Long before pottery became commonplace in South-west Asia, people living beside the Upper Tigris were experimenting with ways to turn clay into containers. A study published in Antiquity examines approximately 11,000-year-old fragments from Çemka Höyük in south-eastern Türkiye, revealing a varied assemblage of clay coatings, container additions and vessels.
The findings suggest that the development of pottery involved a period of experimentation, during which communities explored the material’s possibilities without yet adopting ceramic vessels for routine use.
The research brings together Professor Rana Özbal and PhD student Maria Daghmehchi of Koç University’s Department of Archaeology and History of Art, Associate Professor Ergül Kodaş of Mardin Artuklu University, and Natalia Petrova of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Ceramics before the Pottery Neolithic
Pottery became widespread in South-west Asia around 7000 BC, more than two thousand years after the emergence of the first villages. Archaeologists therefore refer to the preceding period as the Pre-Pottery Neolithic. Yet this designation does not mean that people were unfamiliar with making clay containers.
At Çemka Höyük, a settlement in Mardin province occupied between approximately 10,800 and 8700 BC, rescue excavations uncovered 46 low-fired clay fragments thought to represent nine objects. The researchers examined fragments from eight of these in detail.
The finds came from a building level dated to around 9350 BC, placing them among the earliest known fired clay containers in South-west Asia.
Reading the traces of fire
The team used binocular and petrographic microscopy, alongside X-ray diffraction analysis, to investigate how the objects were made and heated.
Changes in the clay’s minerals suggest firing at approximately 600–700°C, probably in a controlled open fire. The evidence supports deliberate firing rather than accidental exposure to heat. These irreversible thermal changes distinguish the fragments from simply dried clay and qualify them as ceramics.
The objects also reveal several approaches to container-making. Some fragments appear to have formed clay coatings around oval objects made of organic material. Another may have been attached to a container made from a different material to increase its capacity. Holes in this piece could have held a cord, possibly to secure a lid.
Other fragments came from vessels constructed by joining slabs of clay. Their clay mixtures contained different amounts of crushed plant material, and animal dung was identified in two examples.
From building material to container
Clay was already familiar to the inhabitants of Çemka Höyük, who used it to coat stone walls. The diversity of the finds suggests that this knowledge provided a starting point for exploring additional uses.
Rather than documenting an established pottery tradition, the assemblage captures an experimental phase. People were testing different forms, clay mixtures and construction techniques, including combinations of clay with other materials.
The study places these objects within a broader account of technological change: the ability to make a new material does not automatically lead to its widespread adoption. Ceramic containers also needed to fit everyday activities, existing practices and community preferences.
Çemka Höyük preserves evidence of this early exploration, helping explain how clay gradually became a material for containers long before pottery transformed daily life across the region.