Characteristics Of Ancient Egyptian Glazed Ceramic Objects From Fatimid And Mamluk Periods As Revealed By Ion Beam Analysis

Ion beam analysis (PIXE, mu PIXE) has been successfully applied in analysis of archaeological materials, it has many advantages. In this work Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) used in analysis of ancient Egyptian glazed ceramic from 10th to the 16th centuries (Fatimid and Mamluk periods). Glazed ceramic samples from Al-Fustat Excavation store have been chosen to represent different colours (green, blue, brown, black. etc), the colours of glaze depend on many factors such as oxides present in the glaze layer, fluxes and the conditions in which objects had been manufactured in the past. Ion Beam allows the identification of elemental composition of the glaze layer i.e., the information about colorants used in glaze, which is of great importance for compositional data play a key role in solving questions concerning dating, provenance, technology, use and the relationship between ancient cultures with the environment.