The early days of pottery saw pottery wares made out of clay available in common places like lake, river bed, etc but not with glaze. The most common ceramic materials in this group were building bricks, roofing tiles, pottery ceramic ware made out of red burning clays.Some articles like pots, jars etc. made by potters in villages also fall under this category.
Initially all these ceramic (Terracotta) items were produced manually but slowly mechanisation creeped into the production of these items and the Terracotta ceramic industry grew all over the world due to its obvious large demand.
BRICKS: One of the major building material introduced by Egyptians before 20000 years. Initially bricks were produced by manually hand moulding into wooden moulds. The mix is prepared by mixing clay with river sand and water and hand moulded by shaping and pressing into wooden moulds. The excess filling is removed by using a wire and then the bricks are taken out of the moulds and sun dried openly under sun light. These are then stacked in alternate layers with coal and firewood and fired at 600 degree C to 800 degree C. The fired bricks are then removed and the good ones sent to the yard. The rejected bricks are powdered and recycled back in the brick making process.
