The earth, like
a giant storehouse, is fraught with traces of the activities of long-extinct
generations. Undoubtedly, the remains of glass-making workshops have been
preserved somewhere in many countries. But where exactly are they to be found?
Obviously, the oldest of them were located in Egypt, in Babylon, in Assyria,
that is, in countries that have long known the secrets of making glass.
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| Tel-El-Amarna |
Here they were
sought. And, in the end, they were found. Near the ancient Egyptian capital of
Tel-El-Amarna, during excavations deep in the ground, a dilapidated
glass-making workshop was discovered. Archaeologists have discovered clay
bowls, deep pans, crucibles with remnants of undercooked glass adhering to the
bottom and walls; spoons with which the masters took samples. There were glass
sticks painted in various colors: blue, green, turquoise, violet, red.
These glass
sticks served as semi-finished products. Grabbing a little fire-hot glass with
a spoon, the master threw it on a stone table and began to roll it with an iron
rolling pin in the same way that the housewife rolled out flagella of dough to
make cookies of intricate shape. But the housewife can take her time, and the
master glassmaker had very little time: not even minutes, but short seconds!
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| Tel-El-Amarna, Ahetaton Ruins |
The master wound
sticks on clay rods, stacking them in various combinations, giving the product
the shape that he intended, then he put it all on fire.
The sticks fused
among themselves, and it seemed that the thing was molded from a whole piece of
glass. Sometimes a new pattern of colored sticks was superimposed over the
finished vessel, and again the product was heated to solder the sticks to the
vessel.
The work of
glassmaker required skill and high artistic taste. And, of course, the
Egyptians did not immediately learn how to make such truly complicated things
as the eye of Amenhotep, the blue medallion, or beautiful vases.
