We are used to admiring ancient art. But the idea that technologies that were used more than 2 thousand years ago can be on a par or even surpass modern ones, most likely, will seem ridiculous to most. Nevertheless, this is supported by very specific facts.
The oldest earthenware vessels used to store grain, olive oil, and wine are large pointed amphorae, or pithos. They were found during excavations of the most ancient cities of the world Byblos and Ugarit, where they replaced cisterns, barns and other bins. Products of Middle Eastern potters, together with their contents, were in demand in all Mediterranean countries and on the shores of the Black Sea. Over time, the Greeks, having mastered the skill of their predecessors from Asia, advanced to the first place in the production of clay vessels, and they brought their manufacturing technologies to perfection.
Priceless amphoras
In Ancient Greece, a wide variety of bowls, vases, and goblets were made. The water storage vessel was called hydria. Drinking container in the form of a flat bowl on a leg with two handles - kilik. A cylindrical vase for oil with a vertical handle - lecith. A jug for pouring wine - oinohoi. A distinctive feature of the latter was the neck, which had three drains, which made it possible to pour wine into three bowls at once.
The reddish-orange clay from Attica was the best in Greece. And the art of the Athenian potters gradually overshadowed all rivals. According to the name of the Athenian quarter of Keramik, inhabited by potters, all products made of fired clay began to be called ceramics. Outstanding works of art were born here, unmatched in the markets of the ancient world. These are Attic black-figure vases. The painting was finely scratched on the "body" of the vessel and painted over with black varnish, so the figures stood out sharply against the reddish background of the clay.
The black-figured vessels were distinguished by their graceful forms and plot diversity: various stories from the life of the Olympic gods, the exploits of Hercules, episodes of the Trojan War. Some artists signed their murals, and thanks to this we know their names: Sosius, Cletius, Exekios.
One of two famous works of Sosius, a 6th century BC potter, is kept in Berlin. The inner surface of the bowl depicts Achilles bandaging his wounded friend Patroclus. In another museum there is a magnificent kilik, painted by Exekius: on a ship sailing under a white sail, the god Dionysus is reclining, near the mast wind
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vines, heavy bunches hang down. Seven dolphins dive around, in which, according to myth, Dionysus turned Tyrrhenian pirates.
Another vessel of Exekius, a black-figured hydria, depicts Achilles in a high helmet with a crest. The victorious warrior bent over the lifeless body of the defeated enemy - the son of the king of Troy, Hector. The head of the vanquished is thrown back, hands are thrown back and dragged along the ground. All details are conveyed by the finest scratched lines.
The Panathenaic black-figure amphorae, which were made in Athens from 566 BC, are considered invaluable. They depict sports events that took place during the feast of the Great Panathenes. Such amphorae, filled with the finest olive oil, were awarded to the winners as the main prize until the 2nd century BC.
The famous black-figure painting had its own specific features and difficulties. The figures executed in silhouettes were not supposed to flow over one another. Therefore, drawing a multi-figured composition seemed to be a difficult task, which, nevertheless, was easily handled by the Athenian potters.
Secrets of measuring varnish
Outstanding masters left behind a number of secrets that made modern researchers puzzle. Scientists have tried to figure out a way to obtain black paint, which, after burning vessels in a pottery furnace, resembled polished metal in its brilliance. Sometimes the vase was completely covered with such paint, conventionally called varnish or glaze. A black vessel shimmering with a mirror luster can hardly be recognized as earthen at a cursory glance. It seems that if you lightly click on its surface, it will make a metallic ringing.
In 2008, chemists and geologists of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with researchers from Kharkov University, attempted to uncover the secret of black-glazed Greek ceramics using new physical methods. For the examination, six samples of the 6th-1st centuries BC were taken, found by archaeologists in Chersonesos and at the excavations of the Scythian Velsky settlement (Poltava region). The composition and structure of the samples were investigated using the most modern methods on a digital scanning electron microscope, and the calculations were performed using a software package developed at the Institute of Experimental Mineralogy of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The results stunned scientists: it turned out that the shiny black drawings on the ancient Greek vases were not applied at all with varnish or paint, but covered with a layer of glass or enamel 14-25 microns thick with a high content of iron and sodium. Most likely, the ancient masters used a mixture to obtain black enamel, which included magnetite as a dye, as well as soda or ash and kaolin. This clay suspension was applied to the ceramic in a thin layer and then fired. The discovery can rightfully be considered sensational, since it casts doubt on the very term "black-glazed ceramics".
Muslim variant
The secrets of Greek ceramists were reinvented in the East. In Samarra, the residence of the Baghdad caliphs of the 9th century, glazed vessels were found whose decor seemed to have an extraordinary metallic luster - chandeliers. Experts managed to find out that the luster coating method involved mixing silver or copper oxides with some earthy substance (for example, ocher). Then vinegar or grape juice was added.
Iraqi potters of the 8th-9th centuries painted the surface of the clay with this mixture, and then placed a wet vessel in an oven for a weak smoky roasting. After that, a thin metal layer remained on top of the pot. After removing the ash and dust, an amazing rainbow glow emerged. Luster technology was also mastered in Moorish Spain. In Malaga, craftsmen learned how to make vessels with a golden sheen.
Researchers from the Italian city of Perugia recently came to similar conclusions. Archaeologists have found in Umbria, the central province of Italy, pottery from the 15th-16th centuries, covered with glaze with microscopic impregnations of metals. It turned out that the sparkling clay pots and pots were covered with glaze, which is a thin film of colored glass. The color of the glass mass is given by metal salts. The actual coloring occurred during firing in furnaces - as a result of heating alkali metals, for example, sodium carbonate, found in quartz sand, which is used in the manufacture of glass.
Analysis of the Umbrian ceramics showed that it has a chemical composition characteristic of that era: it is a mixture of sand and alkali with the addition (to increase the strength of the product) lead oxide. The latter prevents drying out and reduces the fragility of the ceramic. Some of the items examined in Perugia sparkled like gold, others - "opalescent", that is, shimmered with all the colors of the rainbow.
The metal particles in this glaze were 5 to 100 billionths of a meter in diameter. That is, from a technical point of view, they were nanoparticles or nanomaterials, which are so much written and talked about today. The researchers found that the red and gold glazes contained nanoparticles of copper and silver. Due to their tiny size, the light on the surface of the products was not scattered, but reflected at different wavelengths, which caused a metallic or opal effect. It also turned out that copper ions are present in glazes in a strictly defined amount. Consequently, the glazing process was controlled. How the ancient masters followed this, without having modern instruments, is still not entirely clear.
Mikhail EFIMOV