Replication of Glazed Quartzite from Kerma, Capital of Ancient Kush (Sudan)
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Replication of Glazed Quartzite from Kerma, Capital of Ancient Kush (Sudan) Lisa Ellis1, Richard Newman2, and Michael Barsanti3 1 Conservation, Art Gallery of Ontario, 317 Dundas Street West, Toronto, M5T 1G4, Canada 2 Scientific Research, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115 3 Ceramics, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, 230 The Fenway, Boston, MA, 02115 ABSTRACT Glazes found on ancient Nubian quartzite sculpture were characterized in a previous study by scanning electron microscopy/energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM/EDS). Now in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, these objects were excavated from Kerma, the capital of ancient Kush in the early 20th century by the joint Harvard UniversityBoston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition. The project presented here attempts to recreate the ancient technology used to glaze quartzite with compositions determined in the previous study. Raw and fritted experimental glazes were prepared, as well as an alkali paste mixed with a copper colorant. All of the samples were fired in modern electrical kilns. After firing, samples of the glazes and their quartzite substrates were examined with SEM/EDS to see which experimental glazes and firings most closely resembled the ancient samples.
INTRODUCTION This study was designed to further understanding of an important collection of blue glazed, quartzite sculpture and fragments found at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Figures 1 & 2). These unusual objects were excavated by the joint Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition at the site of Kerma, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Kush. George Reisner, Director of the Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition, noted that the site of Ancient Kerma was strewn with green and blue glazed artifacts fashioned out of faience, steatite, quartzite, rock crystal and perhaps carnelian. Never in his extensive excavations in Egypt had Reisner ever seen blue glazed quartz and quartzite objects in such “number, size or workmanship” as at Kerma. These finds included surprisingly large sculpture as well as thousands of meticulously made smaller items: measuring around a quarter of a meter and now in Boston, a large fragment is all that remains from what is estimated to have been a meter long scorpion (Figure 2) along with approximately 3,800 blue glazed spherical-beads and a large quantity of small ring-beads that are speculated to have been sewn together into a net dress [1]. In “Egyptian Materials and Industries,” first published in1934, Alfred Lucas attempted to link ancient manufacturing techniques used to produce glazes on steatite, faience, quartzite, quartz, and pottery. In his investigation of glazed stone from Egypt, he wrote simply that “Experiments…found that by strongly heating either potassium carbonate…or powdered natron, mixed with a small proportion of finely powdered malachite, on quartz pebbles, a beautiful blue glaze was obtained every time” [2].
Figure 1 (left), Fragment of Reclining Lion
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