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H I S T O R Y
humans and pottery
digging up our ancient past
by professor karen carr
People first started making pottery
out of clay in East Asia, in both
China and Japan, around 14,000
North Africa, around 6000 BC, near
the beginning of the Neolithic period
there. West Asian people may have
BC, long before they started farming.
started to make pottery as a way to store
Probably people had always known how
grain when they started farming. They
to make pottery, but just hadn’t done it
also used their pots to make fermented
much. This early pottery was made by just
fish sauces for eating.
pushing a hole into a ball of clay, or by
making a long snake of clay and coiling
it up into a pot shape. It may have gotten
started by making baskets and coating
them with clay. In Japan, early pots might
be buried in the ground for storage. One
reason for starting to make pottery was
likely to preserve fish. Another reason
may have been to store grains like millet.
Pottery in the Americas
The Slow Wheel
By around 3000 BC, at the beginning of
the Bronze Age, people in West Asia had
begun to use the slow potter’s wheel. This
is a little platform made of wood that you
build the pot on. You can turn the round
platform around so that instead of having
to walk around your pot you can sit still
and turn the pot around. In the hands of
someone who is good at using it, the slow
People probably began to make pottery in
wheel makes potting a lot faster. At
the Americas for the same reason, several
the same time, Central American people
thousand years later. People who ate a lot
invented the slow wheel. The Zapotec
of fish and shellfish were making pottery
were using it to make pottery, around 100
Someone begins
to knead raw clay, likely to
find any large imperfections
in Brazil about 5500 BC. Maybe they also
used pottery jars to preserve fish by fermenting
it. From Brazil, people gradually
BC. The Zapotec kept right on using
the slow wheel, but by 2000 BC, almost all
potters in Europe, Asia, and North Africa
began using pottery further north. The
were using the fast wheel instead.
Photography courtesy of steemkr.com
Pottery in East Asia
In early Japan, pots may have been buried in
the ground for storage, largely to preserve
fish. Pottery also may have been used to
store grains like millet.
Pottery in the Americas
People began to create pottery early in
the Americas for the same reason, storage
and food preservation, several thousand
years after the practice began in East Asia.
Pottery in West Asia
West Asian people may have started to
make pottery as a way to store grain when
they started farming. They also used their
pots to make fermented fish sauces.
fish-eating ancestors of the Cherokee
and other Mississippians knew how to
make pottery by about 4500 BC.
Pottery in West Asia and Europe
The use of pottery also spread west from
East Asia, reaching Mesopotamia and
the Eastern Mediterranean, and then
The Fast Wheel
The fast wheel is also a platform, but one
which spins on an axle, like a top. You can
start it spinning with a push or a kick,
and then draw the pot gradually out
Continued on page 70
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