Pottery Kiln

Pottery Kiln 

a furnace for firing ceramic articles used in highly developed pottery-making. The firing is done with hot gases, obtained by burning fuel; for complete firing an even temperature no lower than 700°-900° C, unattainable in an open-air fire or a domestic stove, is necessary.

The pottery kiln appeared in countries of the ancient east (Mesopotamia, Egypt) in approximately 3000 B.C. There were one-, two-, and three-tiered pottery kilns of the open or closed type. In ancient Rus’ two-tiered kilns were most common (the lower heating part was buried in the ground), but one-level pottery kilns also existed. Pottery kilns have two types of atmosphere: oxiding, the more common, produces articles made of red clay that show red in a cross section; reducing (with inadequate oxygen) produces articles made of red clay that show dark gray in cross section. Archaeological finds of kiln pottery in many ancient Russian cities attest to an extensive development of the craft of pottery making in Rus’.

REFERENCES

Gaidukevich, V. F. Antichnye keramicheskie obzhigatel’nye pechi po raskopkam ν Kerchi i Fanagorii ν 1929–1931 gg. Moscow-Leningrad, 1934.
Rybakov, B. A. Remeslo Drevnei Rusi. [Moscow,] 1948.
Mal’m, V. A. Gorny moskovskih goncharov XV-XVII vv. In Materialy i issledovania po arkheologii SSSR, no. 12. Moscow-Leningrad, 1949.
Bobrinskii A. A. “K izucheniu tekhniki goncharnogo remesla na territorii Smolenskoi oblasti.” Sovetskaia etnografia, 1962, no. 2.
Rabinovich, M. G. O drevnei Moskve. Moscow, 1964.

M. G. RABINOVICH