POTTER’S IMPLEMENTS
Unfortunately very few potter’s implements of classical Greek times have survived. We have no Athenian wheel or kiln or turning tools. And even from other periods the list of such utensils is a slim one. But what has survived here and there from other periods is in line with the general trend of the evidence—that the techniques in ancient times were very similar to what they are today. Perhaps the most interesting pieces are the terracotta disks found at Gournia, Arezzo, and elsewhere,[57] which are wheel-heads[58] on which the pottery was thrown and turned. On the under side of some of these is a hole for insertion in the pivot (fig. [87]).
Fig. 87. Wheel-head
British Museum, Guide to Greek and Roman Life (2d Edition), p. 181, fig. 217
The potter’s tools found at Arezzo (fig. [88])[59] are not unlike our modern modeling tools and were doubtless used for various finishing processes.
Fig. 88. Tools found at Arezzo
Daremberg et Saglio, Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et romaines, p. 1122, fig. 3036
In the British Museum (Nos. 74.7-10,302) are terracotta stilts used for supporting vases in the kilns, very like the stilts used by potters today. It is unlikely that they were used by the Athenian potters, since the Greek black glaze is so thin it would not be apt to run, but for the Roman ware with metallic glaze they were essential, and the marks they left are visible on the feet of the vases.[60] On one of the British Museum stilts (fig. [89]) are remains of a greenish glaze from such a vase. No moulds for the Athenian plastic ware have to my knowledge been found. But moulds for the later wares, such as the Arretine, are of course plentiful. They are invariably made of burnt clay. The kilns which have survived all date from Roman times (cf. Blümner, op. cit., II, pp. 23 ff.).
Fig. 89. Stilt