For months now I’ve made many videos on Pre-Pottery Neolithic sites like Göbekli Tepe, Karahan Tepe and so on and even though I write and say the term so often, the actual words ‘Pre-Pottery Neolithic’ have almost lost all meaning, so much so that I’m write PPN in my scripts and notes.
The Pre-Pottery Neolithic is, well, the Neolithic era for a culture but before they had invented pottery. There is no trace in the archaeological record at the 11-12,000 year old sites in Anatolia, with vessels, plates, jugs, jars and storage containers all being cut from stone, a laborious but necessary task.
These people were skilled craftsmen and women, capable of carving fabulous statues and stone pillars, incredible tools and vessels, and even creating concrete-esque terrazzo artificial-stone flooring. They were capable and intelligent but they still hadn’t worked out how to make pottery, so when was it first invented?
In this video I look at the invention of pottery and how it was actually created 8,000 years before the building of Göbekli Tepe. I explain why pottery was such an important invention and how humanity were advanced and skilled enough to kick-start civilisation when climate conditions were right.
All images are taken from Google Images and the below sources for educational purposes only.