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Featured Article Clays used by the Inca civilization to make pottery Inca pottery, called imperial Cuzco, is one of the culture's best heritages. Since Incas had no form of writing, pottery is valuable in learning about their ideas and culture. Pots with stirrup spouts held chichi beer used to make offerings at religious ceremonies. There were many shapes and elaborate designs like stylized people, animals, birds, and plants. Four or more colors were used to decorate the pottery. All pottery was made by hand because the potter's wheel was not thought of then. Inca potters personally go and look for the clay needed in the large clay deposits that exist along the rivers, like Piura and Chira Rivers. Selecting the right clay is a difficult process that requires the specialized eye of a skilled potter. There is no simple way of describing what ‘the right clay' is, but the fine attributes of the final product attest to the right choice of clay. The potters are equally uncompromising when choosing the ‘right' water to perfectly match with the chosen clay, which in no case may come from the river. The coarse sand found on the shores of the river is a substance that when mixed with the clay and the water give the future vase the consistency necessary to be molded without cracking. Once all these ingredients are found, they are mixed together and given consistency in a very unusual but effective manner: the mix is placed on a clean floor and the feet are used in a kind of ritual dance that lasts about an hour before the mix is ready to be molded. All the molded items were fired in a furnace, which sometimes is nothing more than a large hole in the ground. Inca potters would insist that they can only make good ceramics if they burn wood from the zapote tree. Copyright © 2005 4 Ceramics. All rights reserved.