174 Beginnings of Porcelain 



or potter's kilns. 1 As a rule, the kiln is the natural consequence 

 of the wheel; but it would be premature to conclude from this 

 general observation that for this reason the wheel was known to 

 the Avestans. It is not specifically mentioned in their sacred books; 

 but that it was unknown cannot be deduced, either, from this 

 silence. 



The question of the antiquity of the potter's wheel in Babylonia 

 seems not to be settled. Perrot and Chipiez 2 remark that the inven- 

 tion of the potter's wheel and firing-oven must have taken place 

 at a very remote period both in Egypt and Chaldaea; that the oldest 

 vases found in the country, those taken from tombs at Warka and 

 Mugheir, have been burnt in the oven; that some, however, do 

 not seem to have been thrown on the wheel. All that Handcock* 

 states regarding the wheel is a reference to the article of Banks, 

 whose theory of the origin of the wheel has already been charac- 

 terized as unfounded (p. 154). In Palestine the wheel became general 

 from the sixteenth century b.c Likewise the Israelites were familiar 

 with it, and turned almost all their vessels on the wheel. 4 As has been 

 mentioned, it is alluded to in several passages of the Old and New 

 Testaments. 6 



In the graves of the Siberian bronze age has been found pottery of 

 inferior workmanship, made by hand, of a coarse and badly baked 

 clay. That from the graves of the iron age appears to be wheel-shaped, 

 and abounds in artistic shapes. 8 Its historical position is not yet ex- 

 actly ascertained, but it appears to bear some relation to Scythian and 

 Iranian cultures. 



In ancient Egypt the wheel was known at the earliest epoch of his- 

 tory the sculptures of which have been preserved. 7 It is depicted on 

 the monuments, being of simple construction and turned with the hand. 



1 See also W. Geiger, Ostiranische Kultur, p. 390; and A. V. W. Jackson, 

 From Constantinople to the Home of Omar Khayyam, p. 234. The Avestan 

 word for the kiln, tanura (Middle and New Persian tanur) is regarded as a loan 

 from Semitic tanur. 



1 History of Art in Chaldasa and Assyria, Vol. II, p. 298. 



* Mesopotamian Archaeology, p. 334. 



4 F. Vigouroux, Dictionnaire de la Bible, Vol. V, pp. 573-574; S. Birch, 

 Ancient Pottery, p. 107. A photograph from Damascus of a potter at the wheel 

 is reproduced in the National Geogr. Mag., 191 1, p. 67. 



6 Regarding the use of the wheel in Asia Minor, see W. Belck, Z. /. Ethnologie, 

 Vol. XXXIII, 1901, p. 493. 



8 W. Radloff, Aus Sibirien, Vol. II, pp. 89, 90, 129. 



7 J. G. Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, Vol. II, 

 pp. 190-192 (new ed., by S. Birch), or 2d ed., Vol. Ill, p. 163. 



