Oldest known pottery found in China: 18,000 years old

The Los Angeles Times ^ | June 6, 2009 | Thomas H. Maugh II

[2ndDivisionVet]

Chinese and Israeli archaeologists have discovered the oldest known pottery, remains of an 18,000-year-old cone-shaped vase excavated from a cave in southern China. The shards are about 1,000 years older than the previous record-holder, found in Japan.

After flint tools, pottery is one of the oldest human-made materials, and tracing its development provides insight into the evolution of culture.

The shards were discovered four years ago in Yuchanyan Cave in the Yangzi River basin by a team led by Elisabetto Boaretto of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. The cave shows signs of human occupation from about 21,000 to 13,800 years ago.

The problem with caves is that, over time, remains from fires and other artifacts get scrambled by the activities of humans and burrowing animals, mixing layers of artifacts and making dating difficult.

Boaretto, Xiaohong Wu of Peking University in Beijing and their colleagues circumvented this problem by focusing on excavating a small area, only a quarter of a yard square, and carefully analyzing each layer of sediment.

They reported Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that radiocarbon dating of charcoal and bone fragments from the excavation produced dates that were consistently older with increasing depth.

[2ndDivisionVet]

That's the late caveman era, isn't it?

[rdl6989]

Ping to a very interesting stone age pottery find.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

They got older pottery for sale on eBay every day.

[rvoitier]

Helen Thomas cooking again?

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

That's the late caveman era, isn't it?

Since they were men and were living in caves, yes. The early stone age (paleolithic) times ended about 10,000 years ago and the new stone age (neolithic) period started about 7000 years ago. (7000-10,000 was predictably enough the mesolithic period). So these artifacts would be placed towards the end of the old Stone Age and on the cusp of the Middle Stone Age.

I'm still waiting for the first Geico caveman posting.

[nathanbedford]

It is a beautifully shaped thing considering it was made in a cave.

It is more beautiful than practical, though. I would not want to set it down next to my keyboard.

[SatinDoll]

“...first Geico caveman posting.”

Very funny.

Finding pottery doesn’t surprise me at all. Not finding more of it does.

Truth is, 15,000 years ago sea level was about 300 to 400 feet lower than today’s level. The Persian Gulf was all dry land as was most of the continental shelf around southern Asia. The Indonesian Archipelago was mostly dry land as well. The ancestors of today’s Australian Aborigines traveled by boat to Australia 45,000 years ago. It seems to me that Europe, which was mostly covered with thick ice packs, was far from the centers of human developement.

Large stone constructions, buildings including pyramids, have been discovered under the sea in the Indian Ocean 30+ kilometers off the southwest and southeast coasts of India.

During the Ice Age any advanced human civilizations would have been on or near the equator and located along the coastlines. Of course, they were all flooded when the ice sheets began melting. Same thing happened to settlements that had been located in what is now the Enlish Channel. Where humans live today was far past the frontier of where humans appear to have lived 15,000 to 45,000 years ago.

[DeaconRed]

I'll Bet a quarter its not a day over 15,000 years old.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

Don’t let G-Cube see this!

[org.whodat]

Cannot be true! What with the earth only 6000 years and all the other puff creation!!

[Just mythoughts]

I think they are fudging their how old numbers. I do notice they have quite a span of a time line they have associated with this find. And NO I do not believe this earth is 6,000 years old.

[Varda]

Interesting. I took a Chinese archeology class about five years ago and at that time there was a huge gap in the Chinese archeaological record during the early neolithic. They’ve either closed that gap or this pottery is pre-Chinese.

[starlifter]

Obviously a fraud.

Many on FREEP will vouch that the earth is only 6,000 years old.

[Don Corleone]

It will appear as a marked down special at a Walmart near you soon.

[GingisK]

Finding pottery doesn’t surprise me at all. Not finding more of it does.

I visited the ceramics and pottery museum in Shanghai in 1993. That was a mind-boggling visit! There were numerous items there from 14,000 to 7,000 BC that were manufactured for trade. Naturally, the earlier artifacts were more crudely fashioned than the latter ones. It was still impressive stuff to have been made for trade so long before most other regions of the earth had anything that looked like civilization.

A trip to China is well worth the expense. Things that were made 700 years ago are still in general use.

[SunkenCiv]

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[TangoLimaSierra]

Don’t let G-Cube see this!

Don't worry, the word 'evolution' is not in it.

[Condor51]

I'm still waiting for the first Geico caveman posting.

;-)

[concentric circles]

Described as 11.4 inches tall.

[marsh2]

I am wondering if the conical shape was used to bury the bottom in the earth to maintain cool temperatures (natural refrigeration) or fire ashes to heat.