Archaic Pottery Could Change History of Mankind
Working in southern China, a team of scientists have reportedly discovered pieces of ancient pottery that could redefine the history of mankind and his relationship with food.
The shards of pottery, which date back 20,000 years, make them the world’s oldest known pottery — 2,000 to 3,000 years older than examples found in East Asia and elsewhere, say scientists. The research by a team of Chinese and American scientists pushes the emergence of pottery back to the last ice age, which might provide new explanations for the creation of pottery.
“What it seems is that in China, the making of pottery started 20,000 years ago and never stopped,” Ofer Bar-Yosef, an archaeologist at Harvard and an author of the study, told the New York Times. “The Chinese kitchen was always based on cooking and steaming; they never made, as in other parts of Asia, breads.”