Ancient pottery wine amphora found in the ruins on the Island of Delos, Greece
The pottery decorations of ancient cultures were instrumental in preserving valuable historical details about daily life, cultural perceptions, myths and deeper spiritual beliefs. Even calendars and astrological events were recorded on pots. Historians would have been entirely clueless about the lifestyles of some past cultures without leads from these clay time-capsules. Symbols, rituals, language, cult procedures, talismanic charms and folklore were embodied in their pottery art.
The neolithic Trypilian potters merged utilitarian purpose with an aesthetic awareness using painted surfaces, incised patterns and shape to reflect their art and beliefs. The real and mythical worlds of the ancients co-existed in their beliefs and this became immortalized through their artistic expression.Through the ages many material clues have been left in pottery art that has been deciphered and understood while many mysteries still remain. But their presence is enough to grant a thread of perception to the beliefs and spirit of their time. Lineages of the past were reinforced by these artistic records and also have been reconstructed where oral traditions had failed and written records had disappeared.
Anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski stated that myth was used “to strengthen tradition and endow it with a greater value and prestige by tracing it back to a higher, better and more supernatural reality of ancient events” This is clearly evidenced in the myths and legends vividly depicted on many ancient ceramics which contributed to the cohesion and defining aspect of the local cultures.
As the archaeologists have recovered more ancient pottery, the extent of distribution and contact between nations has been revealed with the movement of Aegean, Hellenic, Etruscan and Roman pottery. The desire to record historical features in art has pervaded most ancient cultures and the combination of aesthetics and utility in ancient pottery art ensured its survival because it was produced in greater numbers then specific art pieces. Ancient painted ceramics, quite often objects of beauty, were considered in their time to be the domain of humble craftsmen rather than of fine artists. Fortunately, the wares of the meek survived the ages to be appreciated in the present for their universal appeal and insight into ancient mysteries.
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A diverse collection of ancient pottery.
Green glazed ceramic statue of Yizhou Luohan from the 10th century, China
( ROM – Royal Ontario Museum )
Pointed Amphora – 500 – 490 BC by Kleophrades Painter, considered to be one of the greatest pot-painters of the Late Archaic period in Grecce
Dionysos in the centre of the vase with a vine, amongst revelling satyrs and maenads
The Derveni krater. Bronze. Greece-320 B.C
Ancient Persian horse head sculpture
Animal spouted pitcher, 9th–10th century
Persia, Nishapur, Sabz Pushan
Apollo kylix ( cup )
Greece,- 480-470 BCE
Apulian Red Figure Squat Lekythos with Aphrodite and Eros—4th Century BC
Baluster Jar – Chinese Yuan Dynasty
Flickr-5Chen
Anunnaki carving – an ancient Mesopotamian deity of the underworld.
Funery Vase – Centuripe in Sicily
3rd–2nd century B.C
( The Met, New York )
Ceramic pillow, China, Southern Song dynasty
12th-13th century
Ceramic Pitcher- Syria
late-12th-early-13th-century
Collection at LACMA
Chimu Marine Vessel, Peru
1100AD-1400AD
Classical Almond Flask — Culture: Archaic Greek
5th-Century BC
Cosmetic box Egyptian
Late Period: Ptolemaic-664–300-B.C
Ceramic vessel – Convent of Santo Domingo, Cuzco Peru
Detail of Roman Borghese vase with a high relief of Dionysus, maenads and satyrs.
Egyptian owl Relief plaque
14th century Ceramic; Vessel, Fritware Egypt
Eros, Leda and the swan.- Attic Lekythos
375–350-BCE
Greek Volute Krater – this vessel was used to mix wine and water-400BC, Apula
Kashan lustre bottle, Persia, circa-1200AD
Funerary Sculpture of a Chimera China, Eastern Han dynasty, 25-220AD
Gnathian black glazed terracotta lekytos depicting Eros. Magna Graecia, 4th-3rd century B.C
Persian Goblet – 14th-century
Greek, Attic Panathenaic amphora, ca.500–490 B.C
Greek ceramic Aryballos, ca.-570 B.C
Greek volute krater,- Canosa, Southern Italy
Japanese ceramic vessel for bulb growing, 18th-19th-century
Greek, Terracotta, black figure lidded box (pyxis) by Haimon Painter
500-474 BCE
10th century dish, East Persia or Central Asia
Container in shape of double cartouche from tomb of Tutankhamun
Jamacoaque Shaman Vessel – Ecuador 300BC-400AD
Cypriot deer vessel 700-600BC
Masked Figure Pendant,4th–8th century Costa Rica; Atlantic Watershed Jade
Green glazed storage jarHan dynasty-( 206BC- 8AD )
Mimbres Bowl, New Mexico – A.D. 850 to 1150
( Eumaros-Flickr )
Japan, 19th century sculpture – Hirado Mikawachi ware; porcelain with white and blue glazes
Disc Shaped Okimono, or Desk Screen, with Rat, Fuji, Plovers, Waves, and Plum Design
LACMA
Minoan ritual vase, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England
Balkh–Period vessel, Afghanistan
12th-century
Egyptian ceramic rattle in the form of a pig,- 2nd-1st-centuryB.C
Ring shaped askos with deer’s head spout, mid 4th-century BC
Melon shaped wine ewer Goryeo dynasty, stoneware with incised decoration of bamboo under celadon glaze
Korea 12th century
( MET- NY )
Sculpture found in underground Neolithic temple, Malta 3300BC
Seated Monk – Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392-1910),
Sculpture Molded stoneware with underglaze blue and clear glaze
( LACMA )
Persian water spout in the form of a man’s head – Parthian period,-ca-1st-2nd-century-AD
Statuette of Osiris with the name of Padihorpere.-Late Period 712–525-B.C
Tang Dynasty figurine
Chinese Qing dynasty large porcelain statue of Kwan Yin
Persian Tankard,12th or 13th century Ceramic
( LACMA )
Lustre bowl and cover, Spain-1440-1460
Bowl with Arabic Inscription Central Asia, 10th Century Diameter 10-cm excavated in Samarkand
The State Hermitage Museum
Chinese Jar – 550–599 AD
Korean Oil bottle, Goryeo dynasty-(918–1392), late-12th-century
Stoneware with reverse inlaid decoration of peonies under celadon glaze
( Met, NY )
