page_title: Pottery
section_title: Europe
hierarchical_section_title: Pottery / History / History by region / Europe
caption_attribution_description: English: The scene on this "krater" depicts another milestone in the life of a young man. At the culmination of years of training, a warrior stands beside the family altar preparing to leave for war. He wears a short tunic under a "cuirass" (breastplate) and holds his spear in his left hand. A young woman on the right readies his shield and stretches out her hand to pass his helmet across the altar. A "krater" is a large, wide-mouth vessel used for mixing water and wine; if the handles are in the low position seen here, it is called a "calyx krater."
context_page_description: Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard, durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made by a potter is also called a pottery. The definition of pottery used by the American Society for Testing and Materials, is "all fired ceramic wares that contain clay when formed, except technical, structural, and refractory products." In archaeology, especially of ancient and prehistoric periods, "pottery" often means vessels only, and figures etc. of the same material are called "terracottas". Clay as a part of the materials used is required by some definitions of pottery, but this is dubious.
  Pottery is one of the oldest human inventions, originating before the Neolithic period, with ceramic objects like the Gravettian culture Venus of Dolní Věstonice figurine discovered in the Czech Republic dating back to 29,000–25,000 BC, and pottery vessels that were discovered in Jiangxi, China, which date back to 18,000 BC.
context_section_description: The early inhabitants of Europe developed pottery in the Linear Pottery culture slightly later than the Near East, circa 5500–4500 BC. In the ancient Western Mediterranean elaborately painted earthenware reached very high levels of artistic achievement in the Greek world; there are large numbers of survivals from tombs.  Minoan pottery was characterized by complex painted decoration with natural themes.  The classical Greek culture began to emerge around 1000 BC featuring a variety of well crafted pottery which now included the human form as a decorating motif. The pottery wheel was now in regular use. Although glazing was known to these potters, it was not widely used. Instead, a more porous clay slip was used for decoration. A wide range of shapes for different uses developed early and remained essentially unchanged during Greek history.
  Fine Etruscan pottery was heavily influenced by Greek pottery and often imported Greek potters and painters. Ancient Roman pottery made much less use of painting, but used moulded decoration, allowing industrialized production on a huge scale.  Much of the so-called red Samian ware of the Early Roman Empire was
  in fact produced in modern Germany and France, where entrepreneurs established large potteries.
  Pottery was hardly seen on the tables of elites from Hellenistic times until the Renaissance, and most medieval wares were coarse and utilitarian, as the elites ate off metal vessels. Imports from Asia revived interest in fine pottery, which European manufacturers eventually learned to make, and from the 18th century European porcelain and other wares from a great number of producers became extremely popular.
caption: Greek red-figure vase in the krater shape, between 470 and 460 BC, by the Altamura Painter
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