ABSTRACT
The invention and dispersal of ceramic vessel technology has become the focus of significant academic attention in recent years, and improvements in 14C measurement techniques have allowed archaeologists to push back the oldest pottery dates by many thousands of years. The secure dating of very early hunter-gatherer pottery in North Africa and eastern Asia has made it increasingly clear that the traditional models of a Near Eastern and ‘farming’ origin for ceramic technology is not supported by the available data (Close 1995; Kuz’min 2006; Jordan and Zvelebil, this volume).
