The Role of Sieving in the Prehistoric Pottery Industry of Iran

Pottery is one of the arts that has remained among human societies until today. In the written sources left from the Islamic era, there are many references to sieving clay in the pottery industry. These sources indicate that the potters were familiar with sieving the soil through experience and knew that access to suitable mud for making pottery and for It is not possible to make glaze without sifting the soil. In this article, we discuss the importance of sieving in the prehistoric pottery industry and, referring to the results obtained from spectroscopic experiments on prehistoric pottery, we explain how sieving clay played an essential role in making and firing high-quality pottery.