Book 5, Question 88
Pots, Baskets, Big Deal! Why Did They Matter?
Pots and baskets let people carry, store, and protect food and water. Clay pots could also be used for cooking. Broken pieces of pottery are important clues for archaeologists.
More fun facts
- The oldest known pottery comes from Xianrendong Cave in southern China. Pieces of a large bowl there are about 20,000 years old.
- Those pots were made by hunter gatherers, at least 8,000 years before farming began there.
- People used to think pottery came after farming, because pots are big and break easily, which is hard for people always on the move.
- About 20,000 years ago, Earth was the coldest it had been in a million years.
- Cooking food in pots may have helped people get more nourishment from what they ate.
- The bowl may have been used for cooking food or possibly brewing drinks.
- Pottery showed up in Europe thousands of years later.
Sources: bbc.com
Questions kids ask
How old is the oldest pottery?
Bowl pieces from a cave in southern China are about 20,000 years old.