potter’s wheel

The fast potter’s wheel began to come into use in Crete about the same time as in the Cyclades and on the mainland. Meanwhile, a revolution in the style of Cretan pottery was taking place. During the Early Bronze Age most of the finer vases everywhere in…

…was the introduction of the potter’s wheel, which in most areas occurred about the beginning of the third phase.

…characterized by the emergence of wheel-made pots of various colors, some of them remarkably thin and delicate; vessels with ring feet and tall legs (such as tripods, serving stands, and goblets); carved, perforated, and polished tools; and ornaments in stone, jade, and bone. The people practiced skull deformation and tooth…

…impossible to say when the potter’s wheel, which is a difficult tool and needs long apprenticeship, was introduced. A pot cannot be made by hand modeling or coiling without the potter’s either turning it or moving around it, and, as turning involves the least expenditure of human effort, it would…

…the use of the fast wheel had become general, imparting a new crispness to the profiles. Among the commonest shapes are carinated cups (often of eggshell thinness), small, round jars with bridge-spouts, and large storage jars (pithoi). In the course of MM III the fashion for polychrome schemes gradually died…

The wheel remained unknown until the arrival of Europeans, although there is reason to think that a turntable, or slow wheel, may have been used occasionally. Most of the pottery was made by coiling, some by molding—both are techniques that could have arisen spontaneously. It is…