Editing Pottery (section)

====Europe====
{{Main|Minoan pottery|Pottery of ancient Greece|Ancient Roman pottery}}
[[File:Altamura Painter - Red-Figure Calyx Krater - Walters 48262 - Side A.jpg|thumb|Greek [[Red-figure pottery|red-figure]] vase in the [[krater]] shape, between 470 and 460 BC, by the [[Altamura Painter]]]]
Europe's oldest pottery, dating from circa 6700 BC, was found on the banks of the [[Samara (Volga)|Samara River]] in the middle [[Volga]] region of [[Russia]].<ref>D. W. Anthony. ''[[The Horse, the Wheel, and Language]]''. P. 149.</ref> These sites are known as the [[Yelshanka culture]].

The early inhabitants of Europe developed pottery in the [[Linear Pottery culture]] slightly later than the Near East, circa 5500–4500 BC. In the ancient Western Mediterranean elaborately painted earthenware reached very high levels of artistic achievement in the Greek world; there are large numbers of survivals from tombs.  Minoan pottery was characterized by complex painted decoration with natural themes.<ref>Cooper (2010), pp. 36–37</ref>  The classical Greek culture began to emerge around 1000 BC featuring a variety of well crafted pottery which now included the human form as a decorating motif. The pottery wheel was now in regular use. Although glazing was known to these potters, it was not widely used. Instead, a more porous clay slip was used for decoration. A wide [[Typology of Greek vase shapes|range of shapes]] for different uses developed early and remained essentially unchanged during Greek history.<ref>Cooper (2010), p. 42</ref>

Fine [[Etruscan pottery]] was heavily influenced by Greek pottery and often imported Greek potters and painters. [[Ancient Roman pottery]] made much less use of painting, but used moulded decoration, allowing industrialized production on a huge scale.  Much of the so-called red [[Samian ware]] of the Early [[Roman Empire]] was produced in modern Germany and France, where entrepreneurs established large potteries.  Excavations at [[Augusta Raurica]], near Basel, Switzerland, have revealed a pottery production site in use from the 1st to the 4th century AD.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.deutsches-museum.de/en/exhibitions/materials-energy/ceramics/history/| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160707153740/http://www.deutsches-museum.de/en/exhibitions/materials-energy/ceramics/history| archive-date=2016-07-07| title=Deutsches Museum: History}}</ref> 
<!-- Deleted image removed:   [[Image:keramik diorama 02.jpg|150px |link=https://www.deutsches-museum.de/fileadmin/Content/010_DM/020_Ausstellungen/040_WerkstoffeProduktion/070_Keramik/020_Ausstellung/keramik_diorama_02.jpg |alt=Alt text|Reconstruction of site at Deutsches Museum]] -->

Pottery was hardly seen on the tables of elites from [[Hellenistic]] times until the [[Renaissance]], and most medieval wares were coarse and utilitarian, as the elites ate off metal vessels.  Painted [[Hispano-Moresque ware]] from Spain, developing the styles of [[Al-Andalus]], became a luxury for late medieval elites, and was adapted in Italy into ''[[maiolica]]'' in the [[Italian Renaissance]].  Both of these were [[faience]] or [[tin-glazed]] earthenware, and fine faience continued to be made until around 1800 in various countries, especially France, with [[Nevers faience]] and several other centres.  In the 17th century, imports of [[Chinese export porcelain]] and its [[Japanese export porcelain|Japanese equivalent]] raised the market 
expectations of fine pottery, and European manufacturers eventually learned to make porcelain, often in the form of [[soft-paste porcelain]], and from the 18th century European porcelain and other wares from a great number of producers became extremely popular, reducing Asian imports.