Fragments from a Chinese cave push back the dawn of the craft by more than 1,000 years. But pottery manufacture began considerably earlier in East Asia, during the late Paleolithic. ... Until now, the earliest previous finds in East Asia were dated to 15,000–16,000 years ago.

Was pottery made in the Paleolithic Era?

Pottery, also called ceramics or ceramic art - the creation of objects, mainly cooking or storage vessels, made out of clay and then hardened by heat - was the first functional art to emerge during the Upper Paleolithic, after body painting.

Who made pottery Paleolithic or Neolithic?

Previously, pottery was thought to have started in the Neolithic era; however, recent discoveries at the sites of Xianrendong and Yuchanyan in China suggest that pottery actually started slightly earlier, around 20,000-15,000 years BC.