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Great quantities of scientific studies have been performed
regarding the use of color in Egyptian art, mainly to try
to understand why special and specific chromatic sets were
used to represent specific deities.
This phenomena is totally evident while observing the rich
decorations in the interior of the tombs preserved up to now.
It is noticeable how these advanced civilizations already
used and applied primary colors (blue, red and yellow) with
expertise, as well as secondary colors (green and orange).
Research has concluded that Egyptian used pure colors not
because they didn’t know how to use secondary colors,
but because, for ancient Egyptians, art had a very different
connotation than the one it has today. Egyptians used art
as a cultural and ritual manifestation, in duality, in magic,
and moreover, art was sacred.
Blue, green, yellow, black and red, colors used for faience,
glass paste, and later, glass, were the most important colors
of their chromatic code. With lapis lazuli blue they represented
their deities’ skin; turquoise for the Nile, where water
represented the sacred, purification, life, and eternity.
Green was the symbolic representation of life, which flourished
thanks to the flooding of the Nile. This flooding caused a
sediment deposit called Kemet on the riverside. This word
meant black, opposite of Dachret, red, for infertile soil,
thus the importance of black and red. Yellow or golden symbolized
Ra, their great deity of the sun.
Decoration given to small vessels, jars and amulets also held
a great symbolic content. As an example, the zigzag ornament
design of many containers, is a stylization of a pictogram
they used in their writing system to denominate the Nile,
which was represented by undulating water. This infers that
the purpose of these containers was to hold sacred liquids.
Another very interesting decoration is that of bird feathers.
Dr. Hasan Kamal, in his book Dictionary of Pharaonic Medicine,
mentions that the Egyptians used bird feathers as droppers
to cure eye disease, thus implying that the purpose of these
flasks and jars was to contain medicines.
The Nile’s flora and fauna were dominant motifs in all
Egyptian art manifestations. Such is the case of items in
the shape of hippopotamus, crocodiles and fish, which mouths
were used to pour liquids. Also, glass recipients and flasks
in the shape of columns were made to contain “kohl ”,
a mineral pigment used by the Egyptians to outline their eyes.
These columns were similar to those used in Egyptian architecture
as support for their temples. They represented the flora around
the Nile Delta: lotus, papyrus, and date palms.
Egyptian civilization hounded its roots in the most archaic,
and religion penetrated and completely enfolded their existence
socially, politically and economically. For the Egyptians,
whatever happened came from the will of a deity, thereby the
afterlife was more important, as long as it was eternal. For
this reason, it is hardly surprising that all their art expressions
testified an obsession with death, hence: immortality. It
was essential that a body was eternally preserved in order
to undertake its future life. Mummification was a must.
The corpse, after undergoing an elaborate process of internal
organ extraction, was immersed in a solution containing large
quantities of natron, (Curiously, one of the main components
of glass), which absorbed all the body liquids, to avoid decomposition.
After seventy days, the body was cleaned, scented with unguents,
and then wrapped in copious quantities of linnen and similar
cloth, up to 500 to 700 meters (1500 to 2300 feet) long. Around
two hundred different amulets were sandwiched between the
layers, amulets made of gold, silver, ivory, glass paste and
precious and semiprecious stones such as turquoise, lapis
lazuli, and carnelian.
All these objects had symbolic colors and materials, which
gave the amulets the magical power to protect the dead against
evil forces, and the difficulties encountered in their trip
to eternity. They were also used to promote good fortune to
kindhearted people.
Such symbolism, with its magic spells, can be found in different
paragraphs on the “Book of the dead”, which describes
many rituals necessary to obtain eternal life. A beautiful
quote states the importance of glass, when Maat, the deity
of justice, asks the deceased:
What did they give you? a fire blaze and a crystal tablet.
What did you do with it? I buried it in Maat’s furrow.
What did you find in the furrow? a flint scepter called
the Wind giver. What did you do with the fire blaze and
the crystal tablet? I pronounced words for you, I unburied
them, extinguished the fire and crashed the tablet that
I made from the water lagoon. Come then, you will move on
through this door if you pronounce my name, fair weight
of justice and truth is your name.
This is, indeed, one of the most important testimonies corroborating
the evidence that the Egyptians gave a ritual use to glass.
The interesting truth is that the ideogram that they used
to refer to glass in writings on papyrus or other inscriptions
never changed, and it was used to identify faience and glass
indistinctly. Thus, we can deduct that, for the Egyptians,
there was no difference between those products, for they
were produced with similar components.
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