Updraught pottery kiln
Horno cerámico de tiro vertical
- Date
- c. 6000 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Yarim Tepe, Sinjar, Iraq
- Credited to
- Hassuna and Halaf cultures
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
A two-chamber kiln with a grate separating the fire from the pieces, reaching higher and more even temperatures than an open fire. It enables the fine painted pottery of Halaf and allows control of the firing atmosphere.
What it led to
- Standardised, quality pottery and specialised workshops
- Mastery of temperatures above 1000 degrees, a forerunner of metal smelting
- Painted pottery as a regional trade good
Built on
- African hunter-gatherer potteryc. 9400 BCE
- Burnt lime and gypsum plasterc. 8000 BCE
- Near Eastern Neolithic potteryc. 6900 BCE
- Neolithic pottery
- Fired lime and gypsum
Made possible
- Copper smelting from orec. 5000 BCE
- Slow-wheel (tournette) potteryc. 4500 BCE
- Faience (glazed quartz frit)c. 4200 BCE
- Lost-wax castingc. 3700 BCE
- Arsenical bronzec. 3600 BCE
- Mould-made and fired brickc. 3500 BCE
- Silver by cupellationc. 3500 BCE
- Glazed tile and glazed potteryc. 2650 BCE
- Standardized fired brickc. 2600 BCE