Tenth International Congress of Egyptologists Abstracts of Papers

XICE – Abstract of Papers
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 frit from Crete (dating from the 19 th century BC onwards) suggests that
a mixed alkali flux (i.e., flux containing comparable amounts of soda and potash) was
used in its manufacture whereas, in both Egypt and the Near East, a soda rich flux was
used. 123 Therefore, it seems probable that Egyptian Blue frit was being produced in
Crete from locally available raw materials. Analysis of Egyptian blue frit from the
Mycenaean mainland (14 th -11 th century BC), indicates the use of a soda rich alkali.
However, the unusually coarse texture of Mycenaean Egyptian Blue frit, 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 frit was produced on the Mycenaean mainland from locally
available raw materials. The Aegean thus may have played a vital role in the
production of Egyptian Blue frit during the Bronze Age.
Urban environments - new evidence from Amarna
Eva Panagiotakopulu
Reconstructions of living conditions in Pharaohic Egypt tend to give a rather clinical
view of the cities. Fossil insect studies from the house of the king’s chief charioteer
Ra-Nefer's at Amarna, where desiccated organic deposits were found sealed beneath
the house floor, provide us with a wealth of new information on conditions and
activities in New Kingdom urban Egypt. Finds include large numbers of house flies,
grain pests, a bed bug and dates with insect attack. The dumping of garbage into any
abandoned plot, no matter how temporary, will be familiar to anyone working in the
close packed cities of the Near and Middle East, where garbage disposal is always a
problem. In contrast, lower class environments are hinted at in the Workmen’s
Village, on the edge of the desert, where ectoparasites and pests of stored products are
supplemented by evidence from the surrounding environment. The implication is of a
more vegetated landscape. Further work from Amarna will provide more intricate
information on health, hygiene and urban environments and will parallel the evidence
recently excavated from the cemetery of the poor. Similar studies are required on
other urban deposits in Egypt to enable the entomological history of urban
environments to be written.
Recent activities of the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale in Cairo:
results and prospects
Laure Pantalacci
123 M.S. TITE, A. SHORTLAND, G.D. HATTON, Y. MANIATIS, D. KAVOUSSANAKI, M. PYRLI and M.
PANAGIOTAKI, ‘The scientific examination of Aegean vitreous materials – problems and potential’, in:
C. JAKSON, and E. WAGER (eds.), The Vitreous Materials in the Late Bronze Age Aegean: A window to
the East Mediterranean World, Sheffield Studies in Aegean Archaeology No. 9, Oxbow Books
(Oxford, 1998).
192