Learning to Make Pottery: A Look at How Novices Became Potters in Middle Bronze Age Cyprus

Abstract

Focusing on the handmade White Painted ware of the Middle Bronze Age, this study seeks to investigate the contribution of novices, both adult and children, to ancient ceramic production. Such handmade painted pottery highlights the potter's motor skills in forming vessels, while the decoration reveals the painter's ability to plan designs as well as to control tools. Novices, sometimes young children, were assimilated into the community of potters by teachers who sometimes assisted them with difficult tasks or offered models or verbal instructions to them while they worked. Using studies in child development to understand variation in pottery-making technology, this paper examines the amount of directive participation by experienced potters evident in vessels made by novices at different stages of cognitive and physical development.

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