Some pottery found in south China in excavations from previous decades has been dated to 20,000 years ago. The site was Xianrendong cave in south China’s Jiangxi province. The conclusion they’re reaching is that pottery was developed before agriculture was.
Of course I’m going to be that fringe character that has to ask, maybe this means they need to look harder for earlier evidence of agriculture. Water and…. Lard? Bone beads? Grains?
The whole thing seems weird. Wonderful, but weird… and probably destined to get a lot weirder. My hunch in the years to come that origin of agriculture will be pushed back if the date on these pottery shards are true.
