These beautiful ceramic roasters by artist罗比·罗贝尔（Robbie Lobell）continue an ancient tradition of using pottery for cooking. Lobell intends for her roasters to be used, “I make my flameware pots to encourage the ideas of using handmade objects to prepare and present locally grown vegetables, fruits and meats from our gardens, barnyards and nearby farms.” Her fellow potters from 20,000 years ago may have had similar motivations, but changed the course of human history, too. Credit: Robbie Lobell.
Our nation’s annual Independence Day holiday is next Wednesday, and perhaps, like me, you are thinking about holiday get-togethers and what to bring to the neighborhood potluck. Once that is decided, the next question is what container to use.
显然，将什么锅带到Potluck是一个比以前想象的要老得多的问题。
A new纸in科学关于在中国江西省江西省发现的古老陶器的发现，可以追溯到约20,000至19，000年。这比东亚和其他地区的其他陶器碎片早2,000至3，000年。
北京大学，波士顿大学，埃伯哈德·卡尔斯大学Tübingen和哈佛大学的国际研究团队使用了放射性碳测量值，迄今为止，据估计，该锅的碎片曾经曾经是大约20秒的高高和15-25厘米的宽度。
从我们的现代角度来看，我们不认为陶器是一种工程材料，而是对我们的洞穴祖先而言。本文的开头句子解释了。
Pottery making—the manufacture of fired, ceramic container forms—differs considerably from the baked clay figurines or small objects known from the Upper Paleolithic period in its technological demands and in its significance both in subsistence activities, including food storage, processing, and cooking, and in social interactions.
Previously, it had been thought that pottery was an innovation of the agrarian lifestyle, but the authors dispel that notion.
制作陶器引入了人类饮食史的根本转变，夏兰德证明，东亚的猎人采集者在久坐或开始耕种植物之前使用了大约10，000年的陶器。大约20，000年前的木兰陶器生产年龄与最后一个冰河时代的高峰时期相吻合，当时区域食品资源的生产率下降。当用于烹饪时，陶器可以从富含淀粉的食物以及肉中获得能量收益，而舍尔德外表面上的焦痕和烟灰痕迹表明木兰陶器可能用于烹饪。
The exact function of this ancient pottery is unknown, but the authors speculate that it may have been used to extract marrow and grease, or in ways that later hunter-gatherer societies used pottery, for example, for food preparation and storage and alcohol brewing.
古代陶器的发展可能是我们现代生活方式发展的转折点。这篇文章总结说：
因此，陶器的早期发明可能在人口统计学和社会适应东亚的气候变化，导致久坐主义，最终在整个全新世早期出现野生水稻栽培的出现中起着关键作用。
在BBC新闻中article, Hebrew University professor, Gideon Shelach, suggests there may have been a social driver, too. “People were gathering together in larger groups and you needed social activities to mitigate against increased tensions,” he said in the article, and “Maybe those potteries were used to brew alcohol.”
Something to think about as you bake your macaroni and cheese casserole and pick up a carton of Sam Adams on your way to the picnic this week.
The paper is “Early Pottery at 20,000 Years Ago in Xianrendong Cave, China,” Wu, et al.,科学（doi：10.1126/science.1218643）