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Radiocarbon Dating Pushes Mongolia’s Pottery History Back by 2,000 Years

In a discovery that rewrites the early history of pottery in Central Asia, a recent study has revealed that Mongolia’s first ceramic artifacts may be nearly 2,000 years older than previously believed.

Published in the journal Radiocarbon, the research centers on Baruun Khuree (Lake V), part of the Flint Valley (Tsakhiurtyn Hundi) in southern Mongolia — a region long known for its prehistoric significance.

Pottery From the Pleistocene-Holoene Threshold

Led by Dr. Przemysław Bobrowski, the international research team conducted a series of excavations in what is considered one of the largest prehistoric sites in Central Asia. Among the standout findings were pottery fragments, ostracized eggshell beads, pendants, and lithic tools — with secure radiocarbon dating that places some samples at over 11,200 years old.

“The dates we have obtained show that the knowledge of making pottery vessels reached the Gobi Altai region almost 2,000 years earlier than previously thought,” says Dr. Bobrowski. “They even correspond chronologically to early ceramics found in northern China.”

The findings challenge the long-standing belief that pottery appeared in Mongolia around 9,600 cal BP (before present). Instead, pottery found at site FV 139 was securely dated to around 11,251–11,196 cal BP, with additional pottery-rich sites dating slightly later.

Science Behind the Discovery

The research team applied high-precision radiocarbon dating across eleven samples from three excavation sites, clustered around paleolake shorelines — ancient dried lakes that once supported thriving communities of hunter-gatherers.

Aside from pottery, the sites yielded ostracized eggshell adornments — including pendants from the extinct East Asian ostrich (Struthio anderssoni) — offering insights into prehistoric life, artistic expression, and trade.

“We are conducting further analysis on both the pottery and ostrich eggshell artifacts,” Dr. Bobrowski added, teasing a forthcoming publication.

A Shift in Prehistoric Timelines

The Baruun Khuree sites now represent some of the earliest securely dated evidence of Holocene hunter-gatherers in the Gobi Desert. With few ceramic sources previously recorded across Mongolia, this discovery fills a major gap in regional archaeological data — and reframes the timeline for early technological knowledge transfer in East Asia.

BytesWall Insight

This isn’t just an archaeological breakthrough — it’s a reminder that technology’s roots run deeper than we think. Pottery, one of humanity’s earliest innovations, evolved not just for utility, but for identity, mobility, and survival. And now, thanks to science, its story in Mongolia just got a lot older.

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