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The pottery of Xianren Cave

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c. 18,000 BC · Xianren Cave, Jiangxi, China · Asia · Culture

The world's oldest pots, still scorched from cooking

The pottery of Xianren Cave
Wikimedia Commons

Sherds from a cave in Jiangxi province are 20,000–19,000 years old, the oldest known pottery anywhere. Many bear scorch marks: at the height of the last Ice Age, hunter-gatherers here were already cooking in pots.