HISTORY OF TILES

The technologically advanced and sustainable porcelain and ceramic tiles you see in the aisles of Italtile’s showrooms carry a little of the DNA of their tile ancestors, here's how it all started

Once upon a time, when the world was new, early man sat at the mouth of his cave near a little river, stoking the fire and watching the muddy bank dry out in the blazing pre-historic sun. 

As he watched, the day got hotter and the clay got dryer and harder. He went and tapped it. It was indeed dry and hard. He went back to his fire and had the world’s first ʻaha!’ moment. ʻMaybe fire can make clay dryer and harder faster. Maybe I can make the world’s first hard square things to walk on. Maybe I can make the cave look nice for my wife,’ he thought. Well, perhaps not. But it’s a nice story. And now that we’ve got your attention, read on for the real history of tiles...

Actually, historians and archaeologists are reasonably certain that the early Egyptians were the first clay-to-tile masterminds in 4000 BCE (did they brand them Nile Tiles?), while not so far away, in Mesopotamia, a similar craft was emerging. Certainly, back in the day, tiles would have been formed from clay and water and baked hard in a fire ... which pretty much remained the soul of the tile throughout history, with one or two improvements and additives along the way. 

By 1000 BCE, tiles were a worldwide phenomenon and were both decorative and useful. The Assyrians, the Babylonians and the entire Islamic Empire were creating decorative tiles, adding glazes, pigments and adapting the tile shape.

Of course, it wasn’t long before the Greeks and the Romans (both superb at perfecting the art and science of building) made it their own.