Human history has been shaped by global dispersals of technologies, although understanding of what enabled these processes is limited. Here, we explore the behavioural mechanisms that led to the emergence of pottery among hunter-gatherer communities in Europe during the mid-Holocene. Through radiocarbon dating, we propose this dispersal occurred at a far faster rate than previously thought. Chemical characterization of organic residues shows that European hunter-gatherer pottery had a function structured around regional culinary practices rather than environmental factors. Analysis of the forms, decoration and technological choices suggests that knowledge of pottery spread through a process of cultural transmission. We demonstrate a correlation between the physical properties of pots and how they were used, reflecting social traditions inherited by successive generations of hunter-gatherers. Taken together the evidence supports kinship-driven, super-regional communication networks that existed long before other major innovations such as agriculture, writing, urbanism or metallurgy.

Archaeological Society of Kuban Rostov on Don Russia

BioArCh Department of Archaeology University of York York UK

British Museum London UK

Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology Schleswig Germany

Cherepovets State University Cherepovets Russia

Don Archaeological Society Rostov on Don Russia

East Onega Archaeological Expedition Vologda Russia

Institute for the History of Material Culture RAS Saint Petersburg Russia

Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology Polish Academy of Sciences Poznań Poland

Institute of Archaeology National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Kyiv Ukraine

Institute of Archaeology Nicolaus Copernicus University Toruń Poland

Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Minsk Belarus

Institute of Language History and Literature Komi Scientific Center of Ural Branch of RAS Syktyvkar Russia

Institute of Pre and Protohistory Kiel Germany

Ivanovo State University Ivanovo Russia

Lipetsk State Pedagogical University PP Semenov Tyan Shan Lipetsk Russia

Lithuanian Institute of History Vilnius Lithuania

Maynooth University Maynooth Ireland

National History Museum of Latvia Rīga Latvia

Podlachian Museum in Białystok Białystok Poland

Prague Czech Republic

Research Center for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage Saratov Russia

Russian Research Institute for Cultural and Natural Heritage Saint Petersburg Russia

Samara State University of Social Sciences and Education Samara Russia

State Autonomous Institution for Heritage Research and Production Astrakhan Russia

State Hermitage Museum Saint Petersburg Russia

The Vologda State Museum Vologda Russia

University of Tartu Tartu Estonia

Voronezh Archaeological Society Voronezh Russia

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Technology and provenience of the oldest pottery in the northern Pannonian Basin indicates its affiliation to hunter-gatherers

The dahliagram: An interdisciplinary tool for investigation, visualization, and communication of past human-environmental interaction