{
  "id": 17429218,
  "title": "Ancient Wildfires Scorched Earth 8,000 Years Ago, and May Have Inspired the Creation of Pottery",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/31/ancient-wildfires-scorched-earth-8-000-years-ago-and-may-have",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-31T16:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Discover Magazine",
    "slug": "discover-magazine",
    "url": "https://www.discovermagazine.com/ancient-wildfires-scorched-earth-8-000-years-ago-and-may-have-inspired-the-creation-of-pottery-49880"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "About 8,000 years ago, wildfires ravaged a region in what is now Israel, so intense they literally baked the Earth. These ancient fires may have sparked the creation of pottery – a pivotal human technology for storing and transporting food. \"It was a very bright innovation because it allowed very many things that were not possible before,\" explains geologist Amos Frumkin from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Frumkin believes these fires, leaving a geological trace on the landscape, may have inspired early ceramic development in the Sha Ar HaGolan area.\n\nHowever, not everyone agrees with this straightforward explanation. Some archaeologists, like Kamal Badreshany from Durham University, propose pottery in the region was likely modeled after stone bowls and standardized through generational techniques. Ceramic evidence from China’s Xianrendong Cave dates back about 20,000 years, suggesting pottery may have developed independently in various parts of the world, including Indigenous American traditions.\n\nThe oldest pottery found at Sha Ar HaGolan in northeastern Israel, near the Jordanian border, dates back to around 8,000 to 9,000 years ago during the Neolithic period. These early ceramics are preserved as broken vessels with zigzagging designs and clay figurines. Frumkin discovered geological evidence of fires in sediments buried under the Dead Sea and Hula Lake during two periods: just before the last Ice Age and the Neolithic period. Soil erosion in the hills around the Dead Sea rift valley during these times suggests rapid soil movement, consistent with the presence of a Neolithic village where people adopted a more sedentary lifestyle, farming wheat and barley.\n\nFrumkin proposes the \"natural kiln hypothesis,\" suggesting valley inhabitants observed fire hardening clay and developed pottery as a result. The Sha Ar HaGolan pottery is made from re-deposited terra rossa clay from the surrounding hills. While this hypothesis is compelling, it isn't universally accepted. Kamal Badreshany argues that the emergence of pottery was more likely a result of established craft traditions and complex, standardized techniques rather than spontaneous innovation. He believes pottery spread as a high-status item in gift exchange or lavish consumption, enabling new categories of conspicuous consumption.",
  "summary": "Learn more about a hypothesis suggesting wildfires may have helped humans create pottery, though not all experts agree.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}