Another advantage of sedentary life is the ability to use heavy and breakable--but none the less very useful--household objects made of baked clay. Hunter- gatherers have no use for pottery because they have to carry their possessions with them when they move. Agriculturalists, in contrast, can accumulate such objects--and put them to multiple uses. This discovery was made many times by human communities all over the globe, and seems to have occurred almost as soon as they settled down in one place.

In the photo above, an Egyptian woman fashions a bowl out of rings of clay-- probably the oldest way of making pottery. At right, an Egyptian craftsman fashions a large container using the next level of technological development--a potter's wheel, which he moves with his foot. Technology as basic as the potter's wheel allowed early humans to enjoy the first fruits of mass production.

The wheel may have first been developed--invented--for these purposes rather than for use in vehicles. In any case, the settled mode of life led to many new discoveries out of which elaborate technologies eventually developed.