The date for domesticated kitchenware has just gotten pushed back. 

While it was believed that pottery dated back to 10,000 years ago, when humans changed from being hunter-gathers to farmers, the new archaeological findings push pottery well into the last Ice Age.  Archeology may have brought a new anthropology puzzle, like why in Asia pottery is so far out of sync with agriculture.

The fragments were discovered in the Xianrendong cave in south China's Jiangxi province. The team was able to determine the sediments in the cave were accumulated gradually, without disruption that might have altered the time sequence, so their radiocarbon dating is accurate, they believe.


Pottery fragments recovered from a layer dating approximately 20,000 years old in the Xianrendong cave in south China’s Jiangxi province. Credit: AP Photo/Science/AAAS

Citation: Early Pottery at 20,000 Years Ago in Xianrendong Cave, China
Xiaohong Wu, Chi Zhang, Paul Goldberg, David Cohen, Yan Pan, Trina Arpin, and Ofer Bar-Yosef
Science 29 June 2012: 336 (6089), 1696-1700. DOI:10.1126/science.1218643

Pottery 20,000 years old found in a Chinese cave by Didi Tang, Associated Press.