The pharaohs and successive ruling families were concerned with the industry and its development, foremost among them the glass industry that characterized Pharaonic Egypt from other civilizations of the ancient world. They established the first factory in history to produce glass. Pharaonic glass products reflected the progress and progress of this industry In ancient Egypt, and was sometimes used for political pressure and to expand the influence of the ruling families.
The beginning of the emergence of the glass industry to Mesopotamia in Iraq and northern Syria, as well as in Pharaonic Egypt, scientists estimate the first appearance in the period between 1000 to 1500 years BC, and began in Egypt specifically in the Bronze Age, or about 1250 years BC, After the Islamic conquest of Egypt, the Arabs were interested in manufacturing glass, and they invented many tools and methods that were not used in previous eras.
The glass industry was limited in the beginning to the production of glass pieces in the form of beads. The acquisition of glass products in the era of the modern state was a kind of luxury, made in the form of flowers, and was decorated with furniture and walls. In the Ptolemaic period glass was spread in Egypt for daily use in pots, Lamps and necklaces, and in the decoration of jewelry and mirrors.
The mission report, led by Edgar Bosch from the Archaeological Museum in the German city of Hildesheim, and Professor Thilo Reynin, a professor of archeology of ancient civilizations at the University of London, Glass in ancient Egypt was more sophisticated than previously thought. Egyptian manufacturers were able to access a sophisticated method of making glass by melting quartz sand with potassium. They produced large glass blocks that were then sent to other specialized plants to form or were exported directly to the Friendly's.
Glass alloy
He explains d. Mohamed Bakir, a researcher in Egyptology, that the ancient Egyptians followed an innovative method of glass making in two stages; the first phase is melting the sand "quartz" with potassium at a temperature of up to 850 degrees Celsius, after grinding the material well to be converted to a fine powder highest grade In the "ceramic crucible", so that the glass material is formed without complete purity, then the ceramic crucibles are broken and the glass is broken, and the second stage begins. The debris of the glass is smashed again in ceramic crucible at 1000 ° C, Pure glass shaped cubes up o Adding that the process of coloring the glass was done by adding metal oxides to the mix during smelting, such as copper oxides added to get red or orange, copper compounds and iron that give the color of greenish blue, And cobalt compounds to obtain the dark blue color, pointing out that scientists are likely to have different glass factories, each specialized in the production of glass of a certain color, one of which was discovered recently in the Qantara, was a factory specialized in the production of red glass.
Baker added: After the process of manufacturing glass and coloring, glass cubes are transferred to artists and glassware makers to form and draw on them. The multi-colored glass ornaments were formed by cubes of different colors, noting that the process of glass manufacturing requires sufficient scientific knowledge, Which was concentrated in the hands of the priests of Pharaonic Egypt and does not go out to the general public, the workers are only allowed to know the little thing about the nature of the mix and how to make it, so as not to lose the priests influence wide, and thus limited the knowledge of the glass industry to the influential in ancient Egypt , Until the glass became Precious religion express control and power.
Geometric forms
For his part, Gamal Issa, professor of pharaonic history at Cairo University, pointed out that the glass industry had emerged in ancient Egypt and had received special attention from the ruling families for their development and export. They used it sometimes as a means of political pressure to expand the influence of their rule. He pointed out that the archaeological discovery of the glass factory in Qantara The ancient Egyptians did not import the glass at that time, but they made it and exported it. The rulers of the other kingdoms needed to obtain the Egyptian glass to form and decorate it. This made the ruling families use glass as a political pressure to expand their influence and form alliances that support du To the detriment and strengthen their presence.
Issa explains that the glass industry moved from the pharaohs to the Romans. In the Roman era, the manufacture of ceramic pots was developed with a glossy layer, through the addition of copper and silver to the paints that were painted by the glass. The glass vessels made of molds began to appear by the Byzantine era, In the glass blowing the use of the "Puntil", a rod that holds the bottoms of the pot, and also used the Arabs in the manufacture of glass two types of molds, One of them in two separate parts, where The sculpting of the model internally in geometric and natural shapes, and the other a dipping mold, where the glass is blown inside and then completed exhaling externally, stressing that Pharaonic Egypt created the glass industry and developed to produce forms that reflect the existence of a real industry distinct in Pharaonic civilization.