the earlier periods, it is most probable that copper ores were used, during the reign of Tutmosis III, the copper ore is replaced by the use of bronze filings. This has been established by the detection of a specific amount of tin oxide in Egyptian blue which could only have resulted from the use of tin bronze scraps as the source of copper, which coincides with the time that bronze became widely available in ancient Egypt.