Ban Chiang Pots
Undeniably, what people, Thai or foreign, recognise as a Ban Chiang item is the painted pot of Ban Chiang. The wide range of shapes, the painted red designs of puzzling abstract symbols, and the enormous estimates value of these pots make them seem like the only important thing about Ban Chiang. Even worse, most people know of only the painted pot.
However, in the 2,500 years from the beginnings of Ban Chiang civilisation to the time it declined, its people most likely used containers made from a variety of materials, such as cups made of banana leaf or other leaves, bamboo strips or woven bamboo baskets. The most sophisticated of these was the pottery that involved a complex process, which increased along with advancement in technology and usage in each period.
Early pottery had simple shapes. Formed by hand, its walls made thick or thin as required by using a flat piece of wood to hit it against a du stone. Occasionally, the outside surface was polished black.
Later Ban Chiang potters began to shape the clay on a rotating stand, which made the shape more regular, and they began painting simple designs on the rim and shoulder of the pots.
The painted pots that are famously known around the world are from about 2,000 years ago. What people usually do not know is that no painted pots were ever actually used in cooking. They were made so meticulously in order to be used specially for burials.
Painted pots were shaped on a rotating stand, then lined up and fired at 800 degrees celsius. When cooled, they were painted with brushes made with animal hair or tree bark that had been beaten so that their ends were soft bristles. The red paint, made from mixing red-ochre soil with some kind of tree sap, produced designs on the outer surface with intricate motifs, each one unique. Archaeologists group the Ban Chiang pots into four periods according to the development of their production method.