CERAMICS

Humans appear to have been producing their own pottery for at least 26,000 years, subjecting clay and silica to intense heat to fuse and shape ceramic materials. The oldest finds to date come from southern Central Europe and were molded figurines, not tableware. The earliest known pottery was made by mixing animal products with clay and firing them in kilns at up to 800°C. While actual pottery fragments have been found dating back as far as 19,000 years, regular pottery did not become common until about 10,000 years later.