Ceramic Technology: Construction of a Cuneiform Tablet
Introduction
Ceramic materials are one of humanities oldest and
longest-lived artifacts. They
were probably initially discovered when hearth fires baked underlying clay
containing soils. But they
may also have been discovered when clay that had been used to make woven
baskets water impermeable got too near a fire and the clay lining became
even better at holding water while the basket burned away.
In the American Southwest as well as in other places in the world,
there is evidence that this latter process was kept as a design element
long after the original need for the basket was gone.
Because the potter’s wheel was not invented in the New World,
old, worn-out woven baskets were used for centuries as a base for
building up the clay pot.
Clay pottery in the form of cuneiform tablets is one of our oldest records of writing. Clay was also used to make the retorts and other chemical apparatus that was important in manufacturing pitch in order to waterproof boats, for extraction of medicines from plants by steeping them in hot water, and for early distillation apparatuses. It is also used to make a crucible for the reduction of metal ores to produce small quantities of some metals such as bronze.