Xianren Cave

Template:Short description Template:Distinguish Template:Infobox ancient site The Xianren Cave (Template:Zh, Xiānréndòng), together with the nearby Diaotonghuan (Template:Zh, Diàotǒnghuán) rock shelter, is an archaeological site in Dayuan Township ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), Wannian County in the Jiangxi province, China<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and a location of historically important discoveries of prehistoric pottery sherds that bears evidence of early rice cultivation. The cave's name refers to the legendary Chinese enlightened people, the Xian "immortals". The cave is Template:Convert high, Template:Cvt wide, and Template:Cvt deep.

A 2012 publication in the Science journal announced that the earliest pottery yet known anywhere in the world was found at this site dating by radiocarbon to between 20,000 and 19,000 years before present, at the end of the Last Glacial Period.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Science">Template:Cite journal</ref> The carbon 14 datation was established by carefully dating surrounding sediments.<ref name="Science"/> Many of the pottery fragments had scorch marks, suggesting that the pottery was used for cooking.<ref name="Science"/>

These early pottery containers were made well before the invention of agriculture (dated to 10,000 to 8,000 BC), by mobile foragers who hunted and gathered their food during the Late Glacial Maximum.<ref name="Science"/>

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  Inside the cave
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  Xianrendong cave pottery fragment, radiocarbon dated to Template:C.<ref name="Science"/>

See also

• List of caves in China
• List of Neolithic cultures of China