Later again
is a buff ware, either plain or decorated with wavy lines, concentric
circles, and elaborate drawings of boats sailing on the Nile, ostriches,
fish, men and women, and so on.
[Illustration: 017.jpg (right) BUFF WARE VASE, Predynastic period,
before 4000 B.C.]
These designs are in deep red. With this elaborate pottery the Neolithic
ceramic art of Egypt reached its highest point; in the succeeding period
(the beginning of the historic age) there was a decline in workmanship,
exhibiting clumsy forms and bad colour, and it is not until the time of
the IVth Dynasty that good pottery (a fine polished red) is once more
found. Meanwhile the invention of glazed pottery, which was unknown to
the prehistoric Egyptians, had been made (before the beginning of the
Ist Dynasty). The unglazed ware of the first three dynasties was bad,
but the new invention of light blue glazed faience (not porcelain
properly so called) seems to have made great progress, and we possess
fine specimens at the beginning of the Ist Dynasty. The prehistoric
Egyptians were also proficient in other arts. They carved ivory and they
worked gold, which is known to have been almost the first metal worked
by man; certainly in Egypt it was utilized for ornament even before
copper was used for work. We may refer to the illustration of a flint
knife with gold handle, already given.
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