ceramics and pottery: Asia and the Pacific down and mixed in the medium to produce a blue pigment, copper could be added for green, and antimony produced yellow In the city of Uruk clay was also used to manufacture writing tablets To keep records, pictographs (figures used in a kind of picture writing) were pressed into the still-wet clay with a cylinder seal or a pointed stick Pottery of the Jemdet Nasr era originated around 3200 b.c.e Jemdet Nasr jars are thick and painted in black or dark red During this period clay seals also came into use throughout Mesopotamia (though archaeologists have discovered seal impressions from as early as the Halaf Period) Seals are small, engraved, cylindrical objects, one to two inches in length; they were also made of silver, bone, ivory, or semiprecious stone The seals had a variety of designs and were rolled over tablets or bricks while the clay was still wet They left a permanent, rectangular image in the clay Engraved with images of the gods, symbols of office, or simple geometric designs, they served to authenticate records, agreements, and official documents Later cylinder seals became items of jewelry, acting as talismans and amulets that provided the wearers with protection and good luck At this time clay tablets came into widespread usage for cuneiform writing, a wedge-shaped script The tablets were incised with a reed or stick (cuneus in Latin) while still wet and then baked and used to keep records for trade or government functions related to the storage and movement of grain, weapons, and money During the Uruk Period the need for record keeping arose as cities were built and people gathered under a central authority Pictographic symbols represented commodities, while simpler designs indicated numbers In the second millennium b.c.e ceramic art developed further in the Mesopotamian kingdoms Drinking vessels were delicately shaped into abstract and animal forms that were provided with shiny glazes in a variety of colors Painted pottery and ceramic animal figurines were everyday objects in the home Bulls symbolized masculinity; rams and stags were given elaborate sets of horns Female figures showed wide and rounded hips and hands held to the breasts, a symbol of fertility Statuettes of gods and spirits were also shaped from clay and used as votive figures, guardians of the hearth and home By the time of the Assyrian Empire (1813–609 b.c.e.), pottery was a large-scale industry throughout Mesopotamia Potters set up large workshops, fired their wares in massive stone kilns, and incised their work with distinctive marks and stamps There was a wide variety of standard shapes for bowls, jugs, beakers, and plates; a distinctive blue glaze was applied that became the hallmark of Assyrian ceramics The fall of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, in 612 b.c.e., brought the rise of the Achaemenid Persian Empire in Mesopotamia Under the Achaemenids and the later Parthian and Sassanid empires, pottery artisans achieved a very high level of skill in shaping and painting clay Vessels appeared in all manner of abstract, animal, and human forms, some very complex and others downright whimsical As models, 179 the ancient Persian artisans favored horned mountain goats and deer, domestic livestock such as cattle and sheep, camels (symbolizing wealth), and horses (symbolizing speed and power) Graceful handles appeared on drinking cups and jugs; spouts emerged from unlikely places, often along the side or even at the base Historians speculate that the many twin-spouted drinking vessels found in ancient Persian cities may have been used in wedding ceremonies or in rituals that sealed treaties and agreements by drinking from a common vessel Ceramic workshops also produced sarcophagi and funerary urns in which to bury the dead and, for the living, monumental sculptures designed for the walls of palaces and religious shrines ASIA AND THE PACIFIC BY KIRK H BEETZ The oldest-known ceramics in Asia are found on the island of Kyushu in Japan, where pottery discovered in a cave has been carbon-dated to 12,000 b.c.e., an era in the grip of an ice age that lowered sea levels enough to connect Kyushu by dry land to Korea The era from 13,000 to 300 b.c.e is the Jomon Period, during which the primary way to make ceramic vessels, whether small cups or burial urns large enough for a human corpse, was to wind ropes of clay in a circle, one atop another The ancient ceramics were elaborately decorated with designs impressed into the clay or created by adding ridges of clay to the side of the pottery, making images of trees, animals, and supernatural figures as well as abstract designs Painting pots and other ceramic objects probably did not begin until late in the Jomon Period, when potters depicted images of everyday life on their creations During the Yayoi Period (300 b.c.e.–300 c.e.) numerous haniwa figures were made Haniwa were representations of people and animals that surrounded graves and burial mounds, warding off evil spirits who might disturb the dead Some of these figures may have been used as toys Although they were quickly made, with sometimes hundreds being used for one burial, they nevertheless tended to be expressive, with the human figures showing emotions such as anger or happiness It was also during the Yayoi Period that the potter’s wheel was introduced to Japan During the 400s c.e many Korean artisans moved to the islands of Kyūshū and Honshu, bringing with them new skills Korean potters introduced a kiln to Japan that became very popular, sometimes scores of them covering whole mountainsides The kiln was erected on a slope, a long, brick tube pointing upward; pots were placed in it and a fire lit at the bottom end, while the heated air flowed up through the kiln’s tube Potters learned the special quirks of individual kilns and just where to place a particular ceramic object to fire it the way they wanted it to be fired Ceramics appeared in the Harappan culture in the Indus River region in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent about 2300 b.c.e Harappans used potter’s wheels to produce large jars that they painted with elaborate designs of animals