Ceramic Materials History of Ceramics

Chapter 1 showed that eeiamie, or rather ceramies, are varied and complex materials the study of the stmctural transformations and physicochemical reorganizations at all stages of their manufacture constitutes a vast field of research that is still vibrant and largely open, since many new ceramic products continue to be developed for the needs of the most advanced technology. But to trace the history of ceramics, we need to reiterate some basic concepts. 

Brongniart observes in the introduction to his famous Traite des arts ceramiques that clay is undoubtedly the most widespread raw material on the surface of the earth, the easiest to work with immediately and to transform, but also the one that allows the most utilitarian and artistic productions . This universality and this ease explain why as early as the end of the Stone Age, ceramics gradually became what we can truly call a ubiquitous invention, insofar as it emerged in many human settlements, on all the continents, at extremely different etas. 

However, when a terra cotta artifact, whether prehistoric, antique and often even more recent, is found, it is always through a comparative analysis of the material and forms associated with a rigorous dating and an exhaustive study of the archaeological context that we can affirm whether this artifact is the creation of a local craftsmanship that emerged and developed in situ, or the result of a foreign 

The location of the birth, evolution and progress of ceramic art in time and space, particularly in the first few millennia of its existence would require the extensive break up of the subject in order to get a sufficiently clear picture. The scope of this chapter would not allow it, and therefore we will limit ourselves to the presentation of some of the most outstanding facts in the histoiy of this material. 

Primitive man learnt very quickly to take advantage of the plasticity of raw clay observation, dednction, and the fortuitous contact between this material and heat sources would put them on the track to this vital essential discovery ceramics. 

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