page_title: Egyptian faience
section_title: Scope of the term
hierarchical_section_title: Egyptian faience / Scope of the term
caption_attribution_description: English: This group of amulets were strung in modern times to a necklace that follows the order of an amulet necklace found on a mummy in the Faiyum. On this string are 8 "djed" pillars (symbols of Osiris), Thoth, figures of Horus, two figures of Re, a "wadj" (papyrus scepter, symbolizing resurrection), Nephthys, and Khnum. The combination of amulets without an amulet of Isis and only one "wadj" makes it likely that these amulets come from a larger context such as a mummy net or amulet ensemble of a deceased, and not from a single necklace.
context_page_description: Egyptian faience is not, technically, faience. It is a sintered-quartz ceramic, with a surface vitrification which creates a bright lustre of various colours. It has been defined as a "material made from powdered quartz covered with a true vitreous coating, usually in a transparent blue or green isotropic glass". Tjehenet is distinct from the crystalline pigment Egyptian blue.
  Egyptian faience is considerably more porous than glass proper. It can be cast in molds to create vessels, jewelry and decorative objects. Although it contains the major constituents of glass and no clay until late periods, Egyptian faience is frequently discussed in surveys of ancient pottery, as in stylistic and art-historical terms, objects made of it are closer to pottery styles than ancient Egyptian glass.
  Egyptian faience was very widely used for small objects, from beads to small statues, and is found in both elite and popular contexts. It was the most common material for scarabs and other forms of amulet and ushabti figures, and it was used in most forms of ancient Egyptian jewellery, as the glaze made it smooth against the skin.
context_section_description: It is called "Egyptian faience" to distinguish it from faience, the tin-glazed pottery associated with Faenza in northern Italy. Egyptian faience was both exported widely in the ancient world and made locally in many places, and is found in Mesopotamia, around the Mediterranean and in northern Europe as far away as Scotland. The term is used for the material wherever it was made and modern scientific analyses are often the only way of establishing the provenance of simple objects such as the very common beads.
  
  The term is therefore unsatisfactory in several respects, although clear in an Ancient Egyptian context, and is increasingly rejected in museum and archaeological usage. The British Museum now calls this material "glazed composition", with the following note in the "information" box on their online collection database: 
  The term is used for objects with a body made of finely powdered quartz grains fused together with small amounts of alkali and/or lime through partial heating. The bodies are usually colourless but natural impurities give them a brown or greyish tint. Colourants can also be added to give it an artificial colour. It can be modelled by hand, thrown or moulded, and hardens with firing. This material is used in the context of Islamic ceramics where it is described as stonepaste (or fritware). Glazed composition is related to glass, but glass is formed by completely fusing the ingredients in a liquid melted at high temperature. This material is also popularly called faience in the contexts of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Near East. However, this is a misnomer as these objects have no relationship to the glazed pottery vessels made in Faenza, from which the faience term derives. Other authors use the terms sintered quartz, glazed frit, frit, composition, Egyptian Blue, paste or (in the 19th century) even porcelain, although the last two terms are very inappropriate as they also describe imitation gems and a type of ceramic. Frit is technically a flux.
caption: Group of 16 amulets strung as a necklace, in the typical bright faience blue, Late Period
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