DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49517#0435
POTTERY
329
The change of the ware from the thick dull ware of the Predynastic Period to the thin
bright ware with black fracture is already discernible in the Early Dynastic Period. Thus
there can be no doubt that when the Egyptian potters arrived at Kerma during the Middle
Kingdom, they found the local potters (probably women) making a Bkt. ware which was an
historical descendant of the Nubian predynastic Bkt. Immediately thereafter, the Kerma
potteries are found to be producing a Bkt. ware of a fineness and hardness never reached
in any other period, and in forms which were partly the older bowls and partly quite new
and unparalleled beakers and spouted pots. The conclusion, which I have already re-
peated several times, is unavoidable, that this fine late ware, the same which was found
in Egypt in the Middle Kingdom and a little later, was the invention and the product of
the Egyptian potters of the Kerma colony.
Many explanations have been given of the technical process by which the black-top was
produced, but I am not yet convinced of the correctness of any of them. The brilliant
black top of the Kerma Bkt. ware was certainly not produced simply by burning, mouth
down. At the Western Deffufa, a number of fragments were found of unblackened beakers,
which I believe to be unfinished Bkt. vessels. Ten similar examples were found in the great
deposit, K XXXIIIA, and a few beakers and other vessels of R. P. ware were found, which
also seemed from the form and texture to be Bkt. without the blackening of the top. Now
the vessels from the Western Deffufa had received a coat or slip of red haematite on the
outside, leaving the inside and a broad band around the rim outside uncolored. That is,
those parts which appear black in the finished beaker had not received the thick red slip.
An examination of the beakers found in the graves shows that the line marking the upper
edge of the red slip is often discernible under the black of the top, while the blackening has
always spread irregularly downward to cover the edge of the slip. These unfinished beak-
ers had been colored red and baked, but not polished or blackened on the top or inside. I
believe, therefore, that the Kerma Bkt. is a real biscuit ware, and that the blackening and
the polishing were done after the first baking. The finished examples show two variations,
one with a black polish over the whole of the inside, and the other with only the rim polished
and the rest of the inside left a dull black. The polished parts, both the red and the black,
show the fine lines of pebble polishing. The black is, however, much more brilliant than
the red, and on some of the best preserved examples will mark the finger with a smudge like
black lead. The W. J. bowls were clearly rubbed with black lead, and many fragments of
this material were found in the graves.1 I conclude, therefore, that after the vessel had
received the partial red wash and had been baked the first time, the inside and the top were
rubbed with black lead and the whole was polished with a pebble before the second baking.
I suggest that the irregularity of the boundary between the red and the black was caused
by the irregular spreading of the black lead during the pebble polishing. Every Bkt. vessel
presents an irregular purplish band in the upper part of the red, sometimes touching the
black and sometimes separated from it by a more narrow band of discolored red. This
band, which I call a secondary stripe, was imitated in the later degenerate beakers by a
more regular band of purple paint. It does not appear in the unfinished examples and was
produced therefore during the second baking. The irregularity of this secondary stripe
gives the impression that it was accidental, certainly that it was not under the control of
the potter. Perhaps it was due to the fortuitous fusing of the black lead and the haematite
1 Cf. Chapter XXX, Stone Implements and Mineral Colors.
329
The change of the ware from the thick dull ware of the Predynastic Period to the thin
bright ware with black fracture is already discernible in the Early Dynastic Period. Thus
there can be no doubt that when the Egyptian potters arrived at Kerma during the Middle
Kingdom, they found the local potters (probably women) making a Bkt. ware which was an
historical descendant of the Nubian predynastic Bkt. Immediately thereafter, the Kerma
potteries are found to be producing a Bkt. ware of a fineness and hardness never reached
in any other period, and in forms which were partly the older bowls and partly quite new
and unparalleled beakers and spouted pots. The conclusion, which I have already re-
peated several times, is unavoidable, that this fine late ware, the same which was found
in Egypt in the Middle Kingdom and a little later, was the invention and the product of
the Egyptian potters of the Kerma colony.
Many explanations have been given of the technical process by which the black-top was
produced, but I am not yet convinced of the correctness of any of them. The brilliant
black top of the Kerma Bkt. ware was certainly not produced simply by burning, mouth
down. At the Western Deffufa, a number of fragments were found of unblackened beakers,
which I believe to be unfinished Bkt. vessels. Ten similar examples were found in the great
deposit, K XXXIIIA, and a few beakers and other vessels of R. P. ware were found, which
also seemed from the form and texture to be Bkt. without the blackening of the top. Now
the vessels from the Western Deffufa had received a coat or slip of red haematite on the
outside, leaving the inside and a broad band around the rim outside uncolored. That is,
those parts which appear black in the finished beaker had not received the thick red slip.
An examination of the beakers found in the graves shows that the line marking the upper
edge of the red slip is often discernible under the black of the top, while the blackening has
always spread irregularly downward to cover the edge of the slip. These unfinished beak-
ers had been colored red and baked, but not polished or blackened on the top or inside. I
believe, therefore, that the Kerma Bkt. is a real biscuit ware, and that the blackening and
the polishing were done after the first baking. The finished examples show two variations,
one with a black polish over the whole of the inside, and the other with only the rim polished
and the rest of the inside left a dull black. The polished parts, both the red and the black,
show the fine lines of pebble polishing. The black is, however, much more brilliant than
the red, and on some of the best preserved examples will mark the finger with a smudge like
black lead. The W. J. bowls were clearly rubbed with black lead, and many fragments of
this material were found in the graves.1 I conclude, therefore, that after the vessel had
received the partial red wash and had been baked the first time, the inside and the top were
rubbed with black lead and the whole was polished with a pebble before the second baking.
I suggest that the irregularity of the boundary between the red and the black was caused
by the irregular spreading of the black lead during the pebble polishing. Every Bkt. vessel
presents an irregular purplish band in the upper part of the red, sometimes touching the
black and sometimes separated from it by a more narrow band of discolored red. This
band, which I call a secondary stripe, was imitated in the later degenerate beakers by a
more regular band of purple paint. It does not appear in the unfinished examples and was
produced therefore during the second baking. The irregularity of this secondary stripe
gives the impression that it was accidental, certainly that it was not under the control of
the potter. Perhaps it was due to the fortuitous fusing of the black lead and the haematite
1 Cf. Chapter XXX, Stone Implements and Mineral Colors.