Israeli researchers use ancient stone tools to trace hunter-gatherer migrations
The study focused specifically on the late Middle Paleolithic period, when ancient hunter-gatherers attempted to navigate intense environmental shifts in the South Caucasus region.
A recent Israeli study suggests that ancient wildfires and erosion in the southern Levant may have inspired Neolithic pottery-making. The research, published in Geomorphology, explores how environmental instability shaped the region during two major periods - the last interglacial period (129,000 to 116,000 years ago) and the early Holocene (11,000 to 7,000 years ago).
Lead researcher Prof. Amos Frumkin of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Institute of Earth Sciences proposes the "natural kiln hypothesis," which posits that Neolithic communities discovered that clay could be permanently hardened by fire after observing natural wildfires. Evidence from ancient sediment, caves, charcoal deposits, and archaeological sites supports this hypothesis, as tiny charcoal particles preserved in ancient lake sediments indicate peaks in burning, while chemical signatures in cave formations show substantial losses of vegetation and soil.
The study concludes that nature may have demonstrated how to make pottery, as people living in the valleys likely encountered exposed clay transformed by intense natural fires and used this discovery to develop intentional firing techniques.
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