Minor arts and crafts are in abundant evidence in Roman Egypt. Almost every site of this period is littered with pottery, glass, and faience as well as organic materials, which are not normally seen in more temperate climates, such as basketry, textiles, and leather. Because of the architectural richesse of Egypt and the wealth of written evidence, everyday crafts have received less attention than they merit. Their potential for the analysis of trade, chronology, and technology has yet to be realized, but since the 1980s particularly the systematic study has commenced and is beginning to show interesting results.
Pottery is widely acknowledged to play a vital role in many aspects of archaeological enquiry. Imports to Roman Egypt such as wine jars from Italy and Erance, oil jars from Spain, fine red wares from North Africa, or lamps from Italy can be recognized and dated. Their importance is undeniable and they are beginning to throw light on trading contacts with the rest of the Mediterranean. However, our knowledge of the local Egyptian wares is still relatively limited. Most assemblages are dominated by jars made from 'Nile silt’, a dull dark-brown clay characteristic of the Nile floodplain. There is every reason to believe That these were being produced at many potteries along the Nile Valley and in the Delta, but there is a marked archaeological lacuna and we know of only a few kiln sites—all of them situated on the southern shore of Lake Mareotis near Alexandria and all discovered through the researches of one man, Jean-Yves Empereur. These Alexandria kilns appear to have been producing a type of amphora that is not closely datable and that appears on a majority of Roman sites in Egypt. In the third century, the kilns may have been producing imitations of Koan amphorae, presumably because they were destined to contain Koan-style wine, which was a medicinal variety made with sea water.
At the other end of Egypt, pottery with a red slip or wash was made at Aswan, and it is again found widely throughout the country, particularly in first - and second-century contexts. However, this is most certainly only part of the story and there must have been many other establishments along the Nile Valley producing jars or fine table wares such as the Egyptian ‘red slip ware’ first defined by John Hayes. Among the papyri from Oxyrhnchus are three that are leases for potteries. It appears that production was closely linked to the estate. The lessor, presumably the estate-owner, agrees to provide the pottery building, the storeroom, the wheel, the kiln, the clay, and the fuel for firing, in return for which the lessee must provide his own workforce and supply the lessor with a very large number of jars, in one case in excess of 15,000, which must have been destined to contain the produce of the estate. It is unfortunate that it is not possible to link this fascinating documentary evidence of estate production to the actual pottery or even to the type of pots produced.
Throughout most of the Roman world, fine table wares take the form of red gloss wares, produced in Gaul, Italy, or the East. While these are also found in Egypt, their place is taken by brilliant blue or green faience vessels. Faience is not pottery but a glazed quartz frit formed by grinding quartz and mixing it with an alkali salt and a colourant such as a copper salt. There are several ways of making faience, all of which produce much the same end result: for example, a core of fine quartz cemented with alkali can be packed into a glazing mixture of plant ash, copper oxide, and lime, or the frit can be prepared and painted onto the fashioned core. Alternatively, as the quartz dries, the colourant is drawn to the surface so that, on firing, it fuses to produce the characteristic glaze. Faience cannot be thrown and was usually formed by moulding: it is thus more suited to the production of beads and figurines, but in the Roman period it was used for plates, dishes, and drinking cups. We know little about the production of
Roman faience and it is unfortunate that the one kiln site known, at Memphis, was excavated early this century before modern techniques of observation and recording had been developed.
Glass is another common component of Roman rubbish deposits. Much of it is of surprisingly fine quality, often thin walled and clearly very accomplished. Even on desert sites the vessels may be blown, mould-blown, or with multi-coloured ornament or cut decoration. At present it is unclear how much of this was imported from the great glasshouses of Syria or how much was locally produced. Alexandria is described by Strabo and other later writers as a great centre for glassmaking, perhaps making some of the finest polychrome vessels, but archaeologically we know very litde about it. There were certainly other glasshouses, judging from the guild of glass workers mentioned in the Oxyrhnchus papyri.
The production of flour was an important trade closely connected with subsistence. Rotary querns were certainly in use, but the type of mill most commonly encountered is the lever or ‘Olynthian’ mill. It comprises a slab of stone about 50 sq. cm. with a slot, which forms the hopper, in the middle. A lever is fixed across the top of the stone, which is oscillated to and fro around a pivot. Examples have been found in the Greek settlement of Naukratis, but also at Tanis, in the Faiyum, at Quseir el-Qadim, and in the forts of Tiberiane (Barud) and Mons Porphyrites. It is almost certain that this type of mill was introduced by the Greeks, where the type continued in use until at least the third century bc. However, in Egypt they certainly persisted into the Roman period and the example from Quseir belongs to the first century ad, while those from the forts are certainly of first - or second-century ad date. The fort at Badia, in the Mons Porphyrites complex, has produced the components of segmented mills in lava probably from the Greek island of Nisyros. The type is known from Delos, although the examples from Badia could be of late Roman date.
In the ancient world it seems that Egypt was renowned for its textiles, and significant collections, largely of the later Roman period, have been recovered from the towns of Antinoopolis and Panopolis, where there may have been woollen mills. Again Alexandria seems to have been important, supporting a linen trade and the reworking of oriental silks.
Other crafts that might be mentioned are the growing and manufacture of papyrus, the manufacture of drugs and medicines, the production of jewellery, leather working and metalworking, all of which are still inadequately studied.
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