| Ceramic Sculpture |
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Long before the invention of the potter’s wheel, which occurred around 3000 B.C., man was forming vessels and sculptures out of clay by hand without the aid of a mechanical device. Of all the remains left by ancient cultures, perhaps none have proved as valuable to the archaeologist and the student of history as the numerous artifacts made of fired clay. Except in unusual and fortuitous circumstances, items of wood, leather, and fabric, however carefully fashioned, that have survived more than a thousand years are rare. Even bronze and iron are prone to disintegrate, and exposed stone weathers nearly as rapidly. Clay, which is usually abundant everywhere, has the unique property of being easily fashioned into a variety of forms. When fired in a kiln or even in a bonfire, it fuses into a hard and durable material. Ceramics has an extremely long and varied history. Neanderthal hunting and gathering groups who roamed across Eurasia 70,000 to 35,000 years ago had fire and may have made clay vessels hardened in fire, but the first evidence of true carving and artistic use of clay does not appear until the development of homo sapiens about 35,000 years ago during the last Ice Age. A prehistoric drawing found at an excavation site in China leads archaeologists to believe that, at least in this area, twig baskets, mudded with clay to make them hold water or food, were one day put on a fire—with the discovery that the basket burned out, leaving a hardened clay vessel. In about 30,000 B.C., clay animals and figures emerged, modeled in the round as well as carved in clay walls and floors. Ruins of prehistoric kilns also have been found from this period. It has been discovered that the North American Indians were burning clay pots in bonfires 25,000 years ago; to this day, they do not use kilns. All early cultures that fired clay had knowledge of different clay pigments, of metallic oxides that world resist temperatures of red heat and could be used for decoration, and of methods of hand fabrication and structure. The almost indestructible nature of fired clay has allowed us to surmise the existence of cultures that otherwise would be completely unknown. Birth, puberty, and death are the great traumatic experiences of human life. Although we, in the twentieth century, tend to be a bit blasé about these events, our ancestors celebrated them with elaborate ritual. Death, in particular, was a frightening and mysterious event that required the propitiation of unknown forces. Belief in some sort of existence in the hereafter dates from the furthest reaches of time, for we find the Paleolithic peoples sprinkled their dead with red ocher as a symbol of life and buried them with their stone weapons and a supply of food. As early peoples developed the skill of pottery making, we find pottery included in these funerary offerings. A large portion of the ancient ceramics that we know about comes from such grave sites and, for the most part, the items were made especially for that purpose. The forms were often those in common use at that time but with a thinner and more carefully finished body and elaborate decoration. Reflecting the conservative nature of religious customs, the grave ware sometimes also resembles an older style and could, for example, still be hand built although the ware made for daily use was wheel thrown. Often, the grave offerings were overly elaborate and nonfunctional in design and were even decorated with fugitive colors, reflecting their onetime use. Clay feels soft and pliable in your hands. Pick up a lump of it, let your fingers respond to its plasticity, and as you pinch and poke it, the clay seems to have a life of its own to which your fingers respond. Perhaps you will find yourself forming a human figure, an animal, or a small pot. By responding to the clay’s plastic quality with these pinching gestures, you are repeating the actions of untold numbers of members of the human family—your family—who have worked with clay even as far back in time as the Ice Age, 37,000 years ago. The earliest known examples of clay objects formed by human hands are representations of animals modeled on a clay bank in a cave in France and some fired clay animal figures and a female human figure found at an Ice Age site in what is now Czechoslovakia. Both of these sites are roughly 30,000 years old. Fragments from clay vessels and objects are the chief remnants left from prehistoric human activities. Ancient peoples are studied mainly through the clay artifacts—or shards thereof—that remain. From the ceramic fragments that have survived, we draw inferences about cross-cultural borrowing, trade, migrations, and the degree of sophistication of different societies. For instance, cultures with potters’ wheels were no doubt somewhat industrial and production oriented, whereas handbuilding cultures may have been isolated and more spiritually oriented. Some cultures had trained potters or communities of potters, while in others all members of the community made clay forms, when necessary, for everyday or ceremonial use. Indications of whether potters were only men or only women, whether decorations were elaborate or minimal, and whether high technologies were developed or traditions continued unchanged for thousands of years have been used as clues to the lifestyle of ancient peoples, their political and governmental development, and their degree of communication with other societies. Nearly everything we know about our ancient ancestors is learned from their clay artifacts. Even in very ancient sites, crude clay pieces appear, including works of unusual aesthetic interest. Throughout the Japanese islands, archaeologists have found earthenware objects of great antiquity and artistic exuberance. Some have been carbon dated as old as 12,000 B.C. This work is referred to as Jomon, which means “cord pattern,” because the early pieces are characterized by overall surface decorations apparently created by pressing cords into the damp clay or incising it with sticks, shells, or tools. Jomon ware was most likely handbuilt by some coiling technique, but the surface has been smoothed and obscured by the texturing, which was often highly elaborated into sophisticated designs. Although early people were
using crude stone tools in East Africa in the early Paleolithic period, as
long as 2.6 million years ago, most of human cultural development has
occurred much more recently, since the beginning of the Neolithic period
after 10,000 B.C. The peoples of the Paleolithic period were wandering
hunters. They also gathered wild seeds, tubers, and fruits. At the end of
the Paleolithic period, the icecap covering most of northern Europe, Asia,
and North America receded, and much of northern Africa and western Asia
became hot and dry. During the early Neolithic period, after about 7,000
B.C., early communities began to settle down in fertile and temperate
river valleys, first in western Asia and eastern Europe, later in Egypt,
India, China, and Mexico. |
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