James,

I look back at my life and think that it has been very easy.  The lives of the people at the times when pottery were first made had to be brutal.  But the people that had time to rest and make something like pottery for use in making life better had to think even as we do today How do things work? 

This had to lead to seeing things in nature that emulated what they were making.  A whole in a rock that holds water different colors of rock, clay that drys hard as rock when in a fire.  In all this they see many things but one of the things that they would have to see that was not in just a clay pot was all the colors of nature.  Everywhere they looked they would see color, shape, and form. 

Ashes out of a fire would leave marks on things, berries they ear stained things, the sun turns things into lighter colors as they dry in the sun.  All of these things come from nature.  As a creature that has time to make things with their hands and tools to make life easier it would be a natural progression to decorate the things you make with the colors of nature. 

It would also be much easier to identify them from others that looked just like the one that was made by others.  So in a sense there may have been two fold purpose in the ability to identify the piece as your own and not someone else's.  This would have gotten more and more complex as time goes on and more and more of the same size pot was used.  

The birth of this form of art maybe because it was hard to distinguish between property.  The more elaborate the easier to tell who's is who's.

In history sometimes we must put our selves back in the situation and understand what they were going through.  Pots were more than likely a luxury in early history and then became necessary for life.  After that they would would have been commonplace and need to be differentiated.   

I sometimes dream about what it would have been like thousands of years ago if they had the understanding of science that I have today or that I was there and what it must be like.  I think that I would need to be stronger as well as smarter.     

I believe it is meant to be expressive. Time may or may not have to do with it but if you had only one tool, one book, or one journal, wouldn't you want to keep it forever and to commemorate your life? your favorite things? The world around you? Your happenings and beliefs? Early decorating was meant to be symbolic of what was most important to them or what they found beautiful. 

In those eras, we see little of personal belongings. I like to think that what we find is multi-purposed. Even something like the notches on a spear of how many people were killed with that weapon, or tattoo origins. Its symbolic.

Just to mark it - in order to distinguish/recognize from other - it is about "1st decorated"

Very soon every one understood how convenient it is - and this was the very beginning of decorated pottery

Leonid

Hear is a thought to go with the question.

Basketry was known for thousands of years prior to the invention of pottery and they were weaving designs into their baskets. Why does it take pottery hundreds of years to go from plain or very simple decorations to more complex patterns?

Hi James

I think it is a very diffucult to explain that problem in one way. It can be lot's of multilayer possibilities: religion, myths, daily life, communication with others etc.

For example see:

A. P. Kowalski 2010; Neolithic pottery ornamented with 'cord' impressions: an anthropological - semiotic interpretation, "Baltic-Pontic Studies", 15: 64-74.

https://repozytorium.amu.edu.pl/bitstream/10593/13137/1/BPS-15-5_A_P_Kowalski%20NEOLITHIC%20POTTERY%20ORNAMENTED%20WITH%20CORD%20IMPRESSIONS-AN%20ANTHROPOLOGICAL%20%E2%80%93%20SEMIOTIC%20INTERPRETATION%20_PP_64-74.pdf

Best Regards

Maciej Wawrzczak

I don't believe that adorning vessels was an attempt to differentiate one person's pot from another, after all, people lived a very communal life - a harvest would be shared; a game kill would be shared. So pottery production was probably on an 'as-needed' basis, and performed by one or two skilled people, who applied their own decoration, for the benefit and use of the whole tribe or familial group. I believe that rather than personalising it to one individual, the designs represented a tribe. Designs got more complex in an attempt to 'keep up with the Jones'.

Imagine being invited to a neighbouring tribe for a wedding or coming of age, and they have elaborately-decorated vessels and more gold that you do. Are you going to just go home jealous? No, you're going to go home and make your pots even more elaborately decorated, and then invite them over to see your richly-decorated pots.

Art is expression, but decoration is a race to out-do each other. Just look at the world around us now - if you want to be noticed, you have to stand out.

Dear Sir, the main motivational force behind these potteries being imaged and decorated is "Emotion" I am  person with psychological Knowledge by Qualification and I would like to explain this emotional force as ------- Pottery----- was not a time pass but a necessity of that time of period of people and what was more important is Food clothing and shelter and thus Food requires storage --- protection and also safe keeping of food sources such as seeds and other important ingredients related to food and also medication and also valuable food items and storing pattern of valuable food resources.

Normally human has a pattern of expression by their hands---- for example--- we have noticed that many people draw or scribble something with a pen and paper when they are in serious conversation over the phone with somebody------ why----- it is a subconscious emotion adapted to concentrate on the conversation.

So similarly the human that time wanted to express emotions as hand work which was very satisfying to their mind when the made the valuable pottery and as time went it was a collective data as whose was the best? or is the best? then talents and good skills sprouted out with extreme diversion with bizarre and complex drawing with later involving colors and pattern.

my conclusion for sure is the emotion of all human to make it simply to be happy in the first and later was made with the good response to people with competition and get and identity for a prosperous future. Thanks

hi A.green,maybe in the beginning times it was only simple pattern that imitated from the nature but later with developing human's lifestyle,it became very complex.specially in the middle east region,pottery and its motif used for transfer human idea,religion and so on. in scientific excavation of prehistoric sites ,specially,we found similar samples from wares and potsherd that have in their bottoms potter's signature in abstract-concept's shape several times...

In the U.S., as well as much of the world, pottery started out as plain bowls/pots whose shapes and decorations got more complex over time. However, the "simple time" spanned from several hundred to as much as a thousand years or so. During this time vessels usually had very thick walls and were poorly fired. Is this a clue to why they did not start with complex doodling from the beginning?

When complex decorations do proliferate, it seems to be region wide. We divide our prehistoric cultural periods in the different parts of the U.S. based on groups of decorations (ceramic assemblage). There are slight local differences between individual decorations attributable to distance from cultural heartland. These changes in ceramic assemblage appear to indicate changes in culture (i.e., different settlement pattern, different mound building, different trade networks, different social structure).

Sometimes these culturally derived decorative techniques are similar to a nearby cultural region and can borrow decorations, but often there is little similarity between the different regions. Thus, close to what Stuart suggested, these ceramic assemblages are an expression of a specific culture (tribe if you will) and in the ceramic decorations and vessel shapes we can see cultures transitioning from one to another.

We can also see direct evidence of trade or visits, as in one area whose pots are fiber tempered and stick impressed having a few authentic clay tempered pots with incised lines that originated hundreds of miles away.

ya. this could be right that vessels be a symbol of culture(s) but not forever... pottery's art and its decoration is part of cultural material that could be consider as artificial handmade or even luxury goods! actually, when we find these wares in the top level burial beside of luxury ornament or specific burial performance, our mind goes to other places for better archaeological interpretations..  in the other hand, vessels could be transferred by everything as trade,war , ... to places in far of original places...

Dear James,

I've pondered this question for more than a half-century that I've been studying pottery, but I still don't have-a-clue as to the correct answer. I'll need to think on this a while longer ... I'm still in hopes of an epiphany before I die

(ha ha aha hahaha)!

Best regards,

Bob

I feel safe in assuming there is a connection with ritual, in viewing decoration as adornment for vessels, analogous to the use of regalia to adorn the human vessel and index a code switch from the sacred to the profane.

It's hard to imagine a testable hypothesis that would conclusively advance our understanding of this question beyond the area of speculation. Nevertheless, I'll speculate that when working with clay, it is easy (and fun) to add patterns of indentations and scratches that could indicate identity of the artisan or ownership.

My thought. Early pottery making was a trial and error process with many failures, hence the thick walled vessels to try to compensate for cracking, etc. Decorations were kept to a minimum since they did not want to spend too much time decorating something that might not survive the drying or firing process. As proficiency working with clay got better, the more complex the decorations became because there was a greater likelihood of the vessel surviving. During the late period of pottery making, the process was so well known and controlled that extremely complex designs and colored slips could be used without too much fear of wasted effort.

I've read various postulated functional explanations such as a textured exterior surface may increase heat transfer or prevent slipping out of one's hand, but can't now remember the source.

To put a mark or an image where it will be touched offers a connection with he/she who touches it.  That haptic connection to the mark-maker, to history, to myth, or to the word was (and still can be) transcendental.

There is probably a connection between the more complex decorations and an intensification of trade or trading centers coupled with diversification of labor as settlements grew. Just my two cents. 

There are theories that decoration started as a "signature" of the workshop, and then developed into more regional styles. Check the work of Gloria London, e.g. for early Cyprus. It is often thought that decoration of pottery was a secondary stage, but this need not have been true everywhere (e.g. in Guran, Iran).

I've attached an article on the earliest ceramics yet found in the state of California and possibly in North America. These artifacts fit well with the on-going discussion of the symbolic nature of early ceramics. At the Lakeside Site, a minimal number of what people generally recognize as vessels, were made. Instead, most of the collection are forms generally accepted to be symbolic in purpose such as beads, figurine pieces, gaming tokens, and the like. I generally agree with the authors interpretations of the artifacts, but regardless if one does or does not agree, these early ceramics did not have strict utilitarian purpose. Unfortunately, the great age of the site and poor preservation of the artifacts has destroyed many of the superficial treatments that ceramicists use to interpret meaning and symbols.

There might be something to gripping the surface. What about an irregular surface having better heat transference?

Something beyond decoration

Best regards,

Mikhail Zhilin, hab. dr

I think it should be 1. fear from empty surface of vessels, 2. protection, what was inside.

Here in the ANE it looks a bit like 'branding and conspicuous consumption. During the Bronze Age one sees a lot of imports, painted pottery, signs of status whereas in the following Iron Age ca 1250 BCE the pottery is largely unpainted, boring and probably reflets a more egaltarian society according to sme experts. 

In Greece early decorated pottery was a prize and often painted with mythic themes.  Also, dipinti was done to show who gave a gift and to provide some expression.  Some painting on ceramics, however, were functional for accounting purposes.

 Joe,

I know little about the ceramics of your region, but it does not seem to me that egalitarian societies where all are considered more or less equals would have mostly undecorated pottery. Even lower class people purchase gaudy pottery they can not afford in order to impress their neighbors and friends.

There are several reasons for the shift from imported decorated pottery during the Bronze Age vs. undecorated pottery in the Iron Age. Does the Iron Age pottery reflect local production? If so, then this might be what I have been discussing concerning fledgling pottery productions not putting much effort in decorating the pottery because they are not yet proficient in production methods. Why spend time and valuable paint slip ingredients on a pot that has a 1 in 4 chance of surviving through the drying and firing process?

Was there a substantial increase in population in that area, causing pressure on potters to produce volume (plain), not quality (decorated)? This could have been caused by some monumental projects that brought in thousands of workers, all needing utilitarian vessels for water storage and cooking.

Did the Bronze Age pottery producing region later get annexed by another country or was there a break in the ties with that region, thus shifting pottery source production? Did the region lose power, thus the elite fell out of favor and all that remained were of low station? This could also happen with a shift in natural resources or agriculture, such as anchovy schools shifting their annual runs 50 kilometers down the coast, leaving an area fishing village economically depressed.

As I said, there are many reasons for what you describe.

I recommend reading the works of Olivier Gosselain in particular.

I think it's the same force that originates architecture and art. Spiro Kostof (1984) says that it is the desire for a sophisticated artificial environment.

Regards

The desire to decorate objects goes back to the very earliest part of human history. Decorating pottery is problem just an example of this apparent aesthetic need in sentient beings.

Well before the development of pottery humans decorated tools and other objects. A piece of bone found at Bilzingsleben in Germany is inscribed with regular parallel cut marks that could not simply have been caused by butchering.  The bone is 250,000 years old.

A lower Palaeolithic hand-axe found in Norfolk, UK appears to have been knapped around a fossilised mollusc shell creating a built in decorative feature.

The most enigmatic of all is the Makapansgat pebble which, although not in any way manufactured by humans seems to contain a face.  The pebbles appearance is a result of natural forces but it was found at an Australopithecine site many miles away from its source suggesting at the very least that it could have been picked up and carried there by one of our earliest ancestors some 2.5 million years ago.

By the early Bronze Age humans had been decorating things for a very long time.

Barry,

All you say is true. There are some intricate bone carvings in prehistory. However, part of my discussion has been why incipient pottery that arises in every part of the world starts off undecorated or is decorated only with the simplest of marks and more complex decorations do not occur for at least 500 years? It is like the unchanging Acheulean hand-axe. We know that these pottery-producing peoples knew about decorating objects, but why the delay between first pottery production and complex design? My first thought was that they did not want to spend extra time on something that might not survive drying and firing, but 500 years or so seems like more than enough time to understand the complexities of pottery making. Was it their lifestyle? Did they see the first pots and bowls as minimally necessary? Because wooden objects are rarely preserved in archaeological sites, was it because they used their energy on decorating wooden bowls, etc.?

Opinions?

James

I take the same view as Bob and I too do not have a clue why there was such a large gap between the first pottery being manufactured to when it was first decorated.   

Barry,

Thanks. The rationale of decorating a short lifespan utilitarian object like early pottery is possibly best addressed by a paleopsychologist :~) It is just a mystery why it takes almost every early culture that long to develop more complicated pottery designs.