Early Neolithic pottery

Yelon, A., A. Saucier, J. P. Lerocque, P. E. L. Smith, and P. Vandiver (1992), Thermal analysis of early Neolithic pottery from Tepe Ganj Dareh, Material Research Society Symp. Proc., Vol. 267, pp. 591-607. 

Figure 11.6 Plot of the difference (A value) between the 513C values of stearic (Ci8 0) and palmitic (C16 0) acid against the 513C value of stearic acid (Ci8 0). The data points represent samples extracted from Early Neolithic pottery in the study published by Craig et al., 2005. A values below —3.3%o are interpreted as ruminant dairy. The inset shows the range and abundance of triacylglycerols preserved in the Early Neolithic vessels from Ecsegfalva, Hungary, (from Craig et al., 2005 Figure 3b, by permission of Antiquity Publications Ltd.)...

During the Neolithic Period (the New Stone Age) humans gradually undertook domestication of animals, cultivation of crops, production of pottery, and building of towns, such as Jericho, by around 7000 BC. Copper tools and carved ivory found in Palestine are believed to date between 5000-4000 BC. Bronze was used by the Canaanites as early as 3000 BC and walls of their towns were fortified with a plaster-like material. 

Goren, Y. Goring-Morris, AN. (2008). Early Pyrotechnology in the Near East Experimental Lime-Plaster Production at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B Site of Kfar HaHoresh, Israel. Geoarchaeology An International Journal, 23,6, pp. 779-798... 

As early as the first potteries, decoration was immediately an essential element, a symbolic system with which a whole culture identified itself. The simplest shapes are incisions, nail marks, scratches, etc. An example taken from the old Neolithic era [MOH 98] will illustrate the importance of the study of decoration in the knowledge of cultmes. Along the Mediterranean, around 6,000 BC, ceramics with cardial decorations flourished we can trace the expansion of the culture between 5,000 and 4,500 BC towards the Massif Central and the Atlantic coasts by discovering the presence of ceramics in the excavated sites. 

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