Cahiers de la ceramique egyptienne, vol. 2.

• Author: Shubert, Steven Blake

The field of ancient Egyptian ceramics is only just now coming into its own, with specialists whose primary research goals involve the study of the pottery remains from the ancient Nile Valley in and of themselves rather than as common components of excavation (and clearance) operations. The second volume of Cahiers de la ceramique egyptienne contains eight specialized investigations by some of the leading scholars in this field. These cover the entire time span of ancient Egyptian ceramics from the Predynastic period to the Islamic, with coverage of Dynasty XVIII, the Late Dynastic, the Roman and the Byzantine periods along the way. Taken together this collection of articles offers an excellent overview of the strengths and weaknesses of current research on ancient Egyptian pottery.

Thomas van der Way's investigation, "Spatvorgeschichtliche Keramik aus Unteragypten" (pp. 1-9), deals with a particular type of ceramic decoration made by patterns of point-shaped impressions (from some sort of tool like a toothpick or comb) on exterior vessel surfaces during the Naqada IIc-d Period at Buto (Tell el-Farain). Comparisons are made with similar vessel decorations from North Africa (Algeria) and Mesopotamia (Uruk), before a connection is postulated with the pottery of the Sudan (Nubia). This punctate type of decoration is found on Nubian ceramics from the late fourth millennium B.C. through to the Pan Grave pottery of the second millennium B.C. The expansion of the Naqada II culture in Upper Egypt may have led to contact both with Nubia in the south and Buto in the north. However interesting, van der Way's suggestion is far from proven; it is crucial to distinguish between local imitations and real imports. The lack of any detailed study or spectrographic analysis of the wares involved is a major limitation of this study.

Specialists in ancient Egyptian ceramics can confidently distinguish between the pottery produced in the various major chronological divisions of ancient Egypt, but it is more difficult to date ceramics precisely within these cultural "horizons." Thus, Anne-Marie Loyrette and Magdi Fekri in their article, "Un Ensemble ceramique du Nouvel Empire - Vallee des Reines: Tombe 18" (pp. 11-16), can remove with certitude Third Intermediate period and Roman material from the ceramic remains found in Tomb 18 of the Valley of the Queens and use the remaining New Kingdom material to place the tomb in the period of Amenophis II to Tuthmosis...