The latest information about the invention of ceramic containers is that the technology was developed in East Asia, probably Japan or the Yangtze valley of China perhaps 20,000 years ago. But what those vessels were used for has been something of a puzzle.
A reconstructed early pottery vessel from Torihama, Japan, dating to the end of the Late Pleistocene (ca 12,000 years old). Chemical analysis revealed that such vessels were used to process fish during the late Glacial period. (5 cm=about 2 inches). Courtesy Wakasa History and Folklore Museum, Fukui, Japan
Up until about ten or fifteen years ago, most archaeologists believed that pottery was invented after agriculture, or at least around the same time. Turns out, pottery predates agriculture by at least 5,000 years. I suppose, as a relic of that old connection between agriculture and pottery, I'd always assumed that pots were for making wild grains more palatable. But according to a new paper published in Nature this week, that's not the only thing that got cooked in the earliest of pots.
Charred surface deposits from the interiors of potsherds from 13 Incipient Jomon sites were analyzed and reported in Nature this week (Craig et al. 2013), dated between 15,300-11,200 cal BP. Of those, two sites, Torihama shell mound (17 sherds) and Taisho 3 (1 sherd), contained aquatic biomarkers within the lipids (fatty cells in the examined residues), indicating that the small containers like the ones in the image above were used for processing fish rather than grains. Or, of course, maybe both.
A Minor Complaint
I have one gripe about this story, and it's really a confession of my weaknesses. In the run up to this story, I wanted to find out about Torihama's Incipient Jomon occupation: to be able to set this discovery into the cultural context. But all I could find in English about Torihama, in detail anyway, is the (later) Early Jomon period at the site. Tantalizing snippets are provided in some of the articles I looked at: for example, there's supposed to be a bottle gourd rind that might have been domesticated in the Incipient levels, which is a big deal if you're interested in bottle gourds. (I, of course, am.)
So if you know anything about the Incipient Jomon levels at Torihama shell mound, or are willing to summarize the Japanese language information, or know where we can find an English language summary, post it here, or let me know!
- Torihama Shell Mound (includes what I could find about the Incipient levels, but is mostly about later Early Jomon levels)
- Guide to Jomon
- Invention of Pottery
- Xianrendong Cave (earliest ceramic containers found to date)
- Invention of Pottery
- Bottle gourd history (why I care about possible 11,000-15,000 year old domesticated bottle gourds)
Craig OE, Saul H, Lucquin A, Nishida Y, Tache K, Clarke L, Thompson AH, Altoft DT, Uchiyama J, Ajimoto M et al. 2013. Earliest evidence for the use of pottery. Nature. Advance publication.
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