The Xianren Cave (, ''Xiānréndòng''), together with the nearby Diaotonghuan (, ''Diàotǒnghuán'')

rock shelter A rock shelter (also rockhouse, crepuscular cave, bluff shelter, or abri) is a shallow cave-like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff. In contrast to solutional caves (karst), which are often many miles long, rock shelters are almost alway ...

, is an archaeological site in Dayuan Township (),

Wannian County Wannian () is a county in the northeast of Jiangxi province, China. It is under the jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city of Shangrao. Its total area is . Its 2003 population was . Wannian County comprises 6 towns and 9 townships. The count ...

in the Jiangxi province, China and a location of historically important discoveries of prehistoric

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and por ...

shards and it bears evidence of early

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

cultivation. The cave's name refers to the legendary Chinese enlightened people, the

Xian Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by other names, is the capital of Shaanxi Province. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong Plain, the city is the third most populous city in Western China, after Chongqin ...

"immortals". The cave is high, wide, and deep. A 2012 publication in the ''

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

'' journal, announced that the earliest pottery yet known anywhere in the world was found at this site dating by radiocarbon to between 20,000 and 19,000 years

before present Before Present (BP) years, or "years before present", is a time scale used mainly in archaeology, geology and other scientific disciplines to specify when events occurred relative to the origin of practical radiocarbon dating in the 1950s. Becaus ...

, at the end of the Last Glacial Period. The carbon 14 datation was established by carefully dating surrounding sediments. Many of the pottery fragments had scorch marks, suggesting that the pottery was used for cooking. These early pottery containers were made well before the

invention of agriculture The Neolithic Revolution, or the (First) Agricultural Revolution, was the wide-scale transition of many human cultures during the Neolithic period from a lifestyle of hunter-gatherer, hunting and gathering to one of agriculture and sedentism, ...

(dated to 10,000 to 8,000 BC), by mobile foragers who hunted and gathered their food during the Late Glacial Maximum. File:Wannian Xianrendong yizhi 8805.jpg, Inside the cave File:National Museum of China 2014.02.01 14-43-38.jpg, 20,000–10,000-year-old pottery found in the cave, with re-construction repairs. File:Xianrendong Cave Pottery - 2.jpg, Xianrendong cave pottery fragment, radiocarbon dated to

References

Caves of Jiangxi Major National Historical and Cultural Sites in Jiangxi Archaeological sites in China Shangrao Paleolithic sites in China {{Jiangxi-geo-stub

See also

References