From the archive record
Potter with full attention making pottery on potter's wheel. The earliest forms of the potter's wheel (tournettes or slow wheels) were probably developed as an extension to this procedure. Tournettes, in use around 4,500 BC in the Near East, were turned slowly by hand or by foot while coiling a pot. Only a small range of vessels were fashioned on the tournette, suggesting that it was used by a limited number of potters. The introduction of the slow wheel increased the efficiency of hand-powered pottery production. Later, the fast wheel was developed, which operated on the flywheel principle. It utilised energy stored in the rotating mass of the heavy stone wheel itself to speed the process. This wheel was wound up and charged with energy by kicking, or pushing it around with a stick, provi