| One of the indicators of early civilization is pottery. | | | | Ceramic technology didn't change much until the |
| With people settling down in one centralized area and | | | | creation of the wheel in Mesopotamia around 6000 |
| importing food from outlying farms, storage became a | | | | BP. The wheel allowed people to stop dragging things |
| necessity. Woven containers of grass and reeds were | | | | around, stop relying on pushing rafts on rolling logs, and |
| most likely the first crafted vessels for dry goods, | | | | to carry heavier loads. War chariots were invented, |
| while the preserved stomaches of large grazing | | | | but potters found a much more peaceful use for the |
| animals is good for liquid storage, but those all wear | | | | application of the wheel. |
| out very quickly. The practice of shaping mud with | | | | The very first potter's wheels were not much more |
| other materials and letting it harden in the sun to create | | | | than half a wheelshaft stuck upright in a stone base. |
| building materials is a practice that helped keep | | | | These wheels would have had to have been turned |
| humans out of the weather back in the stone age. A | | | | by hand. They were not the kick wheels which would |
| similar practice is still currently used by wasps, beavers | | | | have been invented in later centuries. The process by |
| and other such creatures. It's entirely possible that we | | | | which pots were made using these wheels can only |
| learned it from them. | | | | be described as "fast coiling", as opposed to |
| The invention of heating the dried clay to extremely | | | | "throwing". |
| high temperatures surely came about by accidentally | | | | In the centuries to follow, pottery wheels do not |
| dropping clay in some very hot fire, and then | | | | undergo any huge changes. The Egyptians come up |
| discovering its properties changed after it cooled. | | | | with pottery wheels that can be turned with the foot, |
| Afterwards, discovering all the uses of a substance | | | | but the materials available do not lend themselves to a |
| that is easy to shape, which then fires to a stone-like | | | | free-spinning thrower's wheel as we know them |
| substance surely came quickly. | | | | today. There was too much friction involved, and they |
| The creation of pots or other ceramic vessels would | | | | would slow down far too quickly. |
| have happened soon after ceramics came about. | | | | In 16th century, Italy, we have records of bench high |
| They are just too useful to be ignored. Early pots | | | | potters wheels with heavy kickwheels at the base. In |
| clearly had their creation at least partially to thank from | | | | the 19th century, with the industrial revolution, we have |
| the early grass and reed baskets, as evidenced by the | | | | low friction pottery wheels in nearly the same design |
| coiled process by which they were made. | | | | that would spin very fast. This was the true time for |
| Early pots, as old as 14,000 before the present (BP) | | | | pot throwing! |
| were created by coiling clay in a circular pattern | | | | The technique involved kicking the wheel to a fast |
| around and around, pressed together and shaped with | | | | speed, then throwing the clay and shaping it. When the |
| the fingers. The potters would have turned the vessel | | | | wheel slowed down, you would stop shaping the clay |
| itself at the base, in order to try to get the vessel | | | | and kick the wheel up again, and then resume shaping |
| shaped correctly. The narrow base, common among | | | | the clay in a cyclical action. This wheel is silent, fast, |
| pots made in this fashion, makes the pot much easier | | | | and heavy. |
| to turn during the creation process. | | | | There are many people today who prefer this type of |
| Soon, the creation of the pots was evolved to a point | | | | potter's wheel to the new, electric ones that do not |
| where they were placed on a plate or in a bowl, and | | | | need to be kicked, and run at a variable speed |
| built up from there, still using the clay coiling technique. | | | | controlled with a dial. However, with new technology |
| The plate or bowl allowed the maker to turn the pot | | | | comes new techniques to explore. The new, constant |
| much more easily! Pots were smoothed out during the | | | | speed potter's wheels are still very new. The |
| creation process either with the fingers, or using a rib | | | | techniques not as old as civilization as we know it! |
| or other bone. Pots are still crafted this way today in | | | | There are new refinements to be made, still. |
| remote areas of Africa and Indo-China. | | | | |