Pottery and ceramics has been a cultural factor in the lives of humans since time immemorial. Clay work was used for ceremonial, artistic and decorative, or purely functional purposes for thousands of years.
The first examples of pottery were found around 29000 BC, in what is today part of the Czech Republic. Functional vessels through the centuries have been used to store olive oil, wine, water and grain, as well as for the purpose of burial.
Funereal urns were either buried along the dead to sustain them in the afterlife, or in some cases such as Pueblo ware, to safeguard the spirit, who was one with his pot.
View The Origins of the Art of Pottery here.