6 Minnesota Academy of Science 



become a source of more satisfaction than would come from 

 the painter's and sculptor's work. 



The potter's art flourished in proportion to the degree 

 of civilization or advancement of the ancient nations and 

 tribes. The potter and the stone implement maker repre- 

 sent the primary art industries that began or preceded the 

 civilization of ancient times. Its origin was more a matter 

 of utility and convenience than one ,of artistic expression. 

 But from the very beginning, the idea of ornamentation or 

 beauty of form or color or artistic delineation of figures, 

 flowers or other designs entered into the potter's art. 



Away back in early ages, next in time to the inscriptions 

 and designs made on the bones of animals found in caves 

 and gravel beds, is found the earthenware of the pre-historic 

 people. The flint implements while they might be classed 

 with useful art, were not made for ornamentation, but for 

 use in the chase and in war. This, with earthenware, ante- 

 dated all others that can in any manner be classed as art. 

 They were to a large extent contemporary. 



In many of the old mounds of the uncivilized tribes of 

 the Avorld, vessels of pottery including many of quite artistic 

 designs are found. Among the civilized nations, the potter's 

 art runs back to a period traceable >to twenty-five hundred 

 years B. C, in the ruins of the cities of the old Babylonian 

 empire, and in Egypt, to a date more than three thousand 

 years B. C. In the old Egyptian tombs is found glazed pot- 

 tery made as early as 3800 years B. C. 



The old Babylonian clay tablets are probably many ages 

 later than the oldest earthenware vessels made for domestic 

 use and burial service. On these were inscribed the records 

 of the temples in the ruins of which the tablets were found. 

 The oldest of the tablets which I have obtained were secured 

 from the ruins of Nippur or of Tells, which two names may 

 mean the same old city, or of a little different ruins of about 

 the same date, probably the very same. This ruin was sit- 

 uated about 75 miles south of Babylon on the west side of the 

 Euphrates and seems to have been older than the city of 

 Babylon. The tablets came from an old stone vault that 

 seems to have preserved them from destruction or serious 

 damage. They are made of a very hard, compact clay, quite 

 solid and strong and have withstood the wear and tear of 

 the ages, as they were probably submerged in the mud of 

 the river. Some of them are so decomposed on the surface 



