Tenth International Congress of Egyptologists Abstracts of Papers

XICE – Abstract of Papers
Blue painted pottery is among the best known wares from Ancient Egypt. Its main
characteristics are the blue colour, a large range of decorative motives and fancy
shapes, a rather short lifespan (approximately 1430-1140 BC, mid-Eighteenth
Dynasty till late Ramesside times) and a restricted distribution. The key finding places
of blue painted pottery are urban centres and capitals like Thebes, Memphis, Amarna
and Gurob. It was once believed that this specific ware was produced in Memphis and
Thebes only 25 and it was labelled “palace pottery”. 26 Despite its popularity, the
specific functions are in some respects still uncertain and new excavations at
settlement and temple sites as well as in cemeteries and cultic centres (e.g. at Qantir,
Saqqara, South Abydos, Umm el-Qaab and Thebes) have produced additional
material which underlines the variability of use of this distinctive ware. Recent
excavations at Elephantine yielded blue painted pottery as well and will be the focus
of the present poster. Although these sherds are small in number, they are of
significance for the ware and its use throughout Egypt. The poster will present this
new material and discuss possible insights on date, function and use of blue painted
pottery on the island.
At Elephantine, blue painted pottery is attested in the New Kingdom layers
Bauschichten 9, 8 and 7, thus dating to the mid Eitheenth Dynasty until the Late
Ramesside period. The majority of the surface finds show linear patterns and are
comparable to the material at Qantir and can consequently be dated to the Ramesside
period (Bauschicht 8). The rather limited variety of forms within the ware group is at
least partly due to the general randomness of the ware at the site. Mostly restricted
forms like amphorae, bottles, various types of jars (primarily funnel necked) and only
a few open forms like plates and lids were found.
Given the small number of blue painted pottery in Elephantine, one of the central
questions concerning the ware group is its function. Since there are some
extraordinary pieces and considering the rareness of rather simple ones, it is safe to
assume that blue painted ware does not belong to general household wares like it is
known at Amarna or Deir el-Medine. At the island, it has certainly neither the
character of household ware nor of palace ware, but the blue painted pots seem to be
rather connected with the temple cult as it is well attested at other sites, for example at
the Ahmose complex at Abydos 27 . Large votive vessels like the so called “victory
vase” bear a cultic connotation and suggest private donations in the form of painted
pottery vessels for the local temples. The pottery vessels partly imitate metal vessels
that are frequently depicted as royal presents to the gods on temple walls.
Most of the blue painted pottery from Elephantine can be dated on one hand to the
reign of Amenhotep III/late Eighteenth Dynasty and on the other to the Nineteenth
Dynasty, more or less to the reign of Ramesses II. These two periods are in very
similar ways peaks for other categories of monuments on the island: rock inscriptions
and small barque shrines. The latter are both connected with festival processions and
cultic activities. Consequently, a collective term implying the functional use of blue
painted pottery on Elephantine should rather be festival pottery than palace pottery
which is far too limited for the attested variability of its use. The study therefore
underlines the need for a site specific approach when dealing with blue painted
pottery and contributes to our understanding of the use and function of this particular
ware.
25 Cf. C.A. HOPE, Pottery of the Egyptian New Kingdom – Three Studies (Burwood, 1989), 16, 58.
26 W.C. HAYES, The Scepter of Egypt II (New York, 1959), 247.
27 Cf. J. BUDKA, ‘The Oriental Institute Ahmose and Tetisheri Project at Abydos 2002-2004: The New
Kingdom pottery’, Egypt & Levant 16 (2006), 105-8.
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