1. The History of Ceramic Pottery

2. Ceramic Timeline
35,000-7,000 B.C. Paleolithic Age B.C. Japan, Fired Vessels B.C. Middle East B.C. Mesopotamia B.C. Middle East, The First Cities B.C. The First Pottery Made in South America B.C. The First Glaze, Egypt B.C. Banshan Culture, China B.C. Jomon Period, Japan B.C. Wheel Throwing in China B.C. Minoan Culture, Crete B.C. First Pottery Made in Middle America B.C. Glassmaking, Middle East B.C. Shang Dynasty, China B.C.-A.D. 300 Formative Period, Middle America B.C. Olmec Culture, Middle America B.C. Chavin Culture, South America B.C. Earliest Lead Glazing, Middle East B.C. Classic Shapes, Greek Pottery 700 B.C. Black Figure Technique, Greece 600 B.C. Red Figure Technique, Greece B.C. Life-sized Terra Cotta Sculpture, Italy 600 B.C. Tin-Lead Glazes, Middle East 300 B.C.-A.D Life-sized Terra Cotta Sculpture, Africa B.C. Life-sized Terra Cotta Sculpture, Qin Dynasty, China 206 B.C.-A.D. 221 Han Dynasty, China 57 B.C.-A.D. 935 Silla Period, Korea The Mochia Culture, South America 200 Feldspathic Glazes, Yueh Wae, China 200 B.C.-A.D.476 The Roman Empire, Europe Haniwa Figures, Japan Classic Period, Teotihuacan, Mexico Tang Dynasty, China Early Islamic Wares, Middle East Southwest Indian, North America
Mayan Post-Classic Period, Middle America The Koryo Dynasty, Korea Early Stoneware, Germany The Song Dynasty, China North Song, China Southern Song, China Medieval Islamic Period, Middle East Chimu Culture, South America The Axtecs, Central America Inca Culture, South America Hispano-Moresque Wares, Spain First Books on Pottery Written, Italy Tin-glazed Earthenware, Italy Late Islamic Period, Middle East The Ming Dynasty, China Choson Period, Korea Tea Ceramics, Raku Ware, Japan Salt-glazed Stoneware, Germany Tin-glazed Earthenware, France First Delftware, Holland Soft-paste Porcelain, Europe Staffordshire Slipware, England Arita Ware, Japan European Porcelain Ch'ing Dynasty, China Industrialization of Potteries, Great Britain The Arts and Crafts Movement, Great Britain The Arts and Crafts Movement, United States Art Nouveau, France Present Pueblo Pottery Revival, United States The Modern Movement The Bauhaus School, Germany The Modern Movement, England 1920's The Studio Potter/Folk Pottery Mid 1900's Transition to Clay as Art Pablo Picasso, France Abstract Expressionism, Otis Influence, United States Alfred Influence, United States 's Funk and Fake Art Late Twentieth Century Contemporary Clay Early Twenty-First Century Current Trends

3. The Basket and the Pot
In some ancient communities it is believed that basket making lead to the discovery of clay pottery. Baskets were made of strong plant life for heavy loads. They were lined with animal skins to carry water.

4. The Basket and the Pot
At some point, probably before 7000 B.C., someone discovered an easier, less wasteful, way to waterproof a basket - by smearing the inside with a layer of stiff mud or clay.

5. A New “Basket”
No one really knows when or who first started to use the new technology of ceramics, but most speculate that it was discovered by some prehistoric person; perhaps that person smeared a basket with clay and set it too near a fire. When the basket burned, the clay hardened. Perhaps it happened when a home or village burned.

6. Earliest Pottery

7. The Beginnings of Pottery
Clay animal and fertility figures found at a site in the Czech Republic estimated to be around thirty thousand years old are the earliest discovered pottery.
Clay sculptures of bison discovered in the Tuc d’ Audobert Cave in France are thought to be about fourteen thousand years old.

8. The Venus
Made of clay and bone ash, this is the tiny baked clay figurine is known as the "Venus" of Dolni Vestonice. It is thought to be about 29,000 years old and have been fired in a beehive shaped kiln in a Stone Age village.

9. East Asia Pottery
Vast improvements in the process of creating and decorating pottery began in the countries of East Asia, especially China, Japan and Korea.
China lead the way with the development of porcelain and numerous technical and artistic innovations that influenced the world.

10. Japanese Pottery History
Ten Thousand years of Jomon
The porous, coiled earth ware pottery of Japan called Jomon spanned more than ten thousand years, from about 12,000 B.C. to 2000 B.C and is the oldest carbon dated pottery in the world.
The term Jomon means cord mark in Japanese and refers to the distinctive pattern made by pressing cord on the surface of clay as decoration.

11. Jomon Continued
Early Jomon pottery was dominated by deep vessels that are flower pot shape.
Middle Jomon period decorations included serpents and other animal heads wounded around the rims that some became unbalanced.
Late Jomon period was distinguished by deep incising or grooving that were filled with cord marks and with burnished surfaces.

12. Progress in Japanese Pottery
The spread of agriculture, the use of primitive wheel turning in the making of pottery and the start of metal working characterized the Yayoi period in Japan (300 B.C. to A.D. 300)
Yayoi potters created new vessels that were smoother, more balanced and less porous.
During the Haniwa or tumulus period( A.D. 200 to 600) clay figures were placed around tombs in underground burial chambers.
The Japanese also made progress in firing of pottery by adopting anagama kilns from the Koreans and Chinese. Being able to create higher temperatures was important to the development of stronger, higher quality pottery.

13. Buddhism, lead Glaze and Pottery Centers
By the 14th Century pottery production centers were established in locations throughout Japan and each developed a specialty.
The raku technique was developed at this time and is still used today to create very shiny pottery.
Once Buddhism was introduced in the sixth century it influenced all aspects of Japanese life.
Chinese lead glaze pottery became popular in the 7th century and 8th century but by 11th centuries the Chinese influence declined and the Japanese pottery became floral quiet designs.

14. Discovery of Kaolin
The Chinese had been manufacturing porcelain for many years by the time the Japanese discovered deposits of Kaolin clay at Arita on the island of Kyushu in the early 17th century.
The first Japanese porcelain, known as Imari ware and produced mainly for export, was decorated in blue and white.
By the middle of the 19th century most pottery in Japan was produced for export and used simple designs for mass appeal.

15. Chinese Pottery History
Advancements from China in the production and development of pottery cannot be underestimated.
China’s Earliest Pottery was first produced in the yellow river valley in northern china and the pottery were simple coil built earthen ware.

16. Chinese Pottery History
The first feldspathic glaze occurred during the Shang dynasty and it combined feldspar and wood ash.
This produced greenish pottery.
In year 907 during the Tang dynasty there was a popular style called the three Tang color which included more than three colors.

17. Chinese Pottery History
Porcelain reached its highest development during the Sung Dynasty in year 960 to
Ting ware during this period was very popular: bowls, plates, jars and pots coated in ivory glaze and the rims were branded with copper.

18. Korean Pottery History
A distinctive form of Korean ware from the rest of Asia in an inlay technique known a Mishima.
Here you pierced the clay then glazed black and white under celadon glaze.
Overall
As pottery making developed in East Asia, it also thrived simultaneously in the Middle East.

19. The Near and Middle East

20. The Near and Middle East
This includes the countries of Mesopotamia now (Iraq), Persia now (Iran), Syria, Anatolia now(Turkey) and Egypt.
All of the earliest forms of pottery from this region are simple, coiled vases.

21. The Near and Middle East
Fired clay figurine about 2.5 inches high. Made about 7000 BC. from Tepe Sarab a prehistoric village site in Western Iran.

22. The Near and Middle East
This tiny fired clay image of a wild boar c.7000 BC. was also from Tepe Sarab in Iran

23. The Near and Middle East
Enthroned goddess in baked clay. c.5500 BC. Possibly giving birth. Two leopard-like heads on either side. - Çatal Hüyük - Anatolia Turkey.

24. The Near and Middle East
Clay Vessels from as early as B.C. WERE DISCOVERED AT Latal Hyuck in Anatolia.
They created deep bowls and hole mouth jars.
They had light colors and burnished surfaces no decoration and were wood fired. 

25. The Near and Middle East
Ancient Cultures in Mesopotamia made 2 distinct types of pottery:
Bowls and rounded jars with plain engraved line patterns
Vessels called Samarra ware with decoration painted on.

26. The Near and Middle East
Samarra ware had painted geometric patterns as well as human/animals in red/black around B.C.
Halfa type dish found at Arpachiyah North Iraq c.5000 BC.