Fragments of pots found in Xianrendong Cave in Jiangxi province of China, dated in 2012 to between 20,000 and 19,000 years ago, are the oldest known ceramics in the world, made by hunter-gatherers long before farming. The vessels, with soot on the outside from cooking fires, were used to boil food. Pottery of similar age, over 15,000 years old, was made by the Jomon of Japan and in the Amur region of Russia. Pottery allowed people to cook and store food in new ways, and ceramics later became essential to farming societies and a vehicle of artistic expression.
Before and after
- about 36,100 years agoChauvet cave paintings are made
- about 30,100 years agoThe Venus of Willendorf is carved
- about 23,100 years agoPeople are already in North America
- about 21,000 years agoLast Glacial Maximum
- about 20,000 years agoThe earliest known pottery is made in China
- from about 17,000 years ago to 12,000 years agoMagdalenian
- from about 16,000 years ago to 8th millennium BCEEpipaleolithic
- about 15,100 years agoDogs are domesticated
- from about 15,000 years ago to 1st millennium BCEJōmon period
More in Evolution & life
- from about 50,000 years ago to 2nd millenniumPre-Columbian era
- from about 50,000 years ago to 9,726 years agoUpper Paleolithic
- about 41,000 years agoNeanderthals disappear from Europe
- from about 40,000 years ago to 31,000 years agoAurignacian
- about 13,000 years agoThe megafauna of the Americas die out
- c. 9,750s BCEQuaternary extinction event
The era
This moment belongs to the Human prehistory (300,000 years ago to 3,200 BCE), the human story before writing.