Paleolithic Pottery History

Pottery and ceramics play an important role in history because fragment of pottery pieces can tell a story about the history of civilizations, as well as aid historians in carbon dating. There are several periods of time in which ceramics can be identified and categorized into the three age system – the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, with the Stone Age broken down into the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic. A significant time frame for ceramics was during the Neolithic Period (10,200 - 2000 BC). The neolithic period, also known as the new stone age, is significant because of a the change in human lifestyle and social behaviors. Instead of a nomadic, hunting-gathering economic way of life, civilization became sedentary, giving

Several different types of pottery styles came into circulation in the Britain region. At the start of the neolithic age, the first forms of pottery took on the role of the rounded pot in a rather simplistic, largely undecorated fashion. This type of fashion is referred to as a carinated bowl (Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, n.d.). The carinated bowl is the earliest recognized pottery style in Britain. It was first discovered in Hanging Grimston in Yorkshire and Lyles Hill in County Antrim of Britain. These vessels were often burnished or had some form of surface-treatment (Prehistoric Ceramics, n.d.). Rims were simple and occasionally slightly squared with the shoulder sometimes angular, stepped or enhanced. The vessel form is generally of open bowls and cups with a round base (Prehistoric Ceramics, n.d.).

A marked and distinguished traditional method of the neolithic period is what is called neolithic impressed wares, formerly and still referred to as Peterborough Ware. Impressed Ware is subdivided into Ebbsfleet, Fengate, and Mortlake styles (Prehistoric Ceramics, n.d.). All three styles of impressed ware included distinguishable decorative techniques such as whipped cord, twisted cord, bird bones, fingertip and fingernail impression (Prehistoric Pottery in North East England,

This style received its name from the site where it was first recognized in Clacton on the Essex coast. The durrington style was discovered at Durrington Walls, where the preliminary style received its name. Characterized by grooved spirals or circles, vertical grooved cordons, incised lines with decorations done with impressed cords and incisions, all define the durrington style. This style was used in prehistoric days for ritual gatherings. Woodlands style is very similar to that of the durrington style, only that pots tend to be quite a bit smaller and cordons have a ladder effect, as opposed to that of the vertical effect as seen in durrington styles. It is also common to see fingertips impressions on the work of woodlands pieces. The Rinyo style has internally bevelled rims which are occasionally scalloped externally (Prehistoric Ceramics,