Crafts that telling us the History
What was the importance of the crafts in ancient Egypt?:
Honestly, we can’t imagine ancient Egypt without their unique crafts that gave us hints about their life in past. All treasures that fill the museums nowadays is from the crafts of the ancient Egyptians from the beautiful wooden works to the astonishing jewelries that witnessed the accuracy of the Egyptians in all times and eras.
In ancient Egypt, what makes the crafts have long life was the system of inheritance of the profession from the father to the son, generation after another, that was the system followed by the families in that time.
What was the types of this crafts?:
First of all was making potteries, this craft in particular was the most important and first craft to be introduced in the Egyptian civilization.
Egyptians used it for many purposes as storing food and liquids, serving food, funeral purposes, torches and cups for beer and so on.
This craft first introduced during the Neolithic Age by the Merimde culture which was a large settlement at the edges of the western Delta and had a strong connection with al Fayoum A culture. In this culture people lived in small huts and produced a simple undecorated pottery. Also in El Omari Culture the pottery continued to be undecorated. In Maadi culture the black topped vessels were introduced indicating a contact with Naqada sites in the south. All this sites was in Lower Egypt while in Upper Egypt the whole thing was different in Naqada I the black topped pottery continued to exist with the appearance of white cross-line ware which was decorated with close white parallel lines.
In Naqada II, the potteries were decorated with dark red paint forming the shapes of animals, ships, humans and geometrical symbols in addition to wavy handles which was not familiar before this period.
Second was carving the stones, the first introduction to stones was the Khormusan industry dated back to 42,000 to 32,000 BC. It was not only from stone but also from animal bones. All the upcoming periods used stone tools as it was very important for daily life from hunting to protection with making knives in the more advanced periods it became a craft as carving statues for kings and build the funerary temples and monuments to other tools in the different fields.
Third was spinning, as it is known that the Egyptian textile was the best in the ancient times and until now. In ancient Egyptian times it was given good attention and the whole process was depicted as scenes on the tombs walls as in Mket-Re group, the ladies where depicted while preparing the spindles for spinning and other ladies spinning linen on their looms with other group of ladies standing with concentration also spinning linen on their looms. The ancient Egyptian used many materials in spinning process as flax, palm fibers and esparto that was used for making ropes long time ago. They used to color it with natural dyes from vegies and plants and they fixed it with alum. Ancient Egyptians used to weave with coarse fibers except for wools of the sheep for a religious thought, they used to think that the wool is not pure and not good for use and if the want to punish someone they will wrap his mummy in wool to make gods stay away from him so he won’t be resurrect.
Forth was metal works, the ancient Egyptian mastered this craft and was creative in it with many evidences, the treasure of king Tutankhamen, the metal life-size statue of king Pepi I and the silver sarcophagus of king Psusennes I which is a master piece itself. The scenes from the Mastaba of Mereruka shows the workers while weighting the gold, melting it and shaping it. Despite that the majority of the gold was owned by the king but different levels of people owned it in ancient Egypt.
Fifth was wood work, where you will be impressed by the advanced techniques that was followed in that time with the folded beds and chairs was found inside the tomb of king Tutankhamen which was full of unique wooden pieces in addition to the wooden boxes that was founded decorated with splendid inlayed decorations depicting the king with his wife, the senet game box which was initial figure of the chessboard game nowadays, the mannequin of king Tut as archeologists saying that the king used to hang his clothes on it, the wooden chairs that bearing the scenes of king Tut also with his wife while she is sprinkling perfumes over him, the black statue of the king which resembles the Ka (soul) of the king which protecting the tomb with another statue, the Ushabties of the king was plaited with gold and the usage of this statues was to serve the king in the afterlife every day has a statue, every week has a statue, every month has a statue and the shrine for the canopic jars which was enclosing over the alabaster canopic jars of the king.
Sixth was paper making, the most famous and the only source of the fibers to make papers was papyrus plant where it was grow up in the delta marshes in the beginning on its own but after that the ancient Egyptian started to grow it to produce paper which was a very unique and not popular for anyone it was only for the king and the high officials and nobles schools, the locals and their schools used to use slabs of stone.
The papyrus paper was made out of the heart of the stem only; it was sliced into thick slices and placed one next to the other and then gets pressed to stick together with the natural sticky material inside it then it get air dried and the start to use it. The papyrus papers was a witness over the greatness of this civilization where they wrote on it many inscriptions that still alive until now like Ebres papyrus which is a medical papyrus of herbal recipes and Turin papyrus map considered to be the oldest surviving map from the ancient world.
