What is Mankind's Greatest Invention?

[Otern]

Agriculture wouldn't have made much difference without pottery. Storage of excess food was made possible through large ceramic pots.

Don't think pottery is crucial for agriculture. It sure helps, but you can still do a lot without it.

[Speaker to Animals]

It doesn't really make as big a difference as Monty imagines. Early neolithic granaries were not made with ceramics. Ceramics technology comes long after agriculture.

Really, what kind of granary are you realistically going to build using ceramics anyway? Granaries are typically pretty big structures relative to a pot.

[SuburbanFarmer]

It doesn't really make as big a difference as Monty imagines. Early neolithic granaries were not made with ceramics. Ceramics technology comes long after agriculture.

Really, what kind of granary are you realistically going to build using ceramics anyway? Granaries are typically pretty big structures relative to a pot.

It would be pretty difficult to keep rodents and bugs out of a prehistoric granary.

[C-Mag]

Well, pottery was the primary container for everything through the Bronze Age, and continued it's importance up into the middle ages. It's an everyday item that basically every culture in the world used well into the industrial revolution...…………………………… as a technology, it had a helluva good run.

[Speaker to Animals]

Ceramics is what made large-scale trade possible. If you wanted to ship grains across large distances and sell in distant markets, ceramics made that possible.

Otherwise, the early neolithic settlement had a few large granary structures, or possibly silos instead, and just lived off their own production. There was no realistic way to transport grain to distant settlements for trade.

When you get ceramics, a more complex culture can emerge in which settlements can form up into a more complex system rather than just independent groups of people. Before that kind of trade became possible, the only thing linking various settlements together was a somewhat common culture that was bound by religion. When you get trade, you get the ability to share resources and something more complex can emerge in human society.

That would be my theory anyway.

[C-Mag]

For me pottery is like cordage. Vitally important to new and developing civilizations.

Pottery hasn't changed a lot since the Bronze age. Yes we have refined ceramics now. But how much does the 19th C Tennessee Whiskey jug differ from what was being fired in the Levant 5000 years ago.

[Speaker to Animals]

For me pottery is like cordage. Vitally important to new and developing civilizations.

Pottery hasn't changed a lot since the Bronze age. Yes we have refined ceramics now. But how much does the 19th C Tennessee Whiskey jug differ from what was being fired in the Levant 5000 years ago.

Huge differences, dude. One of the ways archaeologists can track the technological evolution of a civilization is through ceramics technology.

They can also infer trade when one culture suddenly has more advanced ceramics without the previous steps (as happened in Mesoamerica).

Even today ceramics technology is some of the most important advances. No high-tech ceramics, no space shuttle. Even electronics depends upon it. Analog components were sometimes ceramics initially. Now all your semiconductors are ceramic technologies.

[C-Mag]

I don't see it that way.

You're talking about refined material and production differences. It's all evolutionary technology based off of the original idea of shaping clay, firing and glazing the shape. People have gotten better at it, but there is nothing revolutionary different about it.

[Zlaxer]

The Standard Model.

[Speaker to Animals]

I don't see it that way.

You're talking about refined material and production differences. It's all evolutionary technology based off of the original idea of shaping clay, firing and glazing the shape. People have gotten better at it, but there is nothing revolutionary different about it.

You are not seeing the way it really is.

Ceramics is not some ancient tech long since mastered. It continues to develop and is one of the most critical technologies today. Just not because of granaries. That was my quibble.

The difference between glazed ceramics and earlier ceramics is night and day. The technologies that made it possible to create more complex pottery designs was critical to more complex technologies that relied upon ceramics. Then there is the development of glass and ever more complex ceramic materials. The development of different kiln technologies and different methods for making more durable ceramics.

Ceramics may be one of the oldest technologies, but it never stopped developing. From the first rudimentary clay pots to semiconductors to spaceships.