Pottery is one of the oldest human inventions. It’s so old, that it predates literacy, and therefore we rely on archaeology to tell the story of the history of pottery. The oldest piece of pottery ever found was from China and dated at 20,000 BC.
The nature of clay lends itself to preservation, which allows us to still find pieces of clay pottery today; it doesn’t decompose like the bark, grass and organic fibre that pre-historic people used for everyday items like baskets.
Prior to using clay for pots, the majority of cultural hubs used basketry. Baskets are useful for carrying a variety of objects, but not liquids due to the holes and often absorbent nature of the materials used to make them. Because clay was very readily available to many places, such as China, Greece, and Rome, many civilizations were able to make pottery. Clay was common, cheap, and when fired, was relatively light. The discovery of how to turn clay into pottery was revolutionary and made the lives of everyday people much easier.
Pots were initially made by creating rings of clay and stacking them into a hole beneath a large fire. This was the first kiln. As pottery was such an early discovery in human civilization, there were a variety of inventions within the time period of 35,000 BCE – 0 CE to make creating clay pieces more convenient.
The pottery wheel was invented around approximately 3000 BCE, but it was initially called the “slow wheel”. It was a tabletop that could be moved so the potter did not have to keep moving around the pot themselves. Shortly afterwards, the “fast wheel” was invented, a tabletop on an axle that could be kicked in order to spin it fast and shape and pull the clay. This was the early prototype for the electric pottery wheels that we see today.
While pottery was initially created for function over form, the Greeks were one of the first to decorate their pottery and treat it as an art form. Much of the classic Greek art we see today, painted orange and black with characters from Greek myths and legends, is from pottery created millennia ago.
The clay medium was an early discovery for pre-historic people, and was one of the first mediums that allowed for the melding of art, science and design.
References:
Sennebogen, Emilie. “How Pottery Works.” HowStuffWorks, HowStuffWorks, 2 Mar. 2009, https://home.howstuffworks.com/green-living/pottery1.htm.
Cartwright, Mark. “Ancient Greek Pottery.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, Ancient History Encyclopedia, 16 Sept. 2019, https://www.ancient.eu/Greek_Pottery/.
Cartwright, Mark. “Ancient Greek Pottery.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, Ancient History Encyclopedia, 16 Sept. 2019, https://www.ancient.eu/Greek_Pottery/.
Emily. “Pottery: The Ultimate Guide, History, Getting Started, Inspiration.” Deneen Pottery, Deneen Pottery, 25 Jan. 2019, https://deneenpottery.com/pottery/.
“Pottery.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 7 Sept. 2019, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pottery.