Question :What is the earliest know man-made utensil, other than processed utensils like stone cutting tools?

Question

Question Details: I'm interested to know what was the first all man-made thing. Was it ceramic? If so was it a bowl or a food storage container or something else. I don't mean articles carved or shaped out of existing solid material, but a material process resulting in a form whose shape was not dictated by reducing a solid material but by breaking down and reforming a material. Maybe cord came before ceramics. I'm very interested to find out. Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

It was probably twine. But unfortunately anything that soft will have rotted away millenia ago.

The oldest known pottery is Jomon, food storage jars patterned by twisting cord around them, from ancient Japan.

Answer 2

interesting question... if you include cordage in your definition of a man made tool, then would you include composite tools such as hafted spears?  after all, both would be made by reshaping and combining materials...

there is speculation that ceramics arose to fill the need for food storage, once surplusses were produced.. this would have been less than 10kya.. but if you include things like composite tools, then the dates could go back much further..

early evidence of cordage/basketry is tough to find because its preservation sucks.. there is evidence of reeds used as cords in the houses excavated at Monte Verde, Chile... those date to more than 12kya..

hope that gives you a good start =)

Answer 3

Chimps are tool users by their poking a stick into a termite nest and getting a dinner.

But, most likely the first man-made thing was made of fiber to form carrying containers, food containers, storage containers...baskets, bowls, and the like.

Good Morning!

Answer 4

China has pottery bowls that have been carbon-dated to 7500 BCE. When I lived in the Himalayas, people of today still eat with their right hand only, although I suspect that a single stick, which could be cleaned, and re-used, which was the probable origin of chopsticks, may have been what was used in conjunction with these early bowls...