Working with fire: Making glass beads at Amarna using methods from metallurgical scenes

• Published in: Journal of archaeological science, reports reports, 2020-10, Vol.33, p.102488, Article 102488
• Main Authors: Hodgkinson, Anna K., Bertram, Miriam
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Amarna; Bead manufacture; Bead production; Egypt; Glass; Household production; Metallurgy
• ISSN: 2352-409X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102488

[Display omitted] •It is possible to achieve a sufficient heat to produce glass beads using blowpipes similar to those used in metallurgical scenes.•Glass can be processed at high temperatures using small, rudimentary fire pits.•Fly ash and sparks still cause issues related to manufacture and personal safety. A series of archaeological experiments were carried out at the site of Tell el-Amarna, the short-lived capital city of king Akhenaten (who reigned c. 1348–1331BCE), in Middle Egypt between 2017 and 2019. These experiments, which were based on the iconographic evidence presented in two-dimensional metal-working scenes chiefly from Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2181BCE) and Middle Kingdom (c. 2050–1710BCE) tombs, had the purpose of demonstrating that it is possible to carry out small-scale glass working, in particular the manufacture of beads, at household level using small and simple fire pits, which were ventilated with blowpipes. While glass rods and other items indicative of glass working have been found in the smaller houses at Amarna, firing structures are often absent from the archaeological record from the early excavations (1911–1936). If these firing structures - if they existed - were insubstantial and superficial features (rather than being larger ovens) they could easily have been missed by the early excavations. The feasibility of producing small items, such as beads, from glass, using a rudimentary fire pit, which leaves only a faint trace in the archaeological record, would eliminate the necessity of a superior industrial setup for this activity, such as a sophisticated workshop with complex firing structures. The results of the experiments presented in this paper suggest that it was possible to produce glass beads using a small fire pit using technologies borrowed or adapted from metallurgical processes. This makes it possible that the working of glass into beads took place throughout the city of Amarna, rather than only in a set of specialized workshops.