DISPOZITIVUL PIVOTANT DE LA DEDA (JUD. MURES) PENTRU CONFECłIONAT CERAMICĂ DIN SULURI DE LUT
THE WOODEN TURNTABLE DEVICE USED FOR THE DEDA HAND-MADE POTTERY (MURES COUNTY)

Summary/Abstract: The coil method of pottery making, or loam roll method, which involves the preparation of coils or ropes of tempered clay, is one of the earliest and most ubiquitous techniques in the history of ceramics. It was preserved as a household craft in the Upper Mures Valley villages (Deda etc.) roughly up to the mid 20th century. The artisan used to build up the walls of the pot by successively adding coils spirally with the aid of a wooden device or turntable. The turntable was made entirely of wood and incorporated three distinct elements. The movable part consists of three round wheels or disks (22 cm in diameter) connected to each other with four sticks or stands of 24 cm height. Secondly, there was a shaft of 42 cm which passed through the inferior disk in order to sustain the movable part and was fitted onto a heavy stand. The third part of the device was a log that provided stability to the whole structure. This paper aims at underlining the scientific relevance of this wooden turntable. It could help us to understand and reconstruct the lost prehistoric technologies for manufacturing pottery. Ihave tried to provide evidence of rotary motion in the Tripolie and Cucuteni ceramic production in order to support the general theory about the wooden turntable. To this end, I have used different references from prehistory, ancient Near East and other cultural references. I have also analyzed an astonishingly similar wooden turntable still in use nowadays in Serbia (Zlakusa region). The Serbian artisans and artists (who have been taking part since 1996 at the yearly International Fine Art Colony of Ceramics) have preserved the archaic coil method and the open air firing of the pots almost unchanged in their work. These techniques belong to a particular technical stage before the discovery of the fast pottery wheel.

• Details
• Contents