Page 13 - Curriculum Visions Dynamic Book

(Above and below) Roman mosaic floor. A mosaic is built up from tiny pieces of tile set in a cement base.
Then it was discovered that a combination of sand and lime made a material that would set and harden. The Greeks were the first people to discover this new material – which we now call cement – but it was much more widely used by the Romans, who used it in many of their walls.
Although cement, as other ceramics in use at the time, was made of easily available, low-value materials, many of the ceramic products then were costly to buy because of the time that went into creating them by hand. It wasn’t until the industrial revolution (which started in the 18th century) that mechanisation dramatically reduced the cost of production.
In the modern world both handmade and mass production ceramics find a market. For most things we use mass-produced ceramics, but some decorative ceramics are handcrafted.
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