century b.c.e., but the peoples of Indonesia seem mostly to
have imported pottery from China and Korea rather than
manufacture it.
EUROPE
BY ALISON SHERIDAN
Ceramic pyrotechnology—the transformation of a fl exible
raw material (clay) into a rigid, if fragile end product—fi rst
appeared in Europe around 24,000 b.c.e. in the form of fi gu-
rines found at the cave of Dolní Věstonice in the Czech Re-
public and a few other sites in central and eastern Europe.
However, this seems to have been an isolated phenomenon
and not the beginning of an unbroken tradition. Its next ap-
pearance was not until the early to mid-seventh millennium
b.c.e. in early farming communities in the eastern Mediter-
ranean and southeast Europe. By 4000 b.c.e. it had spread
across almost all of Europe.
The spread of this technology related closely to wider
changes in people’s lifestyles, especially the shift to us-
ing domesticated plants and animals for food instead of
relying on wild resources. In most areas these changes
involved the emergence of permanent or semipermanent
settlements—a way of life suited to the use of fragile ce-
ramics. However, pottery was not exclusive to farming
communities: Along the northern fringe of Europe during
the sixth millennium b.c.e. fisher-gatherer-hunter groups
learned from their farming neighbors to the south how to
make pottery. They used this knowledge to create items
suited to t heir lifest yle, including sha llow dishes t hat acted
as lamps for burning the oil from seals and whales and
pointed-based pots for cooking. Traces of fish stew have
been found in one such pot from a submerged settlement
at Tybrind Vig in Denmark.
Th e fl exibility and versatility of clay gave it uses in almost
every aspect of life in prehistoric Europe. Its main usage was
as vessels and utensils for preparing, serving, and consuming
food and drink, but it was also formed into other kinds of con-
tainers, including urns and graves for the dead and vessels for
transporting trade goods. Various manufacturing processes
used ceramics (for example, as molds and crucibles for met-
alworking), and ceramic ovens are known from several parts
of Europe, including the Orkney Islands off Scotland. Fired
clay served as a building material in the warmest and driest
parts of prehistoric Europe. Th e many other uses of ceramics
in prehistoric Europe include jewelry, items connected with
belief systems (such as fi gurines, models, and cult objects),
toys, writing tablets and seals, and musical instruments such
as whistles and even drums.
Th e methods of preparing, working, and fi ring clay var-
ied greatly, as did the organization of ceramic production. At
the most basic level, nonspecialist (but oft en highly skilled)
individuals hand-built pottery, fi ring it rapidly in a bonfi re or
fi ring pit, for use by the family or residential group. Th is was
the norm for much of the period in question. Potting skills
were handed down through the generations. At the other end
of the spectrum was the factory-based, wheel-thrown, kiln-
fi red commercial mass production of pottery as seen in vari-
ous parts of the Roman Empire. Every variant between these
extremes is found in prehistoric Europe.
Th ere are many examples of small-scale, specialist pot-
tery production for elite use as prestige items. Th ese include
some of the Bell Beakers of Copper Age Europe (around
2800–2300 b.c.e.), the Early Bronze Age high-status pottery
of the Argaric culture in southeast Spain (early second mil-
lennium b.c.e.), and the Late Bronze Age graphite-coated and
tin-inlaid pottery of south-central Europe (ninth and eighth
centuries b.c.e.).Buccero ware water jug, Etruscan, about 550-500 b.c.e., from Chiusi,
Tu s cany, Italy (© Th e Trustees of the British Museum)ceramics and pottery: Europe 181