On the Hypothesis of the Origins of Pottery Shapes

The hypothesis of the origins of pottery shapes based on long-term experiments, ethnographic, archaeological data and primitive e cooking practices is discussed in the article. The experiments conducted have shown that it is possible to get a fully preserved clay vessel which could serve as a prototype of initial pottery shapes in the process of cooking meat food coated with clay of a specific composition in the oven. This assumption is indirectly confirmed by the results of a special study of the earliest ceramics in the Amur region. It is suggested in the article that the first clay vessels were used for cooking hot food over an open fire for ritual purposes.

Keywords: origins of pottery, experiment, ethnography, pottery firing, cooking, the earliest ceramics of the Amur region.