African hunter-gatherer pottery
Cerámica africana de cazadores-recolectores
- Date
- c. 9400 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Ounjougou, Bandiagara Plateau, Mali
- Credited to
- Hunter-gatherers of the Green Sahara
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Fired clay vessels made in the humid Sahara to boil wild grain, independently of East Asian pottery. Proof that pottery does not require agriculture and that Africa was an autonomous centre of invention.
The world's oldest pottery is from China (Xianrendong, c. 18,000 BCE) and Japan (Jōmon, c. 14,500 BCE); the African and Near Eastern (c. 7000 BCE) traditions are independent inventions.
What it led to
- Cooking of wild-grass porridge and a broadened diet
- Spread of pottery across the Sahara and the Nile before it appears in the Near East
- Airtight storage of water and seeds in arid environments
Built on
- Control of firec. 1 Ma
- Control of fire
- Dug-out hearths and heated stones