The following presentation of New Kingdom pottery offers an idea of types, forms and decoration of the period. The arrangement of pottery types is mainly based on the typology published in 1977 (Holthoer 1977) for some New Kingdom Nubian sites, which is one of the most comprehensive summaries for the period (mainly 18th Dynasty pottery) from the evidence of one region. The development of pottery is relatively well-known for the 18th Dynasty. The development in the 19th and 20th Dynasties are not yet so deeply researched. The main reason may lie in a change of burial customs: in the 18th Dynasty pottery was placed into tombs, whereas in the 19th and 20th Dynasty this custom was not anymore so common. Settlement archaeology should in future help to fill this gap.
Painted Pottery
Painting on pottery is not very common before the New Kingdom, but appears often in the New Kingdom. Especially in the late 18th Dynasty vessels can be colourfully decorated with floral motifs; a popular and distinctive colour in this production was cobalt blue. This blue-decorated pottery was first recognised on a bigger scale at the Malqata (palace of Amenhotep III), therefore it is sometimes called ‘Malqata ware’.
