The History of Pottery

Pottery is clay shaped, kilned and fired to change its physical, chemical, and mineralogical properties. The resulting product can be glazed to produce a beautiful color or pattern, or left unglazed for a natural look. Its practical uses include storage, serving, cooking, and decorative pieces. Throughout history, pottery has advanced alongside civilization, and is still used in many of the same ways today.

The earliest pots were probably made by stacking rings of clay, which dried to form sturdy containers. Sherds of such a pot, from a Xianrendong cave in China, have been dated to about 15,430–18,300 cal BP. This period was a time of scarce food. People would have had to conserve energy, and cooking was likely important for preserving foods like meat and starchy plants.

Early potters learned that adding sand to clay could make it stronger and less porous. This led to stoneware pottery, first produced in the thirteenth century. It is a durable, non-porous material that can be used in the kitchen as well as in decorative pieces.

Later, potters discovered that using a fast wheel made the process faster and easier. The wheel, or throwing, is one that rotates the solid ball of clay, either by hand or with a motor. It takes skill and practice to throw a piece of pottery that is of high quality, but the technique allows mass production of similar shapes. This allowed pottery to become more affordable for the average person.

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