Making, Breaking, Sharing: Ritual Practice in Ancient Egypt (Pottery workshop at Rochester Square)

This workshop responds to themes in the Petrie Museum’s display "Broken, Burnt, Buried: Ritual Lives of Objects in Ancient Egypt".

Across ancient Egypt, people broke, buried, and even burned objects - not by accident, but deliberately and with deep meaning.

"Broken, Burnt, Buried" explores how everyday items were transformed through religious and ritual practices across thousands of years. These intentional acts formed important parts of practices thought to protect, heal, and communicate with the divine.

Making, Breaking, Sharing workshop

The workshop will take place across two Saturdays (02 May and 09 May) and promote the use of traditional hands-on craft processes to create a contemporary experience parallel to ancient ritual acts: making, breaking, transforming, and sharing.

The workshop will:

• Provide insights into ritual practice in ancient Egypt, focusing on food, vessels, offerings, and purposeful breakage.
• Teach ceramic-making techniques used in antiquity, including moulding, controlled breakage, slip application, and burnishing.
• Lead you in making your own ceramic tool to take away and work with others to create a ceramic vessel.
• Experience the performative and social dimensions of intentional breakage.
• Explore how fragments (sherds) gain new meanings and uses in ritual contexts.
• Take part in a shared meal using vessels collectively created and transformed.

No ceramic making experience is required and materials and tools will be provided. 

Audience

This event is suitable for ages 18+.

Access

Access to the venue is step-free with universal toilets available on the same level. Regretfully, the toilets are not suitable for wheelchair users.

Booking

This event is run in collaboration with Rochester Square and runs across two Saturdays (02 and 09 May from 12pm - 2pm). The workshop is ticketed via Rochester Square and one booking covers the two workshops. Refunds will not be offered if you can only attend one workshop.

Cancellation policy

Workshops cannot be refunded with less than two weeks' notice. Please note that a £10 administration fee will be charged for each cancellation.

Finding the venue

The venue is located at 1 Rochester Square, off Camden Road, London NW1 9SD.

The nearest stations are Camden Road (Mildmay line), Camden Town and Kentish Town (Northern Line), and buses 29 and 253 stop five minutes away on Camden Road.

Broken, Burnt, Buried display

Visit the Petrie Museum's "Burnt, Broken, Buried" display before the workshops at Rochester Square in Camden.