Pottery

Pottery

Food used to be prepared and kept in rough, simple dishes with very few decorations or, even more frequently, without them. Dishes of better quality were mostly used at festive occasions or would, as provisions, be included in the graves of the deceased or would be used in some religious rituals.

Clay would be shaped by hand and the dishes would be fired in simple furnaces. When the dishes were decorated, then the decorations would be made on the still unfired clay by pressing fingers, nails, drawing with a small bundle of twigs, engraving and punching of various motifs or, on the other hand, various plastic applications would be added by modelling. The already fired earthenware would sometimes be additionally painted over with red paint.