From Tool to Object: A Look Back at the Vase

There are many reasons why vases occupy such a prominent role in the art history of ancient civilizations. Vases were numerous and built to endure, because they were tools rather than decorative objects. The burial practices of some civilizations also ensured that entombed vases would be preserved unblemished for centuries. Thus the known history of vases begins over 5,000 years ago.

The Oldest Egyptian Vase?
The Egyptians are best known today for the pyramids and the Sphinx, but there is an ancient Egyptian vase at the Royal Pump Room Museum in Harrogate, England, that is older than even those renowned landmarks. Long considered a fake because of its pristine condition, the vase was tested in 2004 by scientists from the University of York, who discovered that the vase was created in 3,200 B.C.E.

Its age isn't the only exciting thing about this ancient ceramic vase. It also bears the only known painting of the early Egyptian practice of burying mummies in the fetal position. Even more astonishingly, the finger marks of the artist who created the vase are still visible on its inside rim.

Etruscan and Greek Vases
Most histories of pottery and ceramics begin with the origin of Etruscan and Greek vases. Though theirs are not the oldest vases in existence, these civilizations present to the modern eye a clear progression from geometric styles to curvilinear patterns to a primary emphasis on the human form.

It was the Greeks in particular whose artistic genius produced countless examples of beautifully shaped and painted vases. Greek vase art reached its peak in Athens during the 6th Century B.C.E. Black-figure and red-figure vases depicted human figures that represented the gods and heroes of Greek history and mythology. If you've ever purchased a Penguin paperback of Aristophanes, Homer, or Thucydides, chances are there's a picture of a red-figure Greek vase on the cover.