Latvian pottery ( lv, Latvijas podniecība) or Latvian ceramics (''Latvijas keramika'') is one of the country's oldest art forms, dating back to the

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

. The best-known subset of Latvian pottery is

Latgalian pottery Latgalian pottery ( ltg, Latgolys pūdnīceiba, lv, Latgales podniecība) or Latgalian ceramics (''Latgolys keramika'', ''Latgales keramika''), also known as Silajāņi ceramics is the best-known subset of Latvian pottery. The region of Latgale ...

( ltg, Latgolys pūdnīceiba, lv, Latgales podniecība). The eastern region of Latgale is the most prolific producer of wares. As a rule, Latvian pottery is characterized by an absence of any painted-on patterns or designs, instead, solid colours and gradients are used. Traditionally subdued, earthen hues (greens, browns, etc.) are used; however, artisans can be seen using brighter colours in their unique pieces. Mottled glaze and random artefacts (somewhat reminiscent of the Japanese Shino-yaki) are characteristic of Latvian pottery.

Prehistoric period

The Neolithic

Pit–Comb Ware culture The Comb Ceramic culture or Pit-Comb Ware culture, often abbreviated as CCC or PCW, was a northeast European culture characterised by its Pit–Comb Ware. It existed from around 4200 BCE to around 2000 BCE. The bearers of the Comb Ceramic cultu ...

( Comb Ceramic culture) that spanned the entire territory of modern-day Latvia derives its name from the pottery characteristic of the time – wares decorated with impressions of a comb-like object.

Narva culture Narva culture or eastern Baltic was a European Neolithic archaeological culture found in present-day Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Kaliningrad Oblast (former East Prussia), and adjacent portions of Poland, Belarus and Russia. A successor of ...

spanning the entire territory of modern-day

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

and Latvia, as well as parts of Lithuania and Western

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

, is a subset of the larger Pit–Comb Ware culture. Pit–Comb Ware culture is usually thought to have used an early form of what are today known as the

Uralic languages The Uralic languages (; sometimes called Uralian languages ) form a language family of 38 languages spoken by approximately 25million people, predominantly in Northern Eurasia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian (w ...

, a competing view is that they may have been speakers of a

Paleo-European language The Paleo-European languages, or Old European languages, are the mostly unknown languages that were spoken in Europe prior to the spread of the Indo-European and Uralic families caused by the Bronze Age invasion from the Eurasian steppe of past ...

Latgalian pottery

Some of the types of wares characteristic to Latgale pottery are ''vāraunieks'' (a pot for cooking), ''medaunieks'' (a pot for

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...

storage), ''sloinīks'' (a pot for storing

fruit preserves Fruit preserves are preparations of fruits whose main preserving agent is sugar and sometimes acid, often stored in glass jars and used as a condiment or spread. There are many varieties of fruit preserves globally, distinguished by the met ...

), ''ķērne'' (a pot for storing

sour cream Sour cream (in North American English, Australian English and New Zealand English) or soured cream (British English) is a dairy product obtained by fermenting regular cream with certain kinds of lactic acid bacteria. The bacterial culture, ...

), ''ļaks'' (a vessel for storage of oil), ''piena pods'' (a pot for storing cow's

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digest solid food. Immune factors and immune-modula ...

), ''kazelnieks'' (a pot for

goat milk Goat milk is the milk of domestic goats. Goats produce about 2% of the world's total annual milk supply. Some goats are bred specifically for milk. Goat milk naturally has small, well-emulsified fat globules, which means the cream will stay i ...

storage), ''pārosis'' (lit. "over-handle", a vessel for bringing food to the field), ''bļoda'' (bowl), ''krūze'' (a jug or a mug, most often for

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

or milk).Pujāts, Jānis. Latgales keramika. Rēzekne:Latgales kultūras centra izdevniecība, 2002, pages 20-26 Some Latgale pottery wares are not food-related, these include human, animal, folk figure shaped ocarinas (''sviļpaunīki''),

candlestick A candlestick is a device used to hold a candle in place. Candlesticks have a cup or a spike ("pricket") or both to keep the candle in place. Candlesticks are less frequently called "candleholders". Before the proliferation of electricity, candl ...

s (''svečturi'') and decorative plates and possibly other items meeting more contemporary demands, for example, ashtrays.

Gallery

File:Vāraunieks.jpg, A metallic replica of a vāraunieks to demonstrate its form File:Medaunieks.jpg, Medaunieks File:Sloinīki.jpg, Sloinīki File:Ķērne.jpg, Ķērne File:Ļaks.jpg, Ļaks File:Piena pods.jpg, Piena pods File:Kazelnieki.jpg, Kazelnieki File:Pārosis.jpg, Pārosis in birch bark for protection, its handle is missing File:Bļoda1.jpg, Bļoda File:Bļoda2.jpg, Bļoda File:Krūze.jpg, Large krūze File:Krūze 1.jpg, Large krūze File:Krūze2.jpg, Krūze

References

{{Latvia topics Latvian art Latvian culture