lower concentrations of soda and lime and higher concentrations of cobalt and alumina than the glasses have. Scholars have suggested several potential connections between frit and faience. Kühne proposes that frit may have acted as the "binding agent for faience" and suggests that this binder was composed predominantly of silica, alkali and copper with minor concentrations of alkali earths and tin. But analysis of a wide array of Egyptian frits contradicts the binder composition that Kühne offers. Vandiver and Kingery argue that one method of producing a faience glaze was to "frit or melt the glaze constituents to form a glass", then grind the glass and form a slurry in water, and finally apply the glaze “by dipping or painting.” However, their use of "frit" as virtually synonymous with "melt" represents yet another unique take on what a "frit" would constitute. Finally, Tite et al. report that frits, unusually colored blue by cobalt, found in "fritting pans" at Amarna have compositions and microstructures similar to that of vitreous faience, a higher-temperature form of Egyptian faience that incorporated cobalt into its body. In their reconstruction of the manufacture of vitreous faience, Tite et al. propose that the initial firing of raw materials at 1100–1200 °C produces a cobalt-blue frit, which is then ground, molded, and glazed. In general, frits, glasses and faience are similar materials: they are all silica-based but have different concentrations of alkali, copper and lime. However, as Nicholson states, they are distinct materials because "it would not be possible to turn faience into frit or frit into glass simply by further, or higher temperature, heating". The use of frit as pigments and as entire objects does give credence to the idea that frit-making was, to some extent, a "specialized" industry. Indeed, scientists have determined that frit objects, such as amulets, beads and vessels, have chemical compositions similar to those of powder frits designed for use as pigments. Nevertheless, determining the exact technical relationships among the frit, glass and faience industries is an area of current and, likely, future scholarly interest. The excavations at Amarna offer a spatial confirmation of these potential relationships, as the frit, glass and faience industries there were located "in close proximity" to one another. Fritware Fritware refers to a type of pottery which was first developed in the Near East, where production is dated to the late first millennium AD through the second millennium