Terracotta

Literally cooked earth but more accurately baked clay. Pottery for vessels is much the most important form, but the term is normally restricted to other used of the material. Terracotta was most appropriate, and commonly used, for small and solid functional objects like spindle whorls, loom weights and net sinkers. Inscribed lay tablets were often baked to give them greater durability. More fragile objects like figurines were frequently made of it since they were kept in safe places or were required to serve only on a single brief occasion, as offerings. Even for children’s toys, the easy replaceability of terracotta apparently outweighed its disadvantages. It is also found as a structural material in hearths and kilns, where the clay of which they were built has been baked in use. A special variety of it, daub, was produced only by accidental burning.