DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5625#0048
34
Survey of the Ancient World
54. The
potter's
wheel and
furnace
55. The ear-
liest glass
56. The
weavers and
tapestry-
makers
In the next space on this wall we find the potter no longer
building up his jars and bowls with his fingers alone, as in the
Stone Age. He now sits before a small horizontal wheel, upon
which he deftly shapes the vessel as it whirls round and round
under his fingers: When the soft clay vessels are ready, they are
no longer unevenly burned in an open fire, as among the Late
Stone Age potters in the Swiss lake-villages (Fig. 7); but here
in the Egyptian potter's yard are long rows of closed furnaces
of clay as tall as a man. When the pottery is packed in these
furnaces,- it is evenly
burned because it is pro-
tected from the wind.
Here we also find the
craftsmen making glass.
This art the Egyptians
had discovered centuries
earlier. They spread the
glass on tiles in gor-
geous glazes for adorn-
ing house. and palace
walls (see A ncient Times,
Plate II, p. 164). Later they learned to make charming many-
colored glass bottles and vases, which were widely exported-
Yonder the weaving women draw forth from the loom 2
gossamer fabric of linen. The picture on this wall could not tell
us of its fineness, but fortunately pieces of it have survived,
wrapped around the mummy of a king of this age. These
specimens of royal linen are so fine that it requires a magnify-
ing glass to distinguish them from silk, and the best work of
the modem machine loom is coarse in comparison with this
fabric of the ancient Egyptian hand loom. At one loom 3
lovely tapestry is being made, for these weavers of Egypt fur-
nished the earliest known specimens of such work, to be hung
on the walls of the Pharaoh's palace or stretched to shade the
roof garden of the noble's villa (Fig. 20).
Fig. 17. Peasant milking in the
Pyramid Age
The cow is restive and the ancient cow-
herd has tied her hind legs. Behind her
another man is holding her calf, which
rears and plunges in the effort to reach
the milk. Scene from the chapel of a
noble's tomb (Fig. 14)
Survey of the Ancient World
54. The
potter's
wheel and
furnace
55. The ear-
liest glass
56. The
weavers and
tapestry-
makers
In the next space on this wall we find the potter no longer
building up his jars and bowls with his fingers alone, as in the
Stone Age. He now sits before a small horizontal wheel, upon
which he deftly shapes the vessel as it whirls round and round
under his fingers: When the soft clay vessels are ready, they are
no longer unevenly burned in an open fire, as among the Late
Stone Age potters in the Swiss lake-villages (Fig. 7); but here
in the Egyptian potter's yard are long rows of closed furnaces
of clay as tall as a man. When the pottery is packed in these
furnaces,- it is evenly
burned because it is pro-
tected from the wind.
Here we also find the
craftsmen making glass.
This art the Egyptians
had discovered centuries
earlier. They spread the
glass on tiles in gor-
geous glazes for adorn-
ing house. and palace
walls (see A ncient Times,
Plate II, p. 164). Later they learned to make charming many-
colored glass bottles and vases, which were widely exported-
Yonder the weaving women draw forth from the loom 2
gossamer fabric of linen. The picture on this wall could not tell
us of its fineness, but fortunately pieces of it have survived,
wrapped around the mummy of a king of this age. These
specimens of royal linen are so fine that it requires a magnify-
ing glass to distinguish them from silk, and the best work of
the modem machine loom is coarse in comparison with this
fabric of the ancient Egyptian hand loom. At one loom 3
lovely tapestry is being made, for these weavers of Egypt fur-
nished the earliest known specimens of such work, to be hung
on the walls of the Pharaoh's palace or stretched to shade the
roof garden of the noble's villa (Fig. 20).
Fig. 17. Peasant milking in the
Pyramid Age
The cow is restive and the ancient cow-
herd has tied her hind legs. Behind her
another man is holding her calf, which
rears and plunges in the effort to reach
the milk. Scene from the chapel of a
noble's tomb (Fig. 14)