Slow-wheel (tournette) pottery
Cerámica de torno lento (tournette)
- Date
- c. 4500 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Tell al-Ubaid and Ur, Dhi Qar, Iraq
- Credited to
- Ubaid culture
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A rotating disc on a pivot, turned by hand, allowing the shape of painted Ubaid pottery to be regularised and decorated with concentric bands. The first use of rotation in pottery production.
The tournette also appears at Ur and in the late Halaf; its relationship to the transport wheel is debated.
What it led to
- Faster, more uniform pottery production for growing urban demand
- Specialised potters' workshops with regional distribution
- The axle-and-turntable principle that anticipates the wheel
Built on
Made possible
- Wheel and wheeled vehiclec. 3500 BCE
- Fast potter's wheelc. 3100 BCE
- Fast potter's wheel
- Uruk mass-produced pottery