Clay in Ancient Egypt

No one is certain how early the Egyptians began using clay. They had become fairly adept at using clay by around 5000 B.C., which was the Predynastic Period. The Egyptian civilization was located along the Nile River, and the annual flooding of the Nile made large amounts of clay readily accessible. There is clear evidence suggesting that the Egyptians were the first civilization to use the potter’s wheel, which they were doing around 2700 B.…

…considered to be representative of the sun, in fact the Egyptians used the word tjehenet for faience, coming from the root word tjehen, which means “to gleam,” and was generally connected to the sun. They believed that its green-blue color was suggestive of rebirth and regeneration, as seen in plants. Its funerary uses stem from this, as its was thought to increase a person’s chances of a successful and happy resurrection into the afterlife.