Recent notions on the origin of pottery production

Investigations of the origins of pottery production are based first of all on ethnographic, linguistic, and archaeological data. There is a lot of ethnographic evidence that some potters used to make wooden vessels or baskets covered with a thick layer of clay. One of the most interesting stories was reported by captain Paulmier de Gonneville from Honfleur (France). On its basis Abbot Antoine-Yves Goguet created a theory on the origins of pottery, which became quite popular. Many scientists thought that the first potters could only make baskets coated with clay, because until a certain point in history they were unable to make vessels of pure clay. The theory was confirmed by linguistic data because the words "wattle fence", "clay", and "clay vessel" in Slavic languages come from a common substratum. Many archaeologists adhere to the above theory, yet some think the theory makes no sense. Another theory on the origins of pottery production was elaborated in Russia. The topic is considered in three aspects: 1 - origin of pottery technology, 2 - origin of vessels' shape, and 3 - origin of pottery decoration. Only the first question is discussed in the paper. The new theory is based on the facts of gradual evolution of potters' notions regarding raw materials, proportions of tempers and ways of hardening the clay vessels. The history of the origin and development of pottery production consists of several successive stages which are reflected in various kinds of production: pre-pottery, proto-pottery, archaeo-pottery, and neo-pottery. It is impossible to quote absolute chronological limits for these stages because their development varied in time from one region to another, but we can note that pre-pottery and proto-pottery were connected first of all with the Neolithic period, archaeo-pottery belongs to the Bronze Age, Iron Age and Middle Ages, neo-pottery mostly to the Middle Ages. Thus, the origin of pottery production was a polycentric process which evolved in permanent connection with other areas of ancient human culture.

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