Greek Pottery Research Paper

Pottery, while often thought of as simply an art form, is very significant even in our daily modern lives. It is found in our kitchens in the forms of plates and bowls, in living rooms as vases and planting pots and decorations. While today's pottery may seem very developed and sophisticated, like most inventions, it's beginnings were simple. The earliest piece of pottery that has so far been found is in Japan. It is estimated that it was created about 16,500-14,920 years ago, which means it would have been during the Jomon civilization. In those ancient times, pottery was mostly used as a vessel for cooking and storing food and was made by using a simple coil method. As time moved on, the techniques for making pottery became more practical

Ancient Greece was established in about 800 BC and its end is acknowledged to be in 146 BC when it got conquered by the Romans and became part of their empire. (Ducksters) Throughout its reign, the Greeks were able to expand their empire to rule much of Europe and Western Asia. They were also a very accomplished civilization. For example, one of the first democracies and republics were developed in Athens and Sparta, respectively. In fact, the Ancient Greek civilization is what formed the foundation of most of the modern Western culture. They were able to influence everything from science, art, mathematics, literature, government, philosophy and also sports. Overall, the Ancient Greeks formed a very impressive culture and one of their noted areas of achievement is art, pottery in

For example, it was used during plays to display expressions. Since many people would watch the plays and they were sometimes far from the stage, the masks were large and had big embedded expressions. (Williams) In addition, a popular art form at the time was wall painting and many copies can be seen on their pottery. This is also a key part of finding out more information about Greek life. A lot of the pottery created was traded and sold, which led to Greece being known for their pottery and trade and therefore contributing to the good economy of Greece. Furthermore, in Athens, a specific division of Attica,the symbolic piece of pottery is the Panathenaic amphora. It is an Athenian vase generally filled with olive oil and awarded as a prize to the winner of the Panathenaic games held in Athens every four years. (A.G) Every Panathenaic amphora was specifically made to a standardized shape and was decorated in black-figure technique. Compared to the Jomon people, the Ancient Greeks had very different purposes for