A selection of ceramics through the ages (5 second delay) Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology The Collections:
PotWeb: Ceramics online
@ the Ashmolean Museum
Early Europe & Near East
Classical to Medieval
Europe from 1500
Oriental & Islamic
A Vessel for everyman and his family
What purpose did it serve?
Containers were used for the preparation of food, storage, eating and drinking, serving at table, dispensing medicines, industrial needs and even as funerary urns.
Regional variations in ceramic forms abound; there are marked differences between that most functional of form: the jar, used for cooking and storage. These technically unsophisticated wares met consumer demand over a very long period. Jugs became numerically more abundant in the thirteenth century. Materials other than clay were used for storage and cooking: wooden barrels and metal cooking vessels. Large shouldered jar, glazed around the rim only
Large shouldered jar,
glazed around the rim only
  A Vessel for ... How is a vessel defined?
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last updated: jcm/27-jun-2000