Editing Pottery (section)

====Africa====
[[File:Reconstructed lotiform chalice, public domain image from the MET.jpg|thumb|200px|Faience lotiform chalice. Egypt 1070–664 BCE ([[Lotiform vessels (Metropolitan Museum of Art)|reconstructed]] from eight fragments)]]
The oldest pottery in the world outside of east Asia can be found in Africa. In 2007, Swiss archaeologists discovered pieces of some of the oldest pottery in [[Africa]] at [[Ounjougou]] in the central region of Mali, dating to at least 9,400 BC.<ref name=swissinfo/> Excavations in the [[Bosumpra Cave]] on the [[Kwahu Plateau]] in southeastern Ghana, have revealed well-manufactured pottery decorated with channelling and impressed peigne fileté rigide dating from the early tenth millennium cal. BC.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Watson |first1=Derek J. |title=Bosumpra revisited: 12,500 years on the Kwahu Plateau, Ghana, as viewed from "On top of the hill" |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321186127 |journal=Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa |date=2 October 2017 |volume=52 |issue=4 |pages=437–517 |doi=10.1080/0067270X.2017.1393925|s2cid=165755536 }}</ref> Following the emergence of [[#Africa|pottery traditions]] in the Ounjougou region of [[Mali]] around 11,900 BP and in the Bosumpra region of [[Ghana]] soon after, ceramics later arrived in the [[Iho Eleru]] region of [[Nigeria]].<ref name="Cerasoni">{{cite journal |last1=Cerasoni |first1=Jacopo Niccolò |display-authors=etal |title=Human interactions with tropical environments over the last 14,000 years at Iho Eleru, Nigeria |journal=iScience |date=17 March 2023 |volume=26 |issue=3 |page=106153 |doi=10.1016/j.isci.2023.106153 |pmid=36843842 |issn=2589-0042 |pmc=9950523 |oclc=9806331324 |bibcode=2023iSci...26j6153C |s2cid=256747182}}</ref> In later periods, a relationship of the introduction of pot-making in some parts of [[Sub-Saharan Africa]] with the spread of [[Bantu languages]] has been long recognized, although the details remain controversial and awaiting further research, and no consensus has been reached.<ref name="jstor.org">See {{citation |jstor=4501038|title=Pots, Words and the Bantu Problem: On Lexical Reconstruction and Early African History|last1=Bostoen|first1=Koen|journal=The Journal of African History|year=2007|volume=48|issue=2|pages=173–199|doi=10.1017/S002185370700254X|hdl=1854/LU-446281 |s2cid=31956178|url=https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/446281|hdl-access=free}} for a recent discussion of the issues, and links to further literature.</ref>

Use of pottery was then found in the [[Bir Kiseiba|Bir Kiseiba region]], with a surplus of pottery shards dated roughly 9,300 BC. Archeological digs around [[Sub-Saharan Africa]] have continued to bring more history of ceramic use to light, including pottery shards found in Ravin de la Mouche, which were carbon dated to roughly 7,500 BC. After 8,000 BC the prevalence of ceramics in [[Sub-Saharan Africa]] surged, becoming a continent wide phenomenon.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jesse |first=Friederike |date=2010 |title=Early Pottery in Northern Africa - An Overview |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43135518 |journal=Journal of African Archaeology |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=219–238 |doi=10.3213/1612-1651-10171 |jstor=43135518 |issn=1612-1651}}</ref>