A History of Pottery, Basically

"A Basic History of Pottery"
Laura Evans, Life123

"The history of pottery stretches back millennia. People across the world have fired or baked moist clay to make pots, plates and ceramic decorations since prehistoric times.

"History of Pottery
"Most of the earliest evidence of pottery that has been found was made in the Middle East during the Neolithic Revolution, about 10,000 years ago, when humans started learning to domesticate plants and animals. However, our knowledge of the past is not complete. For example, scientists discovered a 25,000 year-old fired figurine of a woman made of clay and bone ash, called "Venus," at Dolni Vestonice in the Czech Republic.

"The next major innovation, the pottery wheel, emerged around 3000 B.C. in Mesopotamia. While no one knows who invented the pottery wheel or if it was developed over time, it allowed potters to make perfectly round pottery for the first time...."

The next time you feel an urgent need to review the first 10,000 or so years of pottery, here's a pretty good page. It's short, and has a quite favorable content-to-fluff ratio.

What, No Space Aliens?!

The Lemming cannot recall encountering a claim that space aliens taught 'primitive' humans how to make pottery. Not once. Not even during the heydays of the flying saucers.

Remarkable.