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The artifacts may have been used for religious purposes, offerings for a funeral or simply used for typical household desires. The artists strived to carefully design the artifacts and considered visually beautiful concepts.

Iran, a country traditionally known in English as Persia, as called by the Greeks, is Iran (Land of the Aryans) to the inhabitants. It is about four times the size of the state of California and has a largely varied and often very rugged and inhospitable landscape. Iran is an upland region, often called the Iranian Plateau, bounded by the Persian Gulf to the south, the Zagros Mountains to the west, the Caspian Sea and Elburz Mountains to the north, and a series of deserts and dry plains to the east. The form of it resembles a bowl with a high rim enclosing an irregular and lower, but not low-lying, interior. The climate varies considerably more than elsewhere in the Middle East with intense heat, bitter cold, alternating calms and strong winds and unreliable rainfall.

Human settlements are concentrated on the lower slopes and plains of the north and west, where rainfall is sufficient for regular cultivation. In drier regions where irrigation is needed, springs are tapped in the mountains and water is led from them to farmlands by underground channels called ganats.

Primarily an agricultural and stockbreeding country, Iran possesses rich and varied natural resources. From the third millennium BCE, its quarries provided marble and alabaster, its forests provided wood for building, and its clay provided thousands of years of beautiful pottery. Today, Iran’s main economic pursuit is the exportation of oil and gas, its most profitable natural resources, to countries around the world. The Iran-Iraq War in 1980 damaged the economy and forced the country to try other key industries to increase their revenue including copper and steel production. As of late 1987, however, economic problems remained severe and essential commodities rare and so, Iran was more dependent on oil than ever before.

How Iranians Made Ancient Pottery

The simplest and earliest method of making a ceramic pot was to shape the clay by hand. The resulting works are called hand built pots. By 4500 BCE the potter’s wheel was developed, allowing the potter to use the force of the turning wheel guided by the potter’s hands to move the clay up and outward, quickly forming large, thin and uniform shapes. These are wheel-thrown pots. Many potters chose to use a combination of both techniques to make more visually interesting ceramics.

After thoroughly drying, a pot was fired, meaning it was heated until red-hot. The shape and construction of the kiln, the type of fuel used, the length of the firing and the availability of oxygen, in addition to the mineral components of the clay, affected the finished appearance and strength of the ceramic. Early kilns were basically just large bonfires in which many damp, unfired ceramic works were piled together to be fired. The resulting works usually had inconsistencies in the coloring because they were too close to other pieces and did not get fired properly. Later kilns were invented that looked like large plastered boxes with two stacked compartments, one on the bottom for the fire, the other on top for the vessels. This new invention allowed the pieces to have more space between them and thus be fired evenly.

A simple way of changing color in iron rich clay, which is common throughout Iran, is to reduce the available oxygen during firing. An oxygen-rich atmosphere in the kiln produces a bright red-orange surface. Reducing the oxygen by adding damp fuel to the firebox, produces a dark gray or black surface. When a pot has been burnished, or smoothed to make shiny or lustrous by rubbing the still damp vessel with a spoon-like tool before firing, the resulting surface will be shiny. Sometimes the pieces were painted, slipped and/or glazed before they were fired so that the color stayed permanent. The paint colors were acquired from crushing dried plants or minerals and mixing the resulting powder with water. The paint was then applied to a vessel with a brush made from horse or camel hair. The most common color, black, came from charcoal. Slip was sometimes used as coloring for plain buff ceramic ware, a base for paint or just to fill in any cracks that may have formed in the wet clay.

How Ancient Pottery Was Used

Most of the fine ceramics of ancient Iran were made for holding, pouring and drinking liquids in ceremonies. Chemical analysis of the residue in storage jars excavated at several sites in Iran reveals that the jars once held wine.

Spouted vessels may have been used in religious or funeral ceremonies, while other types may have been used in livelier social settings. Couples at their wedding feast or perhaps clan chieftains sealing alliances may have drunk from the twin spouts at the base of some animalhandled vessels.

Fine ceramics were also created to contain other liquids. Water, of course, is a precious fluid in any dry country and, in antiquity, was offered from specially decorated or shaped vessels to tired travelers. Perfumes, cosmetics, and other amenities were stored in small, artistic containers with small necks to hold the valuable contents safely and reduce evaporation. Religious practices may have required vessels to hold fragrant incense and offerings that were to be poured.

The History of Iranian Sculpting

Clay was also used for sculpture. As early as the Neolithic period (c. 6000 BCE), small, clay female figurines, that may have been fertility amulets, have been found. These figures continued to be made in northwestern Iran as late as 1000 BCE.

Monumental clay sculptures were made by the second millenium BCE in the lowlands of southwestern Iran. Freestanding ceramic bulls and griffins guarded the doorways of religious buildings. These large sculptures were hollow to allow the clay to dry evenly and fire thoroughly. Their production required large kilns and the services of a specialized workshop.

The Use of Animals in Middle Eastern Art

The love of animal imagery, evident throughout the exhibition, was a characteristic of ancient Iranian art. Mountain goats and certain species of deer are recurring motifs in ancient ceramic decoration and they still inhabit the mountains that surround Iran. The mountain goat was clearly a potent and widely used motif in Iran where its horns adorned the walls of some Neolithic houses.

Domesticated animals in decoration appear in greater variety than do the wild ones. Cattle is the most common, followed by sheep, horses and camels. The cattle and sheep evoked wealth in livestock, and horses suggest mobility and power, both military and political. The camel, the most common caravan animal, symbolized the riches that crossed Iran on the trade routes between China and Rome.

History of Middle Eastern Art

Archaeological finds indicate human occupation of Iran by at least middle Paleolithic times (c. 100,000 years ago). By Early Neolithic times (c. 9000 - 6000 BCE) when climatic conditions were still less arid and warmer than today, groups of small nomadic bands in the Zagros and its flanking foothills began to establish villages

The earliest objects found in Iran which might be considered art are clay figurines found in the excavations of a Neolithic village, Tepe Sarab. One is a female figure called “The Venus of Tepe Sarab,” the other is a little boar. Both date at around 6000 BCE.

The earliest villages were supported only by intensified food collecting or simple cultivation of cereals (grains - barley, oats). By about 8000 - 7500 BCE, villages became permanent, with mud-brick houses and ovens, domesticated cattle and simple irrigation systems. Land was systematically cleared for farming and a pattern of seasonal transhumance (seasonal movement of livestock between mountain and lowland pastures) was established. In time, minor climatic variations and population pressures stimulated agricultural expansion into previously unused regions. By c. 5000 BCE many areas of Iran supported a variety of communities. Some of these were in townships (groups of houses together as a community), others in small irrigation or rain-fed farming villages, and yet others in pastoral camps.

Since humans have lived in the region, trade has existed in Iran. The shells worn as ornaments by the inhabitants at the Sialk site (c. 3900 BCE) have been identified as belonging to a species found only on the Persian Gulf, 600 miles away. A great trade route was established between the many small villages in and around Iran around 4000 BCE. Items traded along this route included fruits and vegetables, cattle, sheep and sometimes horses. That route came from central Asia, through the “outer Iranian” towns that are now in Russia, to Meshed, in modern western Iran, then to cities on the Tigris River. In the river valleys, traders traveled along the banks of the rivers, especially the Euphrates, into Syria.Since humans have lived in the region, trade has existed in Iran. The shells worn as ornaments by the inhabitants at the Sialk site (c. 3900 BCE) have been identified as belonging to a species found only on the Persian Gulf, 600 miles away. A great trade route was established between the many small villages in and around Iran around 4000 BCE. Items traded along this route included fruits and vegetables, cattle, sheep and sometimes horses. That route came from central Asia, through the “outer Iranian” towns that are now in Russia, to Meshed, in modern western Iran, then to cities on the Tigris River. In the river valleys, traders traveled along the banks of the rivers, especially the Euphrates, into Syria.

Traders between Mesopotamia and Iran traversed difficult and narrow passes through the mountains. Some of the prehistoric painted pottery was introduced to prehistoric Assyria from northern Iran around 3000 BCE along those mountainous trade routes.

The settlement of people in permanent vllages also created time for specialized crafts such as weaving and pottery. In this period, potters were concerned with the pleasure that their works brought to their patrons as well as the functionality of their pieces. Among the restricted variety of shapes in the early development of pottery were wide-open bowls and tall tumblers. The designs, either purely geometric or abstractions from nature, representing plants and birds, were perfectly distributed over the surface of the vessels. Sometimes the designs were obviously designed after pieces of basketry or leather. This new ceramic art provided a cheap substitute for carefully ground stone vessels and less permanent wood and animal skin containers. It also provided a wide range of creative opportunity. Not only could the clay be molded to virtually any shape, but also the color could be varied depending on the method and temperature of firing. Its surface could also be decorated by impressing or painting patterns on it. At the same time as the advent of well-painted pottery, small clay figures of humans and animals became common.
Written sources are lacking from early Iranian cultures before the first millenium BCE. The study of the distribution of ceramic traits from one region to another is important to determine Iranian culture distribution in space and time.