Long Before Pottery, Children Shaped Clay to Tell Stories

Mar 19, 2026 - 12:00
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Long Before Pottery, Children Shaped Clay to Tell Stories
A butterfly clay bead from the Final Natufian period in Eynan-Mallaha, the Upper Jordan Valley, colored red with ochre and marked with the fingerprints of the child (around 10 years old) who modeled it 12,000 years ago. Image credit: Laurent Davin.

A cache of 142 beads and pendants from five Natufian (15,000 to 11,650 years before the present) sites in Israel reveals that clay was first used not for tools or cooking, but for symbolism and identity, often crafted by children whose fingerprints still mark the objects.

The post Long Before Pottery, Children Shaped Clay to Tell Stories appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

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