African beads were first produced as a form of currency for native inhabitants all across the continent of Africa centuries ago.  European traders later brought beads to Africa to use as currency to purchase gold, ivory and palm oil.  

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1370-1506A.D. Iran

Ceramic tiles have been produced for over a thousand years in the heart land of the Islamic world.  The wealth of designs and colors used to decorate mosques, shrines, and palaces later provided inspiration for European artists.

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These chunks of hard, fired mud served as a kind of security system. Using clay seals like more modern cultures used wax letter seals, ancient Egyptians would smear mud over the lids of storage pots, door fasteners, bags, letters, official documents, and boxes in order to seal their contents and deter unauthorized opening.

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The Jomon Period is named for the cord patterns found on much of the pottery produced during this time (jomon means "cord markings"). The Jomon civilization is Japan’s oldest known civilization.  The Jomon people lived relatively peaceful lives which allowed them to develop their unique artistry.  Jomon pottery reached a high degree of creativity and ornamentation during the middle Jomon period (2500-1500 BCE).

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A rhyton (pl. rhyta) is a small drinking vessel that is often found in eastern Central Asia, although this type of vessel originated in the West.  Rhyta (plural form of rhyton) are horn-shaped drinking vessels long used in the Middle and Near East and the Mediterranean region.

The Indus Valley Civilization also known as the Harappan Civilization was an ancient civilization that existed from 3300–1700 B.C.E in the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra river valleys, which is now Pakistan and western India, parts of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. The cities of the Indus Valley Civilization were well-organized and solidly built out of brick and stone. Their drainage, wells, and water storage systems were the most sophisticated in the ancient world.

The Japanese tea ceremony is an ancient traditional ritual influenced by Zen Buddhism in which powdered green tea is ceremonially prepared by a skilled practitioner and served in a traditional tea bowls to a small group of guests in a tranquil setting.   

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The English manufacturers of porcelain in the 18th century followed in the steps of the French in that the vast majority of porcelain made was of the soft paste type. Soft paste porcelain is porcelain made to a formula other than the recipe for true or hard paste porcelain which was first discovered by the Chinese about 1000 years ago. 

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Little is known about the Lascaux cave and its original use; even the original entrance remains unknown. We do know that the painters did not live in the cave; but used it as a sanctuary where they would paint what was important to them.

Surrealism is an art movement that began in the mid-1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings created by its group members.  The surrealist movement flourished in Europe between World Wars I and II.

During the mid 6^th century, the black figure technique was used to decorate pottery in Athens, Greece, while simpler undecorated wares fulfilled everyday household purposes.  These painted vessels were made on pottery wheel by skilled potters.

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1900s A.D. Pueblo, Mexico

Masks and mask making have had a long-standing tradition in Mexico that has been embedded into the culture form its native roots, through the conquest of Mexico in the 16^th century.

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Northwest coast art is the term commonly applied to a style of art created primarily by artists from Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Kwakwaka'wakw and Nuu-chah-nulth tribes. These tribes where located on southern coast of Alaska.  Typical of their style is primary formlines, which are generally black and outline the parts that make up each figure.

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Pop art is an artistic movement that emerged in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art is one of the major art movements of the twentieth century. Pop art is characterized by themes and techniques drawn from popular mass culture, such as advertising and comic books. In Pop Art, the epic was replaced with the everyday and the mass-produced was awarded the same significance as the unique; furthermore, the gulf between ``high art'' and ``low art'' was eroding away.

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The Anasazi are the ancient Pueblos. These people built the famous cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde. They existed from about 500 BCE to 1200 CE and settled in the Four Corners area of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. A typical home probably had a fairly large number of pots and other ceramics for cooking, serving, and storing food. There were about six to seven ceramics for cooking and serving, three or four for storage, and at least one or two finely finished and decorated ceremonial pots.

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Chavín’s pottery shows tremendous skill and their style spread throughout much of the Peru in the first millennia B.C. Vases with straight necks and flat bottoms were a popular shape for Chavín ceramics.  

The Moche culture dominated the north coast of Peru during 250-900 A.D.  Moche pottery is some of the most varied in the world.  The most common shapes are bottles with globular bodies and stirrup spouts. 

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Retablos were brought to Peru by the Spanish conquistadors in the 16^th century.  At this time the retablos were boxes that held portable alters or shires and were used by the Spanish evangelists to teach the Catholic faith to the natives. From the 17th to the 19th centuries, the retablo boxes were gradually transformed and integrated into the rural peasant religious life in a way that reflected their culture and began depicting their customs.

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Ancient Mesoamerican and Andean region civilizations believed in cults of gods that displayed both human and animal traits.  These gods became symbols of the behaviors valued by the people of ancient America. 

For example, the god whose body stretches over this Nazca ceramic vessel has a face that is both human and catlike.  He also has spiky fins that resemble the fins or a shark or a killer whale.  Pottery Wheel