INTRODUCTION 

 Ceramic Art in Human History 



Objects of art may ))e studied with immediate reference to two main 

 lines of investigation. First, they may be made to assist in telling the 

 story of the origin and evolution of art and thus of man}' branches of 

 cultur(\ and, finally, of man; and second, they may be made to bear 

 on the history of particular groups of people, of comnuuiities. tribes, 

 and nations, and through these again on the origin and historj^ of the 

 race, the ultimate oViject of the whole group of investigations being a 

 fuller comprehension of what man is. what he has been, and what he 

 may hope to be. 



The ctn-amic art takes an important place among the arts of man, 

 and its products, and especially its prehistt>ric remains, are invaluable 

 to the student of history. Of the lower stages of progress through 

 which all advanced nations have passed — stages represented still by 

 some of the more primitive living peoples — this art can tell us little, 

 since it was late taking its place in the circle of human attainments, 

 but it records much of the history of man's struggles i;pward through 

 the upper savage and barliarian stages of progress. It preserves, 

 especialty, the story of its own growth from the first crude effort of 

 the primitive potter to the highest achievement of modern culture. 

 It also throws many side lights on the various branches of art and 

 industry with which it has been associated. 



Of all the movable products of liarliarian art it appears that pottery 

 Ls the most generally useful in locating vanished peoples and in defining 

 their geographic limitations and migrations. The reasons for this 

 may be briefly stated as follows: first, the need of vessels is common 

 to all mankind, and the use of clay in vessel making is almost universal 

 among peoples sufficiently advanced to utilize it; second, since the clay 

 used readily receives the impress of individual thought, and, through 

 this, of national thought, the stauij) of each people is distinctly 

 impressed upon its ceramic products; third, the leaked clay is almost 

 indestructible, while, at the same time, it is so fragile that fragments 

 remain in plenty on every site occupied by the pottery makers; fourth, 

 vessels are less than all other articles fitted for and subject to transpor- 

 tiition. being the most sedentary, so to speak, of all minor artifacts. 

 It follows that, so far as objects of art are capable of so doing, they 

 serve, as has been said, to mark their maker's habitat and indicate his 

 movements. 

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