It can be made from a number of materials, such as ceramics, glass, non-rusting metals, such as aluminium, brass, bronze, or stainless steel.
Various styles and types of vases have been developed around the world in different time periods, such as Chinese ceramics and Native American pottery.
Such pieces may be referred to as vases regardless of their shape; most were in fact used for holding or serving liquids, and many would more naturally be called cups, jugs and so on.
The potter's wheel was probably invented in Mesopotamia by the 4th millennium BCE, but spread across nearly all Eurasia and much of Africa, though it remained unknown in the New World until the arrival of Europeans.
The discovery of this technique was beneficial to the people of south Iraq because it served as a substitute for their previous inefficient traditions.