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There is a site in Thebes known as Deir el-Medineh which is located on the mountain called Meret Seyer (The Mountain that loves Silence). Not far from the Valley of the Kings, the tombs and the remains of what used to be an artisan villa still subsist. The artisans from this villa worked on the construction and decoration of the royal tombs of the XVII and XVIII dynasties. The tombs that the artisans from Deir el-Medineh left for us to admire are masterpieces of the mural decoration over stucco technique. Important details of everyday life of artisans and workers are portrayed on these walls, including very interesting and accurate hieroglyphic descriptions of the methods used in their craftsmanship.

This site renders a great importance to the history of glass because it contains scenes related to its elaboration. A good example is that of Sobkhnotep, tomb Num. 63, with its famous representation of an artisan sitting on a stool facing a furnace that irradiates heat. The man is blowing glass with a hemp in his mouth, which he manipulates with his right hand using a gripper, very similar to the tool that glass blows use now a days. On a strip, exactly above the man’s head, a drawing of a flask with the shape of a lotus flower forms a set along with two other smaller ones. It is important to mention that the lotus flower was a very commonly used motif in faience and glass, it was an ongoing trend in that period. A portrayal of goldsmiths decorating jewelry with beads and diverse materials follows that of the glass artisan, and finally, at the end, we can admire a scene with all the objects already finished. Unfortunately, this part of the strip was torn off the wall, but it can be admired at the British Museum in London.

In the tomb of Rejmerire in Thebes, Num. 100, New Kingdom, XVIII dynasty, there is one of the most depicting and interesting scenes of artisans at work from the ancient Egypt. The wall with the painted scenes is preserved in excellent condition, which allows for a more objective point of view when analyzing the scene.
The wall is divided into several friezes where artisans at work can be seen. In the lower section bricklayers are portrayed with their tools, carrying out their work, transporting the material, preparing the mix and measuring the wall with the level.
IIn the following section, from left to right, artisans are portrayed in the process of gold casting, some are stoking up the fire with treadle shaped bellows which are put into action by pulling leather thongs by hand. Exactly under them there are two artisans retrieving from the fire, with some type of rods, a crucible containing casted metal; right after, artisans appear casting the flux into molds; oddly, it is exactly the same process used today in gold casting. On the side, there are four artisans carrying the metal in baskets. And last, on the right end, a glass craftsman appears blowing into the cane and working with jacks, at his feet there is a mound of sand with which he feeds the fire. Just as for gold, these are exactly the same tools used to work glass today.

The next frieze shows artisans and carpenters making the furniture for the funeral equipment, using a handsaw, sanding, hammering and drilling on wood. In the center they appear inlaying a chamber with pieces of blue glass imitating turquoise or lapiz lazuli (just like in Tutankhamun’s chamber). All the artisans in the scene, carpenters, goldsmiths and glassmakers, all of them, continue using the same techniques and tools in their crafts.

On the upper section goldsmiths appear piercing and embedding semiprecious stones and glass into finished pieces of jewelry. And last, two men appear delivering the finished pieces as offerings. The scenes in this tomb prove how several activities were carried out in the same workshop.

In the tomb of Nebamun and Ipuky, Num. 181, Thebes, New Kingdom, XVIII dynasty, just like in the preceding tomb of Rejmerire’s, we can see the artisans embedding stones and glass in the finished jewels. This scene is especially beautiful because of the captivating colors and the great detailing depicting the jewels that allow seeing the colors used then and which coincide with the ones currently in exhibit in the museums.

In the tomb of Hepu, Num. 6, in Thebes, from the New Kingdom, XVIII dynasty, artisans, seen from an artistic point of view, appear in a very peculiar way since this scene is depicted completely off the New Kingdom model. The style here in use is a copy of the Middle Kingdom style commonly used in the Beni Hasan tombs. Very simple figures with considerable movement show the artisans’ activities.
As a typical feature of these portrayals, the scenes are divided in friezes. In the upper section carpenters appear making chariots, which makes this scene very interesting since there are very few scenes depicting this particular task. Carpenters are even making wheels with their distinctive tools. In the lower part, glassmakers appear next to the kiln blowing on a cane and holding a jack in their hands. Immediately, we have two artisans next to another kiln, one of them blows on a cane and manipulates the jacks while the other works on the bellow pulling the throng with his hands. This scene is very interesting because again, in the same scene, figures appear blowing on the cane and stoking up the fire with the bellow, clear evidence that they did not stoke up the fire with the cane. This scene, just like the scenes at Beni Hasan, show the kiln shaped as jut, the sun’s symbol.

And last, I will mention one of the most important artisans portrayals, that of the ‘wall of the artisans’ in the tomb of the administrator of the divine idol Iby, Thebes, Num. 36, from the late 664 BC period, during Psammetichus I epoch. This is a copy of the scene of the tomb of Deir el Gabrawi from the VIII dynasty, 1600 years before.

This scene is truly the most important visual evidence that, since the Ancient Egyptian period, the technique of cane blowing was already in use. In this scene, artisans appear with a cane in their mouth, three figures on the right and three on the left; the two figures on the center blow a receptacle holding the cane with both hands. This scene is truly unquestionable and conclusive evidence that a glass receptacle is definitely being cane blown since no other material allows for such technique to be used.

Also, in Thebes, in the interior of several tombs belonging to the New Kingdom (1539 – 1069 BC) subsist other paintings showing bottles that, because of their shape and style, might be glass made. In the tombs of Sennedjem and Anherkhau, we have an example of that feasible occurrence since that particular receptacle model was made of glass and not of any other material (several samples are preserved, see picture). In both cases, arranged in particularly fascinating scenes, as seen from an artistic point of view, transparent flasks can be recognized, which are also important for the data they provide for the analysis of the ritual uses ancient Egyptians gave to this material. It is also worth mentioning that in the tomb of Sennedjem no other object depicted in such way is found. On the other hand, in Anherkhau’s tomb, there is another object shown in likewise manner. Next to the procession scene, a table for offerings is depicted, in the tomb only these two objects are shown in such manner, which makes it hard to believe that only these two objects were left unfinished in a colorful tomb of highly artistic value. I would lean to think that they were transparent since to the Egyptians, glaze, vitreous composition and glass were the same thing.
The manner these objects are depicted in this tomb might be a way of representing the making out of the materials and, in regards to the measurements of the table, it’s not unusual since in a funerary equipment we find not only tables inlayed with glass paste and chambers like those of Tutankhamun but also walls totally inlayed. Up to date, several pieces of large dimensions made out of vitreous composition, such as the famous uas, have been found.

A large quantity of clear glass receptacles of this shape still remains, however, pieces of large dimensions have not been found. In such regards, we can only trust the writings of ancient historians but these are not considered reliable sources.
In the interior of other tombs from the New Kingdom (1539 – 1069 BC), in Thebes, we can find images with glass bottles that show the liquid they contain. At the Sennedjem and Anherkhau tombs, there are depictions with transparent flasks arranged in scenes particularly fascinating from an artistic point of view but also very important for researches. The reason: they provide important facts for the history of glass and jewelry making as well as for the analysis of the ritual uses given to those materials by the Egyptians.

Transparent flasks are reproduced on the walls of these well-preserved tombs. In the Anherkhau tomb, we can appraise a procession of men carrying offerings, right behind them, comes a woman holding a flask in her hand. The transparency of the flask allows to see part of her dress and the ochre color of the wall behind her. At the Sennedjem tomb, again, a procession of several men and a woman carrying offerings can be seen. As in the scene from Anherkhau, a woman carries a transparent flask that allows us to see the color on the background. The importance of these scenes is that they help in corroborating the evidence that, in Egypt, the use of glass items was mainly ritual and not utilitarian, as later occurred with the Romans.

While doing the bibliographic research for this book, I noticed that almost all writers only mention the work done by potters and goldsmiths, without the slightest allusion of glass workers, notwithstanding the fact that the three types of craftsmen very commonly worked together in the same workshop. I also noticed that in the tomb scenes, glass workers appear sitting, facing a furnace, blowing into a hemp or using it to immerse the vitreous paste into a sand nucleus to form and shape the pieces. This action was previously interpreted as the way the artisans rekindled fire in the furnace; nevertheless, the Egyptians already used the furnace bellows.

Workshops were located inside the palaces because glass items were elaborated to be used in rituals or for the pharaoh and his family, who actually were considered as divine beings.

There is documented data stating that: “artisans rendered two or three arts at the same time”, corroborated by the existence of remains of pieces of various materials found in the palaces of Amenhotep III at Thebes, of Amenhotep IV at Tell Amarna, and of Rameses II at Piramses, at the Delta.

P. Nicholson, in his book “Egyptian Faience and Glass”, suggests that the men represented on those walls could be craftsmen working with metals. This is not probable if we analyze the fact that, in those times, the metals mainly used were gold, silver, copper and bronze which were shaped by lamination, lost wax casting, loam moulds, and cored work casting. Evidence of this statement is corroborated by the jewelry and items found mainly in tombs, along with the nonexistence of items elaborated out of other materials processed with the same technique of “blowing”.
Furthermore, in Bonvet’s book “La Verrerie les editions”, there is a reference to “metal” as the name that craftsmen gave to glass. There is an entire chapter in this book on the subject of metals, in which the composition of glass is included.
Likewise, Mark West’s book “Glass Antiques Checklist”, asserts that the ‘body of the glass’ was known as ‘metal’.

From all of the above, it is more than clear that in ancient Egyptian times, glass was considered as another metal, due to the fact that glass processing starts from minerals and its colouring had, in those times, metal oxides as basic components. For such reasons, glass was linked to metallurgic processes.

In such a way, that is, gathering all the visual evidence in the portrayals of the artisans’ workshops from the Old Kingdom to the late period, important details can be appraised. First, there are no great changes in the depicting manner since usually, they follow an established pattern in each one of the crafts, techniques, tools, etc. Second, the changes shown in the different activities coincide with existing physical evidence.

Connecting the details in each scene from each period with the evolution in the portrayals in the tombs, added to the study of the technical development found in the physical samples now remaining and the work begun by other authors, (such as J. Gardner Wilkinson y Petrie, who never accounted for their motives to believe that blown glass originated in Egypt), I can assure not only that blown glass originated in Egypt before the Roman Kingdom but also I can back it up with evidence obtained through a thorough study of the material that had not been taken into account before.