UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

Ancient Civilizations of Africa
some were for decorative purposes. The Egyptian belief in certain values
and especially in eternal life necessitated the manufacture of a great number
of often decorated objects for the dead and led to a high standard of
perfection and artistic production.
Egypt contributed, if not the invention, at least the distribution of
glass-making techniques to world civilization. While it is true that
Mesopotamia and the civilizations of the Indus were likewise familiar at a
very early time with glazing, the technique which is the basis of glassmaking,
there is no evidence to suggest that they spread it abroad. The
most one can suppose, therefore, is that once again there was a phenomenon
of convergence and that glass-making was discovered independently both
in Asia and in the Nile valley.
It is certain that the Egyptians demonstrated their aptitude in the art of
glass-making in a relatively short time. The presence of glass beads seems
to be attested in the predynastic period (c. —3500), although it is not
certain that they were deliberately made by the craftsman. Glass, as such,
was known in the fifth dynasty (c. —2500) and began to spread from the
time of the New Kingdom (c. —1600). It was then used not only for beads
but also for vases of a great variety of shapes, from the graceful stemmed
chalice to vases in the form of fishes. They were usually polychromatic
and always opaque. Transparent glass made its appearance under
Tutankhamun (c. —1300). Starting about —700, Egyptian polychromatic
glass vases, in the form called alabaster, spread throughout the Mediterranean
area. They were copied by the Phoenicians, who developed their
manufacture into an industry.
In the later period, hieroglyphic signs, moulded in coloured glass, were
set in wood or stone to make inscriptions. The techniques of the Pharaonic
glass-makers were handed down to craftsmen of the hellenistic period, who
invented blown glass. Alexandria then became the main centre for the
manufacture of glass-ware, exporting its products as far as China. Aurelius
levied a tax on Egyptian glass-ware imported into Rome. The Meroitic
empire later imported some glass-ware from Alexandria but, above all,
adopted its manufacturing techniques and spread them to the upper Nile
valley.
One of the most important industries was that of the production of
papyrus invented by the ancient Egyptians. No plant played a more
significant role in Egypt than papyrus. Its fibres were used for boatmaking
and for caulking, for the wicks of oil lamps, for mats, baskets,
ropes and hawsers. The hawsers which served to moor the pontoon bridge
that Xerxes tried to lay across the Hellespont were made in Egypt out of
papyrus fibres. When tied together in bundles, papyrus stems served as
pillars in early architecture until classical architects took them as a model
for their simple or clustered columns whose capitals were shaped like closed
or open flowers. But, above all, papyrus was used to make 'papyrus', from
which the word 'paper' is derived, undoubtedly a cognate of the ancient
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