The oldest ceramics of East Asia: current research questions (materials for the educational course “Ceramics as an archaeological source”)

Purpose. The article presents a historiographical review of the problems of research of ancient ceramics from archaeological sites of East Asia in the chronological interval from 20,000-18,000 to 9,000 years ago. Results. The subject of discussion is the periodization of monuments with early ceramics, the problems of socio-economic conditions of the emergence of pottery technology, its functional role in ancient societies, reconstruction of technological skills and technical levels of pottery, morphology and decor. There are a lot of controversial issues and “blind spots” in this direction. However, the opening of sites with ancient ceramics in East Asia showed that here, on the Pacific (eastern) outskirts of the Eurasian continent, pottery making technology first appeared about 10,000 years earlier than in the Middle East. The invention of ceramics in this region of the world at the turn of the Pleistocene and Holocene should be considered as a result of a combination of natural and social factors. The example of East Asia shows that the relationship between the appearance of ceramic vessels and the development of agriculture, as a technology for food production, is universally, not a mandatory factor. Conclusion. The article discusses certain regional differences in the formation of skills in making the most ancient ceramic vessels of East Asia. It is assumed that the development of ceramic technology in the Japanese archipelago and in the mainland areas of East Asia took place independently. For the Amur region, there are two local cultural traditions - Osipovskaya and Gromatukhinskaya. According to materials from Northern China, there is a version of the existence of a common line in the development of ancient ceramics in the Valley of the Nonny River. There are similarities between the early ceramics of Northeast China, and the Gromatukhinskaya and Osipovskaya cultures of Amur. For the ceramics of South Korea also note similarities with the materials of the Russian Far East, Japanese and Chinese dishes.