Chapter 5 Section 5 Pottery Technology

The appearance of pottery is an important sign that our ancestors entered the Neolithic Age.In ancient legends, it is said that Shennong invented pottery at the same time as he invented farming, which shows that the appearance of pottery is closely related to agriculture. Fired from clay, pottery is arguably the first man-made substance created by humans.The production process of early pottery is to knead the blank into the blank shape of the utensil by hand, or use clay strips to build the shape, and then put it in the fire to roast it to make it sintered.With the continuous accumulation of production experience, the production process of pottery is also continuously improved.

In terms of blank making technology, the wooden pottery wheel was invented.The blanks are placed on a rotating potter's wheel to create round objects.This method is called the crop rotation method, which not only improves the efficiency of billet making, but also makes the shape of the device regular and beautiful. In terms of blank processing, the elutriation process was invented to remove impurities in the mud, so that the produced pottery has a fine texture and improved quality.With the advent of elutriation, clay pottery and fine clay pottery of fine texture were produced. There are also many innovations in the processing of blank tires, such as "polished pottery" with a polished surface, painted pottery painted with pigments, and black pottery fired by carburizing during the firing process.

The kiln for firing pottery has also been gradually improved, from the open-air heap firing at the beginning, to the mud-covered heap firing, and then to the semi-underground horizontal and vertical kilns.The improvement of the kiln has increased the temperature of the kiln, and the firepower has become more uniform, so that the quality of the fired pottery is better. Wheel-making method, elutriation process, blank tire surface processing technology, and semi-underground shaft kiln have been adopted in the ceramic production of later generations for a long time, and some are still used today, but the equipment and technology are more perfect.