South central Anatolia Ceramic with paint H. 6 1/8 in. (15.6 cm)
Gift of Burton Y. Berry, 1964 (64.286.5) In western Asia, people
discovered how to make pottery during the period known as the
"Pottery Neolithic," beginning about 6900 B.C. For several
millennia, pottery was made by hand, since the potter's wheel
was invented only in the fourth millennium B.C. The colors,
shapes, and decorations of pottery vary from culture to culture
and often small pieces of distinctive broken pottery (shards)
help archaeologists identify the dates and cultural affiliations
of archaeological sites. The site from which this ceramic vessel
comes has not been identified. However, the geometric decorative
pattern in red paint on cream slip (a thin coating of special
clay) is characteristic of the site of Hacilar in south central
Turkey in the Chalcolithic period. In the previous Neolithic
period, the pottery at Hacilar was brown- or red-slipped and
then polished with a piece of stone or bone before being placed
in the kiln; in th