الخطوة الأولى للتصوير في مصر الفرعونية ، من كتاب تكنولوجيا التصوير من ص ٢١ - ص ٢٦

The first step for photography in Pharaonic Egypt: We start here with the word of the father of history (the historian Herodotus), when he mentioned in what he narrated that the inhabitants of the Nile Valley had invented photography. In fact, the Egyptians simplified the units of photography and defined them in simple lines and spaces and explicit colors, and they used to paint the women in a kitten yellow, the men in a brick red color, and the sea in a blue or green color. These colors were used to color areas without gradation to show darkness or to show different values ​​of color, so they used primary colors in their drawings without their shades (Fig. 3) drawing on pottery vessels dating back to the era of pre-written history in Egypt. Since the dawn of history, we see in Egypt attempts to paint on pottery vessels (Fig. 3) and on solid stones, or in simple colors on a mortar of clay, as we see in a cemetery found in Al-Kom Al-Ahmar, now known as Al-Kab (which was known in the Greek era as the city of Hieracumpolis). The drawings found in this cemetery date back to the end of the pre-dynastic era (more than five thousand years). (1) Scientists consider the beginning of the era of the pharaohs in ancient Egypt from the dawn of Egyptian history, around the year 7000 BC. And it continues until the rule of Alexander the Great in 32 BC. (2) Dr. Bahor Labib believes (as he mentioned in his book Lamahat) that the word Coptic means Egyptian, and that the Coptic era begins in the Egyptian popular sense since Alexander the Great entered Egypt BC. Until the Arabs entered Egypt in the year 641 AD, and since that time there has been a Coptic citizen, that is, an Egyptian Christian, and an Egyptian Muslim citizen in the country.

Therefore, the professors of photography believe that if we talk about photography and imaging technology (meaning the industrial means that are used in photography), we must mention the ancient Egyptian art. Here we repeat what Carlo Linzi mentioned, when he said: “The ancient Egyptians were masters in the art of painting and tempera in ancient history. Fixing them .. They also fixed them with glue, fur, egg whites, or other adhesive materials, and used in some cases to cover the drawings with a layer of a color-preserving material such as beeswax or various natural resinous materials such as various glues, and this method was the beginning of the search for the use of varnish later . It is also known that the Egyptians used wax colors, as we can see in the wonderful drawings of faces known as the Fayoum drawings. And if we want to discuss the previously mentioned cemetery drawings, which were found in Kom al-Ahmar since the pre-dynastic period (Fig. 4), we see that it was built of adobe 22 and painted with white clay, and the various scenes were painted on it using watercolors or tempera. We notice that the clay white has traces of gypsum with the color that covers the surfaces of the background image and gives it a yellow color (ochre), and the painting is in white, brick red, or ocher red and black. A frieze was also drawn from the bottom, or what is called (at the bottom), in a blue-black color, and above it we see a red demarcation line. This painting has great importance in the history of art and photography technology, especially the art of Afrosque, as it is the first step that paved the way for the emergence of Afrosque art after that in the following historical eras.

We note that this painting was drawn from units in a scattered manner, and it was linked by the background of the yellow picture, which is the color of the original wall. In this ancient painting, we see the beginning of the trend towards wall painting with the simplification of lines and spaces, and the trend towards the fixed Egyptian style that defined the features of painting after that during the dynastic era. And mineral materials, after preparing a fine powder from them, suitable for use in photography and paints.. In this painting in particular, we notice the white color, which appears to be either lime carbonate, which is limestone powder.. or calcium sulfate, which is gypsum, whose name is thought to be derived from the name of Egypt, which is pronounced In Greek, AILYIITOE, it was altered in European languages, so it said, “I answered Egypt.” As for the yellow color (ochre), its constituent material is hydrated iron oxide, and the red color known as red ochre is certainly natural for iron and is found in abundance in Egypt, especially in Sinai. We can also determine that the black color that the Egyptian used was a fine powder of soot that was left over from the fire on the surfaces of the vessels in which the food was cooked, and on the walls of the ovens and the screens of the hearths. However, the blue-black color - which was used on the bottom - is thought to be a fine powder of charcoal, and it does not differ from the fact that it is carbon. Fixation materials: We cannot be certain that the Egyptian artist used a type of adhesive material to fix the color on this particular painting, because he used fixed colors such as gypsum and yellow and red ochre colors that usually do not need gluey materials to fix them.. As for the fixing materials that you know are Used in ancient Egypt, they are gelatin, glue, glue, egg white, and beeswax, which was used in some cases to cover the surface of colored paintings. The Egyptian used colors other than those used in the pre-dynastic tomb painting in Kom al-Ahmar or other works from the same era. Such as the blue color, which is blue carbonate of copper, and the green color, which is also one of the compounds of copper, such as malachite powder, which is usually extracted from mines and the eastern desert, and the gray color, which is a mixture of the two colors myrtle and white, as well as the yellow strage, which is a natural sulfur for arsenic.

We note that the limited coloring method that was used in the pre-dynastic era and the ancient era, in which red, yellow and black were predominant, was consistent with the simple compositions of the drawings 000. However, there are also touches of green and blue colors that were used conservatively until the first part of the Fourth Dynasty. The green color appears in the depiction of the red mound, which dates back to the late Jerzeh era, as we have already seen. As for the blue color, it was only recently known that it was used before the rule of Khufu of the Pharaonic Fourth Dynasty, when it was found in models of mats that were found in the Saqqara tombs that date back to the First Dynasty. Brushes and tools: As for the tool that was used in coloring, which is the brush or the brush. It was made of palm leaves or wicker, as bundles tied to each other. The degree of its thickness varies in proportion to the work itself. Another type of brush was also found, consisting of a piece of wood with fibers, and one of its edges was mashed so that the fibers separate and become like the hairs of a brush. He found in the antiquities some examples of them on different forms, and the colors are still attached to them using them in coloring, and it determines the nature of the color that was used with them. It is also possible to see in some of the ancient Egyptian inscriptions drawings of writers and painters while they were doing their artistic works in several positions (Fig. 5) when they were sitting or when they were standing. It is the normal position to place a pen or a paintbrush while the painter's hand is busy with work... It does not surprise us to see this method, which is still in the form of e) different drawings of Egyptian painters and writers while they are doing their artistic works in several positions, and we see with them some of their tools used in the works of drawing and writing So we see, for example, one of them, who is the first in the upper row from the left, writing with his pen on paper above a plate, and he has folded the papyrus file under his arm, followed by a man showing a written plate, then another who writes, putting pens on his ear and tying the color palette in his waistband.