Abstract
The utilization of ceramic materials by man is probably as old as human civilization itself. Stone, obsidian, clay, quartz, and mineral ores are as much a part of the history of mankind as the products which have been made of them. Among these products are tools, earthenware, stoneware, porcelain, as well as bricks, refractories, body paints, insulators, abrasives, and eventually modern “high-tech ceramics” used, for example, in electronic equipment or jet engines. Actually, fired or baked ceramic objects are probably the oldest existing samples of handicraft which have come to us from ancient times. They are often the only archaeo-logic clues that witness former civilizations and habitats. Moreover, there are scholars who believe that life took its origin from ceramics. And some ancient mythologies relate that man was created from clay. It might be of interest in this context that the Hebrew word for soil, dirt, clay, or earth is “Adamá.” Taking all of these components into consideration, it might be well justified to ask why historians did not specifically designate a ceramics age.
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© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Hummel, R.E. (1998). No Ceramics Age?. In: Understanding Materials Science. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2972-6_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2972-6_15
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