Potters craftsmanship – in a peripheral point of view

Changes in society are influenced by technological development and vice versa. Technological developments in ceramics in the Neolithic society are a good example. This paper seeks to address the questions about technological development seen from a peripheral point of view - from the Danish area. Here the development is delayed several thousand years. Experiments first appear 4600 BC in Denmark. Danish clay withstand up to 900 degrees Celsius, and burn for ceramics at 600 - 800, this is easily achieved on bonfires. These two forms have been the usual method of producing ceramics for long periods of prehistoric Denmark. It takes quite a long time before there is evidence of regular ovens and specialist production in Denmark. However, there is one exception in the middle Neolithic period (3300-2800 BC) where they appear in causewayed enclosures. Here, some material indicates that they may have been travelers who used ovens for burning a specialized very fine ceramic which were sacrificed at these sites. This practice does not continue, it declines and sign of specialized production does not reappear again before the late Bronze Age (700-500 BC). Why does the technological development stop and what starts it again?