This is Clay! One of the most fun and versatile materials out there and is used in everything from false teeth to toilets and of course art!
Clay is a natural, earthy material and its incredible ability to be transformed from soft and shapeable to hard and strong when heated has played a vital role in human history. Over millennia we have used clay to make homes and pots, medicine, and masterpieces. Pottery dating back 20,000 years has been discovered in China but humans were making art from clay even before then.
Cuneiform is the oldest type of writing and was invented over 5,000 years ago in what is now Iraq. Scribes wrote on soft clay tablets using a pen fashioned from a reed. The Chester Beatty has over a hundred clay tablets covering around 2,000 years of writing. They reveal details from daily life, from the price to hire a donkey, to offerings of grain and butter to gods, to proverbs.