Clay: The History and Evolution of Humankind's Relationship with Earth's MostPrimal Element - Hardcover

Staubach, Suzanne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0425205665 ISBN 13: 9780425205662

Publisher: Berkley Hardcover, 2005

Synopsis

A vivid account of the role of clay in shaping the development of human history, culture, and technology ranges from the invention of pottery and the creation of clay tablets for the first written communication, to the construction of architectural monuments and sanitation infrastructure, to the latest in high-tech gizmos.

About this title

About the Author

Suzanne Staubach is both an author and a potter. She has been involved with pottery for more than 30 years, has been published in Ceramics Monthly, and has written on pottery for Garden Way and Mother Earth News. She writes a regular column, "Face Out: Notes of a College Bookseller" for the College Store Journal, and has also written for Fine Gardening, Old Farmer's Almanac, and Parents.

Reviews

Staubach, a potter and freelance writer, successfully communicates the passion she feels for her material (both literal and literary) in this extensively researched overview of clay. What is this ubiquitous stuff? It began as granite, which over millions of years was ground down by rain, sleet, snow and chemical forces into what we now know as clay. The first known clay objects were small religious figures, followed by pottery vessels, in Neolithic times. The oldest such pottery known was produced by the Joman peoples of Japan. In addition to an informed discussion of clay ovens used by various cultures over time, the author compares these cultures' designs as pottery grew to be an art form. Ancient Greeks, for example, created a unique appearance by controlling the atmosphere of their kilns. Clay, Staubach says, has served many purposes: clay tablets were used for the earliest writing; it also became the key ingredient for building houses and, in modern times, sewer pipes and flush toilets. Some sections of this account will be of most interest to potters, pottery aficionados or those with an interest in earth science, but Staubach leavens her facts with captivating anecdotes throughout. Photos.
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Clay has been a useful, ubiquitous material throughout history. Staubach has arranged her chapters according to clay's functional uses (as construction material or containers, in artwork, and so forth), and her background as a potter imbues her prose with a thematic intimacy. Cool and slimy, clay is what the hands make of it, and it itself is simply a product of weathered rock, composed of aluminum, silicon, and water. Stepping off from the physical reason clay becomes rigid when fired (the expulsion of the water), Staubauch tours globally the ancient archaeology of clay-made objects: fertility amulets, pots, amphora, cuneiform tablets, and ziggurats built from sun-dried bricks. Drying one's creation in the sun or putting it in an open fire worked, but kiln firing worked better. Staubach describes kilns, and the kiln's ability to control temperature, which made possible harder bricks, glazing, and porcelain. An eclectic treatment that encompasses chamber pots and the art pottery movement of the early 1900s, Staubach's enthusiastic history will please people at the potter's wheel. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Berkley Hardcover
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0425205665
• ISBN 13: 9780425205662
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288