Materials · c. 20,000 years ago

Pottery

Fired clay vessels for cooking, storing and carrying.

Pottery from Xianrendong Cave, China, dates to about 20,000 years ago, and Jomon pottery follows in Japan. Vessels made boiling, storage and kiln technology possible.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 1

Fired clay figurines 29k BCE

What it led to 11

Clay accounting tokens 8000 BCE
Dairying 7000 BCE
Fermented drinks 7000 BCE
Charcoal making 6000 BCE
Copper smelting 5000 BCE
Potter's wheel 4500 BCE
Faience 4000 BCE
Crucible (wootz) steel 300 BCE
Distillation 100
Movable type (Bi Sheng) 1040
High-temperature superconductors 1986

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

World population over a million years Latest: 6.27k million people (2000) Source: DeLong 1998, table 'Total World Population' (Kremer series); Kremer 1993, Population Growth and Technological Change: One Million B.C. to 1990, QJE 108(3)

World GDP over a million years Latest: 41k billion 1990 international $ (2000) Source: DeLong 1998, Estimating World GDP, One Million B.C. - Present; Wikipedia: Gross world product (DeLong table, cross-check)