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The origin of ancient pottery production


Journal of Historical Archaeology & Anthropological Sciences
Yuri B Tsetlin
History of Ceramics Laboratory, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia

Abstract

The origin of pottery production involves two interconnected processes: the emergence of vessel shapes and pottery technology. To clarify the nature of the first process we need to identify prototypes for the shapes of clay vessels and to determine the functions of the first clay vessels. The study of pottery technology involves the earliest plastic raw materials, composition of pottery pastes and vessels’ firing regimes. The research is based on archaeological ceramics from the Near East and Anatolia of 9-8 millennia ago and from the Japan and the Far East of Russia 13-11 millennia ago. A range of ethnographic data was also used. The origin of pottery production (including shapes and technology of vessels) was a result of two main factors - adaptive processes of the tribes to local natural and economical situation and human natural ability to imitation. That is why the origin of pottery production was a polycentric process. It had appeared a lot of times in various regions of the Earth as long as its all-round distribution closed the beginnings of the process.

Keywords

Origin of ceramics, shape of vessel, raw material, pottery paste, clay, wicker vessels, pottery making, steppe zones, prototypes, ovens, hunting, fishing, gathering, animal husbandry, waterfowl manure, early neolithic

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