The student of ceramic art has reason to be interested in the history of Egyptian art. No other time in antiquity was so powerful and had such an influence in the department of the present study. Each new discovery is made that led to the belief that the art of pottery glaze, which was, to the extent known, the highest means to combine beauty with utility, first invented by the Egyptians or nearly four thousand years, was never practiced by a nation which has not, directly or indirectly, to learn from them.
The Egyptians made two types of pottery - one, ordinary soft pottery, the other, a coarse, gritty made in bulk in character and lacking cohesion, sandy, friable, very white, but always covered a strong glaze or enamel. This material has been used mainly for small objects, seldom for vases. . The beauty of the enamel on these objects was the envy of potters in modern times. Blue has never been surpassed, if, indeed, it has never been equaled.
These grades range from the most intense blue-king of pure turquoise and pale blue colors around white. Types of pottery were found first areas Tasa and Badari, dating from 5500-4000 BC. The pots were generally Tasa a dark red color formed in a tulip shape, with engraved designs around the outside of the pot. Badari pots, made of a lighter than clay pots Tasa were baked at very high temperatures and placed upside down in the ashes cool, giving them a distinct black rim.
There were canopic jars four stone which contained the inner parts of the body were removed before embalming and mummies were deposited with them in the stomach, hear, lungs and liver. Osirian figures were small objects in enamel pottery deposited with the dead, mummies representative. They looked each other in the hieroglyphic legends painted or impressed on them. Ceramic pots filled with food offerings were left in the graves.
The study of pottery has also been very important in the study of regional development and trade. Today we find more evidence of the influence of Egypt in the region by pot shards. Pottery predynastic Egypt was often surprisingly good quality. Badarian period pottery was made without the use of a potter's wheel, and it was usually the woman who turned pottery. These beautiful pieces have been polished to a glossy finish and fired leaving a black upper and lower part, the section of a deep red.