Pottery 2 Pottery Techniques

Pottery Techniques

The first pottery vessels were shaped by hand, either directly or with the aid of basket moulds, and incised or impressed patterns were the most common type of decoration, created using elements such as seashells or awls. Neolithic pottery was fired at low temperatures in open pits.

The different styles of pottery shed light on the technology developed by the groups that produced them and allow us to form hypotheses about their aesthetic criteria and to situate them in time.

Shared Landscapes (Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic, 4000-2600 BC)

During the final phases of the Neolithic and the beginning of the Chalcolithic the farming communities evolved and expanded, putting new anthrophic pressure on the landscape.

Production intensified as a result of greater exploitation of natural resources and the increasing specialisation of crafts. New technologies were developed, most notably metallurgy, bur despite the importance of metal for these societies it remained a scarce commodity until well into the Bronze Age. Increasing interaction between different and more distant groups and the gradual imposition of a social hierarchy were also important phenomena during this period.

Production Spaces – Workshops

In the Late Neolithic, farming and animal husbandry intensified. New activities introduced at this time included tilling the land, digging irrigation ditches, harnessing animals for traction and transportation, using manure as fertilizer, developing new culinary procedures to preserve and transform food, and obtaining wool from sheep.

Most objects were made by the user or members of his or her immediate circle. However, the stockpiling of raw materials and the complexity of some of the techniques identified suggest that the first part-time artisan workshops may have emerged in this period.

National Archaeological Museum, Madrid.