A fire pot is a container, usually earthenware, for carrying fire. Fire pots have been used since prehistoric times to transport fire from one place to another, for warmth while on the move, for cooking, in religious ceremonies and even as weapons of war.

Fire pots were vital to the development of civilization. Once humans had learned to contain, control and sustain fires, they had an invaluable tool for cooking food that would have otherwise not been edible. Fire pots were also useful for sharpening spears, hollowing out canoes, baking pottery, and many other tasks, such as staying warm.

At first, humans relied on natural fires, caused by lightning strikes or other natural occurrences, to provide them with a flame to start their own fires. Since natural fires are not very common, humans learned how to make fires by igniting tinder from sparks caused by striking stones together, or by creating friction using a bow drill.

Given the time-consuming nature of early firestarting, humans eventually began to use earthenware vessels, or fire pots, in which slow-burning fires could be kept alight indefinitely by using small quantities of fuel. Nomadic people could carry these small fires with them, using them to start larger fires for their evening camps.

Archaeologists found that fire pots were being used 10,000, or more, years ago, according to finds during the 1936-37 dig in Fells Cave ,^[1] of which is located in the valley of the Rio Chico, not far from the Strait of Magellan.

Semi-nomadic and sedentary people would have made or acquired more advanced types of fire pots, as opposed to the fully nomadic people who would have used more primitive types. Being more sedentary, people were able to more effectively work with clay, and would have kilns to bake the pottery in, instead of using the traditional fire-baking methods.

Portable fire pots have long been used as a source of warmth.

The fire pot was probably invented long after people discovered the value of cooking over fire. Once fire-proof containers became available, such as iron pots, it was natural to design fire pots that both heated and supported the cooking vessel. Over time, these developed into stoves, used both for cooking and heating.

Small earthen pots filled with combustibles were used as early thermal weapons during the classical and medieval periods. Containers made at first from clay, later from cast iron, known as 'carcasses', were launched by a siege engine, filled with pitch, Greek fire or other incendiary mixtures. These fire pots could cause great damage to besieged cities with largely wooden construction.

In the Siege of Petra (550–551), the Sasanians used fire pots containing sulfur, bitumen and naphtha, a composition called the "oil of Medea"—an early form of chemical weapon.^[4]

A description of how to make military fire pots is given in Lucar, 1588, cited by Martin 1994:207-217 ^[5]

"Make great and small earthen pots which must be but half baked, and like unto the picture in the mergent . . . . Fill every of those pots half with grosse gunpowder pressed down hard, and with one of the five several mixtures next following in this Chapter, fill up the other half of those pottes: This done, cover the mouth of every pot with a piece of canvass bound hard about the mouth of the pot, and well imbued in melted brimstone. Also tie round about the middle of every pot a packthreed, and then hang upon the same packthreed round about the pot so many Gunmatches of a finger length as you will, & when you wil throe any of these pottes among enemies, light the same gun-matches that they may so soone as the pot is broken with his fall uppon the ground, fire the mixture of the potte. Or rather put fire to the mixture at the mouth of the pot, & by so doing make the same to burn before you doe throe the potte from you, because it is a better and more surer way than the other: I meane than to fire the said mixture after the pot is broken with burning gunmatches. Moreover this is to be noted, that the small pottes do serve for to be throne out of one ship into an other in fight upon the sea, and that the great pots are to be used in service upon the land for the defence of towns, fortes, walls, and gates, and to burn such things as the enemies shall throe into ditches for to fill up the same ditches, and also to destroy enemies in their trenches and campes"

By the mid-17th century, fire pots had largely been replaced by shells filled with explosives, which may be seen as the direct descendants of military fire pots.

There is an element of mystery in fire, which at times has led to fire worship. Fire pots have been used in religious ceremonies for thousands of years .^[6] It would be inappropriate, and probably impossible, to cover all religious uses of fire pots in this article, but a few examples are relevant.

Although the fire pot and its ancestor the fire pit are still in use in their original forms, successive technical refinements have led to many modern descendants whose origin in the simple clay container might be hard to guess. Some have been driven by the need to adapt to new fuels, such as charcoal, oil, coal, coke, kerosene, propane, electricity and microwaves. Others have been made possible through discovery of new materials such as iron, bronze, ceramics and asbestos. Always the motive would have been to improve the design, to make a device for managing fire that was cheaper, more robust, more convenient, more capable of meeting new demands. Often improvements made for industrial purposes found their way into improved cooking devices, and vice versa.

An incomplete list of fire pot descendants includes:

• Brazier: A standing or hanging metal bowl or box containing the fire, with perforations for ventilation. A Hibachi is a type of brazier.
• Stove: An enclosed space containing the fire, with dampers and regulators to adjust the draft and thus control the heat. A stove allows for cleaner, hotter and more efficient use of fuel than a fire pot or brazier.
• Oven: An enclosed compartment of a stove, separate from the fire, used for heating, baking or drying. Ovens may have their origin in the practice of enclosing food in clay or leaves before placing it in the fire, still used in Kalua, the traditional cuisine of Hawaii. Ovens make it practical to cook slowly, heating the food throughout, and are the basis of many types of cuisine. Ovens enable pottery and today are used in many industrial processes.
• Boiler: A closed vessel in which water is heated. The discovery that boilers could build up explosive pressure if too well sealed led to the invention of the steam engine, a pivotal technology in the Industrial Revolution.
• Barbecue: A device for cooking on a grill over a box containing burning wood, charcoal or, more recently, propane or natural gas.