Featured Article
How pottery has changed
Over thousands of years, pottery has changed in function in different parts of the world. The oldest known pottery found in Japan dated around the 11th millennium BC manifested the use of pottery as storage mediums for liquids. In the late Palaeolithic period in Europe, the use of pottery was appended with decorative purposes as female figurines, like the "Venus" of Dolni Vestonice as well as figures of animals were found in archaeological sites. Clay pots dated from Neolithic times in Palestine, Syria and south-eastern Turkey, pottery had been used to make statuettes of humans and animals.
As different types of pottery have developed in time, its function as a water vessel was affixed with other uses. Earthenware, a form of pottery baked at relatively low temperatures, were used for building construction and sculpture since they are easier to create. In Sumeria, the earliest known urban civilization, earthenware is utilized in making roofing tiles, bricks sculpture, and other uses. Egyptians, used earthenware in: making hollow statues of gods, tombs, funeral jars and writing tablets; storing wine, milk and grain. Earthenware's porous nature made it less appropriate to store food and liquids thus other techniques in pottery such as glazing were developed.
A different type of pottery which was sturdier and impervious to liquid, and was later identified as a stoneware, came to rise. The use of stoneware ranged from crocks to jugs. Porcelain, a kind of stoneware developed in China, was used as dinnerware, teapots, and jars.
In the development of technology in the recent years, plastics glasses and other synthetic materials have replaced pottery in its function as a water vessel. The discovery of other mediums of sculpture resulted to a more dynamic pottery. Mass production techniques have taken the place of the traditional role of pottery. Pottery today is used for leisure and artistic purposes.
Copyright © 2005 New York Quality Pottery - NYQP.com. All rights reserved. |