[h=2]Abstract[/h]Human history has been shaped by global dispersals of technologies, although understanding of what enabled these processes is limited. Here, we explore the behavioural mechanisms that led to the emergence of pottery among hunter-gatherer communities in Europe during the mid-Holocene. Through radiocarbon dating, we propose this dispersal occurred at a far faster rate than previously thought. Chemical characterization of organic residues shows that European hunter-gatherer pottery had a function structured around regional culinary practices rather than environmental factors. Analysis of the forms, decoration and technological choices suggests that knowledge of pottery spread through a process of cultural transmission. We demonstrate a correlation between the physical properties of pots and how they were used, reflecting social traditions inherited by successive generations of hunter-gatherers. Taken together the evidence supports kinship-driven, super-regional communication networks that existed long before other major innovations such as agriculture, writing, urbanism or metallurgy.
The transmission of pottery technology among prehistoric European hunter-gatherers
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The authors postulate that HG pottery was invented in East Asia and spread very rapidly (300-400 years from Urals to Baltic), probably independently of population movements.
“Notably, this is several times faster than the spread of Neolithic pottery from the Middle East into the Mediterranean and western Europe”
“Notably, this is several times faster than the spread of Neolithic pottery from the Middle East into the Mediterranean and western Europe”
Link to the article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-022-01491-8
The article on the origins of pottery: https://www.cambridge.org/core/jour...ure-research/1085C3DD5DADB0E15056C2A31AAABF81
[h=2]Abstract[/h][FONT="]
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[FONT="]Where did pottery first appear in the Old World? Statistical modelling of radiocarbon dates suggests that ceramic vessel technology had independent origins in two different hunter-gatherer societies. Regression models were used to estimate average rates of spread and geographic dispersal of the new technology. The models confirm independent origins in East Asia (c. 16000 cal BP) and North Africa (c. 12000 cal BP). The North African tradition may have later influenced the emergence of Near Eastern pottery, which then flowed west into Mediterranean Europe as part of a Western Neolithic, closely associated with the uptake of farming.
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[h=2]Abstract[/h][FONT="]
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[FONT="]Where did pottery first appear in the Old World? Statistical modelling of radiocarbon dates suggests that ceramic vessel technology had independent origins in two different hunter-gatherer societies. Regression models were used to estimate average rates of spread and geographic dispersal of the new technology. The models confirm independent origins in East Asia (c. 16000 cal BP) and North Africa (c. 12000 cal BP). The North African tradition may have later influenced the emergence of Near Eastern pottery, which then flowed west into Mediterranean Europe as part of a Western Neolithic, closely associated with the uptake of farming.
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