Early European Ceramics: Pit-Comb Ware

Pottery in Europe around 4200 BC to 2000 BC was largely functional, but you could see that they had a sense for design. The designs that they created in their pottery gave them the name Pit-Comb Ware culture also known as Comb Ceramic Culture, due to the fact that the marks they made look like the scratches or imprints of a comb. The ceramic pots mostly consisted of large pots, with the capacity to hold 40 to 60 liters that were rounded or pointed below. The form of the pots remained mostly the same, but the decoration varied from pot to pot. All of these vessels were hand built or press-molded, since no pottery was created on the wheel until the end of the second millennium.

It is intriguing that this culture even took the time to put these "decorations" on the pots. But did they see these marks as decorative or were they put there for a specific purpose? These comb impressions could have been placed on the pots to help the user grip the vessels better when moving or carrying them, but whatever the reason for these marks, we are left with beautiful historical treasures that give us a glimpse into this specific culture and give us a feel for what it could have been like to live during that time period.