A latest study published in the journal Science has unveiled that a group of researchers at the Harvard University has found pottery samples and has been dating it back to 20,000 years.

Fragments of an enormously large bowl have been found by the US archaeologists at the Xianrendong Cave, Jiangxi Province. It is being said that the pottery might have been invented some 10,000 years ago, which some other studies had also claimed previously.

Though, previously it was believed that agriculture emergence had given rise to drink receptacles or pottery bowls. Since, people stayed at one place and those from hunter-gatherer societies could not use such breakable items while searching for food at different places.

The same is now being believed to be of a cauldron, which according to the team, was probably developed for the purpose of cooking food or brewing alcohol. The findings are based on evidence in the past decade that pottery was invented before agriculture.

Also, the need for social activities is also being believed to be a reason for their early invention as the same helped groups of people to lessen their tensions.

"If the invention is a good one, it spreads pretty fast. And it seems that in that part of southern China, pottery spread among hunter-gatherers in a large area”, said Prof. Ofer Bar-Yosef.